I think they look like per room prices.

check on http://www.ncl.com and INVALID URL for the deals)

There are aome very good deals on suites out there for the winter cruises.

Yes its per room

Certainly not the best time of year for this one, but NCL Jade November 6 for 12 nights Istanbul, via Venice overnight and other interesting ports ending at Barcelona is $699 + taxes etc. on vacationstogo

We are considering NCL Jade for Spring 09, can anyone tell me the price of drinks aboard.

About the same as all the American ships.

Varies what are you thinking of in particular?

15% gratuity on all drinks

tea coffee(incl caps/exp etc) free all day.

beer $4-$6+
wine $25+ a bottle
foo foo $6-$10+

Many thanks for that. I am a VaT drinker, do you know how much I will pay for that. I might sound a bit thick but I don't know what foo foo is.

http://foofoodrinks.com/

cocktails

Looking at the cruise which visits Rome and Barcelona - Mediterranean Escape on 26th July - but just a little concerned about the mixed reviews this ship seems to get. If we do go ahead and book, it will probably be an inside cabin. These seems to range through decks 4 - 11 and I wondered which were the decks to avoid. Don't particularly suffer from sea sickness but don't want to start now! Love the itinerary and the price but either can't find or have missed similar tours with other companies.

Rosalyn

We were on the Jade last summer, and a review was posted (3rd from top, in the cruise reviews section). We had inside guarantee, and were on lowest deck 4...it was absolutely fine, no worries with ship movement. Bear in mind that in July the seas will be as calm as they can be!

We saw the deals for this ship in July, and considered doing it again so that says something. Also, we are booked on it for 29 September in the Black Sea. If the price & itinery suit you then my advice would be to go ahead! Reading my review again, the two areas in which we scored it 3 out of 5 were really 3.5, just didn't feel these areas merited a 4.

We were on in June(12n) last year and Jan(12n) this year and again next week(5n).

There was improvment from last year to this year, will be updateing from an inside this time.

Personaly we budget to eat in the specialities, so we have maximun choice which is what freestyle is about.
Buffet and main dinning is good and in Jan we used them a lot more than we though we would.

Any questions just ask.

Thanks for the quick responses. Hamrag, I had read your review before I posted and, although you seemed reasonably happy with the ship, had mentally filed it in the negative column. I did re-read it again but would now, in view of your comments plus those of Windjammer, perhaps move it to the neutral column! I realise that everyone has different tastes, etc but I am impressed by the fact that both of you are sailing on her again and that certainly does help me.
Since joining this wonderful site it never fails to amaze me how one holiday is brilliant for some people and horrendous for others. I suppose that is life and if we were all the same it would be boring.
I now have to convince hubby that its good value. He wants 2 weeks lying on the beach in Spain simply relaxing, but I'm not a beach lover so its a question of who wins!
Do you think the price will come down any further? That might help!

Thats what makes a cruise great.

He can go up on the top deck and sit on his lounger all day you can do what you want.

Both happy.

Tell him that it is your right to win!!

It was 5 years ago when I relented and agreed to cruise, to celebrate our Silver wedding, for the first time. When I booked it my inner attitude to be truthful was "I am doing this to humour her"!! We were both instantly hooked, and have now cruised 12 times in 5 years.

One of the things with Norwegian that may help hubby on board is the fact that the evening dress code is much less formal than some lines, indeed smart casual is the norm so there are no suits/tuxedos required. The other bonus is the dining procedure. There is no fixed restaurant or fixed table to sit at with potentially people you may not gel with, and the time as well as the venue you dine is your choice entirely. Norwegian are best with regard to this flexibility and they call it "freedom dining".

Regarding lying in the sun, there is ample opportunity for that on deck and also you do not have to get off all day (or at all) in the various ports. At that time of year, the sunlight hours are long and you can still get out on deck from late afternoon after exploring the ports of call. If you self explore, rather than take the ship tours, you set your own agenda which is therefore totally flexible....we always do our own exploring.

Not sure what your current pricing is, or what type of cabin you are looking for, but the cheapest inside cabin can be had on http://www.smartcruiser.com for $1175 which is £800ish. That is a good price for 14 nights in high summer! You do need to bear in mind that there is a service charge of £6.50pppd which is either prepaid at booking or added to your on-board account at the rate of $12pppd, which is £8.

Here is an update from our 24May 5 night jade trip.
Turned into a bit of a ramble, some is for people we cruise with that frequent another forum and NCL regulars.

NCL Jade 24 May 5N Irish Escape.
(This has got a bit long)

We were traveling with friends on this trip so arrived at their house on time (10:00am) for the 1.5hr drive down to Southampton with a target to be checked in around 12:00 the typical boarding time at Southampton. Just as we were about to leave I remembered I had not done something at home so had to dash back a 45min round trips so we were off to a great start for this Cruise.

We eventualy left the house at 11:00 am, had a good run until we got to about 20miles from the docks and the traffic became very heavy so it was 1:00pm when we drove up to the terminal. There was a short 10min delay as they filtered traffic to the baggage drop zone, from there is was a short drive to the carpark and the passenger embarkation zone.

Southampton, like most ports now, do the security screening first, we were in this queue at 1:25pm and it took 15mins, Our friends were fast tracked since they have access needs.

On entering the checkin area looking around there were plenty of empty checkin desks so they could have had another Security station open since that is where the back up was. The gold/Platinum/VIP/suites queue looked to be about 10 people deep so we headed to the regular latitudes checkin along side which was empty, and got attended to immediately. Pig flu/Noro form to fill in while the passports were checked photos taken, CC voucher signed, Cruise cards in hand 3 mins tops.

Stopped to have a chat with Ruth(concierge) and our butler from the Jan trip, both well and asked after everyone.

It is a fair walk from the checkin lounge to the ship at Southampton city terminal but this was straight onto the ship since by now any back log from the early boarders was clear, got the glass of bubbly and proceeded to the cabin to drop the carry on.

We were forward on deck 10 so up to the spa to get Nina a spa pass, two sea days and we had been to both ports before so expected to spend plenty of time on the ship.

By now it was past 2:00 so the dining rooms had closed, it was a nice day so decided to proceed to the great outdoors for burger, chips, and a bucket of beer, the cruise has started.

This cruise was full at lifeboat capacity(1700ish)
There were a lot of kids IIRC 400 was mentioned.
Latitude numbers were low I heard different Nos between 600-800
Around 2000 brits allthough it felt there may have been more not many foreign voices.

Some changes since our trip in Jan, some we new about from reading the boards.

Pepsi was being installed during our trip, people actualy had there mini bars changed over during the trip also as each bar got done at different days you were Coke in one bar and Pepsi in another.

Cagnies cover is now $25

Paniolo(tex-mex) $10 cover, used to come with a full size Margarita now it is a mini sampler.

All the bar menus are new and some prices have gone up, I noticed the draft is now $5.95 against $5.50 in Jan, not that familiar with the other prices.

All these bar new menus have the service at 17% but we were still getting charged 15%, I was informed that this has been abandoned and it will stay at 15%, so they will be printing up another new set of menus at some time.

Cagnies Lunch menu is now the same every day with an extended list of options, plenty of mix and match possibilities for the longer cruises.

The biggest change for the Jade is on the entertainment side, Second City which had taken over a lot of the alternatives to the main shows have gone and a new Cruise Director Karen(ex RCI) has come on board, very enthusiastic, friendly, keen on feedback, the Jade itineraries attract a diverse pax mix from cruise to cruise, the next two are mainly americans, later cruises will be back to more brits so the schedule needs to be adjusted unlike the ships on 7n regular rotations.

Things are heading back to a more traditional format probably will appeal more to a european audience, I did notice in Jan that Second city had not adapted the show away from American style humor that much.

All of the things we went to were well attended and it seems the last few cruises this has not been the case.

For those that follow NCL entertainers on this trip we had

Sound Bytes(party).
Dave Web (piano).
Adam James (piano).
RJ red (guitar).
Dmitry (concert pianist).
Guys & doll (dance).
DJ Keith.

Main acts were

John Martin, Comedien, very good.
Yoolio Juggler (did not attend)
Stars on strings, Marionette artist, different and entertaining
Laurence Robinson, Tenor, popular NCL regular.
Irish Folklore on both port days(did not attend).

Production shows were
Shout, First time we have seen this one and enjoyed it.
Showdown, seen before entertaining adaptation of "Idol" style show.

There is a new show in the pipeline something to look out for, it might be in trials on one of the ships allready but I have not had time to look at more recent reviews across the fleet.

We went to the Monte Carlo night for the first time on this trip, allthough many seem to enjoy this we realy don't get it, a mix of entrtainment items with a few givaways with an active cruise staff trying very hard to make it exciting. The casino is just not an attractive place if you don't gamble.

Weds had a football(soccer) match so the white hot party was on late at 11:00pm in Spinnakers, since this would be over 18 at that time a special family White Hot party was put on in Medusa at 10:00, I passed by at around 10:40 and this was well attended, it also avoided the issue with trying to clear spinnakers of under 18's, it did however mean that the later party was not packed as it would have been if there had just been the one party.

Usual mix of party(50,60,70) nights and games shows fill the rest of the evening schedule.

One thing that was extra on this trip

The Grey Goose Ambassador Jason, a rep from Bacardi.

He did some presentations and provided some samples, also the ice sculpture Vodka fountain at the white hot party flowed rather well.

Jason has being doing the rounds of the ships so look out for him on a future cruises if into martinis.

Food.

There have been reports of new menus on the boards, I don't think they have changed yet on the Jade they looked familiar to me.

Cagnies first night, as usual very quiet, good meal but the $25 is now pushing it, there is plenty of other options for steak on the ship.

Second night Beef Wellington and Lobster/Grouper special, Alizar was backed up 40 min wait, it was peak time, so we headed over to the Grand Pacific which had a shorter wait and we were in in 10mins.

We missed the lunch Sushi on the first sea day due to late breakfast so decided to do an Asian/Sushi third night,

Next we did Bistro and our friends did Papas, both were good.

Last night we did Paniolo, Tuna chili crust was hot(like it that way), tried the chicken soup and the lobster Taco for the first time and both were great.

The new TV how long to wait screens are a lot better than the old ones, with 1/2hr slots with 3 color codes to give an indicator of fullness(red,orange,green), not sure these are quiet there yet, beepers were being handed out at Alizar when the color was orange for filling up, the specials were relativly easy to book on the evening, Tepanyaki did fill most nights.

The silly thing about these screens is that Tepanyaki which is set times still has the 1/2 hr slots poor software design/implimentation

Embarkation was sunny so had a sailaway BBQ, and there was other lunch BBQ last sea day, both had a steady flow of people with no queue forming.

I did check out the garden cafe on a few occasions to see how busy it gets since this is one of the big areas of complaint in reviews about the Jewel class ships

The freestye daily advises Papas as an overflow seating for breakfast/lunch and it seemed to be well used, they also had a coffee/tea station setup the couple of times I checked it out. The weather was not that good so the great outdoors only ever had 1 side opperational and one afternoon stayed closed which did put a bit more pressure on the main area.

Given the number of pax it did not seem to bad, very busy but you could still walk through and there were only a few looking for tables on the times I checked. Previous trips I have seen it so packed it is a struggle just to walk through.

Both self service soft Ice cream stations were out of action, there was an ice cream service station available, forgot to ask why.

A few misc observations

The indian food in the garden cafe has been toned down a bit and is now too mild we prefer it hotter.
No steak at the BBQs. chicken, ribs and pork chops were great.
The day I went for a hotdog I only saw some regular sausage which were not that good and no franks, did not look that hard though.
Latitudes basket has lost the wine.



The CC roll call for this trip was very quiet but I put together a Meet & Greet anyway and Cristina did a great job gettting the Captain,HD,astHD,F&B,another I forgot and CD to attend. Only about 10 turned up from the 20+ that showed an interest which is a shame they missed an opportunity to meet those in charge and ask questions.

We were made to feel very welcome by the Captain and Dwen the HD with a Q&A. The Captain stayed and chatted for over 30mins a very interesting and funny man.

One of the potential problems with a short cruise like this is it can take a while to settle in having been on in Jan were familiar with the ship and many of the ships company are same so we are into our stride quickly.

On the beverage side of things the team led by Katya,Aldo and Joseph did a great job again.

We had great service for all our meals

Cabins next to steward stores can get some noise, so if you don't want early wake up calls but still be near something like the elevators book one extra cabin down.

The kids pool on this trip was well used but had to be closed for over a day to be drained and cleaned due an accident, not a pleasent job removing a floater.

A number of passengers I chatted to did comment about the costs onboard both the service and the drink prices.
There were a lot of new to NCL Brit cruisers and far fewer of them had prepaid service than I thought would have done, something NCL UK needs to work on more I think
Still some complaints of slow service at B,fast in the dining rooms.

Dublin, we had been before so we just went into town for a few hours, the free shuttle buses ran till 9:00pm Guinness €5.50

Cobh, again we have been before, this time we took "The Titanic Trail" a walking tour by the historian Michael Martin an interesting and informative 1hr tour but a little pricy at €8.50. Guinness €3.80

Forgot how tight these Inside cabins are and did miss the courtyard this time round. Having been on the ship a few times now we were well looked after.

A great break if a little short.

Finaly managed to book the Jade for this Saturday
We got a decent price $3355 for a BE GTY ( total for 2)
We booked through Crusie adventure Travel and can honestly say its the best service I have ever had from any travel agent
Her name is Angela Hackett Angela@Cruiseadventuretravel.com
I just hope the cheescake is as good as on the Gem Any last minutes tips WJ?

Take a good coat it was freezing at the North cape.

If you take the ships tour you get a timed ticket for the buses, we got of the ship early and they just put us on the next coach which gave us more time at the North cape hall, there is a new movie to watch.

I tried to find out if there were any concerts next Thurs, when we were there there was one in the main hall that we got to listen to for 1/2 hr(ish) some school orchestra.

Geiranger is spectacular have the camera ready for the waterfalls.

Not got time to give any hints for the ports today, but a bit of research will find the best of each or just wing it on the day.

Have a good trip this is one of the best a "must do" .

Thanks for the tips
I am tryign to do as much port research as possibel but we will probably just wing it
Just had our cabin number 11588 AF mini not bad ugrade from a BE

Nice one.

Not a bad midship location under the pool deck and well forward of the gym which are the bad ones.

JUst checked my emails

GIlls emailed yesterday they have insides at £399 if anyone else fancies this North Cape trip.