We are a family of 3 and traveled during the recent school vacation on the Gem. All 3 of us (my son is 13) are experienced cruisers having sailed multiple times on Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Princess, Carnival and even once on Disney. We tend to favor Royal Caribbean but we are always open to trying new ships if the itinerary is right. We chose the Gem because of the length (10 days), the convenience of not having to fly (NYC) and most of all the itinerary. This was our second trip on the Gem as we sailed on it just a couple months after its inaugural trip in 2008.

As experienced cruisers, we are resigned to the fact that cruising has changed dramatically over the last couple of decades. Long gone are the midnight buffets, the non stop cocktail service, the gourmet dining and the five star service. In today's cruising, you have beverage packages, ala carte restaurants and pre paid gratuities. The beverage packages give the bar and cocktail staff no incentive to try to get you drinks, the average food options makes you want to spend extra on the specialty dining and the pre-paid gratuities don't give the staff any incentive to make you happy. If you are new to cruising, you never new any better. If you are a veteran cruiser, you had better change your expectations. Fortunately, we have and we had a great time on the Gem.

Embarkation was a little crazy as the ship was late getting in from the previous cruise due to weather issues. We arrived at the pier around noon after getting a great deal on parking a couple of blocks away ($200 for 10 days). The garage offered to shuttle us over but we chose to walk (crazy windy) as we figured we would just end up sitting in traffic and it was only a couple of blocks away. We quickly got in the security line which was really long but we made the best of it people watching and laughing at the older lady worker who was hollering at people in line not to use electronics. I am not sure where she has been for the last 10 years, but nobody in this world goes anywhere without electronic devices. Anyway, we laughed at the fact that if she wasn't there, nobody would even miss her....thats how little she was doing. One we finally got through the security (if thats what they want you to think it is), we joined another extremely long line to check in. About an hour later, we finally had our sea pass cards and we headed right to the ship. Read more