We booked this 10 day cruise over my kid's Spring Break from school. It was myself, my husband (late 40's) and two daughters (15 & 12). We are seasoned cruisers with this being cruise 11 for myself and husband and cruise 5 for the kids. However it was our first time trying NCL. We thought the Gem was a great ship with a wonderful crew. I'm still very sad it had to end! We booked a balcony guarantee and were assigned room 10010 on Deck 10 Forward. We were not far from the stairs and had a great view up to the bridge from our balcony and could often see the Captain and ship's officers working up there. We were also only two decks from the Spa and Pool Area's as well as a short walk from there to the Buffet. It was a very good location.

Food: We mainly ate a the buffet. The food was good and easy to get to and had a little something for everyone. We did not do any paid dining as we aren't foodies and that is kinda wasted on us. As long as I didn't have to cook it I'm good so free food was fine for me! My husband and I ate at Magenta's three times and O'Sheehan's once. Everything was good. We just preferred the buffet for speed and it just had more options. Tip: they open up LaCucina in the mornings for extra seating for the buffet at breakfast there was ALWAYS tons of tables open there. My family all just met up there after they got their food. Very easy and less searching to find your family in the Garden Cafe.

Cabin: We had four people in a balcony cabin. At first I was worried it would be too tight but it worked out just fine. We used the cubicles by the door to store our clothes (one for each of us). We don't bring dress up cloths (BTDT and I'm all about casual now) so that helped with storage as well. I put our dirty clothes in our suitcases under the bed so they were out of the way AND i was halfway packed to go home! The bathroom was fine for our needs as well but again we didn't do a big shower get dressed up before dinner thing each night either so we didn't all need it at the same time. Read more