NCL - 'No Chardonnay Left!We have just returned from a 7 day cruise with NCL on Norwegian Jade (Venice-Dubrovnik-Athens-Izmir-Split-Venice); our 6th cruise in all but our first with NCL.Our initial experience of NCL at Venice Airport was poor; very little evidence of organisation by their staff and a prolonged wait in hot sunshine in the middle of the car park before a coach finally arrived to take us to the ship - no apology and a distinct sense that the staff did not care. To be fair to NCL they did give us a complementary bottle of wine and fruit, but only after we had lodged a written complaint.We were pleased with our cabin - with a balcony on Deck 10. Plenty of space for clothes, good-sized bathroom and always hot water from the shower at any time of day. The cabin stewards were very efficient.The public areas of Norwegian Jade are very brightly coloured, apart from the two main dining rooms which are distinctly gloomy in comparison. We thought the food in these dining rooms was poor compared to other cruise lines we have been on before (Celebrity, P&O and Royal Caribbean). One night the waitress even offered us a second helping of the main course as it was so small. The menu also gave you the impression that you could only order 3 courses as the soups were in with the starters; we found out near the end of the cruise that you could order a starter and soup but this was not made clear.There are a lot of speciality restaurants on Jade; we only tried one, Paniolo's which styles itself as a Tapa's bar during the day and a Mexican in the evening. Good value at an extra $10 per head but we couldn't help thinking that NCL deliberately offer a poorer selection in the main dining rooms so that guests were encouraged to upgrade and spend more money.The most annoying and, in our opinion, damaging service failure from NCL was to run out of the house white wine, a very drinkable Californian chardonnay, on day 2 of the cruise! We heard differing reasons why this was the case - supplier had not delivered, it's the inefficiency of the Italians at Venice, and the best one; guests drink too much white wine. We have never experienced a cruise ship to run out of wine or anything else before without offering the guests an alternative at the same price as the 'out of stock'. NCL made no such offer as compensation for its failure to deliver but left their staff in every restaurant and bar to face annoyed customers. Yes, we do know that NCL do state on its wine list that they cannot guarantee the availability of any particular wine but on day 2 of a cruise?The house wine was not cheap at $25 a bottle once the obligatory 15% was added. The alternative white wines were more expensive but as the week went by and guests reluctantly upgraded to the more expensive options they also became unavailable to the point where we paid $39 for a bottle before we decided that we were not going to be ripped-off any longer - luckily the house red was available. However much we enjoyed the cruise we will always remember NCL for this poor and cynical treatment of both guests and staff. And it was not only wine that ran out; friends we met on the ship couldn't have the 'horseradish mashed potato' advertised on the menu as the ship had run out of horseradish!There was plenty of room on the ship for sunbathing and a lot of quiet areas away from the main pool. We found a spot on deck 14 (starboard side) which was almost deserted on most days. The sun beds were not very comfortable and NCL made it difficult to have additional towels; this seemed unnecessary as no one would want to steal them.We were a bit concerned about the concept of 'freestyle' dining but we actually quite liked it. Some guests did dress up and others dressed like tramps for dinner but it didn't really matter to us. Although NCL say that you can turn up for dinner at anytime we almost always had to take a pager and wait, but not for too long. The main buffet was excellent for breakfast and lunch; seating inside and on the open deck at the back of the ship; NCL appear very conscious of hygiene as there was always a member of staff at every dining room entrance with the hand gel.We only attended one show in the main theatre; the shows were aimed at an audience that liked illusionists, jugglers, dancers etc but that is not for us. The show we saw was OK and the cruise director 'Gary' (who looked a lot like Will Ferrell and seemed to be sending himself-up in Will Ferrell style) was the cheesiest we have experienced to date. We enjoyed James Capik a singer/guitarist who plays around the pool in the afternoon and in the main atrium at night. Some of the singers were also very good; we enjoyed a 'Broadway' show in the Spinnaker Lounge one evening.If you like 'Bingo' then NCL is for you; there was an unhealthy obsession with it and the number of announcements about the sessions and all the other entertainment were increasingly annoying, especially when you have to listen to them in 5 languages.We had booked this cruise because we wanted to see Venice for the first time and also visit Croatia; we were not disappointed - the views of Venice as you leave and then return are amazing. Dubrovnik and Split were both delightful places to visit; very friendly and inexpensive. The cable car in Dubrovnik is well-worth a visit. Although Croatia is not in the euro-zone almost every bar/shop will take euros but the cable car and the 'city wall' walk in Dubrovnik do not. We didn't go on any organised tours with NCL and did our own thing in every port. There is not much to do in Izmir apart from a walk along the sea front. Most guests seemed to take the Ephesus tour.Overall we had a great week but we were left with a poor impression of NCL, particularly over the 'white wine' problem. Will we cruse with NCL again? We might do but NCL is our 4th favourite cruise provider out of 4 so it's highly unlikely. This is a shame for all the staff who worked so hard for us over the week. We do hope that someone from NCL management might read this and take notice but somehow we don't think they will bother - who needs customers who only want to buy the house Chardonnay?