Norwegian Jade Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,044 reviews

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Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Jade

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Sail Date: Oct 2008
Cabin: Family Penthouse with Balcony

Ship: the ship is beautiful. Everything seems new and is well maintained and spotless. For the most part, even though a little "loud", the colors and designs work very well. A few places are just too "Hawaiian" and I would have changed that design if I were NCL (ex, statue of famous Hawaiian warrior/leader in Grand Pacific), pictures on the walls in main staircases, all Aloha/Hawaii themed. The Grand Pacific dining room was amongst the prettiest I have seen on any ship. Cagney's, Le Bistro and Alizar were also stunning dining rooms. Pool decks were very nice as were the deck chairs. I think another pool is needed. Most ships I have been on have three (one usually covered)- this ship had two. It worked fine for this ship because the "kid's pool" only had about 2 kids in it at any given time so both pools were able to be fully used by adults. I liked the areas on either end of the pool where there is shallow water that you can just lie in on hot days. I think the ship itself was prettier than the Princess ships I have been on and the dining rooms were much more attractive. I thought the pool areas were slightly better on Princess. The sailing of the ship itself was very smooth and the seas were very calm for most of the trip. Ship Rating: 8/10

Spa/Health Club: The spa area was very big and nice. Lots of open space and glorious views from the lounging areas of the spa. They charge to use the spa area even if you have a treatment $10) which I think is wrong. If I have a treatment scheduled, I should have free use of the spa area during that time, IMO. I tried it the days I had a spa treatment, paying the $10 for those two visits. The use of the spa area was $150 for the 12 nt cruise. I personally did not think it was worth it. While nice, it was basically a hot tub, a sauna, a steam room and a few hot loungers. I had 4 treatments in total and for the most part, they were very good. My first one was a massage with someone who just seemed very inexperienced & bored. Then I had my hair done twice and the girl (Jade) was GREAT. I went back for a facial and massage and the therapist for those services was very good. I found the "specials" prices to be comparable with what we pay around here in NY/NJ area. If you go for one service, they will send you specials for another and they also offer daily specials which made the prices reasonable. My advice is to wait for the special pricing offers. I think the spa area, pricing and the services themselves were better on NCL than on my previous Princess cruises. Spa Rating: 7/10.

Food: This is one if tough because it is subjective and also my reactions to it were so varied. Let's pick it apart piece by piece, in terms of the taste of the food, I would say it was very good. In terms of presentation, I would also say very good. In terms of selection and variety, I would say "fair". I had trouble finding things I liked on a few nights because of lack of selection. There were typically 5-6 "appetizers" in the main dining room. 3 of them were soup, 1 was usually a fruit and 1 was a salad. That left 1-2 offerings of a hot appetizer. Then there were usually 4-5 dinner choices. 2 were always meat (almost always a pork and/or veal) , one was a fish and the other vegetarian. The fish offering was usually very "cheap" (cod or tilapia). In terms of quality of the ingredients, I would also rate "fair". I found that cuts of meat/fish were usually very "cheap". Everything seemed to be designed to feed on a stringent budget. Lobster night was not really lobster tail night -they offered a ½ of a tail in a pasta dish and wouldn't serve just the lobster. Service in the common dining rooms was usually fine and occasionally very good. Willingness to accommodate special requests: I think again I'd say less than fair here. It always seemed a hassle whether a simple request (leave sauce off a steak or sandwich, extra order of fries) or a slightly more unusual request (order something off the kid's menu or get an appetizer from Blue Lagoon). Comparing dining on NCL to my other Princess cruises, I think Princess has the slighter edge on everything except the taste and presentation where I thin NCL had the edge. They were very close in all respects, though. Overall rating: 7/10.

Cabin Review

Family Penthouse with Balcony

Cabin SC

Great room. Well worth the extra money. Great bathrooms & closest space. Comfortables beds.

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