Another question about NCL Jade.

We have previously cruised with Thomson and Island and one thing we loved was the afternoon teas, little sandwiches and stuff.

Will NCL do this or is it more of a British ship thing?

Never been with NCL before, but the 7 lines we have with all have there own version of afternoon niceties!

I have had 3 cruises with NCL 2 on the Dream 1 on the Dawn I honestly can't remember if there was afternoon tea, but one thing I definitely do remember about the Dawn was eating a "Brill" meal in the French restaurant surrounded by Renoir-- Matisse-- Monet - paintings and I think that crossing over to New York cost something like £399 not sure if those paintings are still there.

Not sure what the Jade will be like just about 5 weeks now until we sail on her but I'm sure there will be lots of lovely nibbles

The 29 June 12 night sailing on Jade, Southampton to Norway and back, has reduced on vacations to go (and NCL web) to $699+$86 taxes+ $84 fuel surcharge i.e. total of $869...incredible price!

hello! I thouroughly enjoyed reading your posts and I am very interested to know if you enjoyed your cruise as we would like to know as we want to go next april 2009. We have just been on the Gem from Barcelona and this ship is stunning and wonderful service. Hope to hear fro you soon bye for now

Hi spandance and welcome to HT!

I have asked for the Gem to be added to our Cruise Reviews and would be delighted if you would post a review once this has been done.

luci

I see the jade has 2 entries in the review section might be worth removing one(the empty one).

Already done WJ.

luci

I would be delighted to and also any questions that I may be able to offer answers to. just let me know when to send one. Spandance

Marjrie, we've been on the Jade and really missed afternoon tea - it there was any, we didn't find it. I think it might be a British thing.

Been back 2 days and no reviews

come on lads pull your fingers out

If Luci allows me to post a Jade "review" on this thread then fine, will do so. I am not going to do a review for the Cruise reviews part of this web-site as the last 2 which I have done disappeared into the internet ether, never to be seen again. Please advise Luci if this is OK.

Yes hamrag feel free to post a review here.

The anti-spam measures have been removed from the review site so perhaps you could try again by copying and pasting your review from here to the review site.

luci

Hope that you had a wonderful cruise Graham.

I am in Ireland at my Son's at the moment will email you when I get back. Looking forward to reading the review

Sue

As I am considering booking a cruise from Barcelona on Jade in April 2009 I would love to hear your review. We recently went on the Gem and it is a wonderful ship. look forward to hearing all. spandance

Hi Hamrag hope you had a good time, we are two weeks today so great to get some upto date info before then.

One of our group has been upsold to the courtyard villas from an AF the rest of us are waiting for the calls.

I find it best to write up reviews off-line in say textpad avoids loosing stuff and you can think about it a bit, you can then use the same material for multiple sites and use extracts in posts when people ask specific questions saves having to re type. You can also make notes of things you want to remember but don't want to post anywhere.

Norwegian Jade Review

We cruised on the Jade for 14 nights from Southampton to the Med on 30th May. Embarkation was a bit of a nightmare. To beat the real queues get there by 11.00am, they will let you into the cruise terminal and commence boarding before 11.30am. During the peak boarding time (12.00 - 2.00pm) the queues are very, very long and it will take well over an hour to board! The other option is to board between 2.30 and 3.00pm when queues are shorter, taking about 30-45 minutes. Don't worry about the fact the documents say you need to board by 2.00pm, you don't and it helps immensely if you have already completed your embarkation details on the NCL web-site beforehand! The boarding route is very hot, no air conditioning there.

Our first impression was that the décor looked a bit OTT, because the ship was built for the Hawaii cruising area. After a couple of days you do get over that, and it does not seem so bad. Certainly the ship and cabins are well presented and maintained and, relative to the star rating of NCL, of a high standard.

Freestyle is the NCL brand, and the word is ingrained in your thinking from boarding to disembarkation (and beyond)!! The opposite of "free" is "pay" and I would rename their branding Paystyle as NCL's clear strategy is to get many dollars on your spend account.

There are a number of restaurants for eating in, many for a supplement. The 2 main dining rooms, the Garden Café (buffet style), Tapas/Mexican restaurant and Blue Lagoon (the only 24/7 option) all carry no supplement. The menus at the 2 main restaurants were, for us, lacking in imagination although the food and presentation was fine. The Garden Café is no worse than any other buffet style restaurant we have encountered, and comparable with the premium lines. The Tapas/Mexican restaurant is excellent if you like that type of food for a change (we did, once each week). The Blue Lagoon is also good, with a limited and standard menu, and also an option for breakfast.

Regarding the supplement restaurants the only one we tried was Cagney's Steakhouse, and we went back again a couple of times. The Italian, French and Asian restaurant menus did not appeal to our tastes but many said they were good. Every night they offer a 2 for 1 pricing in the Cagney's and the Italian and French restaurants usually between 5.30 and 6.30pm, but occasionally between 6.00pm to 7.00pm. You need to book early the day before to get the later times.

We only did one ship tour, which was well organised and good value. Everything else we DIY'd as we normally do"¦..much freer to set your own agenda that way!! As far as getting on and off at ports it is well organised and relatively quick, apart from Gibraltar!! This is the cheap booze capital in the Med and NCL apply a very strict no bringing alcohol on board policy, and are extremely hot at picking off the smugglers.

Entertainment during the daytime is absolutely geared towards getting more dollars onto your spend account. Sunbeds, as always, are hard to come by in the pool area and one deck above during sea days and from mid-afternoon in port. There is another option on the deck which is 2 above the pools. Evening entertainment is varied, which means it will not always be to your taste or ours but"¦.we are all different and in our view NCL try to cater for all tastes during the course of the cruise. Many complained about the entertainment in the main show theatre, but it was acceptable to us. Most of the people complaining were comparing it with the premium lines like Cunard, Holland America, Celebrity and Princess, but NCL is not a premium line but probably competing with Royal Caribbean and Carnival. We would say that Royal Caribbean is slightly better overall than NCL. There are many bars, and live music to suit different tastes in many locations throughout the ship. We enjoyed wandering around after the main shows and listening to music in these locations. We do not gamble, but the casino by all accounts meets the requirement and certainly takes up a large area in mid-ship deck 6.

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.

Any questions please ask and I will endeavour to respond.

Thank you for your review, you have got me thinking that the ship's standard is not up to the others on Ncl. We have travelled on Royal Caribbean and Princess and I would say that NCL was well above RCI (but that's just our opinion) Also I think the ship has a lot to do with it. It doesn't sound like you had any of the (freestyle 2 standards) with the new sun loungers and deck furniture, all new bedding with bed toppers, different stations for the buffet with amazing choice. Always steak, chicken, Fish, as an extra choice on the menu in the main dining rooms. Perhaps I will have to re think again. Thanks again for your input. spandance

Spandance, we had all of that!! Many who had sailed NCL before thought the new Paystyle standards were a retrograde step!