My husband and I decided to spend our Christmas vacation on our very first cruise on NCL Gem. We didn't know what to expect, so I read a lot of reviews before I went. I was a bit worried about not getting tables when we eat, not having nice cruise stuff on board, not having good food on Gem and not having a good time on the ship. All my worries were gone once we got on the boat.

First we spent about 8 hours driving from Toronto to Manhattan and parked our van very close to the terminal which only costed us $150. Compare the price if you park your car in terminal parking, you save about $150 for a 7-day cruise. We were happy about the service in that parking lot as our van was raised up which nobody would be able to what was in the van. I didn't expect my van was raised with paying only $150 for 7 days!

The embarkation was very smooth. We're a family of 4 and we only waited in the terminal about 35 minutes before boarding the. The only thing I didn't suggest is, if you don't have big luggage to carry, you can just bring it with you to board the ship. Even though we didn't wait for a long time to see our luggage arrived in front of our cabin, I just prefer to do it myself because I can just settle everything when I go in to cabin. Read more