I read a lot of reviews to try to become informed as possible before embarking on this cruise.  It was only my second cruise and wanted to try to be prepared.  We used RomeInLimo at two of the ports and were extremely pleased.I originally booked an inside cabin, but switched to an obstructed ocean view when they became available at a price cheaper than the inside cabins.  There was a view between the lifeboats from one of the two windows.  Lots of storage space and a great cabin steward, made the stay very pleasant.  The only annoying thing was that the Gem uses the life boats to tender into Cannes, and 2 of the 4 boats used happened to be outside my cabin. I got woken up about 6:15am by the noise of the boats being lowered.  I took advantage of the early wake up by heading out to the pool deck where I had the pool and hot tubs to myself and a nice view of the beautiful coastline.  (Mid-morning on, expect most chaises at pool to be "taken".   Although there are signs saying unattended items will be removed from chairs after 30 minutes, this is not enforced.We had dinner in the Magenta every night and were quite pleased most nights.  We dined on Lobster, Prime Rib and Rack of Lamb on various nights.  Only one night was the dinner selection a little sub-par.  The service was good on all but one night also.  Strangely, sometimes you were handed a wine list when you were seated and sometimes it took several requests to get one.  Several mornings we had breakfast in the Grand Pacific and had no complaints.  Great melon, made to order omlettes, etc.We only ate at the buffet for a snack or late lunch.  It can be somewhat chaotic, and difficult to find a table at peak times.  However, the food was mostly good and many offerings changed daily.  The Great Outdoors has a little calmer atmosphere, which we preferred.  We had breakfast there once and lunch a couple of times.  It has a more limited buffet but the calmer atmoshphere and great views make up for that.The chocoholic buffet was dissapointing and very chaotic.  (It was held in the buffet restaurant).The two shows I saw were fair to good.  They were the Second City show and the Around the World show on the final evening.  Botht took place in the Stardust.Read on for port reviews -