Jade 1st Cruise From Tampa Review- Nov 2016

[Sotermarler]

I am from the Tampa Bay area and just like any large city there are good parts and bad. You had a really bad experience and my intention is not to rub it in. For others cruising from Tampa know that is a great city with diverse food, culture, and entertainment options. And the beautiful Gulf beaches are a twenty minute drive away. This is when research is key...Busch Gardens is absolutely a sketchy area but there are so many great areas, as others have suggested. And the smallest amount of research would tell you that Ybor City is NOT family oriented. Just wanted to put my two cents in so others are not scared away from your experience or what a random cab driver did or didn't say.

 

 

Believe it or not, I did do some research, on hotels.com. I didn't realize there were so many fake reviews and fake picture out there. I knew I was getting a 2 star, but this hotel should have been half a star.

 

I'm sure there are other good areas of Tampa, but our goal was to stay near Bush Gardens. I was really shocked at how sketchy that whole area was.

 

Our traveling companions were staying in Ybor City, so they picked that area. The hotel in Ybor City was much better. I just wasn't all impressed with that area either. It would be nice for a night out but that's not what we were looking for.

 

 

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[Sotermarler]

We were on the same cruise. We stayed pre cruise at the Marriott Waterside & it was beautiful. Wonderful location & great staff. I would highly recommend it.

 

We've all had our share of crappy hotels & I'm sorry yours ending up in that category.

 

Cheers

 

Sandy

 

 

Thanks. it was no big deal it was just 2 nights and it made us want to hit the ship that much more!

 

 

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[Sotermarler]

The Ship

I knew going in that the ship about was half the size of the Escape, that it was older, didn't have the new technology and was Hawaiian themed.

 

When I booked this back in 2014 the ship was leaving out of Galveston and was set to be dry-docked before our cruise in October. Well, we all remember the whole repositioning mess a while back and this ship was changed to Tampa and dry-dock pushed back until next spring. After much arguing with NCL, I was able to keep my price, KSF, original UBP and Soda package, so there was nothing that was going to stop us from taking this bargain cruise! (I'm starting to see a pattern)

 

I went on this cruise with an open mind and my expectations low. I suspected it might be a tough transition to go from a brand new ship with tons of amenities to an older smaller ship. I had heard so many great things about the Jade I knew I needed to try a smaller ship to see for myself.

Now I know, I prefer the bigger and newer ships. I missed the Waterfront a lot. I really feel like deck 7 was a missed opportunity for some outside seating. There are a few chairs and tables but it's for the smokers. I would have loved to plunked down outside on a couch or chair away from the smokers and watch the world go by.

I also missed the different water slides, outdoor movies the ropes courses and the Vibe. I never really understood how great that pass was until I sat around the pool with the masses. If you wanted to sit in a hot tub you would have needed a shoe horn to get in there. I know on the Escape the complaints are the pool area, but we never sat around the pool because of the Vibe passes. I suspect the Jade may have an edge on the pool area but I don't know for sure.

 

DH was disappointed in the movies, there was only 2 or 3 shown at 3:00 pm in the Medusa lounge. We really missed the movies under the stars, it was one of our favorite things to do. While I knew there were no outdoor screens they could have at least shown a night movie somewhere on the ship.

 

While the Escape's design is modern and elegant, the Jade's design is absolutely hideous. I lived in Hawaii for 4 years and I can honestly say, the ship didn't read Hawaiian to me. It reminded me of a bright Mexican colored theme with Hawaiian flowers thrown on top. What is with the purple Medusa lounge or the blue ceiling in the buffet? Seriously, when you compare the elegance of the Escape to the childish attempt at Hawaiian theming there is no contest the Escape wins hands down.

 

I liked the idea of the spinnaker lounge at the front, but when the band started playing 70's songs during the Latitudes party I couldn't help but to laugh and start singing the Love Boat theme. It was neat and old fashioned at the same time, maybe I'll just call it retro.

 

There were glass Hawaiian flowers on the ceiling that lit up, I wanted to like them but these were no Chihuly. I would imagine there will be lots of changes at dry dock next spring. You could tell that they are already prepping the ship to remove the some of Hawaiian theming because down on 7 where you can walk around outside, many of the hull paintings were white washed over.

 

As far as the materials holding up, for the most part the ship was in good shape. Some of the chairs were dirty, but no carpet rips or neglect. NCL does a great job of keeping her clean.

 

I think we ate breakfast at the buffet every morning and a few lunches. The buffet took up half of the ship where on the Escape its the entire aft on two sides.

The food on the buffet was as good as ever, no complaints there. DH thought it was better, I thought it was about the same.

 

What was different was the set up. It was more traditional in just the front area and not in one long line like on the Escape. The problem with that was that there was never any seating near the buffet so you had to keep walking aft until you found a table. If you wanted seconds you had to walk all the way back to the front.

One day we didn't find one at all and had to sit in LaCucina for lunch. I know some people like it because it s quieter, but it's a long walk back to the food. Not a deal breaker, we still loved the buffet, but I thought the Escape design was just a bit better.

What I did love on this ship was the Great Outdoors. It was like if you put Spice on the Escape at the end of the buffet line (except no hot tubs or movie screen). It was neat to be able to take your food outdoors and watch the ocean as you eat.

Also there was a nice bar back there. It was probably one of my favorite places. I like to see the ocean almost all the time I am on the ship and this checked all the boxes. Oh and the ice cream didn't disappoint either!

 

Continued ...

 

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[CasinoCruzGirl]

We are leaving on the 4th to 11th sailing... any chance you grabbed the dailies? thank you. :)

 

Me to can't wait!!!!

[Sotermarler]

We are leaving on the 4th to 11th sailing... any chance you grabbed the dailies? thank you. :)

 

 

No sorry. Have a great time!

 

 

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[Sotermarler]

Crew

The crew on the Jade were phenomenal. I really liked the Hotel Director Mirsad. He was personable and funny. At one of the meet and greets he said that the Jade's crew were recognized for being the best in the fleet. I believe this was probably true as they were all super nice and helpful.

On the dress up or not night, we were standing on the stairs for a photo and the Captain came by and jumped in our picture, probably because we had an 8 yr old with us. I didn't have the heart to tell the Captain we didn't really want him in he picture. It was neat though that he was personable enough to do that.

 

Our room steward John was great. On the Escape we hardly ever saw our steward and if we did there was hardly ever a smile. My DH commented last year that all the staff seemed miserable on the Escape.

Other than the super slow service in the Grand Pacific, the Jade crew wins hands down over the Escape.

 

 

 

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[Samstress]

We felt exactly the same about the staff. They were always smiling and wanting to help whenever they could. They seemed genuinely happy in their various jobs. I imagine because the Jade is smaller; it's not the same frenetic pace that they experience on the larger ships.

[CruisinHarvey]

Sail Away

 

After a few drinks and checking out the room, we went up and registered DS at the Splash Academy. There were only 132 kids under 18 on this cruise, the previous European 8 day had 16 kids, and they said that on the next Thanksgiving cruise there will be 600 kids under 18! Yikes!

 

We decided to go to dinner at the Grand Pacific at 6:00 pm. The conversation with my friend and I went something like this: My friend, "We are changing for dinner". Me, "why?' Them, "because you have to dress up for dinner". Me, "what? No you don't, this is free style, I'm not changing". I look at my DH to see what he is wearing and I envision us being the targets of someone else's MDR dress code thread, and say to him, "um, we have to go change for dinner".

 

I would later find out that they were right as we were denied entry to the GP another night because my friend had shorts on. We were never denied entry to any restaurant on the Escape for shorts, or maybe we were just better dressed last year?

Anyway the food was quite good, a step up from the Escape that I remember. It seemed like on the Escape all the food had sat for awhile. On the Jade food came out fresh and hot, BUT man it was slow service. An hour and a half is over my limit and just like that, we missed the sail away party.

 

I thought it was odd that the party was held inside and not on the pool deck. The Escape has a much better set up for sail away with Spice H20.

Continued ...

 

 

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Please correct me, if I'm wrong. Men need to wear long pants in the Grand Pacific because it's their more formal dining room. You can still wear shorts in the Alizar Dining Room midship and all the other specialty restaurants.

Edited November 24, 2016 by CruisinHarvey

[Sotermarler]

Please correct me, if I'm wrong. Men need to wear long pants in the Grand Pacific because it's their more formal dining room. You can still wear shorts in the Alizar Dining Room midship and all the other specialty restaurants.

 

 

Yes exactly right.

 

 

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[Sotermarler]

Sorry for the delay, I'm home and have a bad cold and foggy brain. So I'll finish up now.

The kids club

You couldn't keep my 8 yr old out of the Splash Academy. It doesn't really look like much when you go up and register the kids. I guess I expected craft tables, toys and play things, but there is none of that visible.The academy is on deck 12 right around the corner of the buffet, so it was super convenient to grab a snack each time we picked him up.

 

They separate kids by age group. 4-5, 6-9 and 10-? I believe. The first night DS was hesitant to go, and when I picked him up, he didn't say much about how it went. And he say he might want to go back in the morning. He did end up going back and it was like an addiction he couldn't get enough of this place! DS knew all the times he could be dropped off at and held me accountable to those times. Twice at dinner in the Grand Pacific I had to leave the meal and run him up. To say he loved it would be an understatement.

 

He was always excited to get up there early and practice his circus trick. Each night it had a different theme. Survivor, super heroes, Hollywood, pirates and the circus in the last sea day.

 

It's hard to see anything that goes on there as there are no windows looking into it, so all of my information is second hand from my DS. Oddly enough, the academy has exterior windows and a great view of the ocean that they covered up each night with themed banners.

 

On Pirate night, the kids marched around the pool deck and the counselors had a mock sword fight and one of them fell into the pool.

 

On the last sea day, they kids held a cute little circus in the Stardust theater for anyone who wanted to watch. It was cute and the kids really enjoyed it. It was the highlight of my DS trip. I can't say enough great things about the staff at the Splash Academy.

Continued...

 

 

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[Sotermarler]

Ports

I'll start with the most important port Harvest Caye (even though it was last stop)

What a beautiful place to visit! Sadly our time there was abbreviated from 7-1 pm, so I don't think we had enough time to explore everything but we made the best of it. I'm so great full I got a chance to experience this island and not have to tender into Belize.

 

We had breakfast around 6:00 am and then walked off onto the new wooden pier. It's by far the nicest pier I have seen, wooden and covered but man it was LONG! There were some golf carts running, but we didn't want to wait. The first thing I did was walk down the far end of the beach and set up my stuff under a tree for shade. There are TONS of chairs, even if I was in the Escape I wouldn't worry about chair hogs here. Next, I ran Jumped in the water. It was a cloudy day, but the water was very calm, too calm. Not even a tiny wave in sight. Also, the water seemed a bit murky in color and it smelled a bit like swamp. My guess is that he smell and murkiness will go away with time. The sand was not that beautiful white Caribbean sand I love so much, but more of a gray coarse sand. I know there were jokes on CC that the cabanas would have better sand for an up charge, but I swear as I walked down there it seemed like the sand was a finer grade closer to the cabanas. It could be in my head, but it sure seemed that way!

Also, the buoys marking the swimming area are in very close to shore, and the water is very shallow. One of the lifeguards said it was because there was a 100 foot drop off just past the bouts.

 

With no waves and shallow water we were bored quickly so we got out and explored a bit. DS played in the kids splash pad for a bit, but being from AZ he said the water was too cold so that didn't last long ( he had a case of first world problems). Also it was similar to Splash pads he's seen in AZ. before

 

We checked out the animal cages and the butterfly places, all were quite nice and beautifully landscaped.

 

We walked around the shops, there isn't too much there yet, and are more expensive than other ports we visited, There was a band playing and dancing going on, but when that stopped they had music playing. The Casper slide came on and me and DS stopped dead in out tracks along with some others and rocked out, in sure it wasn't pretty!

 

After waking around we spent some time at the pool area. Now I don't normally like to swim in a pool if I'm at the ocean but it turns out that happened twice on this trip. The huge HC pool has a swim up bar that attaches to Landshark bar, you can get drinks in the pool and they had a food menu, but I didn't see anyone eat in the pool. That would be gross anyway. I could just see me swimming and having a nacho chip floating by.

Julie who was our CD on the Escape last November was on the Jade all week and i saw her giving tours on the island to staff members. Anyone know what she is doing now? The captain was also out on the island taking pictures and asking how we liked it. When we docked the land crew were lined up for a pep talk, they were high fiving and taking selfies. You could just see all the excitement from them when we arrived. When we left they were all smiles and waving and yelling for us to come back soon.

 

There is a lot of use of beautiful wood all over the island. One of the bathrooms I saw had beautiful wood work in it. I thought about snapping a picture but I thought that might look weird and a bit pervy. I don't think it was pine, I really don't know what kind of wood it was but it was certainly beautiful.

 

While we were walking around. the skies grew darker and the wind picked up. Our friends had already gone back to the ship, but since we had another hour I didn't want to waste it. So we went back to the beach. This time the green flags had been changed to yellow and the waves had picked up from one to two feet. The locals told us earlier In the day we were lucky to have such an nice day since it was rainy season. Being from AZ we appreciate the weather so DS and I had a blast in the waves for our last hour.

 

It was really beautiful and I was sad to leave this port. DH didn't love it as much as me because he feels it was fake and and not authentic (he also doesn't like Disney World for the same reason). While he is probably right i still loved it! Anyway you can't believe anyone who hates Disney World!

Ok I lied I'll finish the other ports tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving all!

Continued ....

 

 

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[Sotermarler]

 

 

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[crayola1932]

I'm enjoying this review very much, especially because I am sailing on the Jade in late January.

 

But dear OP is there any way you can reformat your posts so that we don't have to scroll horizontally across three screens to read your comments? Is it perhaps the post with the three photos side by side that are causing this problem?

 

Thank you so much for an excellent review.

[mafig]

I'm enjoying this review very much, especially because I am sailing on the Jade in late January.

 

But dear OP is there any way you can reformat your posts so that we don't have to scroll horizontally across three screens to read your comments? Is it perhaps the post with the three photos side by side that are causing this problem?

 

Thank you so much for an excellent review.

 

I'm not having any problem.

 

Agree, an excellent review!:)

[Sotermarler]

I'm enjoying this review very much, especially because I am sailing on the Jade in late January.

 

 

 

But dear OP is there any way you can reformat your posts so that we don't have to scroll horizontally across three screens to read your comments? Is it perhaps the post with the three photos side by side that are causing this problem?

 

 

 

Thank you so much for an excellent review.

 

 

Hmm, I don't know. I'm writing it on my phone and I can't see the picture side by side. I won't put them together again though. Thanks for the tip. Glad you are enjoying it.

 

 

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[All-ready2cruise]

Hmm, I don't know. I'm writing it on my phone and I can't see the picture side by side. I won't put them together again though. Thanks for the tip. Glad you are enjoying it.

 

 

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I don't think it's your problem OP, mine looks wonderful and the pictures are stacked top to bottom on my pages. Great job, love your review, thanks again for doing it.

Cheers,

[CruisinMama2003]

Thanks for the review (so far).

[Samstress]

Great review & totally on point! We were on this cruise & loved Harvest Caye as well. I might be wrong but I thought some of the wood was cedar or maybe teak? Whatever it was it was a nice touch.

Sandy

[drhry]

Thanks for your review. No problem here with your format, easy read.

[Sotermarler]

Cozumel

Our first port was Cozumel, Mexico. Wow! The water! The water color was amazing! It was the most aqua color water I have ever seen, with goregeous white sand beaches. This picture didn't do it justice, the aqua color was close to the Jade color paintings on the ship.

We live in AZ so I have visited Mexico many times. When we arrived at Cozumel, aside the from the beaches, from the architecture you can still tell you are in Mexico. It didn't give me that warm Caribbean feeling I was hoping for.

 

When setting up the trip, my friend text me and asked if I wanted to spend the day at Paradise Beach? He said it had a nice beach and a huge rocking pool! I was thinking, is he out of his mind?! Why would I want to spend the day at a pool? For the life of me I couldn't figure out why there would be a pool at the ocean. I now know!

 

Paradise Beach was maybe 10-15 minutes from port. The entrance was $2 per person, and they asked you but at least 2 drinks.

The resort was spotless! Beautiful cobble walkways and not a drop of sand on them. The beach was white sand with chairs and umbrellas.

 

I have a strict no food or drink in port rule (esp. at the begging of the trip) because I don't want to end up with Montezuma's revenge. Plus, let's be honest, it's cheaper! Anyway since I had to buy drinks I ordered the pina colada in a coconut! It was super yummy and used the mile from the coconut for the drink.

For $18 My DS had a blast playing on the water blowups until he got stuck on the water slide and wouldn't go up or down, so for another $18 mom to the rescue!

I knew that there would be blow ups in the water so before we traveled I ordered a $20 blow up life vest from Amazon for DS. That worked out great for him. We were able to use this a few times this trip.

Anyway, after completely failing to pull myself up on half the equipment, we started swimming back when we're were both stung by jelly fish! Ouch!!! My friend spent the morning snorkeling and he said he was also stung, but they were just babies. OH NoW I understand the pool!

So we walked over to the pool side and our server followed us.

It really was a great pool, almost as nice as the HC pool. There were chairs and a cover bar for food and drinks. DH doesn't have the same no food/drink in port policy and his bill was around $80, so they got their money's worth from us.

I would very much recommend this beach in Cozumel for the cleanliness, service and amenities. For me though I would not go back to Cozumel, but only because I missed the Caribbean feel.

 

 

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[Sotermarler]

Great review & totally on point! We were on this cruise & loved Harvest Caye as well. I might be wrong but I thought some of the wood was cedar or maybe teak? Whatever it was it was a nice touch.

 

Sandy

 

 

Thanks Samstress!

I think we met at the M & G. Were you the one who organized it?

I was thinking the wood was teak as well.

 

 

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[travelerblue]

We are cruising the Jade in April and booked the Marriott Waterside also. Have you stayed there before? We have not, just curious if you had did you like it?

 

 

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We have stayed there twice. It was a very nice place to stay.

[Sotermarler]

Costa Maya

As we pulled into Costa Maya I was excited to see some Mayan Ruins, but as we got closer, I realized what I was looking at had water slides! I pointed it out to DS and just didn't mention the water slides. [emoji12]

 

Again the water! Wow, such beautiful blue colors, shining like a blue gemstone. The port at Costa Maya is lovely. It has some nice shops, a pool, a bar with restaurants and it looked like they were working on a beach. If you didn't want to , you really wouldn't need to leave the port.

 

For this port we chose Blue Kay. Again another white sandy beach with gorgeous clear waters. To me this port had more of a Caribbean feel. The houses and architecture was more in line with some of the other eastern islands I've visited. Also, this time no Jelly fish!

The entrance to the beach was $5 per person which included a shaded table and chairs or loungers. Blue Kay was just a small section of beach but it was gorgeous. The look of the beach chairs and structures was rustic and weathered. The water was warm and clear, with an alternating sandy and rocky bottom.

DS and I rented a paddle board for $20 and spent hours sitting on it and just paddling around the bay. We got to see a stingray fly by underneath us! My friend decided to join us but had never paddled (or apparently kayaked or rowed) before so she was quickly swept away by the current. Her DH had to put on his fins and rescue her. I felt bad but I didn't want to wander too far with DS on the board with me. Her DH was able to swim out to her and bring her back to safety. I'm pretty sure she is done paddle boarding for a long time.

 

I don't think I would choose Blue Kay again if I went back to CM, as there were plenty of other great choices, but it wasn't bad either.

Overall, i enjoyed Costa Maya for the swimming over Cozumel and because it felt less built up. We met a few ex-pats and was told CM is very peaceful and friendly to foreigners and small business. You could really feel that as you were walking around.

 

 

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[setsail1975]

We have stayed there twice. It was a very nice place to stay.

 

 

Thank you, glad to hear:)

 

 

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