Norwegian Jade Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,044 reviews

Nowegian Jade - Good But A Few Wrinkles

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Jade
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usnavyguy
First Time Cruiser • Age 80s

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Sail Date: Jan 2010
Cabin: Balcony

We've also traveled extensively in both the Far East & Europe, so cruising is not a new experience. But, we were intrigued by NCL advertisement of Freestyle Cruising & when the opportunity to cruise to Morocco, the Canary & Madeira Islands as well as Malaga Spain became available at an attractive price, we decided to give it a try. Embarkation in Barcelona was a breeze. It was as good as with Viking on a river cruise with 10% of the passengers that embarked on Jade. Immediately heading to the Blue Lagoon restaurant, we enjoyed a nice sit down lunch with a wonderful server (Edard) along with a couple of Heineken's waiting for our cabin to become available. I've read some other reviews about this cruise & the one preceding it that had a novovirus outbreak. Prior to boarding the ship, we were handed a piece of paper advising us of the novo outbreak on the previous cruise & offering us the opportunity to rebook on any future NCL cruise of a comparable length at no additional cost. Of course, we're already in Barcelona with a non-refundable air fare 10 days later, but the gesture was appreciated and NCL did not attempt to cover up the issue from the previous cruise. That said, we had previously sailed on a Princess cruise that had a novo outbreak, so we knew the buffet line would be manned by the staff with the concomitant frustrations and challenges of having to be handed the food, so we opted out of any of the buffets. Based on some other reviews, that seemed to have been a good choice. Besides which, Blue Lagoon is a 24/7 restaurant located on Deck 8 and with breakfast & lunch readily available with sit down service, why stand in a buffet line? First and foremost, contrary to some other review comments I've read, all the ship staff we interacted with from the dining room servers to the cabin stewards to the bar staff were friendly, helpful, and a pleasure to deal with. It was especially impressive since the wait staff were doing double shifts in order to cover the buffet as well as all of the restaurants and it would have been easy to understand if they were less than pleasant. We never found that to be the case. The food however, we found only to be average. We ate in three of the specialty restaurants (Papa's Italian Kitchen - okay; Jasmine Garden w/Asian fusion - excellent; Le Bistro, a notch better than Papa's, but not up to what I'd expect for a $40 cover charge for two). We ate once in the Grand Pacific dining room, but it's so large and so busy, we opted for all the other dinners at the much more pleasant and smaller Alizar. We never had an issue getting a table, choosing to dine just before the end of the early onboard main show in order to beat the crush of folks coming from that show. There was an attempt on several occasions to push the specialty restaurants, but after pleasantly declining, we weren't approached again on any given evening. I think however, NCL does push the specialty restaurants a bit to the detriment of the regular dining rooms as we found the menu choices while in general, decent food, not very inspired menus. Freestyle means freestyle to do your own thing, and in my opinion, some small percentage of the passengers took that to mean dress however you choose, whenever you choose. I do think some of the guests believe that resort casual means a clean T-Shirt and Sears, Roebuck blue jeans. Okay by me, but not so pretty for the evening meals. Dining in Le Bistro, at the table just ahead of us, the lady of the duo was nicely attired, the gent in a white T-shirt, pull over sweater, and belt less Levi's was quite a sight when he bent over to sit next to his significant other for the obligatory photo. To be fair, a large percentage of the guests were resort casual attired for the evening meal; it was those who weren't who stood out. We took 4 of the ship sponsored shore excursions. Casablanca was nothing to write home about, but it was Sunday when Jade was there and almost everything was closed. We've been on enough cruises to know the tour guides will steer you to the souvenir shops, but that's no big deal as long as you take it for what it's worth. In Las Palmas, we grabbed the hop on,hop-off bus, made the circuit once, found out where we wanted to have lunch and enjoyed a nice view of the city while dining on tapas. Funchal, Madeira was magnificent and was the most spectacular tour of the cruise. A beautiful port, that we'll probably return to for a longer stay. Malaga pretty much highlighted the collapse of the Spanish real estate market as there are row after row in town after town of empty condominiums with multitudes of idle construction cranes. We did enjoy the trip to Rijas with the donkey taxis and multitude of restaurants and Spanish artifacts available for purchase. Our two cabin stewards were great and kept us entertained with the nightly creative towel animal. They always worked with our schedule and remained unobtrusive, but available when needed. The balcony cabin was functional with a good layout, although we did find the beds a bit uncomfortable as they're a bit on the short side. We found the emphasis on sanitation on Jade reassuring in the ship's attempt to prevent a reoccurence of the novovirus. We had no problem with being asked to sanitize our hands before entering a dining room and found the quantity of hand sanitizing stations quite handy. We were aware of the ship's previous life as an American flag carrier out of Hawaii and found the decor quite whimsical. We kind of liked that statue of Kamehameha in the dining room. Given the cost of refurbishment, we fully understand NCL's desire to maximize ROI. We found the ship clean in all of the areas in which passengers are allowed. It was remarkably free of rust and with 30 years in the U.S. Navy, I know rust when I see it. Since the ship is now permanently based in the Mediterranean, we were not surprised to find smoking areas including the casino and individual staterooms. There is no smoking in any of the bars or restaurants. However, if you're fervently anti-smoking, Jade will not be your cup of tea. But, it makes sense given the more relaxed attitude toward smokers found in Europe (Neither of us smoke). Debarkation in Barcelona was a breeze. We were off the ship & on the way to the airport via the NCL provided transportation in less than 15 minutes from our scheduled debark time. Luggage retrieval in the terminal was better than anything we've ever experienced elsewhere. That's no doubt due to the very modern cruise terminal in Barcelona. On balance, we enjoyed the cruise on Jade. We've put a deposit down for a future NCL cruise. But, we'd like a little less Freestyle from some of the passengers. Whenever the wait staff are more neatly attired than some of the passengers, you do take notice. You also get what you pay for. NCL has by most standards, pretty modest pricing on a basic cruise. So, if you just want a no frills cruise, NCL will provide. If you want more upscale dining, multiple bar choices, and other add-ons, it's not unreasonable to pay extra. Add on charges of $12 per person per day is about what we've paid in the past. However, applying those charges to anyone over the age of 3 in the party can make for a pricey cruise for a family. Since theoretically, cabins can sleep 4 (albeit I think that's two adults and two small children), that's a sizable chunk of change. A final comment on the onboard shopping; not much of a choice. Compared to our sailings with Princess, as well as RCL, the onboard shops are pretty abysmal. Other than the ubiquitous Colombian Emeralds, there's not much and even then, the selection is pretty limited. My wife found that to be disappointing. Ladies, be forewarned. Not a good ship (can't speak for the rest of NCL) for shopaholics.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin BD

Functional cabin, balcony adequate, bathroom good layout; beds a little short for a taller person.

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