Norwegian Cruise Line, Norwegian Gem

Money grabbing all the time, 15 percent added to all drinks bills, and if some other passenger had not told usthat you could cancel and pay what you thought applicable we would have paid the 12 dollars per person per day. Which we have never paid on any other cruise before.

Food variety good. Thought the reserving of sun beds ridiculous in as much as they didnt carry out the half hour rule.

Feel we should have been notified before we booked about the service charge and also about the transfers.

We boarded the ship from Venice. The process was well organised and took little over an hour. We were able to access our outside Balcony Stateroom just after 2pm which although not overly large was well designed and immaculate. The bathroom however was very small and I imagine quite challenging to anyone on the larger side.

The food was generally good with lots of variety and the staff were generally efficient and friendly. The much vaunted 'Freestyle Dining' was not a great success with call buzzers being deployed regularly, average wait 20 to 30 minutes.

Our cabin service was excellent as was the cleaning regime throughout the ship.

The entertainment was poor particularly in the main theatre and sadly repetative. The staff told me that the new Cruise Director had made significant improvements in his first couple of weeks so I can't imagine what it was like before.

The excursions were very expensive as were the drinks however to be fair we suffered to some extent from the $/£ exchange rate.

The general culture on board was to harvest every last dollar from guests with particular attention to public announcements about fee payable events.

As a group we enjoyed our holiday but as a group we thought we would not cruise with NCL in the future.

The ship is great with good food, in sumptuous surroundings, with great facilities and activities. The drawback is that there is a hard sell culture for everything, even from the waiters. The ship's crew are all smiles and happiness if you buy but if you don't, their faces drop and they start treating you like second class citizens.

My wife and I are both teetotal and only ever drink water with our meals. We thought this would be fine but it wasn't. The food is included in the price of your booking but you have to pay for all your drinks apart from water. The first time we dined, the waitress came to take our orders but when we asked for water with our food, her face dropped and she looked very aggrieved. She returned with bottles of water which are $6 dollars each so I told her that we just wanted a jug of water which is free. From then on her face looked like thunder when she served us. She ignored us when we tried to get her attention, it seemed that she deliberately took the longest time possible to serve us and with other tables that were buying wine and suchlike, she was all sweetness and light. This was our experience with virtually all the waiters during every mealtime.

On the first day when I went out on deck and sat on a lounger, a waiter approached me jovially and asked if I would like something to drink. When I asked for a regular glass of water he pretended not to hear me and just walked away. My wife was shocked and the next time he walked passed us she asked him for two glasses of water. He rolled his eyes in disgust and muttered "Oh my God" before walking away and returning with just one glass of water.

It seems that it is the ship's policy to treat you so badly if you don't spend money that you feel obliged to eventually buy from them, however with me it had the opposite effect. It made me determined to dig my heels in and spend as little money with them as possible...I refuse to be bullied into spending money with them.

On top of the constant barrage of hard selling techniques for their various products, activities, tours and excursions, etc, we were billed $12 per person per day for service charges. This extra was not mentioned in any of the literature when booking and considering the service that we got, I did begrudge paying it.

It is such a shame that they have this culture on board because everything else about the cruise was great but to be honest this ruined the whole experience for me. I could not relax on board because I was made to feel like a second class citizen.

Cleanliness on the Norwegian Gem was impeccable. Staff friendly and polite. Food excellent and to everyone's taste. The Blue lagoon restaurant service waiting time should be improved, takes long even if restaurant not busy. Photos taken should be cheaper so everyone can afford to buy them. I only bought two. Instead of pricing them so expensive, they could charge less and everyone will order more and avoid wastage, or on last day they could have some sort of sale of untaken photos, just one time offer, buy one get one free or 25% like they do in the gift shops.

Our third cruise was with Norwegian Cruise Line and sadly not as good as the first two. It wasn't bad, but neither was it particularly good.

I travelled on the Norwegian Gem from 2/14/09-2/21/09 out of NYC to the Bahamas. This was my third cruise in the past five years, (previous two were with Royal Caribbean), but it was the worst experience for my money. The food was OK, not outstanding, I thought the activities on board were pathetic and minimal, the shows were "D-List". Since it was President's week, it seemed that there were many teens and pre-teens on board. They seemed to be aimlessly sitting on steps and playing tag up and down stairs for lack of activities for them.

We took a chance and made a terrible mistake. We thought everything would be as amazing as Royal Caribbean but I can assure you that the for us it was not!

We had a great time on the Norwegian gem during are honeymoon in July 08. Our balcony cabin was very nice and the room was serviced regularly to a high standard.The variety of food available was fantastic, have to say it was as good as it gets. The Spa at the front of the ship is outstanding and well worth a visit. Lots and lots going on during the day and in the evening, you will not get bored on this ship.

I felt the tours were perhaps a little bit over priced. Drinks on board were also quite costly, but not extortionist.

Overall a lovely ship, lovely staff and an amazing experience. I would happily travel on this ship again in the morning.

The entertainment, food, and the rooms were great! I loved the pool and lounges! It was great! I wish I could live on The Norwegian Gem! I had a blast! It was the best Cruise I've ever been on!

First and last time with NCL I'm afraid.

It started badly when we were not picked up in NYC having paid for a transfer. They had no record of an anniversary package we pre-booked and we spent 4 days sorting both the above out

The freestyle dining was an abysmal failure.

I could go on and on but I summed up our feelings in a few words on the guest questionaire. Send somebody on a Princess, Royal Caribbean or Celebrity Cruise and see how the professionals do it.

Had a lovely holiday --sailed from Barcelona on 9th nov