We took this 14 day cruise to celebrate our 20th Anniversary and my 60th birthday. While we have sailed on Norwegian many times, this was our first experience on a "jewel" class ship. The Gem is beautiful but the balcony cabins are small compared to the last ship we were on (The Sun) and the bathroom bordered on ridiculous. If you have any physical limitations, I would recommend getting a cabin configured for someone with disabilities.

Let me say from the beginning that our entire cruise package (including air, transfers, post-cruise hotel) were all booked directly with NCL. Having nothing but Caribbean cruises out of the United States to go by, we weren't sure what to expect but having wait at the Venice airport for an hour for our bus to the port, then having to haul our luggage from the waiting area at the Venice airport to the bus (which was quite a hike), was not pleasant experience especially since we had been up for 24 hours. Upon arrival at the port, again, we had to haul our luggage to the holding area.

Inside the terminal we were given numbers and had to wait close to another two hours before we were allowed to board the ship. Do all of the cruise lines thread you through a maze of their products/services for sale while fumbling with your carry on items? We have never had to do this before. The last NCL cruise we took we were greeted in the atrium with a glass of champagne and escorted to our cabin (that was 2 years ago). We were not allowed to go to our cabins at this point and were directed to the Garden Cafe (with our carry ons) for lunch. Finally, we were allowed to go to our cabin. Like I said earlier, the cabin was much smaller but we decided not to let it ruin our cruise. Read more