Took the cruise for the itinerary - 12 ports in 14 days. Glad we went; had a good time; would do again.   The saving point were the connections we made beforehand on Cruise Critic.  Best advice is to use Cruise Critic in advance and set up private tours rather than use ship tours.  Ship tours very expensive and just not fun to be stuck on a bus and to their timetable.  Private tours were fantastic, reliable, and went where a 50 pass bus could not go; really the way to go!  As for the Norwegian Jade - good ship:  clean, comfortable; average to fair food room stewart did good job; waiters worked hard; and "Hawaiian" theming was just off beat (wonder why they couldn't just make the switch to European continent/culture motifs) but not an enhancer or detractor when it came down to it.    Where the Jade missed was the entertainment on board, the "freestyling" concept; and personal service connections to include port information/maps/daily paper.  1. Entertainment - stage productions were best-very talented performers; the magician, puppet; and comedian lacked luster for sure.  2.  Freestyling - NCL wants to convince us that it is in our best interest that we are "free" to do whatever we want.  However, not having seating for dinner makes dinner a roulette wheel of when to go, where to go, and what service to expect.  If the main dining rooms were filled , we were issued a beeper (just like "Outback" or "Applebees") and then had to wait for it to go off.  Inside the dining rooms, waiters are hussling to keep up.  There was no personal contacts/conversations/follow-through. or continuity.  Food was average - could always find something on the menu.  NCL has traded the personal service and above average fair for the "specialty" restaurants that required a cover charge.  If you wanted that extra special feeling of dining, then you had to "pay" extra for the privelege.  Even on cruises that we had a set time, we were free to adjust table assignments and time of seating with the Maitre D' (now the Maitre D' is running back and forth talking on walkie talkies to manage the flow of the watiers and those assigning people to tables - a lot of hubba hubba going on - just not service).The main buffet was nicely set up but not relaxing as always need to "find" a place to sit and then schlepping food back and forth only to get cold in the schlep was not my idea of a nice dinner.  3.  Port information (or lack thereof) was somewhat disappointing.  We did our homework on where to go and what to do before we went on the ship but were going to rely on getting port information from the ship. Expected the NCL nightly paper would provide information on where the port was in relation to train station, taxis, walk to town. That information was not forthcoming.At one port talk, the Port Talk Lady gave out very poor information about Brugge.  She quoted a time frame that she was not certain of ... something about a flood in 1960 or 1970's...yadda yadda.  She did not have her facts about the point she thought she needed to make.  The port paper told about a relic and was totally incorrect, as well as they said the town had 4,000 people where it was a city of much more.   In not providing relative information about ports, taxis, buses and not providing any maps - I believe they were trying to get people to feel "lost" and therefore hoping they'd sign up for the NCL overpriced excursions.   At one port, we were off the ship at 8am and NCL arranged for shuttles to start at 9am.  What was that all about?  Not good service, indeed.One last tidbit to pass on:   Internet cafe on board is overpriced, poor connections; just a waste of time and money.  Recommend using an internet cafe at the ports - can get on line for 3Euro for 1 hr versus a very expensive plan on board the ship which takes no less than 20 mins to get connected and write a note or two home.

 Used some great tour companies for tours:Romeinlimo for Rome - absolutely the only way to go to see Rome in a day.  By 1230, we had been to the catacombs, coliseum, Circus Maximus; Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, and more.  Had a WONDERFUL lunch on the hillside next to the Vatican and then a private 2 1/2 hour tour of the Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Cathedral. WOW what a great day.  The van went places that no large bus could have gotten to and the tour guide knew the places for photos! Only way to do Rome.DriveAmalfi for Naples - Catherine did absolutely a great job of providing us a tour that was customized to our likes.  She filled us in on customs, courtesies, life in Italy, and just gave us wonderful information as well as knew her adopted country.Santiago de Compostella - we used Galacia Tours.  Good tour experience; very knowledgeable and provided excellent service.Cannes/Monaco - used Dream Tours  - Alain.  Great day.  Again, reliable, friendly, and knew where to go and how to get there.Lisbon - was there on a MOnday - all is closed.  Hired "toursforyou" for a private tour to Sintra and surrounding area.Absolutely wonderful day and saw so much to include palace and seaside.