Hamrag, I'd pretty much agree with the points you raised in your review, especially 'Paystyle' rather than Freestyle.

One thing onboard that made me giggle was the 'farm reared chicken' dish on the main menu. Where else would you expect a chicken to be raised? maybe it's an American term

Thanks for the review Windjammer,we are on the Jade in a couple of weeks.
Windjammer,have you been offered an upsell,if so do let me know & will try contacting NCL,
cheers
Sue

Need to cut back on the booze!
Thanks for the review Hamrag!

marjrie - I've just taken a look through Jade's Freestyle Daily, and the only mention of anything like afternoon tea was a 'grandparents' tea social' and that was only the once on a two week cruise. I was hoping someone out there could tell you differently

shamansue wrote:

:wave: Thanks for the review Windjammer,we are on the Jade in a couple of weeks. Windjammer,have you been offered an upsell,if so do let me know & will try contacting NCL,
cheers
Sue

Not me we are in two weeks

Which cruise are you on, 29th North cape or a different one?

Thanks Graham

I am just back tonight and have just read your review. As you have said given what you paid etc and if the price was right you would sail NCL again.
For me it would be a no not because of just what you said but what I have heard from a couple of friends who have cruised NCL.
Price is not necessarily my criteria as you well know and I tend to go for the tried (by me and trusted) Companies. Cunard I just love and would cruise with them any time. Celebrity has always met my expectations although in common with all the Companies they have pared back a lot in recent years. e.g. paying for shuttles etc also Cunard used to offer many more perks than today. That is what the competition demands as they are all trying to put bottoms on beds.

I am glad that you did enjoy your cruise and no doubt will be looking forward to the Ventura later in the year. I have not cruised with P&O since 1985 and no doubt today it will be very different from what it was then to what it will be today. Only by trying the various Companies do you know what is to your liking.

I have not cruised with HA as yet but would probably give them a go given the price being right. Would also cruise with Princess on the right ship and the right itinary etc but would still prefer to do Cunard or X.

Will email you later lots of drama today re my flights back to the UK. Long story but life is never dull for me and I still maintain my sense of humour through it all.

Sue

I was on the same cruise as Hamrag. Whilst I agree with some comments, always after more money, we enjoyed the Freestyle concept and will cruise NCL again.

We enjoyed the freedom of eating when we wanted to and having a choice of restaurants. We experienced Cagneys (twice) Jasmine Gardens (twice) Le Bistro and the Tapinaki dinner show, taking advantage of the 2 for one deals they cost us a total of $140, plus voluntary tips. These were all outstanding and well worth the money. One tip is to have lunch in the Grand Pacific Restaurant on the first day. The Garden Cafe was packed and the restaurant looked empty with about 30 people in there. At dinner, if there is a queue at prime times (7.30-8.30) you are given a pager and can wait in a bar or the Atrium. The wait for us was never more than 20 minutes so wasn't a problem. Another tip is to have breakfast and/or lunch in the Blue Lagoon. You could also have a nice pot of tea and a slice of cheesecake when returning on board in the afternoon. Much nicer than the scrum at the Garden Cafe. Although the food looked very good, I want to have a nice quiet meal and be waited on !

Have cruised RCCL, Cunard, P&O, Princess, Celebrity, Costa, Airtours, Thomson and Island so have a reasonable idea of what to expect of a cruise and thought the overall NCL package was very good.

Bob

Returning reviewers, Thanks guys.

Once you take out the "paystyle" restaurants(same as other lines just more of them), what else made you feel that you were on a "paystyle" cruise?

IME(Pearl,Gem) after the pay food choices the other optional onboards cost items seem very similar to Princess, RCI and Celebrity based on recent expereiences.

For all those returning from the Jade, I'd be delighted if you would post a review HERE

I would suggest typing it in Word or similar before posting it as we sometimes have problems with the review site not uploading reviews.

Thanks.

luci

'The Farm raised chicken' notation indicates more of a free range situation rather than the intensive battery poultry farming.

Apart from the pay restaurants, every opportunity is taken to get your remaining dollars e.g. t-shirts for both the white night and the Monte Carlo night. They even charge you to join a biking session in the gym at 4.00pm each day!! These bikes are freely available as a gym item at all other times. There are other examples listed on the daily activities sheet.

Like Bobstheboy we have cruised with a number of lines (8) and consider NCL to be the worst in terms of charging for extra items. For the record we considered the pay restaurant to be good value on the 2 for 1 basis. Many ships have the "freestyle" dining thing by other names but the problem is that the majority of passengers choose to eat at a time which will enable them to go straight to the main theatre show.....hence the need for pagers forcing you into a bar....to spend even more dollars!

We had never been NCL before, but there were a significant number who had and many complained that things were not as previous experience with them, and they would "vote with their feet" which is quite interesting.

Graham

I trust your judgement as you are ALWAYS fair and do not like me make judge Cruise Companies but will try them and have a very open mind on the subject.
As you say if others are voting with their feet then that does more than back up your opinion. The very thing that would bother me is the constant trying to sell or get you to buy something just to increase their revenue.
On Golden Princess we had opted for set dining as we knew we could change. Not a good table where I think everyone left because of one couple.
Changing to anytime was easy at no time did wait more than 5 minutes with a pager. We walked away from the restaurant went to the ladies room or perhaps into a shop and the thing was scaring the daylights out of us. We got Oscar to change the setting on it for us. Other times we were straight in.
2nd cruise we booked set dining and set dining again and had a great table. We remained there but went twice to the anytime dining to eat a table a wonderful waitress had been on our previous cruise. It was a 16 nighter. When we went back from this our head waiter said welcome back. We did tell our waiter where we would be.

No NCL is definately not for me!!

Sue

Very interesting! Hamrag, I have cruised with Royal carribbean, princess and NCL. I have been on 8 with NCL and I have to say this last one on Gem was the best. We couldn't fault it. I know that it all depends on the staff a lot of the time. We didn't have pagers, but we always enjoy a before dinner dinner drink so to be fair that wouldn't bother us. I think I will have to pack White clothes for the white night on our cruise on Gem in November and December. What did everyone wear for the Monte CARLO NIGHT? They didn't have this on our last cruise, we had a Toga night! It was a good laugh as we all stripped our beds. I think most cruise lines charge as much as they can most of the time, but I believe that you don't have to do it if you don't want to pay. I found last time that there were no loud announcements into the cabins which was great. Bingo was also very low key another great thing. The Band on the deck was quieter another great thing. They do tend to push for drinks but hopefully this will change with the new flag system. We love freestyle and NCL is our choice at the moment. Wait till there F3 ships arrive......

they sold Monte Carlo t-shirts for the Monte Carlo night. They had black bow ties and jacket/waistcoat fronts printed on them. So I'd guess think James Bond....

Spandance, it was the Jade we were on not the Gem!! Not sure if there would be differences in style etc.

In writing my review I sought to give our views about our experience. For those who had already had a pre-dinner drink, none were looking to be sent to the bar again with a pager!! Just another reason to increase their dollar revenue, as there was always space in the dining room and when they said 20 or 30 minutes you were always in by 5 or 10....i.e just enough time to have you purchase a couple of drinks! To be fair on the other side of the coin there was absolutely no pressure or push to buy wine etc. with meals...they were very happy to serve and keep topping up "iced regular water", and we have been on other lines where they push a little too much with the wine thing. The following is a direct quote from the final paragraph of my original post:

"Overall we were satisfied with NCL, relative to the price paid, and would use them again for the right destinations and price etc. We would assess their product as a star rating above Thomson and Island, and probably half a star below Royal Caribbean."

Hamrag, thanks for the info, usefull in trying to set my expectations for this new NCL offering.

This point caught my eye

They even charge you to join a biking session in the gym at 4.00pm each day!! These bikes are freely available as a gym item at all other times. There are other examples listed on the daily activities sheet

So I thought I would compare the classes the gym/spa offer from our two most recent cruises. Gem(Dec 07) Constellation(April08).(can't find my RCI stuff from April 07)

Celebrity charge £10 for 3 classes Cycling(spinning),Pilates,Yoga and have free ones stretch,Aerobics and the seminas to promote products. They do not show them in the daily program you have to go to the gym/spa to get the schedule for the week.

NCL, Also have a similar range of classes and charge $10 for the same two no pilates though, these are in the daily schedule.

So overall the same facility just with NCL it is in the daily program so I guess a bit more "in your face"

Did anyone go to the cruisecritic meeting? if so can you fill us in on that as well.

(usualy these are a don't miss event.)

We went to the Cruise Critic Meetings. They said they'd take steps to prevent queues at embarkation, explained why the self service laundrettes were no more and introduced the happy hour meals in extra charge restaurants to ease the horrendous queues in the main restaurants.

tidewatching wrote:

We went to the Cruise Critic Meetings. They said they'd take steps to prevent queues at embarkation, explained why the self service laundrettes were no more and introduced the happy hour meals in extra charge restaurants to ease the horrendous queues in the main restaurants.

Thanks,

Umm

Happy hour meals are nothing new, so sounds like a bit of bull.

Self service laundy what were the reasons? These were a good feature on the jewel class that are missing on the jade.

Queues at embarkation, the two way to eliminate these are more desks and to know when people are arriving, controlling that for those on NCL transport is simple but, with 50%+ UK passengers many driving not so easy.

Hamrag, I know you were on Jade! As I said in my previous notes that was why I was asking if it was the same standard as Gem (WHICH WE WERE PREVIOUSLY ON) as I liked the look of the Barcelona through Greece,Cairo etc on the Jade. Did you watch any of the singing and dancing shows and if so what was the standard like? Anyone know when the best time is to book to get a great price for April 2009 or a site where they have got super deals?