Which cruise ship do you recommend ?

Consider itinerary and what kind of activities do you like on-board. RCL has a very broad selection - from mega to mini. We really enjoy Oasis class ships as they have pretty much everything to do on them. Laid out very well so you really don't notice crowds (except in/out of shows).

Quantum is a bit smaller, but with some great on-board features. But start with itinerary.

NCL Gem

That depends on a few things:

1.) What is your price range?

2.) Where do you want to sail from?

3.) Where do you want to go?

4.) What time of year do you want to go?

I would probably be more concerned on finding an itinerary that you like. I think finding a port where it leaves from that is convenient to you and visiting places where you might want to go or excursions you might want to try before which ship. Even though I am fairly new to cruising I feel there are pros and cons to all the ships.

That being said after sailing on 2 smaller ships from NCL and then Freedom of the Seas last year I looked for a NCL cruise on a ship that was comparable in size to the Freedom so I can compare apples to apples on the 2 different lines.

We just did an article ranking Royal Caribbean's ships in a number of areas! Here it is, this should definitely help. https://cruiseline.com/advice/how-to-book/select-a-ship/the-best-royal-caribbean-ships

I just realized that my post (the first one here) was supposed to have the same link Sarah but looks like my paste was bad. Could you please remove that post.

The link was supposed to be the one you just posted. Thanks,

We have only sailed Carnival but in future we will get searching around. Till now Carnival has had the best prices and schedule that fits our current situation.

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I saw this in your original post and it is all well and good but I still feel the OP should be looking more at destinations and where it leaves from more than what ship ranks the best. Does no good to go on the #1 ship if it goes to places where they don't care to go to or leaves from a port it costs a fortune for them to fly to.