I am an experienced cruise customer with about a dozen cruises in the last 6 years. This trip was planned in the summer of 2008 many months before the trip. I had read some dismal reviews of this ship in particular and of NCL in general but went forward anyway to my regret. Boarding in Barcelona was quick and hassle free. We passed the gauntlet of photographers and walked up the ramps. A crewmember stood barring the with an industrial spray bottle to disinfect each passenger as he boarded. The powerful spray was directed at our hands but overspray filled the air and you couldn't help but breath in the noxious chemicals. I objected to this but was told that this was required in order to board the ship. I rewarded this lady with a appropriate hateful glare. This was to become a pattern of crew behavior on the Jade: twenty-something third-worlders order passengers about as if we were cattle. Boarding experience score: D.

The ship was very crowded with many large family groups. Spaniards comprised almost half of the passengers with many British and only about 10% Americans. The crew is mostly Filipino, with the rest comprised of Eastern Europeans, West Indies Islanders and Indians.

Norwegian's much touted Freestyle cruising is advertised as allowing passengers the freedom to choose when and where they will eat rather than being restricted to set seating times as is traditional. Freestyle in fact means that the crew is free to keep passengers waiting to be seated. The restaurants all had long lines at dinner-time. They hand out restaurant style vibrating pagers to call you to be seated. This leads to throngs of passengers congregating near the entrances to restaurants and in nearby bar waiting for the pager to vibrate. It was necessary to devise strategies for getting seated without waiting by coming very early (5:30 pm) for dinner or very late. Very often there were long wait times (over an hour) to be seated even at the restaurants posted closing time. Read more