I just got back from a cruise on the NCL Gem. The onboarding process was slow and once we got on the ship we were not allowed into our cabin for hours! I have cruised many times before and have NEVER been told the cabins were not ready. So this was a bit annoying. The Magenta dining room was open, so we enjoyed lunch there instead of sitting on the sun deck with our carryon luggage like the majority of the passengers did. Our mini suite was nice and much more spacious than a regular balcony room so I am glad we booked it. The balcony was wider also. We had plenty of drawer space to place our clothes, luggage, etc. The only thing we did not like was the tv had very limited channels- a few news channels, one that played sitcoms & dramas at regular intervals and if you want to watch a movie you need to pay $10 for it. They are free on most other cruise lines.The entertainment onboard was terrific! I am specifically talking about the comedians. NCL now has The Second City performing and they are wonderful. We went to the "Presumed Murdered" murder mystery lunch in Le Bistro. It cost $20 each and it was worth it. The food was good and the show was great. I highly recommend it. The Second City had other shows on various nights. We went to all of them and loved them all. There was another comedian onboard, Dave Heenan, who was also very good. We ate in Le Bistro and La Cuccina specialty dining restaurants and enjoyed them both. We only had dinner twice in the main dining room because of the "Freestyle Dining" everyone tries to dine around the same time and the wait is about 35-45 minutes. So to avoid missing the shows, we ate at Blue Lagoon instead. It is no charge and has a limited menu but if you just want something small it will do. The overall food quality on this ship was OK. You could get almost the same thing at the buffet as in the dining room as far as food quality goes- the dining room was nothing real special. I have had much better food on other cruiselines. The disembarkation off the ship in New York City was not run smoothly. They let everyone off that is bringing their own luggage. then they let the colored tags off. Once you get off, there really isn't anyone telling you where to get your bags. Once you find them & go thru customs, you head straight out the door, where a guy with a blow horn screams at you to go upstairs for a cab or cross the street to pick up a private car. We went across the street since a private car company was picking us up and waited in the rain with many others. We finally got ahold of our driver who was with the taxis up on the ramp looking for us, since this is where he was told to go! It was a chaotic mess and it needs to be handled better without some guy screaming through a blow horn at the passengers!Experience overall was good but could have been better. Will still recommend NCL to friends & clients