We traveled on the Gem from Barcelona. Traveled with another couple, all 4 of us in our early thirties and from the U.S. We stayed in a mini-suite. Second Cruise for us, first cruise to the Mediterranean. Stayed a couple days before departing in Barcelona at Le Meridien. Great location, right on La Rambla. Rooms comfortable, average dEcor, very modern. If you are in Barcelona before cruise would recommend El Quatre Gats (good atmosphere) and Le Quince Nits (good food at a good price). We also took the Bus Turistic one day. Price is 20 euro per passenger - great way to get to the sights, but beware that there are long lines at each stop you get off to get back aboard the bus.

Cabin: stayed in a mini-suite. Great room, lots of space and bed was pretty comfortable. Bathrooms were very nice and roomy. We did not regret paying more for a balcony because it was awesome being able to see the ports first thing in the morning - especially Villefranche, very pretty. Disappointed in the TV options in the room - although didn't spend a ton of time there, it would have been nice to have more options for unwinding after a long day of touring. Only English channels were fox news and cnn...also turner classic movie channel but they played one movie all day (wizard of oz, and other older movies). You could pay for movies, but they were $12 apiece, older movies $6. If you bought a movie you could save it, although you would have to rewind (slowly) each time you rewatch it. There was not a theater room or any other movie viewing options offered by the ship.

Ship Info: Ship dEcor was nice, however felt the ship was missing a 'central area'. Our previous cruise on RCL had a much more 'open feel' with a main promenade area. Also found this ship to be harder to navigate, I thought they could use more maps posted around the ship. Elevators were very crowded, took stairs most of time to get between floors. Read more