Bill17

The Norwegian Gem is a nice ship, the Gym was really nice but I did not like the fact that if you wanted to use the whirlpools and saunas you had to pay $75.00 extra for the week or $22.00 per use and no indoor pool. Something that I did not expect. I was on the Norwegian Dawn 2 years ago and it had a heated indoor pool and whirlpool and sauna and steam room available at no extra charge. I was very disappointed to not see the same on the Gem. Having mentioned the Norwegian Dawn I want to say that I had a terrible time. The food was lousy, the service was terrible, and entertainment was awful. When I booked the Cruise on the Gem I mentioned this to the BJ's agent and she assured me that NCL got their act together so I booked this cruise. I am happy to say that overall most everything was good. The food was great, service was great and entertainment was excellent. The downside was the Whirlpool and Sauna areas as mentioned above and also the kids program was non-existent for 10-year-old kids. In my opinion most areas on the Gem seemed much smaller than on the Norwegian Dawn probably to make room for the Giant Garden Villas on the Private 14th floor of the ship. The Gem did have some cool new things like a rock climbing wall and a full basketball court that doubles as a tennis court. 4 Bowling lanes inside one of the nightclubs Down side $5.00 per person per game and on the sun deck areas there were big round cozy rattan tanning beds to lay on. The pool areas were nice with an adult pool and childrens pool. I recommend the Gem it lives up to its name.

I thought the ship was very clean well laid out also user friendly. I liked or shall I say my wife like the fact that all the washing machines and dryers worked! I Have been on 2 other Carnival ships and have been very satisfied with Carnival they got it right everytime.