As independent travellers, we spent a couple of days enjoying the sights of Venice before embarking on the Norwegian Gem.
What can I say, as a family of four there was something for everyone. The dinig opportunities (especially Cagneys - where we celebrated our son's birthday in style with a lovely complimentary birthday cake),and what a treat not to worry about the dress code.
My husband was in his element with what he describes as one of the best gyms he has ever been to, and he thoroughly enjoyed his classes there.
Nice clean cabin. We always knew it was going to be snug with four of us in an inside cabin but we had been led to believe (by Travel Agent, not NCL) that there would be two single beds with two pull down bunks - fine, we were ok with that. However, when we arrived, we could only find one pull down bunk. It was quite comical how we all tried to find the missing bunk! We realised that there was a fourth, pull out bed, which slotted inbetween the two singles. This meant our floor space was drastically reduced. We complained to reception who stated that there was nothing they could do and it was the travel agent who had been wrong, etc. There was no way they could move us as the ship was full. We decided to just make the most of it, and to be honest, we spent so little time in the cabin it didnt really matter. It wasnt perfect by any means, but we just didnt let it spoil anything.
The beds were surprisingly extremely comfortable, with plenty of pillows and fresh white linen. The bathroom was clean and adequate. Nice touch with the Elemis products - always a way to impress me! There was plenty of storage, even with four in the cabin. Hairdryer was good and there were plenty of sockets.
The best thing about the cabin was Alid, the cabin steward, who was spot-on. A lovely guy. He left everything perfect every day and it amazed us how he remembered every name in the family, despite that fact that he seemed to have thousands of cabins to deal with.