Just got back from a Western Med cruise on the Gem. I just thought I'd add my own review of my experience. For the record we booked an aft Penthouse suite on deck 8, so this review might be useful to others who book a suite. I am just going to concentrate my review the cruise but not the ports of call as they have been covered in detail already. Embarkation. Dropped our luggage off at the desk outside the terminal building at Barcelona. Went inside and was asked our room number. We gave it and was sent to the wrong desk for suite passengers. Double-checked it with another member of staff who insisted the wrong check-in desk was correct. So we checked in at the wrong desk and was then taken by the check-in staff to the VIP suite passenger check-in area and then on to meet the concierge. It would have been better if the staff at the cruise terminal knew what they were doing and directed us to the correct check-in area. The concierge, however, was helpful and offered a snack and a soft drink. One of the butlers showed up and escorted us to our room, picking up a glass of champagne on the way. A bottle of champagne was also waiting for us in an ice bucket in our room. The Room. This was REALLY nice. As others have said a very comfortable bed with memory foam mattress. Nice bathroom with shower over bath, a sink area and toilet, being able to separate these with glass screens. A separate vanity area and loads of drawers, cupboards and a decent wardrobe. Nice large wall mounted LCD TV but we only used info channels as we don't cruise to watch TV. It also had a useful sofa, table and chairs and bar area. Really nice balcony area looking over the aft wake, which sounds like a waterfall when going at full speed but we found it soothing and the patio doors were very good at sound proofing it when indoors. We found the aft room has the advantage of the best sail-away view from each port - loved it. The cabin was situated above Bliss nightclub and bowling alley which you could hear slightly at night when all else is silent, especially the bowling alley when in use but it did not disturb my sleep. However, all in all, a delightful and colorful room. The room steward was a very friendly chap who serviced the room to a high standard each day, refreshed the ice and did the nightly turndown. Room Service. This was all taken care of by our butler, who basically provided all the room service via a cordless phone (which worked ship-wide). We tried room service breakfast a few times, where the butler delivers the food and lays the table. Menu selection was very good. Butler also delivers Hors d'"uvres around 5pm daily. We got two invitations to private cocktail parties where we had free drinks and food and had a "photo opportunity" with the captain. We saw the garden villa area this way, which was very nice. The butler expects tips by the way as he doesn't get any of the stateroom service charge applied to your account. The butler will also deliver DVD's for you to watch, which you can select from an in-room list but we did not have time to use the DVD player (thankfully). Concierge. This person was made available to us to make any arrangements. We did not book any of the very expensive NCL shore excursions so did not need him for this but he was good for booking up the restaurants the whole week in advance or at short notice when the restaurant is full (only he can do this). He was always available for good info about the ports of call where we made our own arrangements and saved a heap of cash. The way we looked at this was to spend our hard earned cash on a room upgrade and forget the high excursion costs and this worked very well for us. Restaurants. We ate dinner at most of the premium restaurants which charge a service fee but found them excellent and worth it. It was exciting to eat at a different place each evening. We avoided the Garden Cafe as the "buffet experience" is not for us, especially in the difficulty of finding a table at peak periods. The best place we found for breakfast was the private concierge lounge in Cagney's where they served an excellent Eggs Benedict's and waffles, away from the madding crowd of the Garden Cafe. For lunch we preferred the Blue Lagoon which serves excellent food 24 hours a day. NOTE!! Money saving tip about the water!!. At some restaurants, especially the premium ones, the waiters hold bottles of water in front of you and kind of give the impression that is the only option for water at over $6 per bottle. NOT SO!! We cottoned on to always asking for "ICE WATER". When you do this they take the bottles away and keep your glass full of ice water for the duration of the meal, helping to keep your expenses down. The Blue Lagoon served ice water by default and thought the others should do that but they obviously try to make something on the water. Ship and Common areas. These were all magnificent. The ship is truly stunning and a lot bigger than I imagined. It is modern - only a couple of years old, well maintained and spotless. A very well run operation I thought. The pool area is obviously crowded on sea days but you can take your pick of the comfortable sun beds on port of call days if you decide to stay onboard. Onboard there is always loads to do and see. We did not see any of the shows but were told they were ok. There were also some nice shops but not necessarily cheap. Wireless internet is available ship-wide as well as in the internet cafe. But it is expensive and slow as it is satellite based. I tried to pick up free wifi from the ports of call but was unsuccessful each time. On the penultimate day we paid about $12 for a special 30 minutes offer to do an online check-in for our flights home which proved a good move when we got back to the airport. Staff. I found virtually all of the staff friendly and helpful and had no complaints. Most of them could not do enough for us, in my opinion. They work very hard long hours and I am amazed they always have a smile for you. Tipping. As most will know a $12 per person per day is charged to your room. This seems a lot but it goes to the staff who serve you and personally I think they deserve it for their hard work. We occasionally tipped extra in the restaurants when we had good, friendly service (i.e. most of the time). The butler, concierge and room steward we also tipped what we thought was fair. The drinks auto-gratuity is a hot subject and does make the drinks prices quite expensive, i.e. posh-hotel prices I would say. A vodka and coke was $6.80 for example. Needless to say we didn't see any drunks on board. Marketing. Others have said this is too strong but I kind of expected to be sold photos, spa massages, art, excursions, etc. but we found it very easy not to buy any of these to keep our costs down. Disembarkation. We decided to do the easy walk off option and walked off the ship with our luggage at 09:30 back in Barcelona. No worries at all on that score. Overall. We had such a fantastic time, met some great people and visited some lovely places. We were so sad to leave the ship and get back to reality when it was time to get off. I could so easily have stayed on for another week. I would not hesitate to recommend the NCL Gem to my family and friends. We can't wait to do something similar again.