This was our first time on the Gem out of Boston to Bermuda. We had been on the Dawn a few times and the Gen is very similar to the Dawn in the layout with a few improvements (the bar area on Deck 6 works much better) and a few odd features (you can only enter the Atrium from one side of the mid-ship elevators) Overall, we loved the ship. We had an ocean-view cabin on Deck 5 that was standard for NCL but a cabin steward was not the best we ever had. We found the food to be good and the service excellent for the most part. What really won us over was the great entertainment onboard. This was the first cruise that we have been on that every aspect of the ship entertainment was top notch. The Production Cast was great.. Andrew Kennedy is the best comedian I have ever seen at sea. Jose & Patti are always excellent - but what was really surprising was how great the other entertainers on board were. The Prism Band was fantastic and the female singer, Maricel, had the best voice I have ever heard - land or sea. One the the production shows was cancelled for technical reasons and they moved the Cruise Director's Tina Turner Tribute show to the theater with Maricel doing a tribute to Whitney Houston. We had seen Luz (the CD) do her Tina Turner show on the Dawn and it is great - but Maricel was beyond awesome singing the Whitney songs. Justin Golan was a comedy piano player in the lounges who was fantastic and Sean Paul was a guitar player/singer who was also great. The showband and the other pop band (JamRoc) were also very, very good.

On shore we did a private Taxi Tour with Jonathan Purcell, our driver. He was super helpful, informative, friendly and fun and we saw the entire island in 4 hours and saw many sights and stops that were not on the standard tours that you book at the excursion desk. The price was reasonable as well ($50 per hour for the group) We had the specialty dinig package and we at at Cagneys twice because the food was so good. We also at La Cucina. The food was also good there - but our waiter, Dante, was the best server we've ever had on an NCL ship.

Over all, it was a great vacation.