The Jade is a fairly new ship. Very accommodating. I did have some disappointments on the way NCL and possibly all cruises are operating now. Almost all the extras cruise lines used to do are a thing of the pass. They have scaled back on the restaurants. The restaurants that have speciality foods now cost to go to. The public restaurants that come with the price of the cruise are not that good. No more midnight buffet, what they have now is a hamburger,hotdog kind of restaurant that is open 24 hours a day. They are now including your gratutity (12.00 per day per person) in the final bill. I did read that if you want to not have this included in your final bill you can. The staff was very friendly and we didn't have any problems. With that being said the cruise was overall fine. We weren't on the ship that much, as this itinery was at ports everyday except one day at sea. This itinery is not a relaxing cruise, unless you choose to stay on the ship when at port. But we did get to see a lot of Europe. As we stopped in Monaco, Livorno, Rome, Naples and Palma and departed out of Barcelona and had an extra day in Barcelona.

The tours, I recommend not taking the ship's excursions. They are outrageously priced. Most of our excursions we did on our own or hired a private driver and did more than the ship's excursions for half the price and in some cases even less than half. You have to do homework and know exactly what you will be doing and map out the transportation. But with the internet its not that hard. On Cruise Critics I signed in on our ship and date and connected with several other couples and we did some of the excursions together. Public transportation in Europe is readily available. You will need to get a map of the locations of where the trains/buses stop which you can get on the internet. In Rome, you can buy a pass for 9 euros and it takes you into Rome and includes all transportation to go to all the major sites, including the colleseum, vatican. Same in Barcelona. In Monica, we took the bus 1 euro up to Eze, which I recommend. The views were beautiful and the shops of this small village were unique. Where the ship docks in Monaco, you can walk up to the old town and also see the Palace fee of 9 euros and the catheral is free. In Livorno I wanted to go to the 5 villages of Cinque Terre and couldn't find enough to do with a private driver. Its almost an hour drive into the villages, but the scenery is just beautiful and seeing the quaintness of the villages. We did the ship excursion of 139.00 ea. with a guide. If I could have gotten 6 to join I could have done for about 100.00. This was one of the ship's excursions which I felt was priced fair. In Naples we did a tour with a private driver and this was just beautiful. We went into Pompei, he arranged for a guide to explain what we were seeing. Then he drove us up to the Amalfi coastline. The views were something you see on a canvas. Then he took us to a family owned restaurant and had one of our best meals. Mama was a great cook and then we had time to shop in Sorrento and took the ferry back to the ship and enjoyed the views from the sea. In Palma we didn't do too much. Took the ship's shuttle (10.00) into the city and did do a lot of walking and shopping. This was our last stop and I think all the touring was wearing us down. Expect to do a lot of walking. But you see a lot of Europe. Don't have a lot of time in each port approximately 9 - 10 hours but you get a taste of each port.

Have fun on your cruise and I hope this helped. Be sure and do homework. If not, the trip won't go smooth. We had no problems, other than you have to really follow your map to get to the right trains/buses. But people will guide you if you get lost.