We made the most out of this cruise. My son had a ball just running around. He is 12 and will be 13 next month. They wouldn't let him bump up to the teen room (Royal Caribbean allowed him to) so he never did any of the kids programs. He found friends quickly and they did their own thing. I guess they had over 900 kids on board so they "catered" to them. We will probably stay away from Norwegian Cruises. The room was great with lots of storage space and bathroom was a nice size. The down size is the food was AWFUL. There was NO activities on the ship. I should of brought home their activity schedule. It was awful. We spent alot of time in our room in the evening watching the 19" TV (so small) on our bed that was so uncomfortable with the flattest pillows ever because there were no activities. I read the reviews before i left on cruise critic and seen alot of reviews about the Gem being a training ship. I totally agree with that. The staff was very unprofessional, really they had a hard time understanding english. They were ignorant to some of the guests and I've never seen that before. We didn't let any of this damper our vacation. We still had a great time and will probably just not do Norwegian again. We will stick with Royal Caribbean!!

The cruisers i did speak to all loved the gem and have been on there several times. They said in order to get good food you have to go to the specialty restaurants on the ship. I feel that for the price of the cruise you shouldnt have to pay extra for a good meal!! Royal Caribbean has a great dinner without paying extra. Those cruisers also had upgraded to suites and the haven so i'm sure thats why they like it so much