littlelulu01

This picture is of the Pearl coed spa area. This is just one portion of the coed area. The Pearl coed spa area is im guessing three to four times the size as the Jade coed area. If you look at the hot tub behind this pool you will see a water container/hottub/therapy tub? that looks like the one on the Jade. And if you look at the white bars in this picture of the decent sized pool in Pearl spa you will know what I mean by white bars in the Jade coed thasotherapy pool/hot tub/body of water that produces bubbles. I think the Jade is called a thasotherapy pool because of the white bars. It was nothing like that pictured here of the Pearl's pool. It was like that of the tub behind this pic of the Pearl pool.

I attached a photo of the NCL Jade coed spa area. I took this picture while standing by the door to the women's only area of coed spa. At the opposite end of this coed room is the men's only entrance. To my right and not pictured here is a hot tub. Yes it is called a thasotherapy pool so technically the Jade has one. It is very different than the Pearl coed one though. It is a square tub of water with the white wooden bars across (bars just like that in the Pearl coed spa area) that a couple can lay on and it has bubbles. It has no jets. I never saw anyone in it. We tried it and found the private womens only hot tub much more beneficial because it had jets and bubbles. It also had comfortable seating like a hot tub would. There is no other seating in the coed area of the Jade. Just the tile loungers. The Pearl tile loungers did not face the front of the ship however the Pearl spa had padded loungers in the coed area that did face the front of the ship along with other chairs and seating areas. I believe the Pearl spa also had showers. The Jade coed spa area as you can see from this picture is much smaller so no room for any chairs besides the tile ones. I believe that if you search the internet you can find some professional pics showing a couple of chairs/not loungers but they are not actually in the coed area.

My med sailing price had not increased and ta was able to add an additional $300 obc today. This is my first celebrity booking and I'm thrilled. All four perks, a sky suite and hefty obc for two thousand less than lowest category balcony on NCL Jade same dates. if you factor in $600 obc, premium drink, unlimited internet, daily service charge it's even a bigger savings not to mention Jade is a 184 sq ft basic balcony room vs 300 sq ft suite on Silhouette with suite perks.

From what I've seen and read, the Silhouette is a beautiful ship. NCL service charge just on the "free" beverage package was $347 for two on 14 night sailing. Unlike the included premium beverage package on Celebrity, NCL package does not include waters, cans of soda, speciality coffees, juices.

The Jade does not have the coed therapy pool that the Pearl has. Jade's coed area consists of a hot tub with bubbles, no massage jets, and a few tile loungers.

The separate sex areas each have a cold plunge pool, hot tub with bubbles and jets, steam and sauna room, padded chairs with foot stools, tv, water, lockers, bathroom and showers.

Nice part of Jade's spa is tile loungers that face the front of ship but for couples the hot tub and tile loungers is all that you share.

I have prepaid tips as a perk for a suite booking. We plan on ordering a dinner package to try a few speciality venues. It sounds like we will pay a gratuity on the package when we purchase vs when we dine.

So it sounds like our grats are covered for dining and if we want to give someone a little more we can but not expected. I assume the tip follows us depending on where we eat. perhaps main dining one night, blu one night, and luminae one night?

And if we use room service do we tip extra each time or is that delivered by butler who is also included in tip pool but who we would probably give something to at end of cruise depending on how much we used and appreciate him. Thanks

I just ran this cruise through celebritycruises.com and it appears you can buy it without BBB. $1189 for a balcony but when you hit continue it shows $1999 and tells you to pick two perks. It also asks you if you want to go back to the original offer and it takes you back $1189. I took it all way to entering payment info and the price held. Unless the website is messed up, you're paying $810 p.p. for the two perks, not quite free. This is an AZ resident rate.

Big box ta website is also showing these prices with or without bbb on med sailings same price differential

Well, we got our answer by the looks of it for our cruise. Someone has posted that our overnight in Istanbul is no more. They have decided to still disembark in Istanbul, and have added a few more hours in some of the ports to make up for it.

 

A little disappointing, but not something that will make me change my plans for this voyage.

Understandable. Nice that you have a more definitive plan going forward and that you have a few extra hours in other ports.

I would think there is still a possibility of some major changes such as in debarkation port or changes to Israel ports.

I would love to know in advance, understand the need for wait and see but in all honesty I think the Ashod and Haifa ports could be canceled up to day of. I would much rather have a change now and lose out vs lose out at the last minute and get an extra sea day or a few overnights in Athens.

On my med sailing a two bedroom/non haven suite on Jade is 18k!! Prior to the cancellations and redeployment I had a haven suite booked for $4700 similar dates and it included prepaid dsc, $300 obc, ubp and udp.

The new price includes ubp, no dsc, no obc, spd so less nights dining, 250 Internet and $50 shore excursion. What a bargain; $50 per stateroom non combinable shore excursion credit if you spend 18k on a room without haven access? Wondering who's biting at those prices and who thinks a $50 credit toward 4 overpriced shore excursions is an enticement to spend 18k on a cruise? Perhaps that's why I'm seeing all the talk about last minute upsell department. The grand villas same sailing are at the low low price of 44k.

For comparison the same dates on Celebrity silhouette in a suite with butler and private dining, priority tender... Is all in at 6k with premium drink package, unlimited internet for two, $300 obc, dsc. Perhaps people paying for these suites think the Jade non haven suite is just a superior product to celebrity suite on silhouette and worth 18k vs 6k.

Carol here aka Deck Chair Queen. To the person who feared long walks down claustrophobic corridors fear not. I never felt claustrophobic in these corridors not even when the service carts were in the hall. It's worth the walk to be alone and unmolested in the aft section. Also let's be specific about the components in the best dessert ever at Murano: dark chocolate mousse, rose water vanilla creme brûlée, apple walnut cake mousse, strawberries in red wine, mint gelato, and white chocolate mousse with raspberry coulis. Rather than fight over whom gets what, let each person eat half of each dish! The chocolates were another amuse and they insisted we take ANOTHER plate's worth back to the cabin for later!

Thanks. This will also be our first Celebrity cruise. Was initially just planning to eat mostly at luminae but after seeing your pics and descriptions definitely want to try some speciality dining. Will need the extra walking. Glad to hear you didn't feel claustrophobic in the long hall. Will keep our aft room. It was the last one available. Kim

Thank you for sharing such a detailed review with humor. Question: We have 2155 sky suite reserved which is on resort deck aft. Was there any stairs aft to get up to pool deck and lawn club or did you need to walk to midship? Love aft rooms but debating on whether to switch to sky suite further down hallway. it seems to me like it might be a little claustrophobic with such a long walk down a narrow hallway each time I want to go to room. Kim

I know these HA cabins are for those in need but there are quite a few of them. I think NCL keeps them back if someone in need books one. The times we have got them they were on a guarantee booking. The other people in our row, who also had the HA cabins were people who booked last min or three to a cabin and were assigned these on a Guarantee booking (none handicap need). They are in a great spot. So easy to get to Blue lagoon for coffee in the morning and run down stairs to deck seven if you want to be outside. I just didn't have the closed in feeling. View is partially obstructed in these staterooms. The bottom 25% of window is blocked. The non HA ocean views I would walk past also looked to have fine views but I have no idea what cabin numbers were. We loved deck 8. We could have upgraded to balcony for something like $25 the second week but my kids liked the room we had and didn't want to move.

I loved the Pearl spa. Much better than the Jade. The Pearl spa as the thasotherapy pool with the massaging jet that will pound any knots you may have in back. It feels just as good as a deep tissue massage. The co-ed area is also much larger on the Pearl compared to the Jade. I have not been on a mega ship but Pearl's spa puts Hal's to shame. The heated tile loungers are comfortable and I found the spa on the pearl to be my favorite spot. Especially for Alaska.

The updated intinnerary came thru and I see our port time on the Jade for Split is two hours longer. We were scheduled for 11-6 and now we are 8-5. It will be a slow ride to Santorini vs Kusadasi from Athens and looks like instead of the slow ride to Split they gave us extra port time. That's good news. I had a private excursion booked to krka and will now easily be able to spend some time in Split too.

Will be interesting to see what prices do. For the Jade sailings they've been on the steady rise. For dates I'm tracking the Jade price is much higher than Celebrity and HAL so either people liked the itinerary better or NCL is using a different pricing model.

That extra day in Santorini vs Kusadasi from 8-5 is an extra day with an extra 8500 passengers in port. Doubt many will research that when looking to book but it was something I took into account when booking the 14 night.

I just NOW received an official notification from NCL about the itinerary change for our Spirit cruise in May. Thank heavens we have cruise critic and don't have to depend on the cruise line!

 

I think we will have a really good trip with our replacement ports but I did book this itinerary and date specifically for Istanbul so I agree it's been devalued for me. Unfortunately, we have non refundable plane tickets so unless we scrap the whole thing and use our insurance we are stuck.

 

And yes I know, the cruislines always have the discretion to change ports so don't tell me that I should have taken a land trip if I wanted to see one port so badly!

Well at least it's official. Looks like they have updated websites today too reflecting the changes. 14 night jade now available again with only change being Santorini replaced for Kusadasi. Yes a de-value but thankful it's still on and embarkation/debarkation unchanged.

Funny I got an email from NCL titled important information from norwegian cruise lines too however message had no content! Ill go ahead and assume they were officially notifying me of the change. The empty message only contained a disclaimer about how it may contain important confidential information not to be shared.

Big box ta is now advertising the Jade September 24, 2016 as departing from Rome . Stops in Livorno, Cannes, Marseille, Barcelona and Naples. They are also showing 14 night but ports of call not available. Hopefully just a glitch.

As others have said, the Premium Package includes all of the non-alcoholic beverages you have named. No beverage package covers room service or the mini-fridge in your room, so you will still need to pay extra for those services.

 

You will, however, find that since you are in a suite your room service menu for breakfast should include smoothies and "fresh squeezed" orange juice. Putting aside the debate about whether or not the juice is indeed freshly squeezed, these are examples of premium beverages that you can get for free in your room under certain circumstances (room service breakfast) because of the TYPE of room you are in, which has nothing to do with your beverage package.

Thanks for the clarifications. The reason I asked about the canned soda and smoothies was because on Celebrity's website they don't list them as options. The did list fountain soda, bottled water, red bull but only the premium non alcoholic package listed smoothies and canned soda as part of the package. Must have just been an accidental omission. Good to know that all drinks listed in the premium non alcohol package are also available in the premium alcohol package.

Seems to be a very nice perk for a sky suite getting all four perks and has perks that someone who is not an alcohol drinker can actually benefit from. NCL's package includes all the alcohol but no canned soda, bottled water, specialty coffees or fresh juices. So for a non drinker essentially they pay almost $13/day gratuities per person on a package for fountain soda if chosen as a perk. If only one drinker in the room then both need to purchase the alcohol package making it less beneficial for the occasional drinker or non drinker.

I was just looking at my dates; September 24 Jade 14 night and see that the switch of Kusadasi for an extra day in Santorini adds an additional 2400 passengers to an already busy day for Santorini. Not sure what the other days in the season entail but for September 28th you now have the following:

As of today it looks like four ships will be in Santorini on the 28th (this is the newly added and replaced port for Kusadasi). Aida Stella, MSC Orchestra, Thomson Dream and NCL Jade. With the new Jade addition it makes 8500 passengers in Santorini for the 28th.

So far Oct 4th in Santorini (was already scheduled prior to change) we have the MSC Sinfonia, NCL Jade, Oceania Riveria and Windstar Star Pride. That's a total of 6500 passengers in port on the 4th.

I think these numbers can change if more ships cancel Turkey or Isreal and if so we could potentially have extremely busy port days.

October 4th is looking much better especially since the MSC Sinfonia is leaving port at 3pm and Jade arrives at 2pm. The Riveria is leaving port at 6pm vs Jade's 10pm but the Riveria only has 1250 passengers. The Windstar Star Pride is in port form 8am till 9pm on the 4th but it's only 164 passengers.

On September 28th all 8500 passengers ascend/descend about the same port times: 8-4, 8-5, 8-4 and 8-5. That's a congested day! Would be great if the Jade arrived for an afternoon visit on the 28th but for now the port times are 8-5 right along with 8500 other cruisers. September shoulder season for the med just got a little more shoulder to shoulder.

I'm Shello's wife, hello!!

 

Whilst our situation is not as bad as those whose itinerary was changed as they boarded, it almost is in terms of us being unable to cancel without penalty. I believe they have cited 'safety' as the reason for cancelling Turkey so that they don't have to allow folks already booked to cancel without penalty, an underhand move. I don't believe for one minute that we are at any greater risk in Turkey than we are at any of the popular European destinations. I agree that there may be a perceived risk which is putting prospective passengers off cruises that include Turkey and so threatening cruise companies' 'bottom line'.

 

They have devalued the cruise, it isn't what I signed up for, my safety is no more guaranteed at any of the other places and so, under their significant change policy, I should be able to cancel it without penalty.

You might want to read the press release from NCL announcing the Turkey cancellations. I think Del Rio said they were going to let people cancel. I would think it will be a few days before they get it figured out but according to the article it may be promising for those who have penalties for cancellations. Not sure what the cancellation fee is in the UK and what your fare was but our sailing on the Jade 14 night lowest priced balcony two people all in taxes, port fees D.SC., and beverage package gratuity is priced at $7653. The exact same dates on Silhouette out of Rome is $4222 for two in a balcony all in with taxes, port fees, beverage package. You can choose perks out of four including unlimited internet for both in stateroom, beverage package with them paying the grats on package, daily tips, or $300 obc (pick two and in the us it's a $25 deposit) . It's visiting Israel, Kusadasi and some other interesting ports.

The key is knowing that if you rebook there's a real chance those ports may also be changed. If Turkey is on your must visit list there is also HAL and others who today are still saying no port changes but that is likely to change.

I'm certainly not an NCL champion by any means but in this case I do think they made the right choice by giving the customers a chance to decide what to do in advance. Over on the celebrity boards people are frustrated because they feel it's only a matter of time before celebrity cancels Turkey and Israel stops. Last year many passengers found out upon boarding their Celebrity cruise that the itinerary had changed pretty drastically. People want to know and plan in advance.

It may be the perception that Turkey is unsafe thus people are canceling/not booking cruises or it may be an honest concern for safety. It may even be that people are booking other lines because their perks are better and the cost of a balcony on just about any other lines sailing in the med is about half of what NCL is charging. Regardless they are well within their cruise contract rights To change ports and they make that point very clear even in their advertising.

I assume the biggest redeployment in history done by NCL with del Rio at the helm in August has not been met with investor accolades. Many of those redeployment itineraries have been changed up, presumably due to lack of sales not to mention the customers who were treated so poorly and simply left NCL in disgust. in the end it doesn't matter how low oil prices are. Those ships still need to sail with passengers in order to make the profits desired.

I booked a sky suite and it comes with the premium drink package. We don't drink alcohol. I read over the drinks included in the package. It does not say that canned soda and smoothies are included however the premium non alcoholic package specifically states these are included.

Do I need to ask once onboard to be switched to the premium non alcoholic package in order to get canned soda and smoothies included?

If we order room service can I order a specialty coffee or soda or juice with my meal or do I need to get only from a bar or restaurant in order for it to be no extra charge? Thanks

Mystery cruise sounds amazing!! I am one to plan way too much, i need to chill more! Like that i am booked on a mystery cruise! I keep waiting for prices to drop (so i can re-book or upgrade our stateroom) but prices are way higher than when i booked. Could be the canadian dollar and exchange rate, but no discounts as far as i can tell.

Agree with the mystery cruise allure. The prices are much less compared to cruises with more definitive ports of call. Two people in a sky suite on silhouette 14 night out of Rome 9/24/16; $6686 all in with taxes and port fees. Includes all four perks and a bonus of an additional $650 obc from online ta.

If they're going to substitute Israel and Turkey it would probably increase sales and prices. The other med cruises not visiting Israel and turkey have double the price tags and limited rooms available.

One could feasibly really make out booking at these low prices and perhaps end up with an itinerary very similar to the sailings that are selling for double.

Not great for those with these ports on their must do list but ports of call are never a given anyway. Sure would be appealing if they substituted for Split, Malta or Dubrovnik.

Santorini twice on the same sailing is what NCL did for the Jade sailings this year. Their lowest priced balcony rooms are selling for a couple thousand more than silhouette sky suites and their perks are quite inferior. Their lowest priced suite, non haven, is selling for 17k same dates.

I just checked today and the 14 day B2B are NOT there.

Yes. I checked yesterday just after Tricialy posted they were back up and didn't see them. Big box ta is still showing as bookable 14nt but they are also still listing Kusadasi. Perhaps a glitch. Does seem like a harder sell to have two port days in Santorini.

Most of the package components have increased in price substantially over the past four years. It will be nice to have flowers in room, some goodies delivered and an extra dinner in Le Bistro. The other components are of value to me since not in a suite so cost of the couples massage is less than $100 including tip. Cruise is a ways out but I'll report back afterwards.

I've just checked myncl for our Easter 2017 cruise on the Spirit. This was originally supposed to be Venice to Istanbul and it was changed late last year to a Venice round trip. However, it still included a Turkish port (Alanya).

 

The itinerary for this cruise has been changed, as I suspected it would. Alanna has gone, Rhodes and the sea day have been pushed forward a day, and we are now visiting Kotor instead.

 

I'm pleased with this change. It's the third different itinerary we have had since the cruise was announced about six months ago, and other than losing Istanbul (which having already been there isn't too much of an issue for me) the itinerary is getting better each time for me.

 

New itinerary is:

 

Venice

Sea day

Iraklion (Crete)

Sea

Haifa, Israel

Haifa, Israel

Limassol, Cyprus

Rhodes, Greece

Sea

Kotor, Montenegro

Split, Croatia

Venice

You have made out quite well with the changes. If I remember correctly you were one who got price protection, your pcc made changes for you in the big redeployment and you even got a little token obc. Congrats. That's a nice looking itinerary.