The Gem is a beautiful ship and kept in great shape. Staff kept it very clean and great attention was paid to hand hygiene at dining area entries. We appreciated this, although I must say, the "Washy, Washy; Happy, happy; Smiley, smiley" three meals a day did get old after the first day. We took advantage of most all of the dining options and the 4 night dining package was a good value. We were glad we booked reservations several weeks before the cruise because the restaurants all filled up. The quality of the food was very good in all of the dining areas and service was great most of the time. The Teppanyaki experience was amazing! The one hiccup with the buffet that we never did understand was the cleaning of all of the coffee dispensers at the same time (0800!) on the 3rd day of the cruise.

We also bought the drink package and 2 cases of bottled water and were glad we did.

The entertainment was pretty good. We enjoyed the comedians and the variety show (song/dance) but the illusionist seemed to spend more time pumping himself up than creating illusions. We bought tickets to the Murder Mystery lunch as well which was pretty cute, and allowed us to have a meal in the French restaurant which was the only one we hadn't booked. Read more