She is currently sailing as 'Pride of Hawaii' she will go into dock in Feb 2008 then be renamed Jade and sail the Med. Lots of reviews on Cruise Critic.

Many thanks. A lot of the reviews are bad. Don't know what to think now. We love the ports she's visiting, but we're a bit worried about the dining arrangements.

NCL do get a lot of bad reviews on their Hawaii cruises- they have had numerous personnel issues- they have a mostly American crew,and they don't seem able/willing to provide the same level of service .
I bet once she is in the Med with an International crew things will improve dramatically. Freestyle dining is a great attraction to many people but if you like the traditional style then you might not go for this. It's just a different system,unpopular with those who want to eat in the same place at the same time with the same people and the same wait staff.
If you know where you would like to eat you can make reservations,or wing it.

Thanks for that. Food is an important part of our cruise, but just as long as it's tasty and hot, we're not all that fussy about anything else and quite like to eat early so hopefully we'll be ok. We're really grateful for your insight.

You're welcome- Windjammer has sailed NCL several times and likes it- he has a thread on this page called 'Windjammer does deals'- you might post there also, and see if he's been on this ship.
On NCL's Hawaii ships they have to pay American level wages - so don't provide enough help probably. Once they get back to an International crew- much cheaper labour costs- I bet they improve.

NCL is a bit different to regular lines but once you get used to the format you can make it work for you some people complane about queues but they still do NCL so I cannot work that out.

We like the variety of food and the surrounding are geared to the style of each eating place.

The main dinning room has a menu that changes every day.

If you like eating early then you get the Specialities at 1/2 price.

we stick £10pppd in the budget for tips and to cover the extra dinning costs of eating once in every place that charges. Why not check out the Jewel and Pearl reviews they will be closer to the Jade when in service even better why not do one this year there are some very good prices on Pearl,Jewel and Gem.

The most important thing to remember is even though she goes in for a refit she is still an oldish ship.
I personally would'd do NCL and my brother who swore by them until he started cruising with other Companies would not go back to them now.
He lives in the US by the way. He now cruises mainly with RCI and thinks they are superior. I don't like the look of the ships with all the garish decor on Ships itself.
Each to his own but my advice is that if you are going to do NCL then make it a new ship I think Pearl was launched last year and there are loads of others avoid Dream as she too is an older ship and tends to do.
You will find loads of fantastic offers for RCI Princess and don't be fooled into thinking that they are any more expensive than others. I am doing 11 nights on the Celebrity Century for a single occupancy and have got a deal for £880 +$100 OBC sailing out of Barcelona back to Barcelona.
Just did BTB 12 nights on the QM2 Southampton/New York/Southampton for single occupancy 12-24th July and I paid £1200 yes £1200. The price was £699 for double occupancy.
There are loads of ships out there and RCI X will have I think 20-30% of their fleet in Europe next year.
Princess also has numerous ships in the Med Emerald is new this year and they will have Grand and Sea as well as others. Get yourself on some mailing lists or emails for Big agencies and they will email you with offers. Prior to me going off I got an email from Cruise Club UK for 14 nights on Navigator of the Seas for 14 nights in the Med for £545!
I get emails every day of the week from numerous agencies Global Scotlands Cruise Centre Go Cruise Cruise 365 Semple or Cruise Kings etc etc Gill Travel. Just log on to their web sites and see what's out there . Read reviews and decide what you are looking for and when and where you want to go. I cruise pretty frequently having done T/A in March April then July on the QM and have Century booked for October. Hamrag on this web site got the bug just about 2-3 years ago and he is well and truly bitten.
He had just done Century is going on Voyager of the Seas I think October and has booked Ventura the new huge P&O ship launching next year. Navigator of the Seas will launch also in 2008 and will cruise out of S/Hampton and I know there are some fantastic deals on her.
T/A are desperate to sell as are the cruise companies so it is very much a buyers market. It is putting bottoms on beds at the end of the day.
Any other advice or questions I will be happy to help. I have been to so many places and to a lot of them numerous times now that I enjoy the ships and I like to be looked after and excellent food and entertainment etc much the same as all of us I suppose.

It is the best value you will ever find in any type of holiday and I also do land based holidays but mostly for short breaks. It cost me more for B&B in a 3* mind you a good 3* in Dublin per night but it was tied in with visiting my Son and I wanted a couple of days in Dublin first. Got a 1p flight yes 2p return no tax with Ryanair and I am going over again 18th September. All August I am tied up with visitors coming to me. My neighbours say I just need a hotel room to come home to but then life is short.

Just enjoy.

Sue

NCL Jade will be a relativly BRAND NEW ship original launched MAY 2006.

The refit will be minimal since she was built as Jewel class ship in the first place.

NCL,Princess,RCI not much in them, Celebrity a bit better quality wise but a different atmosphere/style with each.

NCL has the best selection of eating at sea in this price bracket.

NCL deals are as good as the rest, current pricing is a bit high for next year they will come down.

Navigator of the seas was built in 2002 the new RCI ship for UK in 2008 is the Independance of the seas.

Yes I did mean Independence of the Seas. I can not speak for NCL from a personal point just as I can not speak about Carnival. Neither would be my choice and this is probably to do with an age issue in some ways.
I like a ship where you are not bombarded with public announcements and lots of games etc.
RCI and Princess do this much better than Celebrity mainly because of the client base.
I have enjoyed Princess cruises and RCI in the past and I would not hestitate to do so again if the price were right. I think that RCI have an edge over Princess and again due to the passengers.
They are both excellent products and at some great prices. All I was saying is that the OP should do some background research themselves because as we all know one person's whatever is another's poison

Sue

Never done NCL, but would like to try them personally some time as well as Princess.

We have been on Cunard QM2 and Celebrity, but also Holland America who do not market much in the UK. In our opinion they are comparable with Celebrity, but are generally cheaper than Celebrity on vacationstogo.com although cruise only. We did a 10 day cruise out of Rome last June on the new Noordam and self booked flights etc. It was a doddle and worked out much, much cheaper than T/A. Certainly with self book you need to get out a day early in case of flight delay etc.

Sometimes, with special deals, T/A's are cheaper and that has certainly been our experience this year with Celebrity Century, RCI Voyager and next year Ventura. Some fantastic T/A prices available. Secret is to shop around and, particularly if date flexible, you can get incredible deals as Sue and Windjammer keep saying. Believe me it is true.

The new Holland America brochure for 2008 is just out, received our copy yesterday. They have some excellent routes taking in some places that others do not do. We are looking possibly to do one next May/June.

For us variety is the spice of life and we have sailed now with 6 lines, and 2 new lines already booked. The Berlitz guide to cruising reviews all ships, and is an excellent guide, in our experience fairly and critically representing what you will experience. It is worth the £15-£20 cover charge from internet or WH Smith etc, or can be picked up at your local library.

Many thanks for everyone's replies. Well, we've bitten the bullet and booked the Jade cruise from Barcelona to Istanbul for 30th March. It takes in a lot of ports we'd love to revisit and is a special birthday celebration for me. We're still looking at a budget cruise later this year, so have taken your advice, especially about getting on lots of mailing lists.

We've heard the shore excursions are expensive and subject to last minute change, so we're hoping to find independent tours at Dubrovnic, Naples and Ephesus, but a bit nervous about visiting Rome alone. so any tips on those ports will be more than welcome.

PS We followed advice we'd found and found the best deal we could on the web, then went to the TA we normally used, and although they were advertising a much higher price, they bettered the deal.

I am glad that you were able to use a TA you know and trust and that they were able to agree a deal with you.
I would always prefer to do have for the past 10 years. It is always worth trying to squeeze that little bit of extra discount and they will if it is possible as they want to retain your custom.

I however did stray from that with my QM2 cruise as no one could equal or come even near to the price. My TA was fantastic and did check out the new agent for me and much as it pained her to quote her she did say you have to go for it at that price.

This is because she knows that if she were able to she would have had my business and hopes also to retain it for the future.

Good luck and enjoy

Sue

I thought I would have a go at DIY for this to see what it came out at.

Cruise only(inside GTY) via US £500 (mini suite about £900) NCL UK want £670 for the inside.

Flights for next April are not out yet but with BA will probably be
LHR-> BCN £50
Istanbul back to LHR £85
add a couple of transfers £50pp max
Looking at <£685. (£1085 for the Mini)

I have split the off topic posts from this topic and merged them with "Windjammer Does Deals".

luci

Just as I was typing a reply, got me confused when half the thread disapeared from my reply window.

Sorry WJ. There were a lot of posts not relating to the Jade so I thought it best to move them to keep this on topic.

luci

http://www.ncl.com/nclweb//pressroom/pressRelease.html?storyCode=PR_022708_JadeRelease

Good news for those that don't like long haul and should give another option for a Xmas NY cruise(the 14n holiday cruise)

Shame it is not in the UK for those that won't fly, but there is the train option to BCN these days.

Very interesting, thanks W'J. We are booked on Jade 30 May for 14 nights and, if we like the NCL way, this may give us options for 1st Qtr. 2009 in the Canaries. This would attract me more out of Barcelona than Southampton, which some lines do.