Norwegian Jade Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,048 reviews

ports are great/ ship just ok

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Jade
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jku2
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: May 2009

The food is pretty bad. I am picky and do not like all the exotic food that is on most cruise ships but I had a hard time liking anything.  I, seriously, went to bed hungry on a few nights. I know I could have gone upstairs and gotten something but I didn't want to miss the shows.There are 2 "free" dining rooms. They both serve the same food but the one in the middle of the ship is very dark and dreary with a low ceiling.  All the servers we had were good.Most everyone we knew from CC went a few nights to different "extra cost" dining. All were disappointed. At cagney's the charge is $25 extra. Complaints I heard was that the extra cost did not cover all the menu and if you wanted some of the items they were still additional.Another strange problem with dining was that you always had to give your room number when being seated, so even though it was anytime dining the line backed way up as the number had to be put into the computer and checked. Unless you went to dinner by 6:20 you would have a 20 to 30 minute wait holding a beeper.One great room for eating is the Blue Lagoon on the eighth floor. It has about 25 tables and is open 24 hours. There are full length windows so there is lots of light and you get great views. We ate there just about every breakfast and a couple of lunch/dinners. For breakfast, there was the normal food but without the wait of the dining room or the hassle of upstairs. Other times there is American normal food. Baked potato skins, mozzarella sticks, chef salads, fish and chips, meatloaf, tuna melt, and the like. I had a hard time choosing between the cheesecake and the brownie sundaeRooms on the ship are very small. You cannot sit on the toilet in the correct position but must sit sideways since your knees hit the wall. Otherwise the room was very nice. Shower has sliding door, there are adequate closets.  One must now ask specificaly for ice or it will not be put in your room.  Our room was always nicely cleaned.All the public rooms were fine. There seems to be less bars than in many ships and they were pretty quiet. Games were often held in the disco.The casino is very small. It sounds strange but there is only one normal quarter machine (with the spinning reel) though there are other quarter machines and normal $1. and $5. Another weird thing about the ship was the lack of public restrooms and the ones had only one or two toilets. Our cruise director was very nice and ran many of the games and programs.  She did not go over the top with lame jokes as many CDs do.  We played almost all the trivia games and they were run fairly.  One "cheap" thing this line did was to sell raffle tickets (a guaranteed winner in each pack) before all the shows.  As the seats are theater style this was a problem if people wanted to buy tickets.All of the production number shows were terrific.  They are shown the first night at 9:30 and repeated at 7 the next.Other shows were hit and miss with the worse magician we have ever seen.  Ports were all terrific!!!  I want to go back to all of them.  One suggestion is to provide more information as to length from ship to town and where to get taxis, trains, etc.  Three of the ports provided transportation into the city.The strangest thing offered on the ship was a ship's tour with a excursion fee of $55!!!!!  It is free on all the other ships!

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