Jade Review 5/19 to 6/2

[Pokeraddict]

14-Day Adriatic, Greece & Turkey, Round-trip Venice May 19 to June 2

 

Due to time I will post in segments.

 

A little about us; this was our 24th cruise with NCL as we really enjoy the dining venues as well as the free style concept and we always do b2b. Both have worked in the service industry so our expectations are high.

 

We found the ship to be in good condition and couldn’t find any wear and tear, it’s still decorated through out in Hawaiian theme which we found to be just fine, staff through out the ship were very pleasant and accommodating including our room steward Romeo.

 

Latitudes Exclusive Onboard Gathering with Ship Officers (silver and up) we attended both which were held in the Spinnaker Lounge on the first sea day at 7:00 pm. Neither was well attended in fact one of the officers said they were expecting about 200 guests but I don’t think there was a 100 on either week. Folks need to attend this or it will soon be gone. JMO

 

Embarkment was a breeze as we arrived later in the day via NCL transfer from airport to pier via motor coach. Our aft cabin 9174 was just great with lots of sun, privacy and quiet. Warning that the balconies on deck 9 are not that spacious as some would like but ours had 2 tall chairs and a table which were perfect for us.

There was a slight soot issue being aft which we hadn’t experienced except on the Sun in 2008 but again no big deal as you just sit on a beach towel and make sure you don’t leave clothing laid out on chairs.

The muster drill was held at 4:30 and is mandatory for both legs of the cruise, this wasn’t the case until the Costa sinking earlier in the year.

 

Entertainment: I won’t go into to detail as the venues changed from week to week. Gary the cruise director was very good and had to hold court with 3/4 other languages, so to keep folks attention is not easy to do but he seemed to pull it off well.

We didn’t like the Jade dancers as we often felt that they were often not in sync. But then we are JAR fans.

Some highlights were Journey South which were two brothers singing from the UK and had placed third on the UK X Factor.

4Ever which is a group of four male singers, think of II Divo. They were very good and got a standing ovation.

NCL’s new production Elements was with out a doubt the best show to come along in a while and also got a standing ovation.

The Staff Show was one of the better one’s we have seen but have always enjoyed them all and lets not forget Fountains it still makes me laugh watching it time and time again. For those that want a sneak peak at it it’s on you tube just put fountains into their search engine.

 

Dining: There were no specials such as 2 for one or discounts on the first night but on the second week they offered a free bottle of house wine for diners reserving between 5:30 and 6 pm which suited us fine as this is usually the time we dine. We were told it was to help ease up some of the later dinning that was happening through out all the restaurants including line ups in the MDR’s which we saw often around 9 PM

We never ate dinner in the MDR’s or buffet. But did have breakfast and lunch in the buffet area as we were off shop early every port day. The food was always very good , fresh and plenty of selection. We also ate a few lunches at the Blue Lagoon , mainly for the tomato/basil soup and

mozzarella sticks.

 

Moderno $25 pp we ate at first night and while the salad bar was about half the size that it was on the Epic is was still very good with the specialty items such as hearts of palm etc.

Unfortunately we didn’t find the chicken and meats to be up to snuff. The chicken wrapped in bacon was drier than a desert and the lamb had a lot of was very tough and you couldn’t even cut it let alone chew it. Same for the beef.

Another note is that they don’t even put out real steak knifes.

Needless to say I complained to the Maitre'd as we had left all the meat on our plate. It was a real disappointment from the Epic as we were looking so forward to the experience. Never went back again during this cruise.

But by accident we found that the Maitre'd in Le Bistro the next night was the guy from Brazil that opened Moderno on the Epic and was sent to open it on the Sun. I won’t put in print what was discussed but I will say that after talking to others on board later in the cruise they too had not enjoyed Moderno and we also heard that a couple of the kitchen staff were questioning the meat. We felt that they really changed the quality of their meat from the Epic. I will also say that we have had more poor meats out of Cagney’s through all of our cruises that we weren’t surprised to find the same in Moderno. Too bad!

 

Le Bistro $20 pp has always been our favorite, we ate there four times through out our cruise, switched it up between salmon filet, lamb and coq au vin. For appetizers it was always the escargot and mushroom soup. Dessert was either the chocolate napoleon or their creme brulee . All was always very good.

 

Papa’s $10 pp is another favorite of ours with the chicken parmigiana and the osso bucco.

As for appetizers we used to always have the antipasto but they had done away with it two weeks before we boarded so that was a real disappointment, for those that remember they use to have an antipasto cart and did away with it a few years ago and went to making up plates of what we think of at home as low end meats so we would only eat the prosciuto with melon and the roasted peppers and olives and leave the rest. As it turns out they were throwing most of it out so that’s why it’s gone. We ended up having the deep fried calamari and bean soup both were very good.

 

Cagney’s $25 pp this was an interesting experience as we went with a couple friends of ours

we all ordered the shrimp cocktail each as the shrimp are always cooked to perfection and large. We ordered two cockailes eachand told the waiter just to put them in one bowl and the other couple ordered only one. When the waiter brought them to the table ours had 5 shrimp and the other couple had 3 shrimp each, so I called the waiter out on it and he ended up bringing us another two shrimp each. It’s these little cut backs that make me crazy especially when the cocktail use to come with 4 shrimp.

We always found the service to be top notch and professional and always added tip to bill or left cash.

 

Next I will post on the ports and excursions.

 

All in all it was a great cruise and now our third favorite behind South America and Panama.

[pkt1976]

Awesome! I have this cabin on oct. If you have pics of the cabin, please post them if you do not mind. I can`t wait to read more

[PathfinderEss]

So far, so good, can't wait for the rest.

[*Libby*]

Thank you for taking time to post a review Pokeradditct! We're sailing the Adriatic on the Jade in September, so always looking for fresh information on her! :)

 

Am so glad you enjoyed your cruise - looking forward to hearing all about the ports!

[Brandis]

Subscribing!

 

We board the Jade on Saturday.

[www3traveler]

What was the staff like? Did you get a chance to meet NCL's CEO Kevin Sheehan?

[rmurray847]

Gary the cruise director was very good and had to hold court with 3/4 other languages, so to keep folks attention is not easy to do but he seemed to pull it off well.

 

Gary is GREAT. Yes, having to make multi-lingual announcements always added to the time...but I spent more time just being amazed at his facility with them. His pronounciation for the various languages were quite impressive. Overall, Mr. Gladding is a TRULY top-notch Cruise Director. We're sailing on a different cruise line this summer...and I know even if I love everything about the new ship/line...I'll miss Gary.

[magiccruiser]

Thankyou for posting your review on the Jade...I'm sailing with my son and his girlfriend on her later this month on the 7 day Greek isle itinerary. I've never cruised with NCL before so I'm interested in any hints for the ship and the ports! I know everyone gets excited about the pay restaurants, but I'm not really that particular and save the budget for the ports. Last year on the Carnival Magic, we didn't eat that much on the ship because we were off so early and back so late! We had great afternoon meals in the ports and were usually so full when we returned to the ship, that a small snack usually sufficed. We use the ship more for hotel and transportation than anything I guess! If you have any recommendations for restaurants and DIY tours in Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, or Katakalon, I would be very greatful!

[xenagurl]

Looking forward to the rest of your review OP. :) Great start.

 

That's interesting about the Latitudes party the last couple of times I was on the Jade it was quite full, with a large cross section of people from various area. Perhaps it's the time of year?

 

Gary is GREAT. Yes, having to make multi-lingual announcements always added to the time...but I spent more time just being amazed at his facility with them. His pronounciation for the various languages were quite impressive. Overall, Mr. Gladding is a TRULY top-notch Cruise Director. We're sailing on a different cruise line this summer...and I know even if I love everything about the new ship/line...I'll miss Gary.

 

Another vote for Gary! He really interacts with the passengers well. I really enjoy his "coffee chats" in the morning. He has such an interesting professional background too.

[Esperanza7]

Looking forward to the rest of your review OP. :) Great start.

 

Another vote for Gary! He really interacts with the passengers well. I really enjoy his "coffee chats" in the morning. He has such an interesting professional background too.

 

Unfortunately Gary was on holiday when we were on the Jade in March. Hoping he will be on board when we sail in November. Sounds like he's a really great Cruise Director :)

[SteveH2508]

Unfortunately Gary was on holiday when we were on the Jade in March. Hoping he will be on board when we sail in November. Sounds like he's a really great Cruise Director :)

 

We are sailing over Christmas and New Year and we seriously hope that Gary is on board. His personality and skills are awesome.

[dutchess43]

I am looking forward to my first latitudes gathering with the ships officers in Oct I just turned Silver.

[wroughtironron]

We just got back from the same cruise (Greek Islands).

 

I'd recommend hiring a car for the day in Katakolon - it cost £35 (plus gas) through Argus and was an Avis Fiat Punto which had 5 seats. The depot is next to the dock, and you can drive to Olympia to see the original site of the Olympic Games in 30 minutes.

Otherwise the ship was charging £56 each person for the same trip.

On the way back we stopped at Pirgos just up the coast, where there are loads of shops/cafes, much better than the tourist shops at Katakolon.

[Pokeraddict]

Awesome! I have this cabin on oct. If you have pics of the cabin, please post them if you do not mind. I can`t wait to read more

 

Sorry I don't have any pics, we have been in so many NCL balcony cabins that we know what we are get except for the POA were the cabins are smaller.

Trust me you wont be disappointed and be prepared for a fantastic sail away out of Venice, you will sail by St. Marks Square and Dog Palace so have your camera ready. I had no idea of the shots we would be able to get from being 9 decks up.

[Pokeraddict]

What was the staff like? Did you get a chance to meet NCL's CEO Kevin Sheehan?

The staff as always was amazing as always and pleasant through out the entire ship as was our room steward Romeo.

 

If Keven was on board we didn't see him, I know there was some sort of meeting as we got some feed back from some of the senior staff and management but we were under the impression that he was Skyped in or that there was representation from his office.

While we had met him on the Epic at a function but we are not the type to go out of our way to meet CEO's.

[Pokeraddict]

Thankyou for posting your review on the Jade...I'm sailing with my son and his girlfriend on her later this month on the 7 day Greek isle itinerary. I've never cruised with NCL before so I'm interested in any hints for the ship and the ports! I know everyone gets excited about the pay restaurants, but I'm not really that particular and save the budget for the ports. Last year on the Carnival Magic, we didn't eat that much on the ship because we were off so early and back so late! We had great afternoon meals in the ports and were usually so full when we returned to the ship, that a small snack usually sufficed. We use the ship more for hotel and transportation than anything I guess! If you have any recommendations for restaurants and DIY tours in Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, or Katakalon, I would be very greatful!

 

We are opposite to you were we like the speciality restaurants on board because we know we wont be disappointd so I can't give you any restaurant recommendations.

Santorini we did the ship tour Charming Oia and winery, the winery I had been to before and wanted to go back because we were traveling with some others and the views from their location was spectacular and is a perfect location for outside wedding so that should give you an idea It was called Santo's and they had lots of wine sampling accompanied by some bread, cheese and olives. They also have a great gift shop that's not over priced for purchasing wines, souvenirs olive oils, olive etc.

Santorini you want to be careful booking outside excursion so make sure they have a cancellation policy if the ship can't make into port and allow for time to get up and down and the line ups are long long long if oyu don't do ship excursion.

The other ports i'll post later.

[magiccruiser]

We just got back from the same cruise (Greek Islands).

 

I'd recommend hiring a car for the day in Katakolon - it cost £35 (plus gas) through Argus and was an Avis Fiat Punto which had 5 seats. The depot is next to the dock, and you can drive to Olympia to see the original site of the Olympic Games in 30 minutes.

Otherwise the ship was charging £56 each person for the same trip.

On the way back we stopped at Pirgos just up the coast, where there are loads of shops/cafes, much better than the tourist shops at Katakolon.

 

I actually reserved a ride with Katakalon Express (20 Euro). Renting cars is out for me...I never learned to drive a stick shift :o and most of the rentals in Europe are not automatics!

[pris993]

14-Day Adriatic, Greece & Turkey, Round-trip Venice May 19 to June 2

 

Due to time I will post in segments.

 

A little about us; this was our 24th cruise with NCL as we really enjoy the dining venues as well as the free style concept and we always do b2b. Both have worked in the service industry so our expectations are high.

 

We found the ship to be in good condition and couldn’t find any wear and tear, it’s still decorated through out in Hawaiian theme which we found to be just fine, staff through out the ship were very pleasant and accommodating including our room steward Romeo.

 

Latitudes Exclusive Onboard Gathering with Ship Officers (silver and up) we attended both which were held in the Spinnaker Lounge on the first sea day at 7:00 pm. Neither was well attended in fact one of the officers said they were expecting about 200 guests but I don’t think there was a 100 on either week. Folks need to attend this or it will soon be gone. JMO

 

Embarkment was a breeze as we arrived later in the day via NCL transfer from airport to pier via motor coach. Our aft cabin 9174 was just great with lots of sun, privacy and quiet. Warning that the balconies on deck 9 are not that spacious as some would like but ours had 2 tall chairs and a table which were perfect for us.

There was a slight soot issue being aft which we hadn’t experienced except on the Sun in 2008 but again no big deal as you just sit on a beach towel and make sure you don’t leave clothing laid out on chairs.

The muster drill was held at 4:30 and is mandatory for both legs of the cruise, this wasn’t the case until the Costa sinking earlier in the year.

 

Entertainment: I won’t go into to detail as the venues changed from week to week. Gary the cruise director was very good and had to hold court with 3/4 other languages, so to keep folks attention is not easy to do but he seemed to pull it off well.

We didn’t like the Jade dancers as we often felt that they were often not in sync. But then we are JAR fans.

Some highlights were Journey South which were two brothers singing from the UK and had placed third on the UK X Factor.

4Ever which is a group of four male singers, think of II Divo. They were very good and got a standing ovation.

NCL’s new production Elements was with out a doubt the best show to come along in a while and also got a standing ovation.

The Staff Show was one of the better one’s we have seen but have always enjoyed them all and lets not forget Fountains it still makes me laugh watching it time and time again. For those that want a sneak peak at it it’s on you tube just put fountains into their search engine.

 

Dining: There were no specials such as 2 for one or discounts on the first night but on the second week they offered a free bottle of house wine for diners reserving between 5:30 and 6 pm which suited us fine as this is usually the time we dine. We were told it was to help ease up some of the later dinning that was happening through out all the restaurants including line ups in the MDR’s which we saw often around 9 PM

We never ate dinner in the MDR’s or buffet. But did have breakfast and lunch in the buffet area as we were off shop early every port day. The food was always very good , fresh and plenty of selection. We also ate a few lunches at the Blue Lagoon , mainly for the tomato/basil soup and

mozzarella sticks.

 

Moderno $25 pp we ate at first night and while the salad bar was about half the size that it was on the Epic is was still very good with the specialty items such as hearts of palm etc.

Unfortunately we didn’t find the chicken and meats to be up to snuff. The chicken wrapped in bacon was drier than a desert and the lamb had a lot of was very tough and you couldn’t even cut it let alone chew it. Same for the beef.

Another note is that they don’t even put out real steak knifes.

Needless to say I complained to the Maitre'd as we had left all the meat on our plate. It was a real disappointment from the Epic as we were looking so forward to the experience. Never went back again during this cruise.

But by accident we found that the Maitre'd in Le Bistro the next night was the guy from Brazil that opened Moderno on the Epic and was sent to open it on the Sun. I won’t put in print what was discussed but I will say that after talking to others on board later in the cruise they too had not enjoyed Moderno and we also heard that a couple of the kitchen staff were questioning the meat. We felt that they really changed the quality of their meat from the Epic. I will also say that we have had more poor meats out of Cagney’s through all of our cruises that we weren’t surprised to find the same in Moderno. Too bad!

 

Le Bistro $20 pp has always been our favorite, we ate there four times through out our cruise, switched it up between salmon filet, lamb and coq au vin. For appetizers it was always the escargot and mushroom soup. Dessert was either the chocolate napoleon or their creme brulee . All was always very good.

 

Papa’s $10 pp is another favorite of ours with the chicken parmigiana and the osso bucco.

As for appetizers we used to always have the antipasto but they had done away with it two weeks before we boarded so that was a real disappointment, for those that remember they use to have an antipasto cart and did away with it a few years ago and went to making up plates of what we think of at home as low end meats so we would only eat the prosciuto with melon and the roasted peppers and olives and leave the rest. As it turns out they were throwing most of it out so that’s why it’s gone. We ended up having the deep fried calamari and bean soup both were very good.

 

Cagney’s $25 pp this was an interesting experience as we went with a couple friends of ours

we all ordered the shrimp cocktail each as the shrimp are always cooked to perfection and large. We ordered two cockailes eachand told the waiter just to put them in one bowl and the other couple ordered only one. When the waiter brought them to the table ours had 5 shrimp and the other couple had 3 shrimp each, so I called the waiter out on it and he ended up bringing us another two shrimp each. It’s these little cut backs that make me crazy especially when the cocktail use to come with 4 shrimp.

We always found the service to be top notch and professional and always added tip to bill or left cash.

 

Next I will post on the ports and excursions.

 

All in all it was a great cruise and now our third favorite behind South America and Panama.

 

 

Thanks for your review. Wonder did you every consider sending dishes back that were not to your liking or expectation? I think that is what I would do, try something else.

[Pokeraddict]

Thanks for your review. Wonder did you every consider sending dishes back that were not to your liking or expectation? I think that is what I would do, try something else.

Reply With Quote

 

Yes we did, in fact the meat was so bad in Moderno that I refused to pay for two of us and ended up paying for one. We did still tip the staff!

[Pokeraddict]

Here is the lowdown for excursions for the first leg of the cruise. I will try to get the second portion done in the next day or two.

 

Venice sail away: NOT TOO BE MISSED! You won’t get better shots of St. Marks Square and Doge's Palace (port side when sailing out) so have your camera ready. I had no idea of the shots we would be able to get from being 9 decks up and so close. Starboard side on the sail back into Venice has also some great pics.

Venice sail by has been the best and most memorable out of all of our cruises!

 

Dubrovnik Croatia: was by far the highlight port for us as was Split. Tour We did was Historic Dubrovnik which was a walking tour discussing the history, we were also left on our own to venture which worked out just fine. Croatia for those interested will be joining the Euro Nations mid July.

 

Athens Piraeus: This was our least favorite port but I knew it would be as we had been before and still think it’s nothing more than a big city that we felt has even gone down hill more than when had visited last but we all know why. One real big issue for us was the amount of motorcycles that just come off the road and unto the sidewalk to get around traffic, I counted 30 in half hour while having a beverage at a café. Like one tour guide said the Greeks are one of a kind and I have to agree. Anyway we did a walking tour here and made our way to The Acropolis

for some great pics as well as the Parliament Building.

 

Izmir Turkey: Tour was Magnificent Ephesus This was a long walking tour (6 hours) and was really glad that we had a clear speaking tour guide. Got some awsome pis of the library and the arena that holds holds 25K pax and that Elton John played at in 2001.

 

Split Croatia: Ancient Salona & Trogir Medieval City Tour

This was a great excursion. Combination of the ruins of Salona and the living city of Trogir. Our guide was very informative and easy to understand . Also nice that guide let us off near the palace in Split and we had well over 2 hours to explore on our own. Split was a highlight and surprise of our two week cruise. We would go back at the drop of a hat and now is the time while it’s still extremely reasonable. Split also has a beautiful riviera and really cheap for a 5 star all inclusive. The pier itself is one of the best we have ever seen with dozen and dozens of cafes, restaurants and high end shops.

[Pokeraddict]

Excusions 2nd Week

 

Corfu: Timeless Villages & Scenic Drive Tour was 6 hours and consisted of a stop for lunch with some local Greek foods, the tour was good from the point that unless your driving you would never make it to the vantage points for some great pics. The pier area hear was also quite nice. But I wondered if the ship that’s at the pier on its side was a Costa ship from years ago.

 

Santorini: Charming Oia & Winery the winery I had been to before and wanted to go back because we were traveling with some others that wanted to sample some wines and the views from their location is spectacular. They have expanded and is a perfect location for outside wedding so that should give you an idea. It was called Santo's and they had lots of wine sampling accompanied by some bread, cheese and olives. They also have a great gift shop that's not over priced for purchasing wines, souvenirs olive oils, olive etc. Oia is a former community on the islands of Thira (Santorini) and Therasia and just is not to be missed as it’s a highlight of the island with all the white and blue domed houses with some that have been built out of caves.

 

Santorini you want to be careful booking outside excursion’s to make sure they have a cancellation policy if the ship can't make into port and allow for time to get up and down as the line ups are long long long.

 

 

Mykono’s: Scenic Views of Mykonos we did this tour to accommodate our friends, as it turned out it was an amazing tour with lots of stops for photo’s in fact we probably got our best picture here out of 1800 that we took. It was a pic of a Greek family loading up a large boat with their herd of sheep to go across to the island of Delos to graze. It was definitely a pic of time gone by! We also spent a lot of time walking around little Venice, it was extremely congested with lots of people in narrow laneways and this was just with 3 ships in port.

 

Olympia (Katakolon): Olympia & Greek Flavors this was an amazing tour that seemed to be quite surreal when you enter into the grounds of the Olympia. Fortunately it was not too hot and we had some cloud off and on to keep us comfortable. The Olympic site is huge and requires a lot of relatively easy walking. You basically see ruins and can’t imagine doing this tour without a guide to get the whole effect from the baths to the playing field. We stopped for a lunch at the pier and again enjoyed some Greek foods and watched some of their staff doing tradition dance.

 

The only negative was the smoking on board is all over with no one enforcing the rules and we were blown away seeing the majority of Europeans smoking like chimney’s. It was also a major issue on the balconies as people spend morning noon and night out there because they can’t smoke in their cabins. They also still have the smoking room located next to Le Bistro, I don’t know if they allow cigars in there or not.

 

All in all we enjoyed all the tours and the entire cruise and would not hesitate doing this cruise again!

[xenagurl]

Unfortunately Gary was on holiday when we were on the Jade in March. Hoping he will be on board when we sail in November. Sounds like he's a really great Cruise Director :)

 

I'm hoping so too. He was there last November so if his schedule this year will be similar perhaps we'll see him.

[PokerDave]

How was the poker on-board? How did you fair in the tournaments?

[lsmommy]

We're these NCL excursions you did?

[Pokeraddict]

We didn't play the casino as it's most always a guaranteed loss because once you are on board they have you for a week or more. We did a lot of watching the tables and only saw one female come away with large winnings from the roulette wheel, in fact she played "8" as one of her numbers and it came up twice b2b, she then said to the dealer if you hit it again I'll give you $100, guess what it came up again and she walked away with a few thousand and never saw her in the casino after that.

There was also an Asian gentleman gambling texas hold em and black jack he had a stack over a foot tall, he was feeling no pain and buying rounds not only for the table but everyone standing around the table, he was just crazy happy. He lost his bundle twice and them moved to the VIP room and never saw him the rest of the cruise but according to staff he was playing much later at night. There was also an East Indian gentlemen (quite nice to talk to) who was also playing the same roulette table and was putting down $100 every play never once did we see him get any large win but he had to have burned through a couple grand in an hour, we left then came back to the table he was playing the same and still never saw him win anything big if anything at all.