NCL Jade - Review , Comments

[lee101224]

Been back a few days from a 9 night cruise on the Jade , Barcelona - Canaries .

 

Going to try and be balanced , As i personally don’t enjoy reading reviews either stating everything was shockingly bad , or everything thing was perfect .... find them hard to trust .

 

Spend 2 night prior to cruise at the Hotel Grums - only paid £65 per night , including a great breakfast , hotel is only 1 year old and included a fab little spa , with pool , sauna , etc all in the price , located along side the port a 5 mins walk from the columbus monument on Las Ramblas. Excellent Value for money.

 

Embarkation was as smooth as ever , barcelona is very well set up with a well built terminal. Only problem was it was pouring with Rain !

 

Eat at Blue lagoon as have learnt not to even try Garden Cafe , was peace and good food , rooms were ready at 1pm ( ish )

 

Overall a great Holiday - I still Champion that something has to be REALLY wrong not to have a good holiday , especially a cruise !

 

As we had sailed on the sister ship Jewel , almost everything was exactly the same , so had no problem finding our way around ( apart from the odd occasion where certain stairs don’t go to certain floors )

 

The ship was in Good condition , however having recently been dry docked , I didn’t really show . there were a few ‘Worn’ signs around , nothing major but noticeable . ( And as has been stated a number of times on here, surprised the didn’t take the chance to change the old CRT Tv’s for LCD in the rooms )

 

We cruise mainly for 2 reasons - Food and entertainment , and Both were very good . Entertainment was mixed , and although nowhere near as good as EPIC , it was still enjoyable and my DD loved showtime. My ONLY issue was that over the 9 night , 2 nights they only did 1 show , which meant you had to get the the theatre early for any kind of decent seat , you could see so many people being turned away with 15 mins until show time.

 

Food was ate at the Main dinning rooms ( apart from 1 night ) I try to avoid the buffet as much as possible as I HATE the places at the best of time , however the few time we did go fro snacks , I could see what a lot of other have commented on as it was Busy almost all the time and very difficult to get a table. Food was still good in there , But just very loud and people racing around like ants , piling plates up with food . MDR were excellent quality food , service excellent apart from a few minor mistakes , but nothing to worry about .

 

Weather was slightly hit and miss , Not terrible but although sunny , sometimes quite cold . This meant less time on top deck , especially sea days . I was a bit disappointed with the activities available during the day . Big ship , good staff , yet little to no family activities to get involved in ( if you ignore the art auction , bingo and port talks ) .

 

Staff were overall Excellent , The Washy Washy Staff who have by far the most boring task for 12 hours a day are amazing , ALWAYS happy , always with a big smile , a credit to them ! For the first time ever since I started cruising I did come across a few miserable people , 1 Bar waiter from Jamaica ( I forgot his name ) , served mainly at the bar on deck 13 looking down to the pool around , never smiled or spoke for 9 days . also a waitress in the Tepenyakki , who argued with me a couple of times , rushed around and never offered us a drink ! But overall 99% were EXcellent , as you come to expect these days on a cruise.

 

The cruise Director Gio and his staff tried - I actually felt sorry for them. The mix of passengers was almost all european ( ourselves included ) and are no where near as outgoing as the Americans ( both north and south ) that we have experienced on other cruises . From the sail away parties , to the mr and mrs shows , etc , they were hard work , no fault of the Cruise staff , but there was a definite need for some Latin passion mixed with some North american confidence to liven things up on this sailing.

 

Pool area was Very crowded , we just accepted that to get some reasonable bed on a sea day , we had to be outside by 8.30/9am , not the end of the world to us , but could annoy some people.

 

The worst thing about this ship was Medussa Lounge - On the sister ship Jewel , this bar was fantastic , every night karaoke , or some kind of find show with the cruise staff , really funny , lively place . On the Jade it has a group called Guys and Doll ..... O Dear , they are terrible , Sorry Guys but one of them MUST have a family member or friend in the recruitment office because this place was DEAD , EVERY single night , I never counted more than 14 people in there ........ such a waste of a great Bar area .

 

We did pay for Tepenyakki 1 night , $25 cover charge , and to be honest it wasn't bad , but I wouldn't do it again . Waitress was poor , had to wait 50 mins before we had our starter , Chef Was Good , But Experience felt very unorganized. Food Quality was Excellent , however if your honest with yourself , It just meat and noodles , I would Personally recommend that anyone considering it , eat at the Jasmine ( only $15 ) , food is as good , more choice and you can watch the ‘Show’ from outside .

 

WE did none of the NCL excursion , were not big fans of being ‘cattled’ around. Overview -

 

Madeira - As it was good friday lots of things were shut , however the ship is close to the town , went up the cable car ( 15 euros ) nice views , watched the toboggans ( wait line were massive ) had a nice walk around and few drink along the front .

 

Tenerife - Got taxi to south of the Island and went to Siam Park , Great Water park for families , the best in Europe.

 

Lanzarote - Beach day - ( 20 euros in taxi to playa del carmen )

 

Malaga - Strolled around the city ( although wished we had gone to One of the many resort north or south as we were not impressed with Malaga at all )

 

The Casino was the quietist I have ever witnessed ( both on land and at sea , on every night apart from the last ) .

 

To reiterate , we had a Great holiday , I know it may seem like quite a negative review , but as previously stated , if I write everything was Terrible / Fantastic I feel it looses credibility . 85% of everything I came across was impressive , NCL cant do a lot about the passengers on any particular ship , but there are a few thing that could massively improve the trip .

 

Anyone thinking of going on the Ship should give it a try , but as for us , we going to try Disney and either Oasis / Allure before heading back to see what the new NCL ships have to offer.

 

( Sorry About spelling , Grammar , etc , Written on my Ipad while waiting for someone )

 

If anyone has any questions they need answering , feel free ...... Thanks

[Journey11]

Thanks for taking the time to prepare your detailed review. I am glad you had a good cruise.

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. Glad you had a good cruise.

[jc 11]

Hi there , we where on the jade 3rd April , I don't think you are negative just honest , I would agree with most of your comments. The medussa lounge was very lackluster and I think maybe Ncl need to look at that area.

We thought the staff where fantastic and so hard working , we have never encountered such genuine consistent enthusiasm. It did take a bit of organising to manage the timing of a meal, show and dancing in one night but we managed it. We didn't do the teppanyaki but we did the chinese and the french restaurants. We also enjoyed the chinese but we were a bit disappointed with the french one - the waiter didn't seem experienced and the atmosphere was a bit lacking, although that maybe because it was very quiet , as the main dining rooms were excellent with great service and food we didnt think this one was worth the extra.We did have a fantastic time

[pris993]

Going on the Jade next March. Wonder what the menu is like in the Blue Lagoon?

[jc 11]

Hi the blue lagoon menu is a bit limited but still good. I can't remember it all but the starters I do remember where spicy chicken wings , noodle soup and a tomato soup.

Mains- fish and chips , burger,tuna sandwiches, chicken sandwiches

Three or four desserts

[SuiteCruiser]

Glad you had a good trip :)

 

I'm curious about the DSC issues, did you feel that the service you received warranted leaving them in place?

 

I'm not trying to start anything, just honestly curious as I know it's an issue with many Europeans.

[jc 11]

No issues with the DSC as we were travelling as a couple. For families though it could be rather expensive given that they would have to pay for the kids as well.When we added up the overall cost of the cruise we found it was very comparable with other cruise lines

[jc 11]

oh and forgot to mention - the service was excellent

[SuiteCruiser]

Thanks JC. I know it's very different over in Europe. For us, we pay the DSC for everyone without a single thought because we feel it's worth it, AND we would tip anyway. I do know it's a struggle when people are not used to paying tips.

[dalgirl]

Thank you for your review - we have sailed on the Jade several times and there is just something about it that makes it our least favorite NCL ship - We would sail on Jade again for the right itinerary. I think your "85 %" is very fair.

[Carnac767]

Thanks for the thoughtful review. Enjoyed reading it. Your IPad typing abilitiies far exceed mine.

[lee101224]

Thank you for your review - we have sailed on the Jade several times and there is just something about it that makes it our least favorite NCL ship - We would sail on Jade again for the right itinerary. I think your "85 %" is very fair.

 

Completely agree , I have put it dont mainly to Missing the Crazy Americans ( lol ) or just needing a change from NCL ..... but for what we paid , it was Excellent value for money .

[lee101224]

Glad you had a good trip :)

 

I'm curious about the DSC issues, did you feel that the service you received warranted leaving them in place?

 

I'm not trying to start anything, just honestly curious as I know it's an issue with many Europeans.

 

We left the Full charges in place .... overall staff were very good . However There were LOTS and I mean LOTS , of people taking them off . I overheard many conversations with people saying there wanted to pay to who they selected. Guest services did try and explain the process but didnt seem to put up much of a fight .

 

I have mentioned on CC many times that I think it should just be in the price , but It starts world war 3 off on here ;)

[Esperanza7]

We left the Full charges in place .... overall staff were very good . However There were LOTS and I mean LOTS , of people taking them off . I overheard many conversations with people saying there wanted to pay to who they selected. Guest services did try and explain the process but didnt seem to put up much of a fight .

 

I have mentioned on CC many times that I think it should just be in the price , but It starts world war 3 off on here ;)

 

We were on the Jade cruise out of Málaga 23rd March. We left them in place too and to be honest we felt the crew fully deserved them. I sort of agree about including them in the price but then if the crew were awful...... We also gave a few extra dollars to people we felt really deserved it. I would add (after reading a lot of comments about Europeans) that we are British & Italian, living in Spain, and always add approx. 10% tips to all our restaurant bills providing there are no serious problems :)