Firstly, We are platinum with NCL and it does have its advantages. Boarding was effortless and without delay. We were from the cab to our cabin within 20 minutes at 1:30 PM. The weather was not cooperative on the sail away so we watched from our Balcony. We prepaid gratuitities, and purchased the dining pass for 5 nights with our two Platinum certificates gave us a total of 7 nights. The Bistro and the steakhouse were very very good. Italian was pleasant but service was sketchy. Moderno was a big surprise with excellent food and great service (we had a horrible experience on the Jade and almost skipped it on the Gem based on previous negative experience).

The buffet was very good and the Pub was also a great late lunch spot but menu is limited. MDR was bad the first day - we complained about the service to the maitre'd and our service noticeably and dramatically improved the next day and for the rest of the week. The ship is spotlessly clean!

The entertainment both the production shows and the guest entertainers were superb better that those we have recently seen On Princess, RCCL, and Carnival. Cruise Staff and Director "Dan Dan" grew on us at first kind of irritating but we grew to like them and appreciate the job they did. The Itinerary was excellent and we were lucky with the weather (after the stormy first day at sea) Hurricane Jouaquin was a worry but turned and sucked the bad weather off the east coast. Read more