My husband and I cruised the Norwegian Gem from March 26th to April 2nd. We were SO excited and looked forward to it for 2 months. We had been on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas in September, and were fully aware that we weren't going to have the same experience, but we still hoped for a nice week away.Pro's:One word: SINAN. NCL's saving grace. He was AWESOME. We loved him. We played in the Newlywed game one night and he was so nice. His comedy the final night was hilarious. They made a great move promoting him to cruise director.Our room attendant Charleton was great, too.Tepanyaki: we treated ourselves to a specialty restaurant ($25 cover) on the final night because we just couldn't take another night of the terrible food in the dining room. Although overpriced considering we could have had a free meal in the dining room, it was WELL worth it to have a decent meal. The chef was great and had us entertained the entire time..... those are seriously the only pro's we can think of... and we are NOT complainers. I rarely ever write a bad review about anything and always try to be positive but I'm at a loss here.Con'sFOOD WAS AWFUL.... I mean, I couldn't wait to come home and eat something decent. The food in the buffet was seriously worse than any cafeteria food I've ever eaten. And it never changed. We had such a different experience on Royal Caribbean and were hoping for something similar but it was just SO SO BAD. TRUST ME ON THIS ONE. The dining room food was bland and also more of the same every day. It was a step above the buffet but not what you'd expect going into a nice dining room. The service in the dining room was terrible. No nice friendly greeting, the hostess was very cold. We were seated and waited at least 20 minutes before anyone came to take our order, and when they did, there wasn't any kind welcome at all, basically "What do you want to order?" We felt that the biggest letdowns as opposed to Royal Caribbean was service and waitstaff being unfriendly and just plain negligent, and also the food was worse than either of us would have EVER expected. It was not worth the money at all. I suppose you really do get what you pay for... a good price doesn't always match up to a good experience.It was amazing to me that in the dining room where everything is included, there is no one in sight to help you for long periods of time, but when you are in a bar or lounge, where you pay additional for drinks, you are constantly hounded and bombarded every 2 seconds being asked if you want a drink... so much so that you can't even enjoy the entertainment.The smell of smoke was EVERYWHERE. You really couldn't avoid it. They didn't enforce their smoking rules at all and I couldn't go outside without inhaling a ton of smoke... not something a pregnant woman wants on her vacation. It was disgusting and I could smell it on the entire ship... even in our room.Also, there would be entertainment in the theater at 7:30 and people would come strolling in until nearly 8 o'clock. We were constantly starting late, and my husband and I would have to get up 10 times to let people in our row. I think they should close the doors at showtime and keep people from coming in late and distracting people. It's very rude and if they knew they needed to be on time, they would be on time! It's as simple as that.The fact that it was cold, cloudy and raining for 5 of the 7 days played a part in our poor experience but I certainly can't blame that on the ship, it was just unfortunate. However, we were very disappointed in our overall experience and will not be returning to Norwegian again. P.S. Washy washy is CREEPY CREEPY. I'll use the dispenser, thanks.