My family has been on many cruises including Disney, Princess, Carnival, NCL, and our favorite RCL. My kids are 17 and 19. We were looking for a lower cost cruise chose the NCL Gem. We booked it 3 weeks before the sail date and decided to book a Guaranty Balcony. We did a lot of research and found that there were no Bad balcony rooms on the Gem. More about that later. The ship was overall clean and i saw no signs of aging.
Arrived at 11:30 and parking went OK. It is right next to the ship. the lines were long and we estimated it would have taken approx 1 hour to get on the ship, but we got lucky they sent us to a Haven check in line. Overall it took 1/2 hour to get on board.
We knew this was not the newest or larger ship so we set our expectations. Two weeks before the cruise we were assigned rooms 9012(enclosed Balcony - See picture) & 9016 (full balcony). The cabins we very nice with comparable space as other cruises. The bath room was nice with separate toilet, shower and sink. The toilet area was tight, My legs would hit the wall in front (6 foot tall).
Had 2 cabins 9012 and 9016. both were great. BX with the enclosed balcony was nice protection from the elements, but still gave a nice view and relaxing place to sit. Cabins we very nice. OH....9016 still has a loose floor panel they we read about. makes a loud bang when you step on it. Probably very annoying the the people below.
Parking was good and went to see the Intrepid. right next door the the ship was nice.
relaxing! many chairs, get early for a chair hood
tikki Bikini hut. Cheap drinks, amanda (manager) was great. 7 blocks from port. very nice. Relaxing