Our first impression of the Gem as we spotted it in Barcelona harbour when we arrived at 12 noon was wow. The ship is truely huge and very impressive at first sight. The embarkation process was carried out without fuss or delay and we were onboard in no time. Though we couldnt get to our rooms until 2pm there was champagne being served in the Crystal Atrium and we were able to wonder about the ship at our leisure, which allowed us to get our bearings a bit. We had booked a BD balcony room (Deck 8) but the exact room number was to be allocated on arrival. We found we had been upgraded without charge to a BB room on deck 10 which was lovely. These rooms were not large but were well laid out and the balcony was an absolute must. We had our own view coming into and leaving each post and saw the most amazing sunsets. I think this would have been the same on deck 8 but we heard from other guests on deck 8 that there was some noise in the evenings from the Theatre below. When we got to the room we had champagne and chocolate covered strawberries for our anniversary. Absolutely lovely and complimentary.

As others have reported the pool area is lovely but it can be difficult to find seats and the hot tubs were full of teenagers. We managed to get in once during the week but we had many full days in port so this really wasn't a big problem.

Most mornings we ate in the Garden Cafe which was self service and had something for everyone. Seating could be a problem but we found we could take our breakfast through to La Cucina next door and get a seat without any problem. We had breakfast in Grand Pacific on our last morning as we had more time which was lovely. Read more