We just completed a 7 night cruise on the Norwegian Gem. This is our second cruise and we have come to appreciate the convenience of sailing from NYC which avoids an extra cost and hassle of flying (especially with 2 kids). Our embarkation process went relatively smooth as we arrived at the terminal somewhat early and thus breezed through the security and check-in queues. Once on-board, we found our stateroom prepared at the advertised time and were pleasantly surprised that our "mini suite" was somewhat larger than a traditional veranda stateroom. Our room consisted of a king-sized bed, with fold out couch which was sufficient sleeping arrangement for our 3-year old. We also found a pack-and-play style crib in the room which worked well for our 7-month old infant. With the pack-and-play, of-course, our available space was somewhat cramped, though manageable.

We found the NCL Gem to be generally more kid-friendly than our previous experience on Holland America (Noordam). There was a nice "tree tops" kids play center on the floor above us with a padded playroom containing a maze-style play environment that kids could crawl through which I think our daughter approved of ;-) We opted against enrolling our 3-year old in the available day-program as our philosophy is try to spend time with our family while on vacation, but it was nice to know such options existed if we were interested.

On the less-positive side, we really felt the whole "freestyle" cruising aspect was significantly over-sold. As far as dining was concerned, we found it extremely difficult to make dinner arrangements for any reasonable time (between 6-8), and on more than one occasion we found ourselves in middle of dinner well after 9 o'clock, which obviously doesn't work well with young children. We tried making reservations up to a day in advance, and were still told that were no available times between the hours of 6 and 8PM. Also, even after we were seated at dinner, we found the service to be unusually slow. In one case, I think we ended up waiting nearly an hour for drinks at which point I finally complained to the restaurant manager (who made sure we were very well taken care of afterward and apologized for the inconvenience). The buffet area was a similar frustrating experience, as we often found all available seats occupied, and hoards of people crowded in an area which seemed ill-designed to accommodate even a fraction of the actual passenger capacity of the ship.

In the end, I suppose we could have avoided some of this frustration by making reservations several days in advance for each of our meals. But then again, if you have to make reservations on Monday for dinner on Wed., it's really not "freestyle" cruising...

I also found the level of service (or lack thereof) somewhat frustrating in the casino. Even though I was at a poker table playing up to several hundred dollars (total pot size) a hand, I found it odd that I would have to wait, sometimes quite a long time, for a waiter/waitress in order to quench my thirst. Also, despite playing at these stakes (and with a 10% casino rake) I would have thought drinks might have been complimentary, but alas no cigar (literally, since cigar smoking was also verbotten on the casino floor).

Oddly, we also found a few (as an exception, not the rule, but still odd to us) of the cruise personnel to act in a somewhat peculiar fashion. As an example, I was initially asked to "sign" for a roll of duck-tape (to repair a bag that was damaged during embarkation) and was then told this was a precautionary measure because the front desk staff was concerned about the stewards walking off with their supplies... not exactly what you want to hear (if they're concerned about a roll of duck-tape, what else should I be worried about !) We noticed a few of the bar/wait staff to be slightly put-off as well when we asked for simple things like a glass of ice-tea or water. Maybe it was a matter of being under-staffed to the point where seemingly simple requests were being viewed as a chore, rather than as an opportunity to project a friendly and hospitable atmosphere.

In terms of the ports-of-call, we really enjoyed the options available at Port Canaveral. We opted for a day-trip to Orlando to visit DisneyWorld, which I think the whole family really enjoyed. The excursion rates were somewhat pricey (~$160/pp), but we also viewed it as a unique opportunity to see the Disney parks without committing to separate trip which would obviously cost much more. Our Disney excursion provided for a total of 6 hours at the park which I think was just about sufficient for young children. If our kids were a bit older, I think I might have wished for a slightly longer amount of time at the park (especially considering the $160 price tag per person), which I think would have been possible had our ship stayed later in port so we didn't have to be back exactly at 8PM (after all, our next port was only a couple of hours away so I don't think there was necessarily a need to rush leaving Port Canaveral, unless this was done as a cost-saving measure to NCL). We also enjoyed our stay in Nassau where we were able to obtain a relatively cheap taxi ride from the port to Atlantis and tour the grounds for a few hours. We've actually stayed at the Atlantis before, so this wasn't a totally new experience, but nonetheless we found it enjoyable to do some shopping and site-seeing around the resort for a few hours.

Overall, I would say our cruise was okay, but not spectacular. We definately felt less pampered as compared to our previous cruise, and somewhat frustrated with our dining options. On the plus side we had an enjoyable time at our ports of call and still found the overall experience relaxing and a reasonable (though not fantastic) value for the dollar.