Jade Review March 26 - my opinions

[BigChiefJJ]

This was my first experience with NCL and my second cruise overall, my first was DCL. First off, I had a good time on the cruise. There were some things that NCL did well, and there were some things that they could have done better, but overall I did enjoy my vacation. Please bear with my ramblings as some thoughts are pretty details and some are just an overview.

 

We did arrive at the port in Houston (Baytown), it was easy to unload our checked luggage with a porter and drop my wife and daughter (7 yrs old) off with our carry on while I parked the car. We got past the x-ray machines about 10:45 and were given boarding group 5. We got registered pretty quickly (small line), got our key cards – the UBP and UDP were printed on the cards so it was easy to see and we didn’t have to worry about the ‘stickers’ that I saw in other posts and provided a credit card for onboard charges. After we got our key cards, we were asked to sit back down and wait for our boarding group to be called. I believe they eventually got to our boarding group about 11:45.

 

The rooms were open but we were told that they would not be ready until about 1:30pm, but it was so nice to be able to drop off our carryon luggage in the room while it was still being finished. This was much nicer than DCL as we didn’t have to carry the extra stuff around with us. After dropping off our stuff, we went up to the buffet and managed to find a seat and get a bite to eat. It did get really crowded while we were eating and eventually all the tables filled up into the Great Outdoors from the Main buffet area. We registered for the kids club (long line) there were 3-4 consolers explaining the policies to each family one on one – this was good and bad. Took about 40 minutes and several people in line in front of us left so that sped up the wait a bit. Again, would have been nice to do this online as well, or even in the terminal before we boarded while we were waiting for our boarding group to be called.

 

By 1:20 our cabin was ready, we took a leisurely tour of it. Got our phones connected to the Iconcierge app (which in my mind was almost useless – more on this later) then headed up to the pool. By 2:00 the wife and I were sipping on our second drinks and the little one was in the pool.

The mandatory safety drill occurred but there were not enough chairs in the dining room so everyone could sit down and anyone that wasn’t there early, before it actually started, was standing up. It was over pretty quick, perhaps 10 minutes.

 

The rest of the day was spent around the pool and at various bars. I did find that the bartenders were very inconsistent, Most were excellent, some were bad. The first one told me that he could only make the drinks that were listed on the drink menu, which only included about 12 drinks. I went to a different bartender. I ordered a “White Russian” from 4 different bartenders and got 4 different combinations of components in the cup, ordered a “mud slide” and got 3 different variations – finally I found a bartender that I liked and just told him exactly what I wanted in the drink. Once you told them what you wanted most were very good about remembering. I guess I could have specified exactly what I wanted after the first wrong drink, but these drinks were for the wife, and it became a bit of an experiment after the first try. If I would have been paying by the drink, or they were for me, it would have been different.

 

Our Cabin Steward, Mr. Noel, was excellent, he greeted each of us by name each and every time we passed him in the hall (even if he was in another cabin and he saw us pass). Any request that was made of him was immediately taken care of. Some days, mainly sea days, it did take him a bit longer to make-up our cabin, but I attribute this more to his attention to detail and what appeared to be a shortage of cabin stewards than a lack of effort.

 

My wife had two separate massages while we were onboard and wanted to take the masseuse home with her. I think she would have booked more if I had let her.

 

The food, in my opinion, was average and this is my biggest disappointment. The presentation was Excellent, but the taste was not. I enjoy food and like trying new things and was looking forward to some excellent meals. We ate in Alizar the first night, I had prime rib and the wife had the steak. Mine was really good, the best steak I had onboard, the wife complained that it would have been easier to eat her shoe. The dining room was noisy, but the wait staff was very nice and quick about getting the appetizers, main course and dessert served timely. We ate at Cagney’s the second night and I opted for the Lobster, it also was very nice, a bit small in my mind and a tad overdone, but enjoyable. Wife ended up with the small fillet and again complained that it was a bit tougher than she had hoped, but much much better than the sirloin in Alizar. The Brownie cake in Cagney’s was good – the cheesecake was just ok. Nights 3&5 were spent in Grand Pacific, which provided the best aesthetics of any of the dining options. This room felt ‘luxurious’ with the decorations, like what I expected from a dining room and they did enforce the dinner dress code – long pants or a dress, no jeans or shorts. We also tried La Cucina (I don’t recommend the Carpaccio) and the pizza there (Daughter) was much better than the buffet or regular child’s pizza, Teppanyaki (food was good, vegetables were large and impossible to eat with chopsticks – and a bit too much lemon used in the dishes) and Cagney’s again (I ordered the Rib-eye and didn’t even want to finish it, the wife’s large fillet was much better than the small one, but still not what we were hoping for). In my opinion Teppanyaki was the only one worth the extra money although I didn’t try LeBistro or Moderno. The service at Cagney’s on the last night of the cruise was also horrible, slow and appeared unorganized. Breakfast at the buffet, although it didn’t change, was the best meals of the day.

 

With a 7 year old we did eat at the Garden Café (buffet) for lunch a lot and I didn’t notice the selection change much for lunch for me – they did have a carving station that had a different meat each day, some were good, some were very overdone. The pizza seemed inconsistent from day to day. The “kids area” hot buffet was never operated and the only time I could ever find chicken strips was at the “Great Outdoors” mini-buffet for afternoon snack. Hamburgers, Hot dogs, fries, were always available somewhere on deck 12 (pool, buffet, or great outdoors). The hamburger patties were good, the bread was not, which made eating the burger not the best experience. The desserts were good and the ice cream machines were always popular. We tried the ‘Blue Lagoon’ on the last sea day and I was hoping for some good comfort food – the chicken wings didn’t impress me either – good flavor, not spicy but a bit soggy and not crispy. We never ordered room service, although did have coffee, milk and pastries delivered for breakfast several times.

 

I read horror stories about the tendering process in Belize, to avoid this we ended up booking an excursion through NCL to visit Altun Ha, and it was extremely easy. Tender ticket included with the excursion so I didn’t have to wait in line on deck 12 for the ticket then go down to 4 to get a tender. We met in the Theater for 8:30, then left and were on the first or second boat. It was a 5 mile tender and took about 25 minutes but the crew was entertaining. There were more people for the Altun Ha excursion than they had busses for so we had to wait a bit for the third bus to show up – perk, it wasn’t a full 50 people in the group, and we ended up with 2 tour guides. It did take another 15 minutes waiting at the departure area to get another bus for us though. The tour was nice, one guide (Melody) was extremely entertaining in telling us about the ride out to the site (about an hour) and the second guide (Wilerfed) was an archeologist that had actually worked on the Altun Ha site while it was being excavated.

 

We didn’t book an excursion in Roatan, so we had a leisurely morning, ate a late breakfast and waited for all the tender ticket groups to go ashore. They ended up getting through about 25 tender boarding groups by about 11:00-11:30 and made the announcement that open tender boarding was available for anyone. They were using some of the larger life boats from the ship to tender and it was about a 5 minute ride from the boat to the dock. There was a RCCL boat docked at the pier and the NCL Dawn also anchored a bit further out than us that day. We explored the small dock, had a few drinks and snacks at Monkey La-La bar and then headed back to the boat for the afternoon.

 

Kids club (seal) – daughter would have spent the entire cruise here if we had let her. The staff was extremely friendly, seemed genuinely interested in the kids and were always smiling. It was an international staff and none of them seemed to use their real names, unless they had cruel parents naming them ‘cappuccino’, ‘margarita’, ‘jinx’, and other things that the younger kids could probably remember easier. The scheduled events were nice, but I do like DCL’s drop them off whenever policy much better than NCL’s scheduled times and the extra charges associated with leaving them for meals on port days or closing for meals on sea days. I honestly didn’t mind paying the extra $6 an hour for after 10:30, but I can see how 2-3 hours of that 5-7 nights can add up to an extra $100 per kid, although I did hear it was only $10 per hour if you had 2 kids, not sure what the 3rd kid discount would have been. The staff explained this very well and there were no surprises. But every kid coming out at 10:30pm was begging parents to let them stay. Again – online registration or registration in the terminal before you got on the boat would have been nice. The line to get kids registered after lunch on embarkation day was extremely long.

 

Iconcierge – I’ve read that this functions differently on different ships. I found two uses for it (1) checking account transactions (this was the most useful) and (2) text messaging or calling other users that are registered. This option required a $7.95 registration fee per device, so it was $16 if the wife and I wanted to communicate while we were apart, more if you have more devices. The rest of the app was basically a static brochure. It listed where things were on the ship and what times they were open but nothing else. It would have been nice to see the daily schedule, a deck map, to see activities booked, to be able to book activities etc.

 

Bars – The only bars I actually had any trouble getting drinks at was Topsiders (pool bar – very crowded) or Bali Hai (above the pool bar – limited bartenders). The Great outdoors on the back of the boat was never crowded, had very friendly bartenders, a decent breeze, good views and snacks at the buffet right there. Tankards had a better selection of Whisky (didn’t open while in TX waters), but the good stuff was on the ‘ultra-premium’ list and not available on the UBP. I didn’t understand when the bartender told me that the Macallan was $13.50 a glass, wasn’t on the UBP, and would cost me about $5 extra to order even though the UBP says that I get $15 credit to any drink more expensive than $15. I didn’t argue, but still curious about that math. The majority of the Bartenders had enjoyable personalities and were more than willing to use any combination of bottles that you directed them to and refill drinks as quickly as you would empty them. But as I said vague drink orders (White Russian) ended up with Vodka/Kahlua, Bailys/Kahlua, Vodka/Bailys and Vanilla Vodka/Kahlua from multiple bartenders. I also found it odd that I couldn’t get an Irish coffee on the UBP. I could get a shot of Jamison, I could get coffee from the coffee machines – but the bars didn’t have coffee….. the Atrium bar did but it was a charge.

 

Room – we booked a mini-suite and found it an ok size for the three of us – now we do like to spend some down time on vacations in the room to rest, so anything smaller and I don’t think we would have survived. As it was drawer space was limited – I ended up using the top rack of the closet for most of my clothes as the wife and daughter took up all of the drawers. Opening the closet door has been mentioned before, but again I had to sit on the bed to do this and then stand up after the door was opened to get to my clothes. The coffee maker was ok, but the coffee from room service was better. The Balcony was very roomy – 2 chairs a half lounger and a small table, very nice. The door was a bit heavy to open. The mini-bar/fridge was stocked with stuff we didn’t use, but there was room to put a few cartons of milk, soda’s and water bottles in it. The TV was ok, the remove was worn and I couldn’t read what any of the buttons said so I’m not sure if I got full use out of the TV. 4-6 channels for NCL related stuff, 2-3 for rotating movies / TV shows and several BBC/Fox news type channels and one sports channel. I know I’m on a cruise and I can watch movies at home, but sometimes I’d want to relax in the cabin and watch a movie – I didn’t have this option with NCL or I had to watch what was on. Giant Plus on the DCL is all the free view movies and shows that were on demand viewing.

 

Bathroom – Water Pressure and temperature was AMAZING! Never had any problems here, great shower, the drain plugs for the tub didn’t seal very well so soaking in the tub was not an option. Adequate space! The bath gel / shampoo was ok for me, but if you’ve got lots of hair (wife / daughter) then I’d recommend bringing better quality shampoo and conditioner. The towels were very nice, dried me off great. They did have 2 robes in the closet that seemed nice – my other two roommates commandeered the robes. I’m sure Noel would have brought me a 3rd one if I asked, but I’m not really a robe person. There were ‘pool towels’ in the room as well, and Noel was more than happy to provide us with fresh ones each time we came back to the room with a wet one. I found it odd that the towel exchange guy at the pool wanted a $25 deposit, to take my wet towel and give me a dry one. Hopefully I misunderstood, but we just went back to the room and got a new towel from Noel.

 

Entertainment – I found this area lacking. I know your vacation is what you make it, and we had fun, but I think NCL could do better. We only went to the “elements” show – but about half way through I started looking at my watch wondering when it was going to end. The other shows may have been more interesting, but it was hard fitting them into our schedule with the 7:00 dinner reservations we had most of the nights. The musicians in the bars were ok – they played the songs right, but appeared to ‘learn’ the lyrics phonetically and didn’t have the same feel as the original. Trivia was interesting, but too many things that I didn’t care much about, Bingo was enjoyable but extremely expensive. I really enjoyed the family insanity game – this was interactive and lasted more than 15 minutes. The pool games were ok, but typically only involved about 6-10 guests and were over quick.

 

The décor of the ship was enjoyable, I didn’t mind Hawaiian theme – at times I sat in the atrium bar watching the lights in the flowers turn different colors – quite soothing. There were a few places on the ship that you couldn’t get to from the same deck and you had to go up and around to get to your final destination. The bridge viewing room was interesting, the kido kept asking why no one was steering the ship.

 

The seas were a bit rougher than we were used to and the wind was blowing 20-45 knots most of the time after we left Roatan. There was very noticeable side to side movement in the boat, not much front to back unless you were in the very back of the boat. The Kido ended up complaining of really bad stomach pains after supper one night about 8:30, to the point where she was crying, so we asked if the she could see the doctor. The Med Center was closed but they did call a doctor and nurse to see us. They informed us that there would be a charge for this. After finding out it probably wasn’t her appendix and most likely bad sea-sickness (although she never vomited), they did give her a Zofran shot, two bottles of medicine to take if it came back and added a $700 charge to my account for medical services. I didn’t question it, I didn’t think it would do much good.

 

The few times that I went to guest services they were extremely helpful and answered my questions accurately and quickly. The staff was really good, I probably only ran into 5-6 staff members that were grouchy, didn’t want to be there, were having a bad moment or were just total idiots. All in all Excellent staff.

 

I found that most of the stuff in the ‘gift shop’ was overpriced, we forgot mosquito spray and a small bottle of it ended up at $15. Very large selection of watches and jewelry, very small selection of souvenirs. I also found that they appeared to be running low on items as the cruise went on. The first couple of days I would end up with half a pineapple slice in my ‘fruity drink’ but the second half of the cruise it was a quarter slice. The lime slices seemed to get smaller as the week went by. Two of the regular coffee machines were broken on the second to last day, and only 1 was dispensing coffee on disembarkation morning (all the decaff ones were full).

 

Disembarkation from the boat was great – put luggage out with colored tags on it by 11 pm the night before, wait for your color to be called, then leave ship. This is where the ‘great’ ended and the US customs service entered. Once we got off the boat we found our luggage easily enough then stood in the customs line for almost an hour waiting to get through. All 10 lines were open, they were processing people, we were the only ship there, and our group was the 3rd group called for those that didn’t want to carry their luggage off. Once through it was easy enough getting to the car and back on the interstate.

 

Again, I did have fun on this vacation, the staff was great, I enjoyed being able to go to a bar and try different drinks whenever I wanted to. I probably won’t book another NCL trip again unless I end up with an extremely great deal. The food here is the deal-breaker for me. The specialty restaurants didn’t impress me.

[strykes]

Wow - I really hope you had insurance to cover that bill! I had no idea seeing a dr on the ship would be that expensive.

 

We saw several people with the motion sickness patches. My husband had to wear one the first night (it lasts for 72 hours) but was fine later in the cruise. Yes, you could definitely feel the motion on the way back to port. My son and I were laughing though because it was nowhere near as bad as the Disney cruise we did without dad. The last night, we had dinner reservations at Cagney's. My son said he felt seasick so didn't go. Instead, he went to the arcade and kids' club since midship would have less motion. ;-) (Cagney's is midship.)

 

I think the iconcierge should be priced at a discount when it doesn't have full functionality.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the feedback, and sorry about that Dr. bill.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report.

[Vacationlover2]

I believe that guest services offers free bug spray. We just got off the Spirit and saw it noted on the dailies. We brought our own so I didn't see if they actually had it. Can anyone confirm? Also, if you have a suite, do you get priority tendering? We will be in our first suite on the Jade in November. Super excited!

[seaskydoll]

I believe that guest services offers free bug spray. We just got off the Spirit and saw it noted on the dailies. We brought our own so I didn't see if they actually had it. Can anyone confirm? Also, if you have a suite, do you get priority tendering? We will be in our first suite on the Jade in November. Super excited!

 

I don't know about the bug spray. If you are in a suite you do get priority tendering and disembarkation. Your concierge will let you know where and when to meet and they will escort you down. If you have shore excursions through NCL you just follow those directions.

[antiquehtr]

Big Chief JJ-

 

Does your wife remember the name of the masseuse? We are goingApril 16th!

 

Thanks,

 

Terri

[Demonyte]

I'm a bit late to comment, but kudos to OP for the review and few comments:

 

I found it odd that the towel exchange guy at the pool wanted a $25 deposit, to take my wet towel and give me a dry one. Hopefully I misunderstood...

 

 

I'd say that you misunderstood, if you take your used towel there and directly change it to a new one, there should be no charge. But if you want to take a new one without visibly returning your old one, that counts as a second towel and you must sign the deposit for it.

 

I think the iconcierge should be priced at a discount when it doesn't have full functionality.

 

 

All the functionality OP described as lacking (even if some of it exist on newer ships) is free, you don't have to pay anything to use those features.

 

Only the call/text functionality has an activation fee and I didn't see OP complain about that.

[strykes]

I'm a bit late to comment, but kudos to OP for the review and few comments:

 

 

 

 

I'd say that you misunderstood, if you take your used towel there and directly change it to a new one, there should be no charge. But if you want to take a new one without visibly returning your old one, that counts as a second towel and you must sign the deposit for it.

 

 

 

 

All the functionality OP described as lacking (even if some of it exist on newer ships) is free, you don't have to pay anything to use those features.

 

Only the call/text functionality has an activation fee and I didn't see OP complain about that.

 

You are correct about the iconcierge. My bad. :-)