This ship was Recommended by our sister in law who had previously sailed on the Spirit. We found the cruise to be extremely well organized from start to finish. We were kept very well informed of any and all changes that were made due to weather. Embarkation and disembarkation went extremely well. Couldn't ask for better. We found the staff to be extremely courteous, polite, friendly, and engaging. We did not eat at the buffet. However, we found all the restaurants and specialty restaurants to be very satisfying. Not out of this world, but very satisfying. All of the Tours were amazing, except for the Hop On / Hop Off Malta. There was very little information provided to us during this tour. Norwegian explained that it is not their tour and had no control over the content. If that's the case, we personally don't believe they should be offering to sell it if it's sub standard. It ruined our day in Malta. We had an amazing trip, which in our view was by and large due to the staff on board. They simply couldn't do enough for us. Our only complaint was the flights. Norwegian booked our flights as part of the package. Apparently our cruise booking was a promotion and as such we were not allowed to upgrade our seats on the Air Alitalia flight from JFK to Rome and back. This was NOT MADE CLEAR TO US WHEN BOOKING, otherwise we would have booked our own flights. This was a major aggravation and very disappointing. If his is the rule, this should be made very clear to customers when booking !! Read Less

Warning and apologies in advance for how ridiculously long this is going to be! Feel free to pass on by. :) My husband and I met our 23-year-old daughter in Venice (she lives in Germany) to embark on the NCL Star 7-day Greek Isles cruise August 18-25, 2019. Planned stops were Kotor (Montenegro), Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, and Argostoli (all Greece), and Dubrovnik (Croatia). At check-in we found that the Venice Portmaster had, for some reason, mandated that the ship leave about 4 hours later, which meant we wouldn’t be able to stop in Kotor the next day. It was disappointing, but since there was clearly nothing we could do about it we just decided to enjoy having a day at sea. CABIN: For our first time ever, we upgraded from our usual balcony to a suite. The Star doesn’t have a Haven, but has the “Family Suite” (plus other suites), which was awesome, and great value for the money! The bed was one of the most comfortable we’ve ever slept in. We were in 12026, which had plenty of space for the 3 of us. There’s no balcony, but (almost) floor to ceiling windows. Not gonna lie, I did miss having a balcony, but I would still book that type of suite again over a smaller balcony cabin. Plus, we were very close to the pool area so could easily go outside there. Our daughter had the choice of a murphy bed or a fold-out couch. She chose the murphy bed, and the steward got it out for her each evening and put it away each day. It had a curtain that went all the way around it for plenty of privacy, which was nice. The bathroom was amazing compared to regular balcony cabin bathrooms!! There was actually room to move, plus two sinks and a separate tub and shower. You have to go through the walk-in closet, which is a bit small, to get to the bathroom, but that wasn’t a big deal to us. NEED TO KNOW: This cabin had no USB ports near the bed, and only one European outlet on each side of bed, which had lamps plugged in. My husband had to unplug his lamp and use a converter to use his CPAP machine, and I had to plug my phone in across the room, which made it hard to hear my alarm. Also, there is no outlet in the bathroom except for shavers. However, there is a big mirror and counter space in the main room with plenty of outlets (U.S. and European), and there were 2 hair dryers in the room. TIPS: ~ If you’re going to book a Family Suite on the Star, try to book 12030, 12032, 12530, or 12532. They’re a bit bigger due to angling of the ship. ~ Definitely bring converters and power strips for more plug-in options, and if you’re bringing a curling iron, curling wand, or hair straightener make sure they’re dual-voltage so you’ll have a choice of either U.S. or European outlets. ~ Suites get snacks & treats delivered to the room each afternoon. If you want to keep something (like chocolate-covered strawberries), put it in your mini fridge, otherwise they’ll take it away later. GETTING TO CRUISE: We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Venice Mestre San Giulano the night before the cruise. In my research I had been under the impression that the farthest we could be driven was to the People Mover, so had planned to take that. However, our taxi driver was able (by showing our cruise documents) to take us all the way to the actual ship, which was awesome! I believe that taxi ride was around 35 euro. EMBARKATION: Since we were in a suite, we got priority boarding which was awesome! They had mailed us priority luggage tags ahead of time, and as soon as they saw our tags, they came to us, checked our bags, and escorted us to a priority area with light food & beverages. They brought our room key cards to us there. We were the first ones on the ship, and were led on and brought to Cagney's for lunch (suite guests have options of free breakfast and lunch in a couple of the specialty restaurants throughout the cruise). After lunch we went to the pool bar and hung out there all afternoon. Our suite was open by about 1:45 p.m., but our luggage didn't come until around 4:00 (we expected that so we weren’t upset). Muster was at 5:00 p.m., and went very quickly and smoothly. We had a couple of issues trying to set up the social media internet package and were finally told to go to the "Internet Manager" on Deck 9 who fixed our issue within 2 minutes. PHONE/INTERNET: Make sure you go into airplane mode when you’re leaving each port, or you could get big phone charges! You can still get onto the ship’s app for free while you’re in airplane mode, and the ship’s internet if you pay for it. One of our Free-at-Sea offers was 250 internet minutes, which my husband planned to use. However, he forgot to turn it off the first night, and wasted it. I told him to go talk to guest services and they might give him some time back, but he didn’t care enough to do that. My daughter and I both bought the social media package. We were going to share one (by taking turns), but then she wanted her own, so we were each able to have it on at all times on the ship, which was really nice. It worked great for Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat. Not sure about Twitter; I didn’t try it. We could upload and send pics without a problem; it was just a little slow at times. When we got into each port, we went out of airplane mode and used Verizon data for $10/day. You can also pay around $10 per person for the entire cruise to communicate with each other through the ship’s app while on board. SHIP ENTERTAINMENT: I had seen several reviews in which people said they were disappointed with the entertainment on this cruise. Maybe our standards are lower but we seriously enjoyed almost everything we watched! We saw Band on the Run, the Vegas Show, Paradis, Craig Halliday (violinist), a magician/contortionist show, and an aerobatic show by a married couple. Band on the Run was the first night, and when it started I thought it was going to just be so-so quality, but it ended up being very good! Vegas and Paradis were fantastic, as was Craig Halliday and the aerobatic show. The only show we weren’t super enthusiastic about was the magician. He was decent, but lots of his tricks were repetitive (just different boxes to appear and disappear in), and it was easy to figure most of them out. We also went to the Atrium lounge for Neil Diamond music by the “Melodic Trio,” which was really nice. TIP: The BALCONY SIDE SEATS are excellent if you can get a front row in them! We were quite close to the stage (looking down on it) and could see great, plus had extra leg room and a ledge on which to put our drinks, which the regular seats didn’t have. OTHER SHIP FUN: We went to Bliss Lounge for a “Finish That Song” game show, which was lots of fun but they clearly wanted the game to end in a tie (not a big deal, but what’s the point?). We went to World Landmark Trivia and were disappointed when it ended up being World Flag Trivia, but we played anyway and managed to guess a few correctly. We went to the “Not So Newlywed” game in Bliss, which was hilarious (as expected). It is definitely not kid-friendly, but the staff in charge kept warning people of that, so nobody can say they didn’t know ahead of time. We went to Bingo once, but they didn’t have enough players so they gave us our money back and let us play for free. We went to the Perfect Couple game, which was fun and funny, but also not for all audiences. Overall had a good time doing those things. We aren’t super late-night people, so didn’t go to any of the late parties and other events. SHIP SPECIAL SERVICES: My daughter and I got “Fire & Ice” pedicures (involves hot rocks) in the spa, and they were awesome! They cost $75 each, plus gratuity, so came out to $88 each. There was another option that was only $6 less but it didn’t include as much leg and foot pampering, so we were glad we’d splurged the little bit of extra. We also attended one of the “Canvas By U” sessions (painting by instructions) for $35 and had lots of fun, plus have our paintings as souvenirs. NOT-SO-GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE: I had read a lot of other reviews about this cruise and ship, and noticed quite a bit of negativity about customer service. Honestly, I thought people were just being a bit whiny, but now I have to agree, because this cruise had the poorest customer service we’ve ever experienced on an NCL cruise. It wasn’t bad enough to ruin our trip, and since we’ve had other good NCL experiences we know this wasn’t representative of all NCL cruises, but it was still surprising and disappointing. Examples: ~ We had heard/read that with a suite we would get a butler. We had a letter in our room from ours telling us to call anytime, but we literally never saw him until Thursday morning (on a Sunday-Sunday cruise), and then we just happened to notice his name tag when he was helping in the priority disembarkation area for Mykonos. We saw him a few times in our room after that, but he was always in a big rush. We didn’t have any particular needs that weren’t being met, but we also didn’t experience anything special from him. I don’t know if this was because NCL had him spread too thin doing other things, or if it was just his work habit, but we talked to other people in a suite and they said their butler was awesome. ~ In a suite you get free room service, but when we tried to call for breakfast one morning, nobody answered. The menu had said we could leave a door hanger menu out at night to order for the next day, but we didn’t have any of those in our room. I called the concierge later and told her that, so we got some after that and when we did get room service it was reasonably decent. ~ The morning that we couldn’t get room service for breakfast I went to the cereal and yogurt bar out by the pool, and they had no spoons out. It wasn’t that they’d run out, they literally didn’t put them out. I’m fine with mistakes happening, and I didn’t throw any kind of fit over it (just asked for a spoon), but I thought it was kind of ridiculous to forget when the food items there could pretty much only be eaten with a spoon. ~ We went to O'Sheehans at 11:30 for lunch one day before docking. We were told lunch didn’t start until 11:45, so we asked if we could just sit at a table and wait until 11:45. They said yes, and seated us with menus. That was the last time they came to our table for over 30 minutes. I finally had to flag down a server to take our order. ~ They have a midweek laundry special, which is one bag for $20 (I recommend doing this!). We had it ready and was told we’d have everything back by noon the next day. Noon came and went, and we heard nothing. We finally called around 5:00 p.m. and somebody brought it to us. GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE: In spite of that list above, we also experienced some excellent service! Our steward, Richard, was fantastic all week; he was cheerful and pleasant, and was present whenever needed. ALL of our bartenders went above and beyond to exhibit great service, which was probably enhanced by the pile of $1 bills my husband had brought and was tipping with for each drink (yes, he had already prepaid required gratuities, but he knows how far a few bucks of appreciation can go and has no problem doing that). They were calling us by name starting on the first day and remembered us every time we saw them throughout the ship. One night in Versailles the server asked if we were planning to attend the 7:30 show and we said yes, so she said she would take special care to make sure we had everything in plenty of time, and she did. Also, our daughter’s birthday was the last day of the cruise. There was a birthday card waiting in the room when we started that she could use in any restaurant to celebrate her birthday, which we used in La Cucina and she got a free mini cake. I decorated a corner of our suite for her birthday and apparently our steward saw that, so he left us another mini cake. And the last night when we were eating at Cagney’s, they heard us mention her birthday so they brought out ANOTHER mini cake and sang to her! FOOD: ~ Ginza – Ate dinner there twice. Excellent food; slightly slow service but very friendly. Small portions, which worked for me because I ordered a few different courses, but hearty eaters might want to get 2 entrees (my husband did). ~ O’Sheehan’s – Went for late night snack, and remembered nachos not being great from our last NCL cruise, but decided to give them another try. I still like them more loaded but they worked. Somebody nearby got wings that looked and smelled delicious. Also went there for breakfast one morning and it was excellent. ~ Moderno – Suite guests can eat breakfast there for free, so we did twice, and it was very good (same menu both times). Also had one of our specialty dinners there. If you’ve ever eaten at Fogo de Chao (a land-based Brazilian steakhouse chain), this doesn’t match up, but if you haven’t then it’s fine. ~ Versailles (main dining room) – Had a lunch and a dinner there, and it was good both times. ~ Cagney's – Ate lunch there twice (free due to suite), and had our last night’s specialty dinner there. Very good food and service, but if you’re not a steak eater I recommend checking the menus ahead of time (I’m not but my husband really is, which is why we went). I had seen it earlier in the week and there was at least one chicken option, but the night we went there wasn’t. Also, the appetizer options were only three seafood choices and one “thick bacon.” That’s not a complaint; just good to know, especially if somebody doesn’t care for seafood. ~ La Cucina – Another specialty dining choice. Good food and service, but nothing super memorable. ~ Aqua (another main dining room) – Ate there twice, good food and service. ~ Garden Café (buffet) – Meh. Not terrible, not great. Super crowded during expected busy times, but not bad at other times. ~ Room service – I already discussed that earlier, but something to note is that even though my husband and daughter could order free soft drinks in restaurants with their Unlimited Beverage Package, that wasn’t the case with room service. We got charged $3.50 for each Pepsi Max, because apparently with room service cans are the only option and those aren’t free (except in the casino for certain player levels). If they had told us that when we ordered, we would have declined and gotten our caffeine elsewhere. (BTW, the suites come with a coffee maker, similar in operation to Keurig.) DISEMBARKATION/LEAVING CRUISE: We chose to carry our own luggage off because for us it was more of a hassle to have it ready by midnight the night before. Being in a suite, we got priority disembarkation, which meant we could go to the Ginza restaurant between 7:45 and 9:30 a.m. and get escorted off the ship ahead of others. It was fairly seamless. We were planning to take a taxi to our hotel (staying one more night in Venice), and we saw a taxi line right when we got off the ship. However, there were no taxis there and upon further investigation we discovered that those would have only taken us to the outside of the cruise port. So, we just walked out (took maybe 10 minutes) and caught a taxi there. We were staying at the Doubletree Venice North, which was quite a ways away (closer to the airport), and it cost 75 euro. Taxi driver only wanted cash, so I had to run over to an ATM (it was right there) to get that. After arriving at the Doubletree, I saw that they had a shuttle to & from the cruise port that would have been 12.50 euro per person, so of course wish I would have checked that ahead of time. EXCURSIONS: ~ Venice – We arrived in Venice the day before the cruise around 9:00 a.m. After taking our luggage to our hotel, we purchased a 24-hour ACTV (public transportation) pass for 20 euro. This was good for all buses, local trains, and vaporettos (public water taxis), and was really easy to use. I recommend downloading the MyPass Venezia app before you go, and then just purchasing from there. (You can also purchase the cruise port People Mover ticket from there for 1.50 euro.) We just showed it to the driver on the bus, and then when we got to the water taxi stop, we had to go to the machine, hold it up to a scanner, and have it print us a paper ticket to use for the rest of the day. We didn’t spend time on actual Venice that day; we used the pass to boat-hop to Murano (famous for glass-blowing), Burano (famous for lace-making), and Torcello (first place Venetians settled in the 5th century, and has a church dating back to the 600’s, plus a 12th-century bell tower that you can climb for 5 euro). We loved all of them, but especially Burano and Torcello, because they weren’t very crowded. Highly recommend visiting these places if you have time, and it was a good way to stay awake after traveling all night. You can also take a more formal tour to all 3 islands for around 20 euro, but you’ll have to pay to get to wherever that leaves from, and our passes included that transportation, plus gave us more flexibility on time. We used Google Maps to figure out where to go, and it told us exactly which boats and buses to take. ~ Corfu – We booked NCL’s “4x4 Adventure” and LOVED IT!!!!! Seriously, it was our favorite excursion the entire week. You have to be able to drive a manual-transmission jeep and be comfortable starting from hills. Everybody gets a small jeep and drives in a caravan all over the island. We were able to go many places that the buses couldn’t, due to size. We went up the side of a mountain that had 27 zigzag turns to the village of Sokraki, which was small, peaceful, and beautiful. We also went to Bella Vista (“beautiful view”) and it was amazing! They served us ouzo or wine there, plus a few snacks, while we overlooked the amazing blue water. Then we drove to the Koum Quat distillery where we learned a bit about them, saw what they made, and sampled the liqueur and candy. It was fun, beautiful, relaxing, and we felt like we got more of the island flavor by visiting the less populated areas. I HIGHLY recommend this! NOTE: They had us fill out a scary-sounding waiver on the ship before we left and told us to give it to the guide, but when I tried to give it to him he laughed and said we wouldn’t need it! TIP: If you have a backseat passenger, bring a towel or something to put on the seat. Our daughter wore shorts, and the back seat got REALLY hot whenever we parked. ~ Santorini – We booked NCL’s “Charming Oia & Winery” excursion, which we enjoyed very much. I wanted to see the island, but my daughter wanted to see a winery, and this was a nice happy medium. We didn’t spend too much time at the winery, and the views from there were incredible. After that our bus took us to Oia, which has the amazing blue & white buildings you see in so many Greece pictures, and after some time there took us to Fira, where we had the option of taking the cable car down to the ship tender (2-hour wait), riding donkeys (DON’T—it’s cruel!), or walking (we did that). I had read that Santorini is ridiculously crowded, and that was true. Even though this was the location I had most been looking forward to on the cruise, once was definitely enough because I don’t have the patience for that many people. However, I’m glad I went, and the tour we chose was a good fit for us. Our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about the history and customs on Santorini, and I was never bored during the ride. I was surprised how “not green” the island looked; I didn’t realize rain is such a rare occurrence there. After we got to Fira my husband and daughter were ready to go back to the ship, but I wanted to stay in Fira for a little shopping, plus watch the sunset from there. I watched part of the sunset, but then decided I also wanted a bit of light while walking down, and it was beautiful watching the sun set the rest of the way on my journey down the hill. As far as the steps go, even though our tour guide had advised against walking, it really wasn’t bad and we were all glad we’d gone that way. You have to dodge a few donkeys and a bit of donkey dung, but there’s plenty of room. Each step is around 4 feet deep and at least 5 feet wide. They do all slant a teeny bit downhill, so I recommend some type of closed-toed shoes. I was wearing Croc flip flops, which are usually my most comfortable walking shoes, but my feet kept sliding down into them since the steps slanted down. TIP: Make sure you have euro coins for restrooms! (Actually, this applies everywhere we went.) And keep in mind that some of the restrooms are just holes in the ground. I paid 0.50 euro for that privilege. ~ Mykonos – We didn’t book anything ahead, because everything I’d read made it sound like we could just wing it. My husband stayed on the ship so it was just my daughter and me. I had read about “Mykonos Farmers,” a local creamery that supposedly made fantastic cheese and Greek yogurt, so we looked on a map and found it. We were going to get a taxi or bus, but decided to walk to Starbucks first (my daughter’s town in Germany doesn’t have one so she was quite excited). It was about a 20-minute walk through some really cute areas, but also included SUPER long and high hills, and (worse than that), walking on a very busy road with no sidewalks or shoulders. But we made it without a problem. By then we were only a 30-minute walk from Mykonos Farmers, so we set off to do that, with similar hills and unsafe roads, so when we saw a car rental place we decided to give that a try. The first one quoted 80 euro, so I said no (we only needed it for about 4 hours). The second one quoted 60 euro, plus said we could return it at the port (which we were somewhat far from by then), so we went for that. I didn’t need an international driver’s license; she just took down info from my license and CC number. She said she only needed the CC number “just in case,” but actually wanted us to pay in cash. I told her I needed to go to an ATM, and she said I could do that while we had the car and just bring her the money when we return it, which was really nice. So we took the car (a 2-seater SmartCar) and were thrilled that we had done that! I’d read horror stories about driving in Mykonos, but it wasn’t bad at all, especially in such a small car, and we were able to accomplish so much more than we would have. We drove to Mykonos Farmers and LOVED IT!! The owner, Yiorgos Syrianos, was gracious enough to give us a spontaneous tour (12 euro each) and was extremely proud when telling us about the generations-old techniques they use, with very little modern technology, to create their very creamy yogurt and flavorful cheese (both of which we got to sample!). He learned everything from his grandmother, and has passed it down to his son. We got to sample quite a bit of the amazing yogurt, plus 3 different cheeses, and little toast things with cheese spread, all included in the price of the tour. We purchased cheese, because he said certain types could stay unrefrigerated for up to a week. It was seriously fantastic, and we were the only guests there so it felt very personal and local. Apparently you can also book cooking classes there. After that we drove to a beach to take some photos, and then went to the Little Venice area, which is by the windmills. We had to pay 12 euro to park there (not a big deal, but good to know). Little Venice had the typical Greek tourist shopping we’d come to expect, but it was still fun to walk around. When we were ready, we called the car rental lady and told her we were heading to the port, where she met us and we paid her cash. Getting a car there made a huge difference in what we were able to see and do in a short time. ~ Argostoli, Kefalonia – We booked NCL’s “Melissani, Meze & Ouzo” tour. It was okay, but not what I expected (which was my own fault after reading the description again), and now that I’ve been there I would rather rent a car and just do things on our own. For some reason I thought this tour involved a lot more time on a boat (again, I see now that the description never says that). It consisted of a 45-minute bus ride across the island (with an outstanding guide!), then a 30-45 minute wait in line, then a 15-minute ride in a small boat around the underground lake, then a short ride to the village of Sami where we enjoyed ouzo, wine, and meze (small Greek dishes) in a really pretty setting by the water, and then a 45-minute ride back to the port. The underground lake is beautiful, but I’m not sure it’s worth the hassle and wait. Like I said, our line was 30-45 minutes, and when we got out it looked twice as long. If you’re set on going to this lake, you could rent a car and try to go as early as possible to beat the crowds. We loved the village of Sami, and enjoyed about an hour of walking around there after our meze. It was touristy, but not too crowded and very cute, with friendly people. But again, we could get there on our own in a car, and some other sort of boat tour would have been fun. We did enjoy the island overall though, and wouldn’t mind going back. It was interesting to see such different topography and architecture from the other Greek islands we’d just visited. ~ Dubrovnik – We booked NCL’s “Game of Thrones” tour and really enjoyed it! Old Town, Dubrovnik, is another insanely crowded place, but we’re big GoT fans so just dealt with it. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable, and gave us little radio things to hang from our necks with earbuds so we could hear everything he was saying. He had photos of GoT scenes, which he showed us from those spots, and talked about other GoT scenes that had occurred around Dubrovnik that we weren’t going to. It was really interesting to see how many changes the show made to the scenery (I think mainly digitally). Our guide also talked extensively about the history of Dubrovnik, and mentioned memories he had of when it was part of Yugoslavia, and from the 1990-1992 war after which Croatia became independent. It was a bit of a rushed tour with tons of information, but our stop wasn’t very long and I think this was probably as efficient as we could have been. Our daughter isn’t a GoT fan, so she just paid 30 euro to see the fortress and Old Town herself, with no tour, and enjoyed that also. When we were released for free time and told to meet back at the bus about an hour later, we were kind of over the crowds, climbing, and heat, and decided to take an NCL shuttle back early (our guide had said we could). It was nice getting back on the ship without the crowds! ~ Venice (again) – We had saved St. Mark’s Square and the Grand Canal for the end of the trip, so after we left our luggage at our hotel, we took the hotel transportation back into Venice and bought vaporetto tickets (7.5 euro each way) for the Grand Canal. Those are crowded (as is the whole St. Mark’s area), but a nice inexpensive way to see a lot in a short time. At St. Mark’s Square we first went to Hard Rock Café for lunch, and then went to St. Mark’s Basilica, which is free if you don’t mind standing in line (it looked long but moved quickly so we only waited about 20 minutes), and then the campanile (bell tower), which has an elevator and cost 8 euro to go up. It was well worth that for the amazing views, and there was no line when we were there. After that we went to the Rialto Bridge, and on the other side was more tourist shopping. Then the others wanted to sit and have a beer, so I walked on my own to the Jewish Ghetto, which I’d been wanting to see. This was the area of Venice in which Jewish people were forced to live by the government of the Venetian Republic starting in 1516. (The English word ghetto is derived from the Jewish ghetto in Venice.) It starts at the Ponte delle Guglie (bridge), and actually had locked gates back then. In 1797 the Venetian Republic was dissolved by the French army of Italy, ending the ghetto's separation from the city. Today, the ghetto is still a culturally active center of Jewish life in Venice, although only a few members live in the ghetto. It was really interesting to see, and nice to get away from the crowded tourist areas, but sad to think about the history. If I’d had time, a tour would have been helpful to get even more out of it, but it was still interesting to see the buildings, people, and stores with Menorahs and related artwork. It should have been about a 20-minute walk, but I stopped to take quite a few photos, so it was longer, but I enjoyed getting out of the crowds and seeing a different area of Venice. On my way to the Ghetto, I’d seen a really cute restaurant with red checkered tablecloths both inside and out called “Al56zerootto,” so we all decided to eat dinner there. It was very good, with lots of culinary options and great service, and seemed “authentic.” The address is 30131 Venezia – Cannaregio 5608 Campiello Riccardo Selvatico, in case anybody is interested in trying it. If you’ve actually read all of this, thanks for following along, and let me know if you have any questions! Read Less

My daughter and son in law booked this cruise for me I travelled with them but in my own cabin. It was a way I could experience cruising as a solo traveller but with them to fall back on after losing my husband and lifelong partner of 47 years. The ship was really good it did not have single cabin lounge but they did have a group that met for a drink and I even went for a meal with them one night. I met lots of lovely people and it has given me the confidence to maybe look at booking a cruise with one of the larger NCL ships with the special single studios next year. I cruised quite a bit with my husband but I have never cruised on the NCL line and was really impressed with the friendliness of all on board and the quality of the food. Read Less

Sailed with NCL a couple of times before - once to Alaska (Norwegian Sun) & the same cruise to Greek Islands 4 years ago. The Jade is starting to look a wee bit tired and probably in need of a refurb - but overall a very enjoyable trip. Balcony cabin on deck 9 was very comfortable with an extra large bed, the balcony a decent size (although not as clean as it should have been!). Food on the Jade was excellent - plenty of variety and choice in the Garden Cafe (buffet style) - if you couldn't find something to eat here you must have a problem !! Also, the Italian restaurant was excellent. The entertainment in the Stardust Theatre was always to a high standard and very professional. The majority of the crew were very friendly and helpful. Wouldn't hesitate to use NCL again but next time, to a different destination. Read Less

I titled this review “Returning to the Jade village” as it is like coming home as you get out of the van on the arrival at the port and you start to meet the old friends you made on previous cruises. A lot of interesting changes here since the last time we cruised on the Jade last October and nearly all for the better. The first improvement was that if you turn left on entering the check-in and are travelling in the Haven, check in is in the Concierges lounge and we were met at the door by Omar O’Bresso who we last met on the Norwegian Star, a quick check-in and we were en route to the ship and lunch in Cagney’s. Everywhere we went we met old friends, and once we settled down for lunch, the food seemed to have improved somewhat. We were a party of five, three first time cruisers and my DW and I. Our youngest member was our three year old DGS and he soon made many friends around the ship. There have been some positive changes on the Jade ahead of her refit and it was good to see that i-concierge was available and the wifi had been given an overhaul, making it easier to log in and out and it was said to be four times faster. The only negative thing I can comment on is that most of the seats and tables including the bar stools have been removed from the Star Bar and it is now a dark soulless place with me often the only one in there. I know this will become Moderno after the refit, but it is dead now despite the very best efforts of the bartender. I chose not to get off the ship this time although the rest of the party did and had a great time. I had a great time too, meeting old friends and making new among the crew. The Haven staff were excellent, with Benjamin our Room Steward, Roberto the Courtyard Butler and Naveem our Butler looking after us very well indeed and all the staff at the restaurants we ate at, mainly Cagney’s, Le Bistro and La Cuccina were great, always fussing young Jack and making sure all went well. The food seems to have improved a lot, difficult to pin point but the steaks were excellent and the sea bass and salmon nearly perfect. Good quality food cooked to perfection. It will be very interesting to cruise on the Jade next September post refit and see how the changes work. All in all a great cruise, lovely people, excellent food and a nice way to spend a week in my “other” village. Read Less

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We chose this cruise because we have never been on an NCL cruise before and we also have not been to Greece and Venice before. This was our fifth cruise and we will definitely be sailing with NCL again! Embarkation: Embarkation in Venice was ok- not the best we have experienced as it was a long wait to board the ship. Ship: The ship has lots of Hawaiian decor from it's previous life as the pride of Hawaii, but it did not change our holiday in a any way shape or form. The Jade was always spotless and there were always workers cleaning away at the ship. Dining: The food on board was excellent. Lots of choice, our favourites being the Jasmine Garden asian restaurant, and the Blue Lagoon 24 hour eatery. Cabin: Our cabin was tiny, but it was manageable. Our room steward was excellent. Entertainment: The entertainment was excellent. We did not attend all shows, but the ones we attended were excellent. Special mention to the 4ever and the Elements show! We also really enjoyed the music on the ship, especially the showtime band. The cruise directors were phenomenal and made our holiday so much fun. There was something onboard for everyone, be it football tournaments or arts and crafts. Service: The service on board was second to none. Everyone was so smiley and helpful. Ports: Corfu: Did Corfu by ourselves. The old fortress is very nice with great views. Santorini: Did the 'Charming Oia Village' excursion. It was very nice to be able to not worry about tender tickets and cable car queues. Oia village is a must see. Mykonos: Did Mykonos by ourselves. There is a free shuttle to take you right into Mykonos town. Olympia: Booked a private excursion with Mr Theodoros Mamousis of 'Katakolon Taxi Tours to Olympia by Mamousis'. We found him on tripadvisor and he was amazing. He was the highlight of our trip and we highly recommend him! Venice: Visited Venice on our disembarkation day. We used the people mover to get into Venice. It was very good. For a more detailed review, check out my review on the cruise critic community forum! Read Less

First time cruise for our family and we loved every minute. We chose this cruise as we loved the itinerary, timing and price combination. We booked four speciality dining packages however the Ultimate Drinks Package was a free promotion when we booked. The cabin (with balcony) was perfect for 2 adults and 2 children, certainly plenty of room. we decided to book a balcony so we could spend time chilling out in the evening if the children were tired - this worked really well and we were pleased with our decision. Housekeeping was lovely and friendly and did a great job! The specialty restaurants were excellent however we probably would have been better to book 2 or 3 nights as we didn't get the chance to try some of the complimentary restaurants. Grand Pacific (complimentary) was excellent and much higher standard than expected. Cagney's, Le Bistro and The Teppanyaki were all excellent (the Teppanyaki was really good fun, the chef was very entertaining and the food was fantastic) . The Brazilian was good but nothing outstanding and we wouldn't book again. The main deck around the pools could get very busy/crowded at times and it was often difficult to find a sun lounger, the staff would remove towels that had been left unattended for more than 30 minutes but on a couple of occasions this caused a few problems when the owners retuned to find someone else on their sun bed. (not aggressive but a bit uncomfortable) The music on the main deck around the pools was good fun and the atmosphere was great on the whole but sometimes just felt too busy again was great to get away to the peace of our balcony. I feel the swimming pools are on the small side for so many people however the children adored the water slide. I have seen comments from others saying the drinks service was slow so I was expecting to wait quite some time for drinks but we didn't find this at all and were very happy .. TIP - the Pina Colada, its fab. Only attended the elements entertainment show which was pretty good but its not really our thing so didn't attend any others. All the ports were lovely - we did the Greek Opa Celebration shore excursion in Santorini, it was expensive but we decided to treat ourselves as it sounded original and good fun. It didn't disappoint! We laughed all evening , thoroughly enjoyed the dancing and breaking plates (my favourite part). My only complaint with this excursion was the limited time we spent in Oia, we were only given 1 hour which was far too short to wander around this beautiful cliffside town. Corfu, Mykonos and Katakolon were all beautiful to visit. Read Less

Cruise left Venice on Aug 6 for 7 nights visiting Cofu, Mykonos, Santorini and Katakalon...Overall, good cruise--ship had 2900 passengers. Only problem was in Santorini, there were 4 ships tendered and it took too much time to get anywhere---long lines for the cable car, which was the only way to get back to the ship.---waited in line for 2 hrs.....Had inside cabin #8053 which was adequate--Platinum member status...NCL does nickel and dime the passengers.....room service after 10am is a $7. charge. room service for a continental breakfast required a tip.... A la carte menus now for the specialty dining which could run up to $75. for 2. Buffet was always jam-packed and hard to find a table and when we did the food was cold. No free Cpts Dinner(Farewell Dinner) like before...no comedy shows, just acrobatics and magic, and dancing troupes----was disappointed that the repeat guest party for Gold and Platinum was not more elegant....no afternoon tea which would have been nice for the European passengers. Chose this cruise for the ports and schedule, would have preferred Princess or Holland America---night vs day for sure!!!!!!! Read Less

We had an oceanview balcony cabin which was good for 2 adults plus a teenager. very impressed with the amount of room although we found storage to be slightly an issue which we had to overcome. but very very clean and didnt have a problem at all. embarkation was good but really busy. we had to wait around 45 minutes to get on the vessel and there wasnt much to do other than sit in chairs and stare into space. the ship is older with only 2 pools. it has wear and tear that is visible but not really an issue at all. we found the crew to be very friendly and helpful and always willing to chat. the pools are one for adults and one for children, which was a problem when on the last day at sea one of the children christened the kiddy pool meaning that the adults only pool was abandoned for the entire day and given over to children. this was a real shame as it gave adults nowhere to escape kids. other days though when both pools were open they were really good in telling the kids not to go anywhere near the adult pool. also there is no drinking allowed anywhere around the pool. have to say though the pool had a lot of nastiness floating in it, including one day 2 hardboiled eggs. we were traveling with an 18 year old boy and it was a real shame there was hardly anything for older teens to do. yes he could go in he adult pool, but he was told he couldnt drink any alcohol, and there were no 18 and over acts which we were hoping for like comedians. this meant that the highlight of his day if we were on the ship was a meal. the shows were very very similar other than a really great singing group from britains got talent. men who sang opera. but to be honest if i never see anoher old sweaty russian acrobat in a dodgy lycra jumpsuit i wouldnt be too bothered. 2 nights was an old russian man who juggled and droppe balls. one night was another circuis act with a lady that wrapped herself in curtains, and 2 nights was a magician who was ok in a cheezy way. would have loved more musical shows or the holy grail of a comedian. old circuiss acts are lazy bookings. adults around me felt the same that you shouldnt just cater for children. also in the late shows at 9.45 there were a lot of unaccompanied children being a nuisance. one night the man next to me was checking his facebook with his phone light shining into my eyes. the food was really really good. we loved the free food far more than the dining plan meals. la cuchina italian was very average and i found the pasta dry. the brazilian barbecue the meat was all medium rare and the plate was dripping blood, cagneys steakhouse was ok but nothing woop de dooh. i would recommend this cruise for older people and for couples and for families with young children, but my 18 year old was pretty badly catered for. all trips were half day and we ended up going for food as something to do rather than the fact we were hungry. if i were to choose another cruise it wouldnt be norwegian unless we were going as a couple. even the disney cruiseline catered for adults only. Read Less

Went on a Greek island cruise on the 4 th of June for 7 nights on the Norwegian jade. Couldn't of asked for a better time, the cabins and the ship were very clean the staff were very attentive to your needs nothing was too much. Cabin was very clean and tieded twice a day by our steward Kurt who was excellent . We had an inside cabin which was lovely but no window would prefer a bit of light in the room maybe something for our next cruise, saying that though we only slept in it !! Too much going on on the ship Main bar by reception very good Medusa bar very Good fire and ice were brilliant plus the karaoke was good fun too Spinnakers bar was good Tina turner Whitney Huston The theatre was good but we did only go once and the Beatles invasion were excellent Martini bar excellent plus the piano player The food was excellent preferred the restaurants rather than the main self serve it was like a free for all was manic at times only used it once but food still of high standard but just reminded me of a very buzy cafe, were the restaurants were mores relaxed and you got waited on rather than self serve. We made a mistake of only taking euros so if you like the casino they only play in dollars and the exchange rate was really bad ! We had the drinks package which was worth every penny all spirits and bottles were well known names none of these these cheap ones. Cocktails were very high standard. Didn't do any of the speciality resturants as in some of the others you could pay a small fee for example a ribeye steak or a sea bream delicious . They only thing which was a downside for me was because it was free style and you didn't have to wear the ball gown and tuxedo which I didn't want. I still like to dress smartly in the evening, but a lot of the guest just looked like they had come in off the beach (shorts t,shirt flip flops caps ) or the gym which I didn't think was appropriate in the restaurants maybe ok for the free for all on the top deck. We didn't do the ship tours we did our own, which were a lot cheaper and the Greek islands didn't let us down they were beautiful.you can get a bus ,taxi not far from the port which were very reasonable, Corfu town was beautiful Santorini we got a boat round the island and then a bus to the village it was so picturesque then we got the bus to feria about 20 mins away and the cable car back down all for 20e. If you like the pool unless you are up early maybe 6 to put your towels out then you have no chance we didn't get on the pool deck for the whole week. To be honest it wasn't a problem, but the towels on empty beds we're.the decks above were very nice and ther a loads of sun beds for every one if you get the weather !! . The only annoying thing for me was I had to pay for bottle water 6.50 dollars a bottle so make sure you fill your cups up in the day and put it in your fridge if you like water at night as mini bar is NOT FREE it is free on the boat by the pool and in the top main resturant but it's not bottled. I would highly recommend NCL they were so organised to getting on the boat, getting off at different ports sometimes by boat as the ship could not dock, and also getting off at departure so thank you and look forward to booking a Caribbean cruise in the near future. Read Less

This was our first trip to Europe and my second time on a Norwegian Cruise. It was an incredible experience on both counts. The itinerary (Venice, Santorini, Mykynos, Olympia and Corfu) was the main reason we chose this cruise, as was the exceptional price. Embarkation was about average and slightly confusing, but just about everything was stellar after that. The room was ready upon our arrival and the service throughout the cruise was top notch. The passengers were a mix of people from all over. I would say that there were probably about 50% Americans, lots of Brits, several people from other European countries and small groups of people from just about everywhere else. The announcements were done in four different languages to accommodate the diversity. It was great! We purchased a dining package that gave us access to several of the add-on restaurants. The best, by far, was Le Bistro. I would skip Moderno. Cagney's was good, but you could easily get by without any additional costs for food and be perfectly happy. The best options are the for free dining are: 1. Grand Pacific - this is the best dining room. We ate here as soon as we embarked and avoided the crowds. It was great. They also ate here for breakfast and dinner and all of our meals were great. 2. Blue Lagoon - this was a cute little place where you could get a good burger, wings or a quick breakfast. It was way quieter and quicker when you were trying to get off the boat to get to shore and still get a decent breakfast or you just want a little taste of home (if you are American). 3. Jasmine Garden -- free Asian restaurant with lots of great options for both appetizers and main courses. 4. The Great outdoors -- when we went to the buffet, we always ate here. It was way more relaxing. Bars - for bars, try the flight of martinis at the martini bar -- super good and a great value. The entertainment on the ship was outstanding -- the Elements show blew us away. I have been on a dozen cruises and this was one of the best shows I have seen, as was the Beatles tribute band. The rooms were as expected and our cabin steward was great. The islands are beautiful. We did not book any shore excursions with the ship, so I cannot comment on that. They seemed pricey. We were able to do everything on our own for less (as we do on every cruise). If I had one complaint about the cruise, it is the process for handing out tender tickets. It was crazy. I am not sure I could come up with a better way to do it, but there were very long lines and if you didn't stand in one, you were pretty late in leaving the ship and getting to port. To sum it up, it was a relaxing and beautiful cruise. Being our first time in a European port, I was somewhat nervous that things would be confusing or challenging. It was not. We had an outstanding time and would not hesitate to book again on Norwegian even though we usually go with a different line. Read Less

Just enjoyed a 7-night cruise onboard the Norwegian Jade for our honeymoon. Having cruise cruised many times previously I was prepared for the onslaught of screaming children and partygoers however this was by far the most relaxing and enjoyable cruises I've ever been on. On board the ship freestyle dining takes center stage. We had a complimentary dinner at Le Bistro in our package which was the best meal we had on board. The two main dining rooms, Grand Pacific and Alizar, were decent. They had a semi-rotational menu with about five or six items being changed daily. The best part of the food was the availability of vegetarian options for my other half. We rarely had to compromise on eating in order to both enjoy our meals. We also had the unlimited beverage plan (included in a promotion) but never once got close to matching its value. We took full advantage of it but could not reach the 5 drink/day/person value. VENICE: We decided to spend an extra day in Venice on the front end and could have easily spent a week there. We stayed at the Hotel Belle Arti since it had easy access to the Zatterre waterbus stop and therefore the cruise terminal. Only a 20 minute walk from Saint Mark's we spent most of our time just wandering the streets, exploring the open cathedrals, and eating. CORFU: More of an Italian vibe (probably due to the Venetian history) than the other islands. Corfu was actually one of our favorite ports mainly because it felt like a city rather than a solely tourist town. We partook in the Achillian Palace and Corfu Town excursion which took us to the vacation palace of Sissi of Hungary and later Kaiser Wilhelm. We could have done without it and instead would recommend going directly to Corfu town from the ship. SANTORINI: Probably the most naturally beautiful place on the trip, we spent the morning leading up to the arrival at the front of the ship watch the island/volcano come into view. The ship drops you off at the town of Fira (Thira) which gives you the option of ascending the cliff via cable car, donkey, or walking (behind the donkeys). OR you could do a cruise excursion, like us, and get ferried to another dock where a bus will take you up to a winery at the top of the cliff before taking you to Oia and finally back to Fira. Oia tends to get most of the publicity and excitement but we actually enjoyed Fira the most since it was easier to lose the crowds and enjoy the sunset eating yogurt and drinking wine. Going down to the ship you are left with the same decision as before. We elected to avoid the lines for the cable car and walked down the swtichback road which took between 30-40 minutes. Only do this if you do not have knee problems. MYKONOS: Similar to Santorini minus the cliffs/view. We did most of our shopping in Mykonos and spent the entire day walking around the streets getting lost (intentionally). One of the popular sites in Mykonos are the windmills. Sort of behind the city are four windmills where a majority of the crowds flock to. However if you intentionally get yourself lost you might stumble upon a lonely windmill up the hill from the town which will give you a panoramic view of the port, city, and sea. We ate lunch at "Pepper" a Greek, fast-casual restaurant akin to Chipotle. If you like Gyro's, less crowds, and feta cheese covered fries then this is your place. KATAKALON: This is the port of call for excursions to Olympia, the site of the original Olympic games. I don't know if it was because this was the last port or a general weariness of seeing ancient ruins but this was probably our least favorite of the ports. The site is about a 45 minute bus ride into Greece where you are able to get a better picture of inland life and takes about 2-3 hours to walk around the museum and the ruins. The museum is very interesting and has relics dating back to the neolithic, Hellenic, and Roman periods. Katakalon is a small town with shops and restaurants in case you forgot to purchase anything but it didn't have much of a feel to it. Some additional notes: - Avoid the art auction (unless you are actually into art and auctions and have money to spend). The first day you will be asked to guess the value of a Picasso (sketching, not oil) with the winner simply getting some minor perks only if they continue with the art auctions throughout the week. - Selfie sticks are a global pandemic. Stay alert around people taking pictures or else you may find yourself with a head injury due to someone flinging their selfie stick around. - Cripton Magic is mesmerizing. As the resident magician of the Jade, Cripton is a weird blend of Criss Angel meets the Count of Monte Cristo. I'm normally not into magic shows but its hard not to enjoy watching him try to saw his wife in half. - The people. I love Mediterranean cruises mainly for the mix of people onboard. Americans still make up a plurality of the guests, however the diversity of languages and cultures definitely adds to the experience. Overall this was one of the best cruises we've been on and would definitely recommend this to anyone wishing to explore the Greek Isles as well as getting a taste of Venice. Read Less

We have just returned from a 7 night Greek Island cruise on the Jade. We really enjoyed our cruise, this was our second cruise and we could not fault NCL Jade. We had a balcony suite it was surprising large with plenty of wardrope space hangers etc. The bed was very comfortable.The bathroom was very big too we liked the fact that you could have a bath or shower, the shower had good power. There is dispensers with shower gel & shampoo (no conditioner) and a dispenser with hand soap in the bathroom. The hairdryer was fantastic, not one of these you find in Hotels theses days. We got on the ship in Venice there was a little walk to get to the ship. We were on the ship within minutes it was very easy process before we knew it we were enjoying lunch and a drink. Our cabin was ready and our luggage was waiting outside within an hour or less. The captain took us around Venice the sight was stunning, St Marks Sq etc. We had the breverage package included in our cruise we purchased the dining package, we opted for the 4 pack. We tried the Bistro Teppanyaki, Moderno and Cagneys, I think Cagney's was our favourite but we were glad we sampled most of them It's a pity you have to pay a premium as I don't think these restaursants warrant a charge. Our opinion only! We were glad we had the beverage package as the drinks are very expensive as are all cruise ships A glass of wine $8.50 a bottle of beer $5.95, you are charged 18% service charge on all drinks. If you buy the drinks package it is $58 per person per day. The water is $5.95 per bottle, my tip would be to make sure you take bottled water on board with you and buy it when you get off at the ports of call. We did not sit by the main pool it was too crowded you could see the same people in the same beds every day! We used the quiet section on the top deck we always found a lounger no matter what time we would go up there. The buffet was good we preffered the main dining rooom for lunch when it was open. We dined in the Jasmine Garden (Asian ) one night we really enjoyed it, you need to be early as it seemed to be a favourite with lots of people. it opens from 5.30- 9.30pm. There was plenty of entertainment on board, the elements show was very enjoyable as was Juan who played the piano in the Magnums bar most nights. All the staff were lovely we did not meet one member of staff that was not friendly or unhelpful. The ship was kept spotless in all areas. If you are thinking of booking I would suggest you do as you will not be sorry, we had a lovely time and would not hesitate to recommend NCL to our family & friends. We are looking forward to the next one already! Read Less

This is the third cruise line we have gone on and the worst. The ship cabins are small, there were three of us and two had to share a bunk bed. Good thing the third person was younger because it would’ve taken a lot of effort for me to get up and down off of it. We purchased the ultimate beverage package which was $446 for each of us and didn’t include specialty coffees or water. We are not big alcohol drinkers so we got a refund. The food on the ship was mediocre. There were few changes in the menu from day to day and the worst part was they served the meals and coffee lukewarm. Not until we complained on the fourth day that we would like it hot did we get it. The public bathrooms were always in need of a mopping, the floors were always wet. The staff was very nice and accommodating and we had a great steward on the 9500 deck. The entertainment was not great. The singers were not good. I spent most of my free time sitting out on the pool deck or in the casino. Maybe if I hadn’t gone on Celebrity Cruise first I wouldn’t have been so disappointed. The tours and the guides were great. Venice is amazing and the Greek Islands were beautiful and their food was wonderful. Read Less

I went on this cruise with a good friend, we are both young college aged women so we were not the target demographic but we still managed to have a great time. We sailed to the Greek isles making stops in Corfu, Mykonos, santorini and Olympia. All of the destinations were beautiful, however Olympia was a bit of a letdown. We chose to only do one excursion, which we saved for Olympia since it seemed like the best for the price. All of the excursions were very expensive and in my opinion quite unecessary to do. In every stop it was very easy to find quick and cheap transportation into the main areas. Greece is beautiful and full of great restaurants and sights. Unless you are truly afraid to venture our on your own I would recommend doing the ports on your own. The cruise itself is quite nice and well kept. There are lots of different areas to see and discover onboard. Our room was quite nice as well. The food was above average. We dined mostly at Alizar and at the Garden Cafe. The buffet was pretty good, I wouldn't say everything there was amazing but there were some good items and everything was hot and replaced often. Alizar was very good as well, it had the feel of a more upscale restaurant and featured a very decent menu. We didn't have the same luck at the grand pacific. A lot of things are pre made and not fresh, this should be kept in mind while ordering certain items. We had a lot of fun on the cruise, unfortunately it was dampened by some of the staff. Our steward was nice at first, but as the week went on he became very rude. Delivering things late and at one point letting himself into the room while we were still in bed! Instead of closing the door right away he continued to talk to us from the hallway. Unnaceptable. The bar staff were very slow and often quite snappy. One particular bartender was worst of all. Refusing to make a drink because we requested that he put less rum than usual (the drinks are very strong) all because it was an inconvenience to make it in a separate blender. We paid for an unlimited beverage package, we should have been able to get what we ordered. Sadly I think this was a tend with those who had the unlimited beverage package since we didn't have to pay the gratuities on each drink. Despite the problems with the staff, I found the cruise to be quite enjoyable. I've heard better things from other cruise lines but I would be willing to go back to norweigan. Read Less

This was my first time on NCL. I've cruised Carnival from Florida three times in the past and in comparison: will only do NCL from now on. However, I'm not really comparing apples to apples as the Jade was European and I'm not sure if their Florida based trips are as good. I'll assume so. First of all, I booked two cabins: mini suite with balcony and an inside room across the hall. Both rooms were fine. I also got the offer at the time for the unlimited drink plan which I will also talk about. The food choices that were included in the price were a bit limited (buffet and then two seated dining rooms that had identical menus). We did eat at one specialty restaurant: Teppanyaki - good, but really salty..but that's the nature of soy sauce. Jade: depart Venice 13 June, arrive back in Venice 20 June, 2015 Embarkation/Disembarkation: Both incredibly easy in Venice. You have a tender in both Mykonos and Santorini, but again - easy and smooth Unlimited Drink package: this costs $59/day for all drinks under $11 (this is drink price, not the service charge that is also added on). There is also a package for just beer and wine which is a bit cheaper. Pretty much every drink is under $11. If you are going to drink at least 6 drinks a day, worth it. Otherwise, not. It does include soda as well and virgin drinks. Food: Main buffet is huge. Has the basic same stuff each day with an additional theme thrown in for the dinners. There are two dining rooms: Alizar and Grand Pacific. Grand Pacific has a dress code, Alizar does not. They both offer the same menu which has some reoccurring dishes as well as new ones every night. If you like fish, you'll love the seafood themed night. There is Asian food and Indian food for each dinner as well as a pasta bar. The other restaurant that is 'free' is Jasmine Garden which is Chinese. I didn't eat there so I can't review it. I did go to Teppinyaki which was great fun and worth it if you really like that kind of food. Bit salty, but that is what lots of soy sauce does. Entertainment: I personally love the 'campiness' of some shows you see on cruises and all-inclusives. If you do to, then you'll have a blast. There was a show called Elements which was spectacular. There is a piano bar with singing as well as another lounge with a guitar player. Both were great. Pool/Lounge chairs: get up early if you want a chair in the shade. Tons of seats in the sun though. There are two pools: one allows kids, one does not. Also a few hot tubs. Shore Excursions: I only did the beach transfer excursion in Mykanos. We did book a private tour for Corfu which was great (contact me if you want more info). Santorini- there are boat/buses you catch to Oia Mykanos- I did the $30 beach excursion which was basically the bus taking you to and from a beach. I'd say it was worth it as the beach they went to was on the other side of the island and not as busy as the ones you may just take a local cab to. Olympia- you have to get transport to and from Olympia from the port. This can be done via the excursion desk or just book it online with a private company like we did. The archaeological site and museum are great. I would advise doing the museum first. Take note that the site is in the sun....it gets very very hot. I have pictures of the mini suite as well as scans of some daily activity newsletters and the drink menu if you would like me to send to you. Read Less

Almost everything about this cruise was very good, often excellent. The show Elements is as good as it gets in Vegas. Food was good quality, as was the service. I think the only negative, other than one bad meal in the French specialty restaurant, was the lack of service in the bars and lounges. I believe this was due to the very large number of "free" unlimited alcohol packages given as booking perks (which we did not have). There were not near enough servers, so we often had to flag one down multiple times. In addition, the number of "free" specialty dining packages upon booking made it near impossible to get into one on any night. I was glad we had book one in advance of the cruise. We had a mini-suite and were very pleased with the size and amenities. Embarking, disembarking and getting off at ports was very efficient. Ports were very good. Read Less

We were first time cruisers so did not know what to expect having spent limited time on the forums we had booked some excusions ahead of time but to our dismay we had not booked any of the speciality restaurants. So on our first day we were surprised when we were unable to book the restaurants of our choice even then. So my top tip BOOK AHEAD. However everything else was above reproach. All staff are wonderful from your cabin steward to waiters to chefs to cruise directors etc. They all care about your experience and happiness. We had a small problem with our toilet seat and mentioned it to the cabin steward it was rectified within 2 hours. The entertainment on board was to a very high standard the live music in the various bars and the shows in the Theatre were really very good, better than expected. We enjoyed all the food accept the food in the Italian Speciality restaurant which was disappointing. We will definitely be booking a Norwegian Cruise again. Read Less

Check-in at the port was amazing, best ever. Every employee on the ship was helpful, friendly and competent. The cabin was clean and well appointed. The common areas were very clean and well maintained. We ate most of our meals in the main restaurants, as well as Jasmine Garden and found their food to be of high quality and varied enough to keep us interested. The food was better than our last trip on the Dawn. We didn't do any specialty restaurants since the ones we were interested in were too high priced for the value. For Cagney's it was $30 each plus 18 % . We had some excellent steaks in the main dining rooms. The food in the buffet was excellent for breakfast and lunch (hint seating is tight so go to the back deck or the El Cucina Restaurant for nicer seating. The food at dinner, in the buffet, not so great especially on the "Indian Special Nights", just awful. Except for "Elements" the other shows in the theater were of poor quality. And, unlike most other cruises we've been on the theater was never more than 50% full. Many of the activities and game shows were fun, such as trivia, sexy legs (mens), deal or no deal, etc. (Tip, don't buy the ships internet minutes packages.) They are costly and the connections are incredibly slow. Best advice, when you go ashore it's easy to find free wifi in most cafes and other shops near the ports. We did 4 ship sponsored excursions. The one to Santorini and the town of Oia was excellent, although a little more time would have been nice. Trip to Acropolis was just OK. The guide wasn't very good and the crowds at the Acropolis itself made it uncomfortable. Trip to Olimpia and Magna Grecia was excellent. Not too crowded at Olimpia. Magna Grecia is a family owned farm and winery. After a short talk about how they grow and process olives we had an outstanding family style lunch that featured many of the locally grown produce and some meat. Excellent desert. Family members then had the crowd on it's feet for some traditional Greek dancing. Great day all around. The excursion to Ephasus and the Terrace Houses was terrific. We had a great guide, and at the end of the tour when we made the obligatory stop at a carpet merchant, there was no high pressure selling, and we were able to leave after just a few minutes to walk back to the ship. The walled city in Dubruvnik was amazing.(tip, don't try to walk to it. Just outside the terminal gates are taxis that will whisk you there for 10 euros per carload. Once inside the gates, "walking the wall" is a must. And for you "Game of Thrones" fans you can see where many scenes were shot including "Cersei's Walk of attonement. Split was an easy stroll from the ship and offered some nice shops and excellent restaurants waterside. Venice, we were their a total of 5 nights, pre and post cruise. Stayed at the Best Western Olimpia. Excellent Hotel, Best Westerns in Italy are of a much higher quality than in the USA. The hotel was only 300 yards, and one small bridge, from the "people mover" that takes you to the ports. We spent most of our time there walking all six of the neighborhoods. Met some great folks in the small cafes and terrific pastry shops, in out of the way places. Don't miss the very lively shopping and dining area near the train station and along the grand canal. Disembarkation was the best ever. Got our bags quickly, and were out of the port quickly too. Read Less

In 2011 I cruised NCL's JADE, during its Adriatic Sea itinerary. Since then, I wanted to sail on it Greek Isles itinerary, Venice, Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Katakolon. The itineraries on cruise ships have changed so much the last several years, and finding a sensible itinerary is not easy anymore. The itinerary on the Europe based JADE has pretty much remained the same throughout the last 4 years, which I think provides an opportunity for customers to come back and enjoy either itinerary. That is if you cannot afford its back to back cruise, or don't think that been on a ship for over 14 days is your cup of tea. This, however, provides a place where to stay overnight in otherwise expensive Venice. Venice is beautiful. But it should be no surprise to anyone that the main way of transportation, if not on a gondola or a Vaporetto (water taxi), is by foot. So depending on whether you come in by train or bus, chances are you will be walking and dragging your bags, so be ready for it. There is a people mover from the Plazzale Roma, the main bus corral, to the port, but you have to walk to it, and then to your terminal. The price of a one way ride is 1.30 euros. The JADE is a midship, and do not expect a mega ship because many of these port cannot handle them. The JADE is elegant, and someway somehow the layout seems friendlier than similar ships that I have been on like NCL Spirit or NCL Sun. It has my most favorite feature of any ship, any cruise line I have been on; the Blue Lagoon Café. Open 24 hours, it has the kind of "fast food' menu you can have anytime of the day. For four years I waited to have their chicken wings and it didn't disappoint. Mind you, this is not a restaurant, and so do not expect that service, this is where you go and have finger food at 2am, or when you walk in from your tour, tire and want something to hold you up until dinner. The Alizar and Grand Pacific dinning room are excellent. NCL's freestyle dining is perfect as you don't have to commit to the old 630 or 9pm dining time. We preferred the Alizar because it was more relaxed. The Grand Pacific though, was beautiful. The food was very adequate. It seems like old cruisers are longing for the days when there was lobster one night served on board; but then again the prices of cruises were unaffordable. I was pleased to see that the quality of food was much better than the 3 day bahamas cruise I took in the fall. This re-enforces my faith in cruise lines. I am not sure if it was just the JADE, or NCL's new philosophy towards entertainment, but there seemed to be more variety in the shows aside from its own entertainers. However, having within the last two years being on 2 other cruise lines, their own entertainment did not seem at par with what some other lines are starting to put out there. I even remember liking the shows in 2011 better. Maybe they have scaled it down in favor of having all the other entertainment onboard. Besides the entertainment, the activities on board were plentiful. The "BBQ" at pool side is still one of my favorite parts of this ship. The good thing about this itinerary is that the ports don't need to be an expensive outing. In Corfu you can walk into town and spend the day sightseeing. In the terminal there is a TAXI booth that will quickly arrange your trip. We chose to go across the island to the most popular beach resort, Paleokastritsa; for 80 Euros they took us there, picked up us at the arranged time, and then dropped us in town for us to walk back. The taxis are modern luxury cars, like Mercedes or Peugeots, and only 4 to a taxi. Im sure if you rent a car you might fall under this price, but for 20euros a head, to spend the whole day at a beautiful beach, with a beautiful scenery. Once there you can take a beautiful walk up the mountain road to the Monastery of the Virgin Mary. Santorini is just beautiful! Be on the top deck as the ship approaches the island. If you haven't look this up yet, do it before you go; you are sailing into the caldera of an old volcano. And decide before you go how are you getting up into town; cable car, mule or by foot. The line for the cable car will be long, and it is not a single cabin system. It is 5 smaller cabins riding up and down and rocking back and forth. And don't look for donkeys, most of the famed animals are healthy mules. The charge is 5 euros. We chose to walk. One for the exercise of it, the other out of respect for the mules. BUT, this is NOT an easy climb. And you share the steps with the mules going up and coming down. And if poop isnot your thing, go to the cable car. I would either rent a car or find someone to drive me around the island. Do not spend too much time at the town of Thira. Its beautiful, but it is an outside mall. A very pretty one at that. Go visit Red Beach, yes the sand is red and pebble-bly. I cant remember such a unique beach anywhere else. On the way, the beautiful drive will be breath taking. You must also visit either of the black sand beaches Kamari or Perissa. And of course, you then must make your way to the other side of the island to the town of Oia (pronounce Ee-A); you know, that place with the white house and blue ceilings. Most people make their way there at the end of the day for sun down. Mykonos is a little more easier to navigate than Santorini. Whether you dock in town (close to the small port but cruise lines offer a free shuttle for the 5 mins ride) or tender in (with this option you can walk to town), you are very close to Chora, its main town. Here you can walk around and explore the windmills, or lose yourself within the alleyways of Little Venice. You may want to sit at a café and have some local food while overlooking the turquoise ocean. And if you manage your time well, you may make your way to one of the local beaches. Super Paradise Beach has a shuttle for 5 euros that leaves every hour on the half hour, from where their little port parking. While this might sound a little commercial, they have blended both aspects very well. I love being able to listen to music while I lay out on chair, order drinks from a waiter, go to a clean bathroom, or sit at a nice bar to eat (good food and not expensive). In Katakolon you will be well served by visiting the old grounds of Olympia, where the first Olympics took place. Its a beautiful serene place. The little town is clean and quiet, and here is the BLUE LIGHT special of the day, you will find the best prices in souvenirs in ample, un-crowded, friendly shops. And guess what, they are smart in Olympia, they know you might have missed a thing or two in the last two towns, so you will find everything Santorini and Mykonos in these shops. Once back in Venice, disembarkation is not bad. Pre-arrange your transportation to the Marco Polo airport, as a taxi will run you a set price of 45 euros. And get there early, it gets very crowded, though they might have the best security check point system in the world. Contracted workers work the different counters so if you get there 2 hours earlier and cannot find your airline counter, do not worry, keep looking at the monitors as they will open it up somewhere. There is a good wireless service at the airport with the Boingo service, and much cheaper. Which speaking of, if you are going to use the internet on the ship, sign up for the different plans early on. This time I was trying to stay away from it, and waited till the last day. The 15 mins plan was more expensive on a minute per minute basis. And if you wait too long that night, the prices get worse. And here is where my one bad issue happened, which NCL should have an easier way to deal with. I needed to look one more thing up for my hotel in Rome the next day, so I thought I only needed 3 or 4 minutes at the published rate of .95 cents a minute. When I went back that rate was not available and the only available plan was $55 dollars. Well, it was going to have to wait until I the next day as no one in their right mind would do that. Well, next day, I got up showered and got going, and picked up my last bill on the way out. Even though I had stopped at the desk the night before to settle most of my account, I decided to look at the bill, only to be floored by a $55 dollar charged!! :O Mind you, signing up into their system requires that you select the plan, enter your information and then click on some sort of connect or accept button. So how is the charge there baffles me. I only spend $5 dollars at the internet service in the airport the next day. If I knew I was going to get charge I would have stay online the night before. But what is more disconcerting is how hard NCL makes it on the customer to resolve the issue. I had to contact my credit card since there is not NCL Customer Service number published. So don't get caught with that. As I write this, I have not gotten the credit back. And these are the corporate things that make us choose one cruise line over the other one, but all in all it was a very nice vacation. Read Less

WiFi: Just a warning for anyone concerned about staying connected, I paid around $175 USD for the unlimited package for WiFi. Also, this plan is for the entire cruise and does not give you the option of selecting WiFi for only the "At Sea" days. When you purchase the WiFi, it does warn you about the service being slower than usual, of course, since you're on the sea. However, as I started using the WiFi, I realized that it wasn't just slower, but completely not functional for most apps. For instance, Instagram and Snapchat did not load (the main reason I bought the WiFi package). For the money you pay, I find it a bit ridiculous that most of the time, the Internet doesn't work. My advice is, don't bother buying the WiFi package, there are plenty of places (cafes, restaurants, etc.) when you get to the other ports that offer free WiFi. Spa Services: For one of the "At Sea" days, I decided to go to the Spa and get my nails repolished, which just consists of taking off old nail polish and applying new polish. I had realized after the new polish was applied, that the old polish was still present and had not been removed completely. Also, everything was applied pretty rapidly, till the point where certain nails had to be repainted right away. So as you could imagine, the polish was not applied evenly throughout the nails and started chipping within the next day. I wouldn't be complaining if this service was cheap... I got a manicure for much less than the $19 USD + mandatory 18% service charge and that lasted well over 10 days. Of course I knew it would be more expensive on the cruise but that's why I expected it to be done properly. Personally, I feel that the mandatory service charge is a reason why there wasn't an effort put into the service. My advice is to just wait until you get back on land to have your nails done. Food: There is always food open somewhere in the day, so if you're hungry, that's not a problem. I did not purchase any beverage packages, I thought the selection of water, juices, tea, and coffee would be sufficient for the time spent on the ship. Since if you plan to buy a beverage plan, you would be forced into buying it for the entire stay (7 days) and for the shore days, I planned to be on shore for most of the time so most of the day would be spent off the ship. There is a large buffet, which is where I had breakfast everyday and the selection was wide and I really enjoyed that juice was provided for free in the mornings (orange, apple, cranberry cocktail). The coffee provided was bad but then it made sense when they had brewed and specialty coffee for an extra charge. Other drinks included in your basic package include a wide selection of tea, water, lemonade, iced tea (american style with no sugar), and flavoured water. Lunch selection would either be the buffet or this small restaurant that opens 24 hours and serves comfort food. Food tasted great at the buffet and restaurants, but overtime, everything starts tasting the same... I also tried some of the sit down restaurants for dinner, the ones that were included. Definitely personalize your dishes so you can try more things without being stuck with a huge plate of pasta on the side. My favourite part was the dessert -- I tried most of the desserts and they were delicious! There are some specialty restaurants that you can go to for an extra fee. I didn't really investigate into these until I got on the cruise and at that point, most time slots were gone for reservations. I suggest you look into the restaurants before your cruise, or maybe the food will still taste the same as the restaurants, but it doesn't hurt to try Teppanyaki on the cruise! With that said, I did try ALL of the Chinese food that the cruise had to offer (buffet and the Jasmine Garden restaurant) and the food was strange. Some of the food may look like Chinese food but it didn't taste Chinese or fusion, it just tasted wrong. Also, the pasta was either over or under done badly and the pizza tasted horrible. The staff made the cruise experience very enjoyable, everyone was always cheery and always had a smile on their faces. I especially enjoyed the towel animals the housekeeper made each night, they also know you by your name (which can be a bit creepy on the first day). The staff ensuring you sanitize your hands before entering the buffet made it quite fun to do so. The shows every night were really fun, I went to a show every night and each one was different and equally as enjoyable. Also, before and during the shows, there is staff there to take your drink orders so you don't have to get them yourself before the show. The cruise staff also provided some entertainment while waiting for the shows and chatting with them always gives you a laugh. Overall, the cruise was very enjoyable, just a few minor things to keep in mind (WiFi, Spa services, Food) before considering the cruise. The Greek islands were beautiful, except for Katakolon/Olympia, which just consisted of some ruins from the first Olympics. Especially since you visit that island last, you'll be comparing Santorini and Mykonos to broken rocks on the ground. Olympia is also about a 45 minute drive from the port and during the bus ride there, all you see are piles of garbage on the side of the streets. There is also nothing to do in Katakolon if you don't visit Olympia, the town consists of tourist shops that you would have come across in the other islands. Read Less

This was our 2nd time on the Jade as we previously took the Adriatic Sea cruise last May. We stayed in the Haven this time as opposed to Penthouse Suite from last year. During embarkation, we use the Villa Suites line and the process was pretty quick. We were then greeted by Bruno Dentone, the concierge. We previously had Bruno as concierge on the Jewel last year so he sorta remembered us. Unlike last year though, we had waiters take us to board the ship this time as opposed to our butler. We still got to board the ship in front of everyone else but I just thought it was interesting that we had waiters take us onboard instead. Unfortunately, our room wasn't quite ready yet so we just chilled in the deck 13 bar across from Cagneys (where you would typically find Bruno the concierge). Our 2 bedroom Haven suite was really nice and I especially enjoyed the views from the main bathroom. There's nothing like looking out the window while showering and then drying yourself afterwards. The Haven Courtyard was also really nice although I really didn't spend all that much time in the courtyard. Benny, the Courtyard Butler, was also pretty nice and he would always greet us whenever we saw him. We actually never used him as we would always get food from Cagneys (breakfast and lunch) ourselves. I also enjoy the private deck on deck 14 tho I do kinda wish that we could use both sides instead of Port side only. It seems like the starboard side was being used by the 3 bedroom suites. Our butler Rufino was very nice and did a good job remembering our names. Miller, our cabin steward, was also very nice and would always greet us whenever we ran into him. Lastly, Bruno was an amazing concierge and he went above and beyond his duties to make things pleasant for us. Besides helping us book specialty dining on certain days, he would also make sure we got adequately fast service in whichever specialty dining restaurant. Bruno really looked out for us and we really appreciated that. Although concierge, butlers, and room stewards were friendly and nice, I couldn't say the same about the other Haven guests. You would think that by sharing the same courtyard for a week, people would be more friendly and approachable? Definitely NOT the case. I know Haven (and suite) guests get pampered in general but sometimes, I do wish that when we were staying in a mini-suite or balcony room, cabin stewards would also take the time to get to know our names and get to know us. My only small gripe about the Haven was that at times, it would take like 5-6 card inserts to finally open our cabin door. Because we were in the Haven and also had ultimate dining package, we ate mostly in Cagneys and specialty dining restaurants. I thought the food in the Garden Cafe was okay and nothing super spectacular. Sure they had different themed nights every night but the majority of dishes remain roughly the same lol. We also ate at Teppanyaki, Cagneys, Jasmine Garden (free now..will get into this in a bit), Le Bistro, and Moderno and the food was definitely yummy. For Jasmine Garden, is it bad to say that I can see why people never really ate there so NCL ultimately made it a complimentary option? Jasmine Garden is supposed to be a Chinese restaurant but yet the calamari was super American (Chinese-cooked calamari tastes and looks very different) and the spicy seafood udon had a really different soup base. Not to mention, udon is Japanese..not Chinese but I digress. Despite the non-typical Udon soup base, I still enjoyed my spicy seafood Udon. Teppanyaki is same old and because we have had teppanyaki countless times, we essentially know what the chefs are gonna do and say. Staffers were either great, okay, or pretty bad. The receptionists were all pretty nice along with the staffers that were part of the Behind the Scenes (such as cruise consultant Kimberly, theater production manager Katelynn, and the staffer that talked to us about the washing machines) and casino counter staffers. The waiters at the Garden Cafe were also nice while the ones in Cagneys during breakfast and lunch were ehh. On the first day in Cagneys for lunch, my mom thought she saw a waitress that she previously saw on a different ship. She then said "nice to see you again" and the waitress really didn't say much of anything besides "oh, I was in the Pacific." Typically when you tell a staffer you have seen them before (if they don't already greet you as they remember you!), they will immediately ask you what ship. Instead, this waitress simply said "I was in the Pacific". I even name a couple ships we took in the last year to make convo but she never said anything about it. It's like we were trying to make conversation with you and you didn't feel the need to briefly converse with us (Cagneys wasn't busy at this time). Cagney's breakfast and lunch is for the VIPs and this is how you treat VIPs? Pretty disappointing. Cagney waiters/waitresses on the Jade and Jewel were very friendly last year but the ones this year, not so much. I also received bad service from the bartenders on deck 12 aft who serviced folks who came after us while we waited for 2 mins. This happened twice. It was also lame that male cruise staffers were always talking to girls at events instead of talking to everyone. The washy washy guy at the buffet in the morning is always a bright spot and filled with energy. I remember this guy from last year as well. However, it's probably safe to say that he doesn't beat the guy from the Jewel who sings the washy washy song with a guitar. From 2009 till now, I will never get sick of the words "washy washy" and "happy happy." Yea they do become the butt of jokes from other staffers but they make spraying antibacterial stuff on you so much funner. Read Less

This review is for the Amazing Crew of the Norwegian Jade! I've been cruising for 25 years & have never witnessed the kind of service that a friend & I received from this wonderful staff on the NCL Jade Ship! First, Captain Stephan was remarkable! He is such a humble & endearing person! His messages each morning helped every passenger smile & feel so welcome! Jovo, the Hotel Director was also absolutely accommodating! And our concierge, Bruno was amazing! Impeccable service for the whole 14 days! His representation for the ship was above & beyond!! We so much enjoyed the Showdown & Shout shows! We were overwhelmed with the beauty of the Ports! The food was super delicious! Our cabin attendant, Ms. Carol, was also the most attentive room steward ever! The NCL shuttle from the airport to the ship was very efficient & comfortable! Alexander, from Cancun, was so very sweet & helpful! I'm really looking forward to sailing on this ship again!!! Cruisequeen711 Read Less

We had a good experience aboard the Nor. Jade. Very good shows every night (professional quality). The shows in Vegas would have cost us hundreds of dollars. The food was good in the buffet with very friendly staff (washy, washy- happy, happy). The 3 restaurants compt. were very good, especially the French restaurant which I thought would be my least favorite but was my favorite. And last but not least, the Casino and casino bar. I play poker and they had live poker and some tournaments (not a video table). Also live blackjack. I also would like to add accolades to Carol Luchi and Joyce Samar our bartenders. Said they hadn't seen a Royal Flush on the video poker but I did hit one for a thousand dollars. They were great bartenders and friends to us. They called us by our first names after the second day of our cruise. They are now family to us. All in all, a great experience. Read Less