Jade--1/23-1/30/16

[doctoranna]

Just got back from a cruise on the Jade and noticed that people are clamoring for reviews, which seem to be in short supply. This will be short and sweet, but I'll give it a go.

Flew into Houston Hobby on Southwest the day before embarkation. Stayed at the Drury Inn and Suites. Free shuttle from airport. Had a 2-room suite for $150 total, including tax, for 4 adults. They actually served DINNER, not just snacks, at the cocktail hour. Pasta, meatballs, hot dogs, and I forget what-all else. 3 drinks tickets per person. Excellent breakfast too! I think the 4 of us ate and drank close to $150 worth. Nice indoor/outdoor pool too.

 

Took Yellow Cab to the dock. Just under 50 bucks for the ride, plus tip.

 

Embarkation went fairly smoothly. I never saw a special line for Latitudes members, but I wasn't really looking, because the lines were short (11 AM).

 

Note for UBP people: They will charge taxes on your drinks until sometime after 8 PM when the ship finally leaves US waters. Taxes are about a buck a drink.

 

Yes, the ship has some gaudy Hawaiian decor. I didn't care. I actually kinda liked the glass flowers on the light fixtures. I will say that the Medusa Lounge was kinda ugly, but that's just me.

 

We always get an inside cabin, so nothing special there.

 

Re: internet: They have improved the speed somewhat over our last NCL cruise, and yes, the Jade now has iConcierge, though for some reason they have not advertised that fact. Murray the internet guy told us. If you are a Latitudes member, you only get the extra 15 minutes if you purchase the internet package onboard, so don't pre-purchase.

 

We are not picky eaters, so we tended to like whatever food they were serving wherever we were eating it. Did not get UDP and did not try any of the specialty restaurants. The service in the restaurants was good. We ate breakfast and lunch in the Garden Cafe. I love the fact that they separate the bacon into 2 piles--crispy and not crispy. The striploin steak (always available in Alizar and Grand Pacific) was good.

 

Another note to Latitudes members: If you are entitled to a 10% discount in the gift shop, you have to ask for it. They did not automatically apply it to either of our 2 gift shop purchases. Minor annoyance.

 

Be sure to visit the bridge viewing room on deck 11 forward port side. Lots of interesting information in the videos they are showing. The shades will only be open to see the bridge during the day, and not when arriving or departing a port.

 

Re: UBP: Early in the week, we pretty much had to go to the bar and order our own drinks. There was not a waiter in sight in any of the lounges. By mid-week, waiters started appearing. In fact, in the Atrium bar one day, the bartender told us to go sit down, because he had a waiter who needed something to do. LOL!

 

At least on the Jade, the ping pong tables are somewhat protected from the wind. We like ping pong.

 

Important info for anyone who is buying liquor in Mexico (or anywhere else) to bring home: Texas charges an import tax of $3.75 a liter on hard liquor, payable in cash on the dock, so factor that into your price. There are also charges on beer and wine, but I can't remember how much. They say it is to support their schools. Maybe they need to start charging a state income tax and support their own schools. I pay enough income and property tax in Illinois to support our own schools. Why should I pay ridiculous taxes on my booze to support theirs?

 

Gotta run. I might add more later.

[vacationprincess]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review! Your information was very helpful!!

[Lisalk12]

Thank you so much for the review. Heading out in about a month and loved hearing about your trip. Did you use the iConcierge? Do you have to have an Internet package to use it? We have a teenage son that we would like to keep tabs on with the app.

 

 

NCL

Star 2013

Sky 2015

Jade 2016

[pr0pel]

Thanks for the review. Can you tell us about the debarkation process? Did you take a cab, shuttle, book in advance, on the spot, etc? When did you leave?

[alerrt101]

Thanks for taking the time to post the review. I appreciate the "go with the flow" attitude. Nicely done....

 

Re TX alcohol taxes: I'm a TX resident and do not like or appreciate them doing it. You can get off a ship in New Orleans and drive into TX with alcohol but don't dare buy it while on a ship that ports in TX. For those that have not had the luxury of experiencing this yet, it is a "self report" type set up just outside of US customs/immigration. They are asking you as you walk by if you purchased any alcohol and if you say yes, they call you over to a table to pay the dime. If you say no and just keep on walking, well....

 

I'm sure some on here will fire away and say you are breaking the law by walking on by. So be it. As far as I know they (TX officials) do not do it for every international flight landing in TX where you could have purchased booze duty free. Until they get consistent and not just go after the ships porting in TX, I won't be bringing in any alcohol purchased while on a ship.:D

[workroombee]

Thanks so much for posting this review! You are right, they are in VERY short supply and we upcoming-Jade-cruisers are thrilled to hear the firsthand reports of those who have sailed in the brief time since she has come to port in Houston.

 

It's also a time of many changes for NCL in general. I appreciate hearing about how they are implemented from someone who have recently experienced them.

 

Please, add any details that you care to share--about embarkation, the ports, tendering, menu choices, room details, service, etc and etc!

[doctoranna]

OK, I'm back. Been playing with Baby Granddaughter all day while her daddy is in France and her mommy has a little staycation.

 

Re: iConcierge. We did not use it. You don't have to have an internet package to use it, as it uses some local network on the ship. Supposedly you can message anyone who is using the app, but you have to pay a one-time fee of $7.95 per device to use the messaging feature. There are free things on the app like the daily schedule and ship maps that you don't have to pay $7.95 to use. If you pay the $7.95, you can also call home for 79 cents a minute, which is not a bad deal, since ship to shore costs like 6 bucks a minute now otherwise.

 

Shows: We went to all of the shows in the Stardust Theater. We went to the early show every night. The comedian David Naster was HILARIOUS! Don't miss him if he is still on the Jade. The acrobats (Soul Duo) were also quite good. The illusionist Cripton was entertaining, though someone in an elevator with us spilled the beans on how some of his tricks work, and I guess if you really want to know, you can also find explanations on the internet. El Gaucho was OK, not my favorite entertainer. The first show by the Norwegian singers and dancers was very good. We saw the show "Elements", which was excellent, though we realized that we had seen the same show on the Star a couple of years ago. We usually arrived in the theater shortly after 7 for the 7:30 show and never had trouble finding a seat. David Naster's afternoon performance later in the cruise was PACKED!

We played trivia every day. I love trivia! They are pretty lax about exchanging papers to score them though, and we did see one team cheat and claim they had a perfect score when they did not. We dutifully collected signatures of activity hosts on our activities cards and brought them to the prize redemption in the library on the last sea day and the girl who was there basically said anyone who had even one card with even one signature on it could pick any prize they wanted (pens, mini-flashlights, coffee mugs, water bottles, etc). So much for competition.

Regarding games, if you like board games, they are actually kept in a room called the Star Bar Extension, which is through a door in the back of the Star Bar, which is up on deck 13 Aft. We have always been used to finding board games in the library or the card room. The Scrabble games were in total disarray, so the four of us put together two complete Scrabble sets and put all the miscellaneous pieces that were left over in a third box that did not have a board. You're welcome.

Ports: We got off the ship in Cozumel and walked up the street to look at some of the shops. I bought some vanilla for a friend, and a little embroidered dress for my granddaughter. The lady in the first shop I saw the dresses in wanted $35 for one, claiming it was hand made and not machine made. The price quickly came down to $18 as I walked away, but they did not have the color I wanted. Most of the other shops further down the street were asking 15 bucks, and all of the dresses were machine-embroidered. I found a pretty pink one. There was a moderate amount of harassment from the doorways of jewelry shops. I'm not much for jewelry, so we just walked on by.

We did not get off the ship in Belize. We did the same cruise a few years ago and saw the ruins at Altun Ha, which were worth seeing. I learned recently that Belize is on the list of the top 10 most dangerous ports in the world, and a news executive from NBC in Chicago was recently murdered there (though not near the port, but at a rustic resort further inland, near the Guatemala border). We're not big fans of long tender rides, and one of our group would not be able to do the walk through the jungle for cave tubing, so we passed on Belize and stayed on the ship enjoying our UBP. I went for a swim and sat in the hot tub while the hordes were onshore.

In Roatan (also a top 10 most dangerous port), we took the short tender ride to get a picture of the ship at anchor, and I had forgotten to buy a gift for my mom in Cozumel, so we shopped around the little shopping area they had there. Last time we were in Roatan, we took a private tour with a local that we had arranged in advance over the internet. He basically let us choose the itinerary and drove us around to see what we wanted to see. Can't remember his name.

[doctoranna]

It seemed like the photographers were not as obnoxious on the Jade as they are on some ships. We managed to get past the embarkation photographer without getting stopped, and we were not photographed at either of the two ports we got off at. The did snap a couple of shots of us in the dining room, which actually turned out rather well, but we seldom purchase pictures.

 

Disembarkation: We elected to carry our own stuff off the ship. The Garden Cafe was serving until 9:30. The information packet we got said we needed to be out of our cabin by 8 AM, but we asked our cabin steward if he minded if we just left our suitcases in the cabin until after breakfast and he said no problem, so we ate and then retrieved our suitcases. We walked off the ship at about 9, waited maybe 15 minutes to get through customs, and got a cab immediately after exiting the terminal (and paying the stupid alcohol tax). While riding in the cab, my husband noticed a sign that there is a 10% senior discount in all cabs in Houston. Did not notice a similar sign in the cab going to the port. Darn. Everyone in the party needs to be at lest 60 years old to get the discount, but that was no problem for us. At 62, I am the youngest of our group. Fare to Houston Hobby airport was $50.20, so actually just over $45 for us.

 

We did get to see something that we have never seen on a cruise ship before. They were weight-testing the lines they use to lower the lifeboats, so while in port, while the crew was learning to drive lifeboats around the harbor, they were attaching giant orange bags to the lines and filling them with 30,000 pounds of sea water and then letting it all out again. We asked what they were doing, and one crew member explained. Apparently they are required to do it every 4 years.

[doctoranna]

One word of warning: Don't try to carry food off the ship in Cozumel to eat later in the day. They had what I initially assumed were drug-sniffing dogs on the dock, but they were actually sniffing out FOOD that people were attempting to take off the ship, and they were apparently finding quite a bit of it.

 

That's about all I can think of now. If you have any questions, ask away.

[doctoranna]

Just thought of a couple of other things.

 

In our cabin (deck 8, forward), I could not get the water in the shower any hotter than lukewarm on the first day. I mentioned it to the steward, and when things did not improve on the second day, I mentioned it at the desk. I don't know if they ever did anything, but I finally figured out on my own that it just takes forever for the water to warm up early in the AM (I am usually up at 7, even in an inside cabin). So by the third day, I just learned to turn on both the shower and the sink and then brush my teeth and lay out my clothes, etc while the water finally got warm.

 

There were dispensers in the shower for shampoo and body wash, but not for conditioner, so bring your own if you need it.

 

The safe in our cabin easily accommodated my 13" iBook Pro, and I'm guessing it could accommodate a 15" laptop too if you put it in at an angle, at least a Mac. I don't do Windows. There were actually three electrical outlets in the bedroom, all near the desk and TV, and there was a 4th one that accommodated the european-style plugs with the two round pegs on them. Since my international quad-band phone came with a european plug (Middle Son bought it on the internet from Macedonia), I actually had the use of 4 electrical outlets for the trip. Such luxury.

[Linda the Book Lover]

While riding in the cab, my husband noticed a sign that there is a 10% senior discount in all cabs in Houston. Did not notice a similar sign in the cab going to the port. Darn. Everyone in the party needs to be at lest 60 years old to get the discount, but that was no problem for us. At 62, I am the youngest of our group. Fare to Houston Hobby airport was $50.20, so actually just over $45 for us.

 

Thanks for the senior discount heads-up.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review/report.

Keith

[zdcatc12]

 

Shows: The illusionist Cripton was entertaining, though someone in an elevator with us spilled the beans on how some of his tricks work, and I guess if you really want to know, you can also find explanations on the internet.

 

He was on our TA in October. My wife thought that he looked like a Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean imitator. Also, did you notice how much he has aged from all of the promotional items that were on board. We saw some of the show secrets by sitting on the side balcony. We didn't do it on purpose, just noticed it during the show.

[pspercy]

Thanks for taking the time to post the review. I appreciate the "go with the flow" attitude. Nicely done....

 

Re TX alcohol taxes: I'm a TX resident and do not like or appreciate them doing it. You can get off a ship in New Orleans and drive into TX with alcohol but don't dare buy it while on a ship that ports in TX. For those that have not had the luxury of experiencing this yet, it is a "self report" type set up just outside of US customs/immigration. They are asking you as you walk by if you purchased any alcohol and if you say yes, they call you over to a table to pay the dime. If you say no and just keep on walking, well....

 

I'm sure some on here will fire away and say you are breaking the law by walking on by. So be it. As far as I know they (TX officials) do not do it for every international flight landing in TX where you could have purchased booze duty free. Until they get consistent and not just go after the ships porting in TX, I won't be bringing in any alcohol purchased while on a ship.:D

 

Actually charging it at ships' port of entry is just making it consistent, they've been charging it at land crossings for years.

[texastennis]

I noticed you said your stateroom was on deck 8, forward. Were you in a hull balcony? If so, can you give a few comments about how much motion you felt from the ship, and what your stateroom was like? I will be in a hull balcony on deck 8 in March and am looking for more information.

 

Thanks for your review!:)

[rekarlu]

I noticed you said your stateroom was on deck 8, forward. Were you in a hull balcony?

 

 

 

We always get an inside cabin, so nothing special there.

 

...

Edited February 3, 2016 by rekarlu

[texastennis]

...

 

Ah, it looks like I didn't read the OP's post carefully. Thanks, rekarlu, for screaming my oversight. Blessings.

[Oakman58]

 

We did get to see something that we have never seen on a cruise ship before. They were weight-testing the lines they use to lower the lifeboats, so while in port, while the crew was learning to drive lifeboats around the harbor, they were attaching giant orange bags to the lines and filling them with 30,000 pounds of sea water and then letting it all out again. We asked what they were doing, and one crew member explained. Apparently they are required to do it every 4 years.

 

Thanks for post that information. My sister, aka miss worse-case scenario, had questioned whether or not the crew even knew how to lower the lifeboats on our Jade cruise. Once we tendered with the lifeboats in Roatan I thought for sure this would satisfy here fears. Nope, while we were riding in the lifeboat to the pier she then questioned whether the lowering equipment would even work with a lifeboat full of passengers. I’ll have to pass this info along to her.

[doctoranna]

Yes, you can reassure her that the lines will not break from the weight of the lifeboat full of passengers. The bags of water they hang on the lines to test them are MASSIVE. The crew did seem to know what they were doing when it came to raising and lowering lifeboats.

[doctoranna]

@texastennis: We were in an interior cabin, but I will say we did not feel much motion at all being pretty far forward (just behind the forward staircase and elevators). We had a couple of sea days that were labeled "moderate"--7.5-12 foot waves, and I think one night where the waves were over 12 feet.

[texastennis]

@texastennis: We were in an interior cabin, but I will say we did not feel much motion at all being pretty far forward (just behind the forward staircase and elevators). We had a couple of sea days that were labeled "moderate"--7.5-12 foot waves, and I think one night where the waves were over 12 feet.

 

That is really helpful to know. I'm a little more forward on this cruise that on past cruises, and was wondering if I needed to be concerned about motion sickness. I should be prepared just in case

 

Thanks so much for responding.

[Cmawhitney]

I'm trying to figure out what days to make reservations for specialty restaurants and would love to see the daily schedules in advance. Does anyone know where I can search for this? I know that I'm seen them posted somewhere by past cruisers. Thanks!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report.

[hawk1972]

I'm trying to figure out what days to make reservations for specialty restaurants and would love to see the daily schedules in advance. Does anyone know where I can search for this? I know that I'm seen them posted somewhere by past cruisers. Thanks!

 

Oakman58 just posted the dailies a few minutes ago on his review for the Jade 1/26-1/23 -- Nature's wrath. Check the end of his review.

Edited February 13, 2016 by hawk1972

[Aprille]

I'm trying to figure out what days to make reservations for specialty restaurants and would love to see the daily schedules in advance. Does anyone know where I can search for this? I know that I'm seen them posted somewhere by past cruisers. Thanks!

 

Oakman58 just posted the dailies a few minutes ago on his review for the Jade 1/26-1/23 -- Nature's wrath. Check the end of his review.

 

The dailies are on page 7 (link below) but the entire review is definitely worth a read.

 

NCL Jade - 1/16/16 to 1/23/16 Nature's Wrath - pg 7