The Norwegian Jade, October 25, 2008 Piraeus to Istanbul, 12 nights

We were thrilled to have scored an aft cabin. I poured over previous cruisers' reviews of the spacious balcony, the enduring sunsets ... but they all forgot to mention the food dropping onto our heads from the 12th floor aft food area. We were on deck 10 and with a popular eating area just 2 floors above and our having the spacious deck that protruded below - caution became the rule. Our first night out of port, we sat enjoying the departure, leaning on the balcony rail when I felt something in my hair. It was a Splenda packet. A few minutes later my husband was brushing chocolate chip cookies off his shirt. I think the crowning blow was the next morning when we sat in our chairs and had goopy oatmeal (I think ... I hope ... eww!) plop onto our feet.

SERVICE: Slow. At the risk of sounding like a chronic complainer here's my shower tale. I wear glasses. Nearsighted is an understatement. Close to legally blind is more accurate. After checking into our room, I decided to shower. Nice shower, room enough ... I grabbed a towel from the rack, opened it and FREAKED! There was something black and about 2 inches across smack dab in the center of the towel. Thinking it was a cockroach, I calmly shrieked and grabbed my glasses. Turned out to be a giant hairball that had somehow been laundered into the fresh towels. Happens I guess. Calling room service didn't yield much results. Calling the reception desk did. And while we're on the subject - the fresh fruit card I filled out never got acknowledged until I mentioned it to our steward in the hallway in front of other people. Overall, it seemed that the staff throughout the ship in all areas was a bit new to the service industry, i.e. not too quick with helping and seemingly confused that they should be. DINING: The included restaurants (Magenta and the Grand Pacific especially) were quite good. The buffet started out great and slipped as time went on (mummy tummy I was told). It is almost always crowded and chaotic and it was frustrating to stand in a line (that seemed to shift with the attitudes of the patrons) and wait for a server to plop some food onto your plate. The pay restaurants were good and the portions were gigantic (Cagney's). I was surprised at how good the Italian restaurant was - we had been on the Gem previously and it was average (of course there was no fee on the Gem for it either). Read more