Cleanliness and level of service by wait staff and cabin steward was top rate. Disappointed we were not able to have consistent wait staff for evening dining. We were able to book a time in the dining room (just a fluke that we discovered we could do that), but were seated at a different table each evening. Then found out we could request the same table each evening. However, the wait staff rotate, so we did not have the same wait staff each evening. We prefer consistent waitstaff. Food was mediocre. Cabin was small, and bathroom was small; practically had to open the door to dry one's self. Odour of smoke was prevalent in several locations. Very few quiet places to sit, especially on sea days. We discovered the Spinnaker lounge for reading, etc., but on sea days it was used for activities. Because ours was a northerly cruise, one could not sit outside. Other cruise ships we have been on had a covered area around the pool. Read Less

Food was extremely disappointing in the dinning room and buffet. Cheap meats and the same food everyday for the majority. Best food was the food in O Sheehan's. Most of the wings were delicious and the soups and other foods provided relief from the poor food served in the buffet and cheap variety of foods in the two dining rooms. Dinner service was mixed with slow service, with others provided competent service. The beverage package that came with the booking was limited, At $105 per person per day (with the 20% gratuity) no decent wines by the glass were included in the package. Plenty of cheaper decent wines were on the list, but NCL would not offer them by the glass. We ended up leaving the dinning rooms with full glasses on the table. No water or specialized coffees were included in the drink package. We booked a popular excursion many months ahead for a morning time and received a confirmation of the bookings. When we got on the ship we checked and our excursion had been moved to almost 5pm. Getting us back to the ship after 10:30 pm. (Some who were on the later tour told us that they got back from the tour almost at midnight). When we complained that we had already booked and paid for a private tour for the Northern lights after 9:00 pm, we were told that NCL cutoff at a set number and moved some people into the 4:30 pm time. We complained that we should have been alerted by NCL so that we could have booked the next morning or a private tour, we were told to complain to home office. Very unsympathetic and uncaring excursion supervisor. On the positive side, the bar staff were friendly and service oriented. The cabin steward did a competent job in preparing our room. However, he never introduced himself and we could not identify him.. Entertainment was average and we stopped going to the shows after the first few days of the cruise. Ports were OK, but not much at the port that serviced Shetland and not worth the tender ride in. The other tours in the other ports were well managed and well executed. For the high price of this particular cruise I found it to be a poor value. Read Less

We have never sailed the Norwegian Cruise Line before, so this was our first time. Our previous ocean cruises were with the Royal Carribean. The embarkation went smoothly although we did not like the idea of printing our own luggage tags. The cabin was very small, which we expected. What is disappointing is that all the nice places to relax on ship are the places where drinks are served. What is so obvious is that everything on board was to make more money, even for plain water. It would really be nice if there are places on board where you can really sit and relax out of the wind and rain. The room attendants were friendly but not so much their supervisors. One gentleman at the desk was really friendly when I asked for some information but one of the ladies was quite annoyed when she could not get the iConcierge app working on my iPhone, not too friendly. But over all the services was pretty good sometimes too exaggerated. On cruises we usually eat at the buffet because we are small eaters and like to pick and choose. We are sorry to say that this was the most disappointing thing on this cruise. Even if there are not too much of a variety, breakfast was probably the best if compared to lunch and dinner. Some dishes are sometimes so salty it was hard to eat and also some were really dry. There were a couple of days where the food was good, but unfortunately not too often. Juice machines quite often do not work. The Ports and Shore excursions are too overpriced, at least double the regular price. We book these excursions from local operators online, but quite often they were sold out. The entertainments and activities on board we think are good, although we really did not attend lots of them. Disembarkation was great. We are sorry to say that we most likely won't use the Norwegian Cruise Line any more unless there are changes. Read Less

First of all this was our third cruise this year we had sailed on the Symphony of the seas in May from Barcelona and Ventura in July from Southampton so what you should expect in the way of general service on a cruise ship was still fairly fresh in our minds. We are Latitudes Gold so we have sailed with them a few times prior to this cruise. Because of the previous cruises this year and cost we decided to have an inside cabin and ended up in stateroom 4557 on deck 4 and NCL informed us that we,d had a complimenary upgrade but heaven knows where from maybe the crews quarters. The cabin was tiny but functional apart from a lack of wardrobe space which is a struggle for a weeks cruise nevermind two weeks ,anyway we looked at our latitues gold card and we should have had a complimenary bottle of wine in the cabin but we could,nt find that just loads of 1 litre bottles of water to last us both for the nine day trip which we never got through. At this point I noticed that there was no card in the cabin, sorry stateroom with our cabin stewards name on it and no cabin stewards to be seen anywhere in the corridors. That evening after life boat drill we went up a deck for the sailaway and decided to have a cocktail but with no waiters to be seen anywhere went to the Garden Cafe outdoors bar and asked for two Pina Colada,s and just got a totally blank expression from the bar server Pina Colada he said , he obviously did,nt know what a Pina Colada was until he we told by another bar waiter. Then we decided to go down to the Grand Pacific restaurant for our evening meal, being quite early there was no queue but we were still asked if we would like to share so we shared the table with two lovely American couples ,it took an hour for our starter to arrive and even then two orders came wrong the total dining experience in Grand Pacific took two and a half hours, the waiter said were we going to the show I said no but we have a trip booked for Monday. Unfortunely we had several experiences like that , O Sheehans being really bad one lunch time and we nearly walked out in disgust because of a total lack of service. We did,nt get to see our cabin steward till the evening on day three and that was just by chance and by this stage we were not getting our Freestyle daily in our cabin and the room was,nt getting made up till late afternoon so l compained at reception. At this point we did get better service in the restaurants but the cabin steward was still a but painfully slow and we had to continually ask for things to be done so the Jade was definitely way down on service compaired to the Symphony and Ventura . Read Less

We'd always wanted to see the Norwegian Fjords and to travel to the Arctic Circle, so we booked this family cruise with great excitement, despite the fact we couldn't get adjoining cabins because we were assured NCL would do their best to get us cabins next to each other. We were split - my husband on deck 8, with me and my daughter on deck 9. NCL did nothing to get us cabins together and Guest Relations were rude when we put in our request as they were at subsequent times. On a NCL excursion to a Viking Farm in Haugesund we were left waiting in the pouring rain for the coach to arrive for one and a half hours without information or shelter. There were no refreshments at all, we had to rush our trip. There was no attention to detail on Norwegian Jade, the atmosphere despite the entertainment was dour, the ship quite soulless. If this had been my first cruise, I would never go back. All the glasses (champagne, wine, water glasses in cabin) were invariably dirty, often with other people's lipstick marks - apparently there's no extra charge for lipstick, one waiter quipped. Garden Cafe was dirty, the tables unclean, the floor left unswept. The food was greasy, there was no variety, little effort made regarding taste, the bread products stale, the cakes disappointing. Despite having a drinks package we couldn't get a mocha or a latte without paying extra plus gratuity. There was nowhere to sit comfortably, Cafe Java was more of a waiting area rather than a Cafe. O'Sheehan's was a dirty nightmare, the food barely warm. The restaurant food was palatable but often strange and the glasses remained dirty as ever. A tired looking chicken drumstick as a starter, cheese cake without a biscuit base and indeed without actual cheese (yes, it was a slice of frozen tasteless blancmange). The toilets stank permanently of sewage, masked by the overpowering stench of bleach, a sickly combination. The cabins were functional, certainly no frills, no nuance and the balcony door was a nightmare to close and shut. When I mentioned this to housekeeping they shrugged. My husband (6 feet tall) had difficulty opening it likewise. On our last cruise we were offered a glass of fizz when coming on-board, on the Norwegian Jade we were sprayed with disinfectant, a somewhat futile gesture as the dirty glasses left their mark and both my daughter and I left Norwegian Jade (we got on perfectly healthy) with a bug - sneezing, coughing and feeling sick - and also with a great sense of relief and gratitude that our stay on this particular ship was at an end. Read Less

We chose this cruise as we have been on three previous cruises, all excellent with NCL. This time we did the Norwegian Ffjords in August, on "Jade" and were shocked at the amount of uncontrolable children and pushchairs on the ship. The parents didn't seem to care as long as they were able to carry on being loud and brash. There was supposed to be a dress code for evening meal which for some it didn't seem to imply. Baseball hats, vests, shorts, flipflops and hoodies were allowed in the dining room. The people that were correctly dressed looked on in amazement and dissaproval. On the day of dissembarkation a lot of people shared the same views saying they would not use NCL again which is a shame because ALL the staff were excemplory, nothing was too much trouble, the ship was spotless, food very good and the shows were great. It's sad that NCL has started to do All inclusive. Read Less