My husband and I, after spending 13 fabulous days on the Jewel in April, decided to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary by taking another cruise.So we chose a cruise to the Bahamas on the Gem in November. We were looking forward to a wonderful, relaxing and exciting time on the Gem like we did on the Jewel. Boy were we wrong!! First, the weather didn't cooperate with us. It was cold every day except in the Bahamas. I believe this had a lot to do with the fact that there was not many activities to do on the ship, that didn't cost money.

It started out great since we were upgraded to a mini suite, which was very comfortable and spacious for the 2 of us. However, I noticed that there were no movie channels on the TV. If you wanted to see a movie you had to pay for it. Here began the "nickle and dime". So that was the beginning of the differences from April on the Jewel to November on the Gem.

The main thing that got me on this cruise was the lack of enthusiasm and visibility from the cruise director, Jaime and the hotel director, Filippo. Again perhaps I was spoiled by the visibility of John O'Hara and Ian on the Jewel. Even on the Dawn, you couldn't go one day without running into the Cruise Director John "have a cracker jack good time"..They were everywhere. Overall, the upper management staff was friendly but very laid back..Our cabin steward Joe was wonderful and very friendly.So was the wait staff. Read more