Let me start by saying...I was on the NCL Dawn when the 70 foot rogue wave hit and I had more fun on that cruise with all it's sea sick passengers then I did on the Gem. The only thing I can truly say is that this cruise was just mediocre. There was NO wow factor. The food was just ok (very small portions and blah)If you went to dinner any time from 6-7:30 you had to take a beeper and wait 20-45 min for them to beep you. If you wanted a better quality meal you had to pay extra at the specialty restaurants. The rooms were fine, just small. We're a family of 4 and we got two balcony rooms so that we had some space...Thank God because there is no way were could have managed with 4 in one room. Our friends had 3 and said it was very tight. (PS they had a mini suite, I do not see where it was any bigger then a regular room!)Another friend had an interior room and when they dropped the bed from the ceiling for the 3rd person it was half over her bed and only 2 feet from her face!) The Room stewards NEVER talked to us, They said we took 4 bottles of pelegrino from the honor bar. We never touched the honor bar! My kids hate water so I know they didn't take it.(next time i would have them lock it up and take out anything else.When we complained to the front desk(nasty and useless) they said there was nothing they could do, they they had to take the word of the steward. (Who never changed our sheets or cleaned the mirror that had nasty white stuff on all of them). We told them ...then were were taking back the tips to cover the charges, they could care less! I hated that because I work for tips ad know how important it is. We were traveling with a group of 20 and they all had the same comment, it just didn't seem like any one cared if you had a good experience or not. The only show I didn't want to walk out of was the 70's show,. the rest were boring. The magician was good but I had seen him 3 years ago and his act hadn't changed one bit. They had this thing called the white hot party, you had to wear white, It sounded fun and I thought there would be some special lighting but it was just a plain ole dance ,no wow factor there either. My daughter (8) couldn't wait to go to the kids club...after the first day she would not go back unless we forced her. She said it was very boring and only the kids 6 and under have fun. Not to mention that not once did anyone ask to see my card to make sure I was her parent. Chucky cheese is safer then this. My son (13) really hated his club. there is really nothing going on accept hanging out and some (in his words) goober games. Luckily for him there were 950 kids on board, he made friends. In my opinion Disney Cruise line is the best by far in the kid club area. I just felt like it was very crowded and I had to wait in line for every thing. I had to stand and eat breakfast twice because there was no tables to sit at. The buffet was the same food everyday. It wasn't bad just boring. The chocoholic buffet was a waste of time and aggravation. It was almost inedible. The good thing about the buffet is that you can get coffee and icecream/ snack till 11:30 pm. This is the 1st cruise I have ever seen that they didn't have a survey card, they just don't care. In short this is the last (I've had 4) NCL cruise I will ever take. Freestyle takes away from the personal service, because they know they will get their tips either way, It is $12 per person per day for gratuities. Which is more then fair if the service was good. Happy sailing