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My review of Jade Feb 6-13

outtabux

By outtabux,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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outtabux

outtabux

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I just got off the Jade yesterday. This was my first cruise with NCL, my previous two have been on DCL. These are my experiences and my opinions so please be considerate with your comments.

 

Embarkation: We showed up at our port arrival time with was 11:00 and we were assigned to group 12 for boarding. I don't think it really matters what time you pick during online check in. Next time I think we will get there earlier and try to get a lower number boarding group. I thought it was a nice touch to have a table with flavored waters in the terminal while we waited.

 

Once on board:

We were able to drop off our carry on bags and cases of pop in the room and look for a lunch spot.

We decided to skip the buffet and go to Grand Pacific for lunch. We had a very nice lunch and only the tables around the edges of the room were occupied so it was a very quiet and nice way to start the cruise. We did notice the dress code sign when we entered. I can't remember the exact wording but I do remember

No hats and No shorts. There is no dress code for breakfast and lunch, only dinner.

 

Room: We had a mini suite on deck 11. We loved the balcony and it was pretty large. It had two chairs and a table and we still had plenty of room. The room fridge had a mini bar in it and still had room for probably 16 cans of pop on the bottom shelf.

 

Splash Academy: We went and registered our 12 and 9 year olds for the kids club. They were not impressed. They have only been on DCL, so it was going to be hard to impress them. My 12 year old did have check out privileges but only after 2 hours. An adult could come check them out before, but there is no way to communicate with your child or the Splash Academy staff to know that they want to be checked out. My 9 year old also had a 2 hour rule and then only an ADULT could check her out. This was also disappointing. On our previous DCL cruises, the older kids in our group were able to drop her off and pick her up and that was not a service they offer. Needless to say, they never went.

 

Drinks and UBP: We really enjoyed the Great Outdoors bar and the Spinnaker

Lounge. We feel we got the best service from Garfield at the Great Outdoors. There was hardly ever a wait there. The pool bar was busy, as expected, and there didn't seem to be many waiters walking around taking orders. We were able to always order 2 drinks with just one card.

 

Food: I thought the food was very good. We ate at the buffet for breakfast and lunch everyday.The buffet did have theme nights for dinner which included Mexican night, Prime Rib night, Italian night, and grill night. I thought the selection was great and there is plenty of seating.

The Great Outdoors is an outdoor area (adjacent to the large buffet)with a smaller buffet and lots of seating. It's a beautiful place to sit anytime of the day. The Great Outdoors also has Late Night Snacks starting at 9:30pm. I recommend you try it!

We ate in Alizar for dinner every night. Alizar and Grand Pacific have the same menu but the menu does change nightly. We thought the menu selection was large and we enjoyed every meal we had there. The menu included some staples every night and then they always added some new items every night. Here is a short list of the Starters I can remember: potato soup, split pea soup, french onion soup, garden fresh salad, caesar salad, fried mozzarella, fried calamari, crab souffle, beef carpaccio, beef burger slider. They have a menu of Classic Entrees that include: lasagna, flounder, striploin steak, spaghetti bolognese and a few others I'm forgetting. They also had an entree menu that changed every night with more choices then I can remember. My favorites were the beef tenderloin and the flounder.

 

I will finish my review tomorrow. I still want to tell you about the entertainment and the ports.

 

Thanks for reading!

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MandyGirl

MandyGirl

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Thanks for posting a recent update! :) We were onboard Jade over Thanksgiving (second week she was in Houston) and are Platinum on NCL... but also have 66 nights on DCL since Fall 2011 so I hear where you are coming from. Definitely two different experiences... and price tags. (Our week it was less than half the price to go on NCL Jade in a balcony with a promo package (specialty dining) versus DCL Wonder in an oceanview -saved us thousands $$$$) Our Jade week we felt like the crew was still used to Europeans instead of us Texans who like to visit and get to know the crew. ;) Plus we had 1,000 kids onboard and NCL doesn't limit bookings to kids club capacity like DCL does (you never get turned away on DCL for kids club). Our kids were 9 and 5 so a little younger, and didn't use kids club at all on Jade because they enjoyed the pool, card room, and games we brought onboard. My two cents - Definitely don't let the Jade give you an impression of NCL as a whole. One time we had DCL Magic for Transatlantic and our youngest would not go in Oceaneers Club.... but three days later on NCL Spirit for Mediterranean we couldn't keep her out of Splash Academy. Each ship and crew are different for sure, plus as you saw guidelines for checkout privileges vary by cruise line like the alcohol policies do. My 9 year old was not impressed with DCL Wonder kids club in January (last month) and it was my first time ever to make a non-positive comment on kids club on DCL survey card - just always depends on what crew members are onboard that can really make or break it for the kids we have found.

Hubby and I are most likely going on NCL Escape in April and my 9 year old saw the ropes course and water slide... and is drooling she can't go. Totally different class of ship from Jade. They just don't bring the newer ships to Texas with any of the cruise lines.

And you are right - with NCL the port arrival time you pick doesn't really matter. We had a 9:30 PAT but parking lot didn't open until 10:00. Port parking folks had no idea 9:30 could be selected with cruise line when I showed them that paperwork. :eek:

Looking forward to rest of your review of ports - we are headed back to same ports in March on different NCL ship and not sure what we are doing yet.

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outtabux

outtabux

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How did you find the decor on the ship? I booked for next year, but am a little concerned that some of the pictures I've seen look a little like cheap Vegas hotels with the theming!

 

I didn't mind the decor. The atrium is very red. The Medusa Lounge has some ugly and uncomfortable orange chairs, but overall the decor didn't make or break my cruise. Everything was in good condition and clean so that was more important to me. I did hear from the CruiseNext lady that the Jade is going to dry dock in Oct and will be losing a lot of the Hawaiian stuff.

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outtabux

outtabux

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Thanks for posting a recent update! :) We were onboard Jade over Thanksgiving (second week she was in Houston) and are Platinum on NCL... but also have 66 nights on DCL since Fall 2011 so I hear where you are coming from. Definitely two different experiences... and price tags. (Our week it was less than half the price to go on NCL Jade in a balcony with a promo package (specialty dining) versus DCL Wonder in an oceanview -saved us thousands $$$$) Our Jade week we felt like the crew was still used to Europeans instead of us Texans who like to visit and get to know the crew. ;) Plus we had 1,000 kids onboard and NCL doesn't limit bookings to kids club capacity like DCL does (you never get turned away on DCL for kids club). Our kids were 9 and 5 so a little younger, and didn't use kids club at all on Jade because they enjoyed the pool, card room, and games we brought onboard. My two cents - Definitely don't let the Jade give you an impression of NCL as a whole. One time we had DCL Magic for Transatlantic and our youngest would not go in Oceaneers Club.... but three days later on NCL Spirit for Mediterranean we couldn't keep her out of Splash Academy. Each ship and crew are different for sure, plus as you saw guidelines for checkout privileges vary by cruise line like the alcohol policies do. My 9 year old was not impressed with DCL Wonder kids club in January (last month) and it was my first time ever to make a non-positive comment on kids club on DCL survey card - just always depends on what crew members are onboard that can really make or break it for the kids we have found.

Hubby and I are most likely going on NCL Escape in April and my 9 year old saw the ropes course and water slide... and is drooling she can't go. Totally different class of ship from Jade. They just don't bring the newer ships to Texas with any of the cruise lines.

And you are right - with NCL the port arrival time you pick doesn't really matter. We had a 9:30 PAT but parking lot didn't open until 10:00. Port parking folks had no idea 9:30 could be selected with cruise line when I showed them that paperwork. :eek:

Looking forward to rest of your review of ports - we are headed back to same ports in March on different NCL ship and not sure what we are doing yet.

 

My kids are getting old enough too that they found other things to do also. We were sailing with two other families, so they had friends to hang around with. This cruise on the Jade was half the price of our DCL cruises. For the money, I think the Jade is the better choice. There were not very many kids on this cruise and we noticed how empty the pools were compared to DCL and the halls were much quieter without kids running till midnight every night.

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abcmom123

abcmom123

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Thank you for your review. We are on the Jade in March and are looking forward to it. Excited to hear about what you did for the ports and your experience with the tendering.

I don't think anyone does it better than Disney when it comes to family vacations, but for the price of 1DCL cruise our family was able to book our NCL cruise plus a week at Disneyland (during Christmas). Cruise + Disney fix + extra week of vacation=no brainer! :)

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hawk1972

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I didn't mind the decor. The atrium is very red. The Medusa Lounge has some ugly and uncomfortable orange chairs, but overall the decor didn't make or break my cruise. Everything was in good condition and clean so that was more important to me. I did hear from the CruiseNext lady that the Jade is going to dry dock in Oct and will be losing a lot of the Hawaiian stuff.

 

I asked the captain of the Jade at the Q&A on board about the next refurb, and he said it would be "next year" (=2017). According to the info about the Norwegian Edge program, the Jade is due for a refurb in spring 2017. I think it was originally planned for fall 2016.

I don't know if they will keep the Hawaiian decor or not. Just about all the artwork in the stairways is Hawaiian-themed. That's a lot to change out.

I hope they go digital in the photo area. It's a lot easier to find your photos on a computer.

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outtabux

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Here's my thoughts on the Entertainment.

 

The shows are twice nightly at 7:30 & 9:30. We would eat in Alizar at 5:45 and we could make it to the show by 7:15 which was just enough time to get good seats.

We had David Naster as our comedian. He is amazing! He did the show Wednesday night and then did an afternoon show on Thursday and Friday. The Friday afternoon show was about bullying so of course we took our kids. It was a great show for all ages.

 

Illusions with Cripton & Renata was a great show if you can get past the Johnny Depp/Jesus appearance of Cripton. He is also one of those performers that likes extra applause, so they will stand there until they get enough. The illusions are great and my kids loved it.

 

Soul Duo is a pair of acrobats that are amazing. It's a more low key show compared to the Illusions but they are great. After watching them, it made me feel guilty for eating so much at the buffet. ;)

 

Elements was Thursday night and it was THE BEST! Don't miss this one. It is a combination of the cruise dancers, Soul Duo and Cripton. It is also the farewell performance for the crew and staff.

 

Friday night is a juggler and comedian named Barry John. He's just okay.

 

Overall, we loved the entertainment and even loved it more then DCL. It was great for all ages!

 

At 8:30 every night they had some type of game show in Spinnaker Lounge. We went most nights right after the 7:30 show in the Stardust. Kids are allowed in Spinnaker until 11:00 so we brought the kids with us. A couple nights the whole audience could play so that was great. Other nights were games where they picked people or couples by raffle tickets.

 

First time cruiser social: Supposedly this was the first week they were trying it. It was Thursday afternoon from 5:00-5:30 in Spinnaker and we got an invitation in our stateroom. We went and they had free champagne. They collected the invitations at the door for raffle prizes. They talked about the Norwegian credit card, future cruises and all the different services on board. Then they raffled off about 12 prizes that were things like, OBC for $50, spa services, internet package, photo session, jewelry, and the grand prize was $150 OBC. Yep, we won!! Of course, it could not be used towards gratuities, so we used it for our CruiseNext deposits.

 

Stay tuned for Port Adventures!

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outtabux

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And finally....PORTS

 

Cozumel: This was the first time we have ever booked an excursion through the cruise line. We booked the Dolphinaris through NCL. We tried to book it direct and I can't remember if it wasn't available or they wouldn't book direct. We booked the Swim and Ride Package for the kids online on the NCL website. While researching this excursion I found out about an Observer Package which can only be booked once on board through the Shore Excursion desk. The Observer package just included transportation, lunch and 2 drinks for $50 each. I didn't love the hurry up and wait experience of a large group excursion. It took 2 1/2 hours just to get everyone from the Jade and into the water at Dolphinaris. They did get to spend 1 hour in the water with the dolphins and that part was great. The "observers" took pictures and ate while the rest of the group was in the water. The lunch was just so-so. The lunch was hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos and stuff to make nachos. I think my hubby had four drinks. (They don't keep track) I believe the pictures could be purchased for about $20 each, but I tried not to look because I had decided beforehand that I wasn't going to buy any.

 

Belize: We had booked a private excursion through Caveman Tours to go snorkeling in Caye Caulker. This would mean we would have to tender in and then take a water taxi to Caye Caulker. Tender tickets were available at 8:00 for the first tender at 9:00. We got to deck 7 to get our tickets at 7:55 and got group 5. Right at 9:00 they called groups 1 & 2. It then took over an hour for them to call group 3. We finally got on a tender boat at 10:45 which meant we had missed the 10:30 water taxi to Caye Caulker and we didn't have the water taxi schedule memorized to know when the next one would be available. It was a 15 minutes ride to Belize, so we stepped off the tender right at 11:00. We decided we were too tight on time to try and make the Caye Caulker thing work, so we made a new plan. We walked and shopped through the tourist village and decided to go get a cab and go to the Belize sign and take a Christmas card picture. We found a nice cab driver named BJ standing right outside the gate. He had a van for all 8 of us. He quoted us $80 round trip for our group and then quickly lowered it to $60. We offered him $40 and we were on our way. Outside the gate of the tourist village the vendors and cabbies are in your face and pushy. They were calling the girls princess and wanting to braid their hair. The usual stuff. When we got back from our little tour around town, we had to go through the x-ray machine and have our bags hand searched. There are two "official" buildings right next to the gate. One is the x-ray scanner building and the other is where you can get your passport stamped if you would like. I don't think we saw the best Belize had to offer but with the time constraints and tendering issues this seems like a difficult port. The port time was 9-6 with the last tender back at 5:00. Oh, I forgot to mention that there were two other boats there and they were there before us so I think that was part of the tendering problem.

 

Roatan: We booked Little French Key on our own. People were up earlier this day to get their tender tickets after the big delays yesterday. I asked about pulling into the pier for a while before the NCL Dawn arrived and they said they did that earlier in the year but they were not doing that anymore. Tendering went quicker to Roatan and it was only a 5 minute ride in the orange life boats. As you walk through the tourist village, there is a little building/hut that will stamp your passport if you would like. We walked through the village and outside the gates to find Dave and Larry to drive us to Little French Key. Everyone seemed to know Dave and Larry and no one bothered us and people were nice about pointing us in the right direction to meet up with them. It was a 30 minute ride across the island to get to LFK. You pick your package and pay and then take a 3 minute boat ride over to the remote island. The island is GREAT! There is lots of room to spread out. The drinks and the lunch were great. I could go into great detail, so if you have specific questions I can answer those later. Lots of fun water activities, loungers, hammocks, sand volleyball and the animals. We got to hold the monkeys and take pictures. The staff was very good about going around and collecting people to get a van back to the pier so no one missed the tender.

 

We loved this cruise! The boat was in good shape and clean. The crew were friendly and we had no problems communicating with any of them. We had 11 people in our group and our only small complaint was that we had to walk to the bar and stand in line for our drinks around the pool. The selection of food and the quality were above average. We didn't think anything could be better then DCL and by the end of the week we decided that NCL is overall a better fit for us, especially for the price!

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indigoeyes

indigoeyes

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This is my first cruise and I'm not sure how the whole tender ticket thing works. Can you go get your tender tickets and then go get breakfast? Or do you have to stay in the general area where you got the tender tickets? Do they announce what tender group is boarding over the whole ship or just by where you got the tickets?

 

Thanks for the report! We'll be on the Jade in just a few weeks!

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MandyGirl

MandyGirl

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Ugh they are not docking before the Dawn any longer. :( Thanksgiving week they were still calling tender numbers until after noon I was told, so it was a relief to see here the temporary docking to tell friends about who are cruising over spring break. Thanks for the forewarning - great review!

We are like you - for the price we do feel NCL is the better bang for our buck. [emoji106] can cruise more often for sure :)

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bluehawks47

bluehawks47

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Outtabux,

 

Thanks for your great review!! As far as your cab in Belize, how long did you use it for only $40? I contacted a driver for the day and he quoted me $80 (two people) for four hours for our cruise in March. If you only used the cab for an hour, then our $80 isn't too bad. I don't want to commit if just grabbing a cab will be a lot cheaper.

 

Thanks again for your review and your great ideas.

 

Kathleen

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