Norwegian Gem- A very lovely ship! Very well taken care of. The carefree color scheme throughout the ship was very bright and happy with a retro late 60s feel. A lot of crushed velvet in the lounges, teal, blue, orange and hot pink were the main color scheme. The carpets were very entertaining! I actually took pictures of them, from the color scheme to the prints. Embarkation- We arrived at port about 12:30 and had very little problem getting on the ship. I would say it took only about a half hour to board. The port parking was very easy, right beside the ship. Stateroom- Beautiful! Very spacious. It was a room designated for handicapped so the bathroom was huge. I think the overall footage was 180 something square feet which is huge compared to some of the cabins we were in. The attendant decorated our room and had a cake ready for DH like I had requested for his birthday, very nice. TV- Awe come on NCL! Thank goodness for TNT or there would have been nothing but two news channels. $12.95 to rent an in room movie? I don't think so! Service- Our stateroom attendants were pretty good. They kept the room clean, mints every night, only two towel animals though. Once they forgot wash cloths but no big deal. The only complaint I have is most days they never made up the room till mid afternoon and didn't turn it down till late, sometimes after 8:30. We always went to early dinner so were out of the room from 5:30 on. Activities- Pretty lame. We don't do bingo the pool water was freezing (although the Captain said it could be heated if necessary) and all the chairs were always hogged anyway. So we could have done a behind the scenes tour for fifty bucks! yeah right. For what you pay for a cruise this could have been free. Entertainment- Just OK. The magic guy was good, did not care for the Chocolate Diva and the Singers and Dancers were good but nothing exceptional. Royal Caribbean Shows are much better. Dining-The food was very average. We actually preferred the Blue Lagoon snack area although the service was incredibly slow. The buffet was again average, although I did like the ice cream. Coffee was quite horrible most of the time. The main dining room service wasn't great. The server forgot our soup one night. The Magenta was better for service. My take on this is since their tip is automatic they don't really care. That is what the attitude seemed. Stirrup Cay- What! Can they not afford to purchase more lounge chairs? This was ridiculous! When we've sailed with R/C their people follow you around the island carrying your lounge chair for you. Norwegian didn't have nearly enough chairs. We had to go to a back corner and dig some crappy little chair (not even a lounge) out of a pile to have a seat. The beach was great though, very beautiful. Nassau- Nice but dirty. Not what I expected. The city seems poor, the streets are bad and trash all over. The Queens Staircase was neat though and the Arawak Fish Fry was very good and unique. We took a moped up to cable beach and over to Atlantis. These areas were beautiful and we wished we would have had the moped for longer time to circle the island. More on the mopeds in my port review! Freeport- Ummm couldn't they have fueled the ship in Nassau? This was nothing but a fuel stop, very disappointing! Too short to do anything or go anywhere. My summary- This was an OK cruise.If it had been my first, I probably wouldn't do a second. If I had the opportunity again I wouldn't take it. This was our second Freestyle cruise and although I like the free dining time I think freestyle may mean "free to take care of you when we get around to it". Most everything was done slowly on this ship, whenever they got motivated. Our room attendant being the exception, he and she were very attentive when we needed something.