We travelled as a group of 3 from London heathrow on a flight with BA from London to Rome. As always BA let us down in terms of service. However, the early morning flight got to Rome more or less on time and after receiving our luggage we were met by NCL representative who asked us to place all our luggage in a van and we were asked to have a sit in the bus. This was the last time we saw our luggage until we got our luggage in our cabins that afternoon. Once the bus got full, we started our journey to the port of Civitavecchia which was an hours drive away. The ride was comfortable and enjoyed the journey. We got to the cruise terminal at about 12.30 and were asked to go and check in. There was a long queue and we had to fill a health questionnaire too. However there was no queue whatsoever in the latitudes line and being latitudes members, we went straight through and checked in straight away. The representative was very friendly and gave us all the info we needed. After collecting our cruise key cards, we proceeded to the ship. One of the smoothest embarkations I have seen.

After a quick photo, we made our entry into the beautiful Jade. The ship looked very elegant and couldn't wait to discover the rest of the ship. However everyone we met seemed to be going to their staterooms which were already ready. Hence we headed straight to our balcony cabins towards the aft of the ship on deck 10 (port side) but near the elevators. The cabins were very nice, slightly smaller than our last cruise on Carnival but the bathroom was really nice and much bigger than our previous cruise. It had a seperate shower and toilet and sink in the centre. Great design. The balcony was quite big too with 2 deck chairs and a small table. The room had a flat screen tv, minibar, plenty of storage space, one double sofa next to the balcony window but only one side table.

After dropping our hand luggage, we went straight for lunch to the garden restaurant which had ample varieties however no vegetarian section like they had on the NCL spirit 2 years ago. The selection of veg dishes was quite small compared to carnival and spirit. Moreover vegetarian dishes were not marked with the V symbol and hence we had to keep asking the staff there whether the foods were vegetarian or not. This was the downside of the Jade. However as there was enough food for us for lunch we kept visiting this restaurant daily for breakfast and lunch. There was no sandwich counter like they have on carnival so I could have freshly made veg sandwiches. Read more