I am a NCL fan, now on my 10th cruise within 4 years with them. I am a 38y old female who sailed with my husband and 10 year old son on the 11/25 NCL Gem cruise. This cruise was a disappointment! We enjoyed the ports but felt the cruise experience was poor.

Embarkation:

The whole trip started off with a telephone call alerting us that the ship was running behind schedule and that embarkation would be later than usual. We were in a hotel for the night as we live out of state, so we were able to get a later checkout time which was fine, things happen so no biggie. We got to the cruise port at about 2:00 and the line was snaked around the entire cruise area and we were caught waiting outside in the cold. It seemed as there were only 3 security stations open (the casino guest did get to skip to the front of the security line) and everyone must have decided to board at 2:00... It took almost 1.5 hours in line with a crabby child to get thru security and another 30 minutes to get thru check in. In the line, we received notice that there was a GI virus on the previous sailing and we could decline this sailing for a future cruise. I wish that we would have had more flexibility and I would have held off for another date, we were just too far (flight, cab rides, hotel)into the trip to turn around. I think the GI virus really put a damper on a whole lot of things and I will never sail out on a ship in the red zone again. I am on meds and slightly immunocompromised and besides the red zone issues was scared of being quarantined with the virus. My hands by the end of the cruise were raw with the constant washing, but it kept me germ free. I must have told my family 100X's not to touch anything! We were on the ship and in our mini suite was ready by around 4:30. Read more