Our sailing was over New Year’s (December 29 – January 8). 10 day sail from NYC to Eastern Caribbean. This was our first time on the Gem, 10th sail with NCL (previously sailed Breakaway (2x), Star (2x), Getaway, Epic, Dawn, Jewel and Sun).

We were able to do a last minute upsell deal to a Haven Suite. This was our first time in the Haven, and all I can say is WOW. It was worth the extra money for an upsell, but I am not convinced it is worth it to pay full price. For the two of us, full price for this 10 day holiday sail would have been around $11K. We paid less than half with the upsell deal. We had cabin 14006, the “Orchid Villa”. Great location.

Haven: Awesome. Our Butler was Roshan and the Courtyard Valet was Amit. Both took excellent care of us all week. You can literally get anything you want at any time. Free pay per view movies in the room was nice as well. We had the 2 bedroom family villa despite being just two of us. We stored luggage in the spare room, and it was nice to have a second bathroom to hang the wet swim suits, etc. The Haven was apparently one of the smallest in the fleet. There were 12 loungers, 4 dining tables of 4 seats each, a small pool and hot tub. Despite having about 18 suites with access, we never went without a chair, and the pool and hot tub were rarely used. We couldn’t figure out where the others guests were, and why they didn’t want to use this awesome benefit. The breakfast and lunch in Cagneys (or in the courtyard) was the best. The food was 10x better than the MDRs for these two meals. Many seafood options, and fancy breakfast items (the salmon frittata was to die for). Read more