My partner and I recently returned from the 8/23/09 sailing on the Jade from Southampton to Barcelona. We were a little apprehensive about the Jade from some of the recent reviews, but we decided to go with the attitude that we were going to have a great time, and we did. I really don't understand some of the bad reviews. A lot of it sounded like general whining, things beyond NCL's control, or people having bad attitudes to start with. If you approach people with a bad attitude, you'll probably get a bad attitude in return. The review got far longer than I had planned, so skip over the rest if you want, but just understand we had the most incredible time. This was truly the best vacation either of us has ever been on, and we've been on some pretty amazing trips in the past. The itinerary was outstanding, but the ship, the crew, and our fellow passengers contributed to our enjoyment of this as well.

This was our fifth cruise, second with NCL. We have cruised concierge level on both of the NCL cruises, first in a suite on the Dream 2 years ago, and booking a BB forward balcony and being upsold to an AC penthouse (10500) right down the hall on the front of the ship.

The ship was beautiful. We definitely noticed the Hawaiian theme, but it didn't seem particularly shocking in the Mediterranean. The color scheme was a little brighter than we're used to on a ship, but it was refreshing. We're used to our stateroom being the same boring shades of coral on every cruise. This time, the stateroom was dark wood, teal, and burgandy. The room was huge! Twice the size of the BB we were supposed to have, and we had one of 2 AC's with a bay window area adding to the size due to the shape of the bridge immediately above. The large balcony on the front of the ship got a bit windy sometimes when the ship was underway, but there was only 1 night that it was too windy to use. The wall/railing is high enough that when you're sitting down you can still see over it, but it blocks most of the wind. Read more