Norwegian Jade Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,043 reviews

Won't sail NCL again!

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Norwegian Jade
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Tia
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Aug 2008

We sailed from Southhampton, England (not an option for embarkation port) and did the Western Mediterranean. Embarkation began as a nightmare....they did not leave enough time from the passengers to get off the ship from the previous cruise that arrived that day and us to get on. Once on the ship we all had to wait in the atrium for a "welcome reception". It was awful, having about 2,700 people in an atrium, we couldn't go to our rooms because they were still being cleaned since they did such a quick turnover. Once in our room it was obviously a quick turnover because it really was not clean, soap scum still on the sink, etc. Overall the cruise experience was "fair". The crew was very nice and the ship itself was fairly new so it was in good shape. As for NCL's "freestyle cruising" it's a crock! They pride themselves on freestyle cruising as dress comfortable and have the choice to eat at a variety of restaurants...not really. After a long day walking around on a shore excursion you want to be comfortable and relax at dinner, maybe even go in a nice pair of shorts....no shorts allowed, or tank tops, etc. So right off the bat you still have to wear pants and skirts/dresses, how is that different from anyother cruise line? Also, there are only 3 out of like 10 restaurants that do NOT have a cover charge, and two of those have the same exact menu and the other is the buffet. So there really are not a plethora of dinning options unless you want to pay more, above the several thousand you already paid for your cruise believing most all food was included.

NCL did offer the traditional theater shows each night, none of which were really worth rushing to, maybe only one good one. They did offer a comedy show from Second City a few nights which was good, but that was the ONLY decent entertainment through out the cruise. There was a serious lack of interesting or entertaining options to take part in while at sea. The "adult" pool and children's pool were in the same area right next to each other and there were always kids in the adult pool and hot tubs and always kids running around the area. There were kids and teens running around the WHOLE SHIP...the WHOLE cruise. Shame on the parents for not having control over their children, but also shame on NCL for not having and enforcing rules about parents being with their kids or running, and ALWAYS being in areas that were designated adults only. This by far made the cruise unbearable.

The food was mediocre at best. Since we mostly ate at the buffet since it was the only truly "freestyle" dining option, they didn't vary the selections very much. There was never anything special from the different ports or cultures. We did go to 2 pay restaurants, Asian Fusion and Sushi which were both good. The food could have been A LOT better, as of the 5 cruises I've been on this was the least impressive.

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