Let me start by saying this was our 4th cruise. In the past we've sailed Carnival Liberty,and RCL's Monarch of the Seas and Liberty of the Seas. We decided to try the Gem because we got a great price on their balcony cabin and also wanted to try a cruise out of NYC. Sadly to say, we rank this cruise at the bottom in comparison to our previous experiences. We met many friendly cruisers on board and everyone pretty much had the same opinion ... they were not going to choose NCL again. Actually, we only met one family on board all week that said that they were having an awesome time ... they were first time cruisers.Embarkation: Arrived at terminal around 11:00 by taxi. No line up to check in but you are given a number and must wait till they start boarding the ship at 12:00. Noticed that previous NCL cruisers got assigned numbers that allowed them to board before us even though many arrived to pier later than us. Carnival and RCL allow all to board in the order they are checked in and we've always been on the ship around 11:00. They announced that rooms were ready after 2:00. We eagerly went to check out our cabin. As if it were an omen of things to come, our room keys wouldn't work. When we went to customer service apparently about a hundred of us had the same problem. There is no actually "cue" line set up at the desk so people were trying to cut in line. Not the best way to start a cruise.Cabin: We had a forward "cove" balcony on deck 8. Actually liked the sheltered balcony cruising out of NYC. It afforded us some protection from the wind and cold and was very private, could not see into balconies next door. Our room steward Menard was outstanding. We never have any complaints with our housekeeping staff. They are an extremely hard working group of individuals.Dining: We were very disappointed with the food on this cruise. I am no food critic and am not a picky eater but the buffet was terrible. They served generally the same food for lunch and dinner and the menu didn't change from day to day. They had a hard time keeping up with demand ... every time I went to Garden Cafe, I was met with empty trays of food or having to scrape the bottoms or take the last hard, dry piece of whatever was offered. You couldn't go through the line once and sample a bit of everything because of unavailability. Chefs not very friendly and made it seem like a chore for them to have to prepare something for you. The best thing in the buffet was the hand scooped ice cream. Visited that station once a day for my treat. Also found that the layout of the buffet was not very good. By the time you found a seat, generally having to go to the back of the ship, your food was cold. Wait staff in buffet not very efficient. Slow to clean tables, stood waiting 5 minutes at empty table waiting for it to be cleared as food got colder. Food in dining rooms average for a cruise ship. However, service in dining rooms stunk. Not a fan of Freestyle dining on NCL. The waiters are so busy that they have no time to develop a "personal" connection with you. You are seated at a different table each time you go and I got the feeling of a "lets feed them and get them out of here" mentality. We've enjoyed "MY Time" and "Any Time" dining options on the other cruise lines and came away with a completely different, more enjoyable experience with Carnival and RCL. One evening we ate in the Grand Pacific and waited over an hour for our entree. We even had to ask for simple glass of water. Not wanting to miss the show, we left without eating. When we complained (which we've never done before), we were treated like gold the next night. However, we couldn't help but wonder what other poor cruisers might be suffering due to our extra attention. Also just a tip ... if you like tea with your dessert, you better order it at the beginning of the meal. Each time I ordered tea when they took my dessert order, it arrived after I was done eating my dessert and I ended up leaving it behind. We liked eating in Blue Lagoon. Excellent chicken wings! Generally not busy until the end of the cruise when the lineups were horrendous... I think people were getting sick of the buffet fare. We got the feeling that NCL cuts the quality of the "free" food in order to force people to go to the specialty restaurants. Our best meal on board was at Teppanyaki and this restaurant was pretty much booked solid all cruise.Entertainment: We were so looking forward to having Sinan as our cruise director after hearing so many positive reviews. Unfortunately we were stuck with Jill, who was virtually invisible on board except for introducing the evening performances in the theatre. She was very lacklustre and reminded us of an English "nanny". We generally enjoyed the shows in Stardust Theatre. Comedian was pretty funny, hypnotist disappointing. Late night game shows in Spinnaker were entertaining. Many volunteers were typical loud New Yorkers and comical "characters" themselves.Internet: Just beware that you are actually logging off and not just being disconnected. We bought a package so that we could communicate nightly with our kids. On the last night we were very careful not to go over our limited remaining minutes left. It was a bad connection night and we kept losing signal. We used up our minutes and then were disconnected. Figuring we had timed out we closed our laptop and went out for the evening. When we checked our invoice in the morning we saw an extra internet charge of over $30. Apparently while we were not even in our cabin, our computer reconnected, resulting in the added charge. My husband went to dispute the charge but they would only credit us with half the cost because we couldn't "prove" that we didn't actually use it! Disembarkation: One thing we noticed with NCL is that nothing ever starts on time. Seminars start late, shows start late, tenders run late. We were going to be spending a few days in NYC, so we decided to pick the latest timed departure off ship (even though by this time we were glad our cruise had ended and couldn't wait to get off the ship). We felt sorry for the people who ended up doing self disembarkation. They must have been lined up like sardines before the scheduled 8:00 time, only to have to wait over an hour (true NCL fashion) to get off.Overall, we made the most of it and enjoyed the cruise for the most part. Heck, it beats being at work. However, we will not be booking with NCL again. I'd rather spend the extra money up front and have a hassle free cruise that provides good food and great service consistently.