Sailed from NY to the Bahamas on 12/12. Being Gold members we were able to go right to the front of the line to check in and get right on board, that part went well. Really enjoyed the NCL Gem still looked new. It didn't take long for things to go downhill after getting on the ship. We were not able to get into our cabin till after 4:30 and it took till late into the night to get our luggage, there was no ice in the room and we had to ask for some. If you did not go to a very early dinner in the main dining rooms you had long waits to get in, other NCL cruises we have been on have had more free dining areas other then the blue lagoon, buffet area and main dining areas,not this one you had to pay a fee in all of the other dining areas. Food in the buffet area was awful. Drinks are very expensive $5.00 for beer, but if you bought 6 at a time you got one free HA HA, they nickel and dimed you to death on this ship, even if you wanted to take a behind the scene tour of the ship it said fees apply. During one of the Q & A meeting they had with the captain and another officer a lady said she heard there was a virus on the ship when it came across the Trans Atlantic cruise to NY and the officer said no there was no virus on board the ship if there was one the ship would still be in NY being scrubbed no. Three days into the cruise my wife got sick, 2 days later I got sick also. We talked to many other people who said they got sick and overheard other saying to other people that they had gotten sick also. Day 5 they started serving the food to the people in the buffet and now that I think of it I guess this may have been the reason they didn't put any ice in the room to start and you have to beg for it. We have cruise over nine cruises with NCL and this had to be they worst one we have ever been on, we have a deposit down for a future cruise and after we use that up I really think it will be time to start spending our cruise time with some of the other cruise lines.

The only place that we got off of the ship was at NCL's private island and the place was really crowded and the food was awful. To finish we booked til cruise back in August and from the time we booked it till around 2 weeks before we left on the cruise the price went down big time and our travel agent had to fight with NCL to get us an upgrade, when we booked the cruise we booked deck 4 inside GTY. and till the agent was finish she got us EE deck 5 a room with an ocean view and we still lose money by getting that room.