I chose this cruise because the were only 4 consecutive sea days. As soon as I booked it the itinerary change to 5 sea days. 3 days into the cruise it was changed to 6 consecutive days at sea. I understand things like weather come into play. You accept that when you book. You also expect that when you add days the cruise line would have some sort of activities to make up for the lost ports. This was not the case at all on the Gem. The pools were not open at all on this 14 day voyage. The hot tubs were also closed for a few days in the beginning of the trip. There was no entertainment at all on the Sun deck/ pool area for the 14 days.

The NCL website had 3 stage productions advertised for the cruise. Only 1 performance of Blazing Boots was offered in 14 days. The other 2 productions never happened. There was no comedy shows. The entertainment on board was basically only the piano and guitar entertainers in the lounges. While we enjoyed them it got old fast. The sound system in the Spinnaker lounge was either way to loud or too low to hear when someone was talking.

The activities that were scheduled were mostly sales pitches to spend money or required an additional fee. The cruise entertainment staff were lack luster at best. The “Coffee Queens” in the Garden Cafe interacted and entertained more. Read more