Jade facts and tips

[Raleigh Traveler]

My wife and I just completed a 14 day transatlantic in theJade; Tampa to Southampton. There have been many questions about the newlyrefurbished Jade and cruising in general. I find the posts and comments on CCto fall into several categories. There are those that genuinely are seeking answersor wanting to provide good information. Then there are those that shoot fromthe hip with opinion that have little basis in reality. It is my desire toshare from our experience with some level of objectivity.

We arrived in Tampa a few days early to visit friends in thearea. We rented a car at the airport and returned it there the morning ofembarkation. While walking to the taxi and shuttle area, we passed someoneholding a NCL sign. My wife asked if they had a shuttle and the response wasthat there would be a bus arriving and the cost would be $25 each. We walkedout to the taxi que and immediately got into taxi at the set price of $25 forboth of us. Why wait for twice the price?

Drop off at the terminal and registration was smooth andquick at 10:30am. We waited till about 11:30 for the first boarding and were onthe way. Having cruised before, we knew that there is generally a place tocheck hand carry baggage but needed to ask. It was not communicated as weboarded. The checked area was the Bliss Lounge. It is secure with tags andreceipts. Lunch is in slated to open till noon so we walked around to check outthe boat. We often like to eat lunch and hit the hot tubs on the pool deck.However, most of the pool deck was closed. We found shipping containers beingunloaded right on the deck. They were craned over from the dock and containednew chairs and tables for the lounge areas. A lot of the ship was refurbished afew weeks ago but not all the chairs and tables were switched out yet. We weretold even more were waiting on the dock in Southampton to be installed.

Everyone gets a keycard. The card has both a magnetic stripthat is swiped at dining locations and while leaving or returning to the ship.The is also a barcode on one end for entering the cabin. Many people like touse lanyards and the reception desk has a hole punch tool and knows the bestplace for punching the hole if you want to use a lanyard. It is best to have alanyard with a quick release as you will need to hand it over each time youdine or purchase anything or leave and return to the ship.

We have Gold status with the Latitudes program. We readabout the perks. The Gold perks are stated to include a bottle of sparklingwine, a bottle of water per cruiser and 50% off laundry. We wondered about thewater; did that mean one bottle per day or one per cruise? Surprised a bit thatis was in fact one bottle for the 14 day cruise. They also offer two specialsto everyone for laundry on a TA; fill the bag for $19.95. I did the math andthis standard special is far better a deal than the 50% off.

The ship is amazing. The new color scheme and changes aremore art deco and most of the Hawaii theme is gone. There is still Hawaiian artwork in some of the dining area and hall ways. Al the cabins have been upgradedand look very sharp. One of the nicest additions is USB charging outletsbeneath the TV and one in each bedside lamp. Be aware that NCL requests thatcharging is only to be done while present. Staff are instructed to unpluganything being charged if cabin occupants are not present. We also heard thatpowerstrips, especially with surge protection are not allowed. We put ournon-surge protected strip in our carry on and kept it out of site while not inthe cabin. On the first day we saw one of the staff walking down the hall withhis arms full of power strips. Our balcony cabin had both US and Europeanoutlets by the desk and US outlets under the TV. Outlets found around the ship;in the library or general areas were always European (recessed, round with tworound prongs).

Many cabins have a round, cushioned stool by the desk. Hint,the cushion pops off revealing a small storage space. Good place to hide yourpower strip and charge cords. Just don’t forget them when packing to leave.

All the walls in the cabins are made of ferrous metal. Thatmeans that magnets stick to the wall. Some cruisers bring a variety of magnetichooks and clamps to hang or post papers, hats, key cards. There has been somechatter about slots near the entrance to the cabins that need the keycardinserted for power to work. We have found this to be true in some foreignhotels and maybe some ships but that was not the case on the Jade.

Cabins have new flat screen TVs. Along with the standardship channels, we had four news networks, one sports channel and two moviechannels. The movie channels played fairly new movies (about 8-10) in a loop.We had to ask at reception for a movie time table.

A TA from Tampa to Southampton has a 6 hour time zonechange. They were mostly spread out over the six sea days, once even having twoin a row. That means losing an hour of night going east. Although it is hard onthe crew, the changes are made during the night. It is announced in the Dailypaper and a special note card is left on the bed the night of the change.

The Cruise

This Cruise went from Tampa to Key West to Miami and acrossthe pond. One interesting event was as we were entering the port in Key West.The channel between buoys is rather narrow and right in the middle of the buoyswas a drifting sail boat. As we stood at the front we watched the sail boat,waiting to see movement out of the path of our rather large ship. Finally theship let go a few very loud blasts of the ship’s horn. There was suddenmovement aboard the sailboat and it quickly moved out of the channel. Not surewhat was going happening on the sailboat but they were quite oblivious to theapproaching ship.

Dining

After the DSC, dining is probably the most talked abouttopic with cruising. Our CC leader hung a small white board on her cabin doorfor people to leave comments. She told us that most were concerning diningissues; a steak too done or “confusion” in the dining room. Not sure what thatmeans except maybe getting orders mixed up. Out of 20 meals, we experienced two“mistakes.” Once with a table of eight, the server gave my entrée to the personnext to me and vice versa. We recognized the mistake and traded plates. Anothertime I ordered soup and my wife a salad and we both got the soup. Quicklyfixed. Not sure I would label that as wide spread confusion.

Chef’s Table is no more.

Overall the food was great. Once the fries and nachos werecold but other than that we were very pleased. One thing that had us guessingall the time was portion size. We would order an appetizer or entrée and neverhad any idea about the size of the dish. It could be tiny or pretty large.Also, my wife read about asking for smaller portions. She asked and it wasentered into the system to be always given a small portion and it showed up onthe computer each time we dined. But, it did not seem to make it to thekitchen’s computer as we never saw what was obviously a smaller portion served.

One example; ordered short rib confit with hummus for an appwith smoked ribs with slaw and beans for the main. With the app, the hummus wasa smear that was almost painted on the plate. With the ribs, it came withalmost a cup of beans and a half cup of slaw. Based on the app, I ordered acouple more sides that then proved to be way too much food.

Tip: we often like to eat the meal but have desert later.Sometimes we ate the meal and then went to the show and returned for desert.Many of the restaurants were fine with us doing this or with sending out desertto our room for later. We also found that dining staff are willing to go theextra mile to make you happy. Once my wife ordered one entrée but saw asparaguslisted with another. She asked and asparagus appeared with her entrée. Anothertime she saw tiramisu offered as a desert in one restaurant but we were atanother. They still went and got her the tiramisu. The key is often asking in avery polite manner. We try to talk with our servers, ask about where they arefrom and just try to be nice and it pays off. We have yet to meet wait staffthat didn’t want to go all out in serving us.

The Jasmine Garden is an Asian restaurant that is next tothe Sushi Bar and the Teppanyaki area and used to be “specialty” or with anupcharge. It is now complimentary and very popular. It sometimes has thelongest wait for a complimentary site. Once we were told it would be a 45minute wait. It is worth visiting.

One complaint that is often voice is waiting to be served,“we waited for over an hour and finally got up and left.” Is that a one off orcommon place? Every time we ate, I recorded the time between the order beingtaken and the app served and then when the main served. With over 20 mealseaten at restaurants on board, the average wait for the first appetizer was 9.2minutes and a total of 24.6 minutes till the main entrée was served. What I didnotice that caused numbers to be higher were two things. The larger the group,the longer the meal. Tables of eight took more like 40 minutes before the maincourse. But also realize that if one person orders 2-3 appetizers, that willstretch things out as they will serve each app in sequence and no one gets themain entrée until that one person eats all of their apps, one at a time. Our20+ meals were all served in a timely manner.

Reservations

This subject defies all logic and understanding. On eachship, there are complimentary and specialty restaurants. You can makereservations at all the specialty sites and some of the complementary butsimply put, the system is broken. First, there is the ability to bookreservations online pre-cruise but it appears that there may be a percentage ofseats limit and some have been told by staff that it may only allow 25% to bebooked pre-cruise. Once on board you should be able to book using theiConcierge app but that never worked for us. Second, you should be able to bookat the restaurant or at the reservation desk next to reception. There are alsoscreens around the ship that show each restaurant and how booked it is for eachtime slot that evening.

Now for reality. Even though the screen showed a restaurantfull, twice we walked up and were seated immediately in a specialty restaurantthat was actually half full. Once we asked for a booking at Cagney’s and weretold the earliest seating would be at 8:45pm. At 6pm we walked up without areservation and were seated immediately. The restaurant was about 25-30% full.I counted 14 empty tables for two and several larger tables. By the time weleft the larger tables were still empty as well as 6-8 of the tables for two. Ihave read about this enigma and have now seen it with our own eyes. We askedstaff about this inconsistency and always got answers that avoided thequestion, like talking to a politician.

Internet

We did not use the internet services. However, if you startby telling me that it is a slow service, charge me by the data used, not by theminute.

Thermal Spa

This is an extra service that can be purchased for theentire cruise or by the day if slots are available. Online, it appears thatsome of the ships have extensive facilities for each sex and then unisex. Onthe Jade, it is very limited especially in the unisex area. And it is all hot(except of the cold plunge). My wife and I purchased it for the cruise butwould not again with the Jade. The unisex area has a larger hot tub and sixtiled, sculpted lounges. They did look out the front of the ship, but no onereally looks, everyone seems to doze. For me it was too warm and not verycomfortable. I tend to be hot natured and everything there was too warm for me.My wife runs cool and really enjoyed warming up on the lounges, ten minutes wasenough for me. The male areas had more stuff, saunas, hot tubs and cold plungebut not really into hanging out with a bunch of other guys I don’t know eventhough Ancestry.com tells me I’m 40% Scandinavian.

IConcierge

NCL has been promoting an app that can be downloaded on toyour phone. This app is meant to keep you up to date with all that is happeningon board and even connect to your friends. You download the app and activateonce on board. You are then able to see all that is going on, see menus andmake reservations and check your on-board account. Great idea but not yetworking as intended.

We downloaded the app a few months in advance of thesailing. We live hundreds of miles from the ocean and many more from any cruiseship but we began to get notices that we had connected to the ship’s WiFi.Then, a couple hours later, a notice that we were then disconnected. This wouldhappen several times a day. Either they have a super powerful router on someships or there is a glitch in the system. We ended up removing the app untilarriving in Tampa. It did activate as advertised when we go on board.

Unfortunately, it never quite worked. Most times the app didnot fully open. The few times I got far enough to see dining and makereservations. The ability to make reservations never worked. The one thing thatdid work was the ability to check our on-board account which proved to bebeneficial. We ate at one of the MDRs one evening and ordered two beers; oneBlue Moon and a Sam Adams. Next day a charge of $60.71 appeared. I expect topay a little more for a Blue Moon and a Sam Adams but that was a little muchfor an orange slice. It took three visits to reception to get it straight soglad we caught it early.

Entertainment

Tastes varies greatly. Some love the shows and some, not somuch. On the Jade, a smaller ship, there is only one main show, shown at 7pmand 9pm each evening. There are no reservations, first come basis. There areoften a variety of music found at different venues. My personal, introvertcomments follow. Everyone wants to be a comedian. The Motown singing group, thejuggler, the hypnotist and even the person overseeing the Muster Drill tries tobe a comedian. Problem is that there are only so many cruising jokes and ifyou’ve been on one cruise, you have heard them all. Second, they delight inchoosing people from the audience to participate and it always ends in embarrassment.They say, “don’t worry, you’ll never see the people watching the event again.”Sure, but it is taped and runs on the TV system everyday for the rest of thecruise. You may become famous.

Suggestions for NCL

Sports bars are great and have multiple TVs showing alimited scope of sports. Hang a white board or have a designated screen thatshows scores from all the games played the night before.

The Cruise Next is a great program. One certificate costs$250 and gives you a $250 deposit on a cruise taken in the following 4 yearsand immediately gives you $100 back in on board credit. Basically you get thecoupon for $250 at a cost of $150. The more you by, the more you save. Theywould also like you to book a future cruise while on board, giving you a freeupgrade if you do. They have printouts of future cruises but they lack actualdates and pricing. You can wait in line to talk with the cruise consultant andwatch them search the information on their computer. Personally, I like to domy own research on NCL.com; it can be quite a process unless you are alreadyset on a location and date. I believe that NCL would book a lot more cruises onboard if they allowed access to their web site.

[Oakman58]

Thanks for taking the time to post your report of your cruise on the Jade I enjoyed reading it.

[soccermommy]

Thank you so much for your review. We board the Jade next Monday and appreciate your helpful review. A couple of questions, if you could,

How was Southampton disembarkation? Did you head to London or to the airport? We are flying to London early- tomorrow!- and leaving the ship to go to Heathrow, but would like to read your impressions. What did you think of the buffet? Who is the cruise director and how were the daily activities?

Thanks again. I think your advice about treating the crew well was the best.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Re: NCL website access onboard

 

NCLS website is a free internet site. No charge whatsoever. Go to the home page and there is an icon named something like "community pages" and the NCL full site is available. I use it frequently and only bother the rep if I have a genuine question.

Edited May 17, 2017 by MagnoliaBlossom

[garycarla]

Very extensive review. Thanks.

 

As to booking cruises - I would rather do that at home when I have good internet and not cruising at the time. And, as to buying those $250 certificates - buying more only saves you more if you are taking multiple cruises. ou can only use one per future reservation.

[hawkeyetlse]

We have Gold status with the Latitudes program. We readabout the perks. The Gold perks are stated to include a bottle of sparklingwine, a bottle of water per cruiser and 50% off laundry. We wondered about thewater; did that mean one bottle per day or one per cruise? Surprised a bit thatis was in fact one bottle for the 14 day cruise. They also offer two specialsto everyone for laundry on a TA; fill the bag for $19.95. I did the math andthis standard special is far better a deal than the 50% off.

If you do the $19.95 fill a bag special, do they give you 50% off that price for Gold?

 

I suppose they could be more explicit about the benefits being once per cruise and not once per day, if they don't say anything, there is no reason to think they could be per day, is there? Did you also wonder if would get another bottle of sparkling wine every day?

 

Thanks for your report. We are looking forward to seeing the refurbished Jade.

[JustDandy]

We just left the Norwegian Escape on our 1st cruise, no status, and that same laundry offer was left on our bed. $19.95.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[anonmom]

Very extensive review. Thanks.

 

As to booking cruises - I would rather do that at home when I have good internet and not cruising at the time. And, as to buying those $250 certificates - buying more only saves you more if you are taking multiple cruises. ou can only use one per future reservation.

You can use them 2 at a time as long as you are booking at least 6 months out.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Forums mobile app

[trinitytrees]

I wondered about laundry bag, I had assumed you could get 50% off the 19.95 dollars if you were gold status, is that not correct, anyone done it?

[hawkeyetlse]

We just left the Norwegian Escape on our 1st cruise, no status, and that same laundry offer was left on our bed. $19.95.

Yes, that offer is available to everyone (but not all the time, usually only on selected days during longer cruises). My question is whether Gold Latitudes members get an additional 50% off that promotional price, or if the benefit is only good for a full price, itemized bag of laundry.

[jaja]

Thanks for the Jade update !!!!!

[NMLady]

Yes, that offer is available to everyone (but not all the time, usually only on selected days during longer cruises). My question is whether Gold Latitudes members get an additional 50% off that promotional price, or if the benefit is only good for a full price, itemized bag of laundry.

 

Platinum get a free bag special and Gold gets 50% off the bag special.

[Cubechick]

Platinum get a free bag special and Gold gets 50% off the bag special.

 

This! Itemized laundry is not discounted.

[Spingatti]

Great Review. Thank You very much!

[garycarla]

UPDATE TO $250 CERTIFICATE from NCL WEBSITE. In the past it was just one. I mentioned that because folks though they could buy a whole bunch of them for one cabin.

 

 

 

NOW YOU CAN APPLY TWO OF YOUR DEPOSITS TO YOUR NEXT CRUISE!

STARTING APRIL 6, 2017, YOU CAN APPLY TWO OF YOUR CRUISE REWARD, CRUISENEXT, CRUISENEXT HAVEN, OR CRUISENEXT LITE DEPOSITS

TO YOUR NEXT ELIGIBLE CRUISE WHEN YOU BOOK A BALCONY OR ABOVE STATEROOM ON SAILINGS AT LEAST 6 MONTHS OUT.

DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS INCREDIBLE OFFER!

[Die Hex]

Thank you for that review. Me and my husband were on that Cruise too. I was exactly as you write. It was really a beautiful cruise until the Day in Falmouth.

 

Unfortunately the accident with the life boats / Tender Boats happend the last Day in Southampton. Me and my Husband was on the Boat that get hit very hard by the other boat. Friend which travelled with us on that Boat have had more luck and nothing happend to them but I really injured myself seriosly (i ripped a Tendon in my left Knee) and I had to say that until now i have no Notice Mail or Call from Norwegian about that. That is really disapppounting. Some other People get injured too. Maybe the contact us soon about that.

[Raleigh Traveler]

Several have asked about laundry. Our $19.95 special on a bag of laundry was not discounted another 50% by being Gold. We paid the full $19.95 twice.

[Raleigh Traveler]

Thank you so much for your review. We board the Jade next Monday and appreciate your helpful review. A couple of questions, if you could,

How was Southampton disembarkation? Did you head to London or to the airport? We are flying to London early- tomorrow!- and leaving the ship to go to Heathrow, but would like to read your impressions. What did you think of the buffet? Who is the cruise director and how were the daily activities?

Thanks again. I think your advice about treating the crew well was the best.

Southampton was fairly smooth, once they had the luggage squared. First that can leave are "Easy walk off". You leave with all your luggage and they left on time. The other option is to get a time sensitive tag for the bags and place them in the hallway the night before. Gold status got us Yellow tags that were next in line but for some reason it took them a long time to get the bags sorted in the terminal so we waited about 30-45 minutes beyond the stated time to leave. Other than that it was smooth. Many options for getting to London but we stayed in Southampton with friends so that was not our experience. Buffet is good with lots of options but we rarely ate there. Don't remember the director's name. Lots of stuff to do during the days...trivia, lectures, etc.

[PhillyTravelBug]

Appreciate the thorough review of the refurbished Jade.

[hawkeyetlse]

Several have asked about laundry. Our $19.95 special on a bag of laundry was not discounted another 50% by being Gold. We paid the full $19.95 twice.

Did you ask for the discount, either on the laundry slip, or after the fact? Maybe it doesn't get applied automatically and you have to "remind" them.

[macandlucy]

Laundry - Gold, Platinum, Platinum Plus & Ambassador

 

For bulk bag laundry service, which is subject to availability, Gold members receive fifty (50%) percent off of retail price of bulk bag laundry service. The discount will be reflected on the final bill at the end of your sailing. Platinum, Platinum Plus and Ambassador members receive complimentary bulk bag laundry service which provides each Platinum, Platinum Plus and Ambassador member with one (1) bag of bulk bag laundry service per member, at no cost. Any request by Gold, Platinum, Platinum Plus and Ambassador members for bulk bag laundry service must be made pursuant to the terms of the promotion guidelines. To resolve any billing discrepancies, guests must visit a Latitudes Rewards representative (CruiseNext Manager).

(Bolding mine). I wonder if "retail price" means the standard, non-special price?

[kateissiobhan]

My wife and I just completed a 14 day transatlantic in theJade; Tampa to Southampton. There have been many questions about the newlyrefurbished Jade and cruising in general. I find the posts and comments on CCto fall into several categories. There are those that genuinely are seeking answersor wanting to provide good information. Then there are those that shoot fromthe hip with opinion that have little basis in reality. It is my desire toshare from our experience with some level of objectivity.

We arrived in Tampa a few days early to visit friends in thearea. We rented a car at the airport and returned it there the morning ofembarkation. While walking to the taxi and shuttle area, we passed someoneholding a NCL sign. My wife asked if they had a shuttle and the response wasthat there would be a bus arriving and the cost would be $25 each. We walkedout to the taxi que and immediately got into taxi at the set price of $25 forboth of us. Why wait for twice the price?

Drop off at the terminal and registration was smooth andquick at 10:30am. We waited till about 11:30 for the first boarding and were onthe way. Having cruised before, we knew that there is generally a place tocheck hand carry baggage but needed to ask. It was not communicated as weboarded. The checked area was the Bliss Lounge. It is secure with tags andreceipts. Lunch is in slated to open till noon so we walked around to check outthe boat. We often like to eat lunch and hit the hot tubs on the pool deck.However, most of the pool deck was closed. We found shipping containers beingunloaded right on the deck. They were craned over from the dock and containednew chairs and tables for the lounge areas. A lot of the ship was refurbished afew weeks ago but not all the chairs and tables were switched out yet. We weretold even more were waiting on the dock in Southampton to be installed.

Everyone gets a keycard. The card has both a magnetic stripthat is swiped at dining locations and while leaving or returning to the ship.The is also a barcode on one end for entering the cabin. Many people like touse lanyards and the reception desk has a hole punch tool and knows the bestplace for punching the hole if you want to use a lanyard. It is best to have alanyard with a quick release as you will need to hand it over each time youdine or purchase anything or leave and return to the ship.

We have Gold status with the Latitudes program. We readabout the perks. The Gold perks are stated to include a bottle of sparklingwine, a bottle of water per cruiser and 50% off laundry. We wondered about thewater; did that mean one bottle per day or one per cruise? Surprised a bit thatis was in fact one bottle for the 14 day cruise. They also offer two specialsto everyone for laundry on a TA; fill the bag for $19.95. I did the math andthis standard special is far better a deal than the 50% off.

The ship is amazing. The new color scheme and changes aremore art deco and most of the Hawaii theme is gone. There is still Hawaiian artwork in some of the dining area and hall ways. Al the cabins have been upgradedand look very sharp. One of the nicest additions is USB charging outletsbeneath the TV and one in each bedside lamp. Be aware that NCL requests thatcharging is only to be done while present. Staff are instructed to unpluganything being charged if cabin occupants are not present. We also heard thatpowerstrips, especially with surge protection are not allowed. We put ournon-surge protected strip in our carry on and kept it out of site while not inthe cabin. On the first day we saw one of the staff walking down the hall withhis arms full of power strips. Our balcony cabin had both US and Europeanoutlets by the desk and US outlets under the TV. Outlets found around the ship;in the library or general areas were always European (recessed, round with tworound prongs).

Many cabins have a round, cushioned stool by the desk. Hint,the cushion pops off revealing a small storage space. Good place to hide yourpower strip and charge cords. Just don’t forget them when packing to leave.

All the walls in the cabins are made of ferrous metal. Thatmeans that magnets stick to the wall. Some cruisers bring a variety of magnetichooks and clamps to hang or post papers, hats, key cards. There has been somechatter about slots near the entrance to the cabins that need the keycardinserted for power to work. We have found this to be true in some foreignhotels and maybe some ships but that was not the case on the Jade.

Cabins have new flat screen TVs. Along with the standardship channels, we had four news networks, one sports channel and two moviechannels. The movie channels played fairly new movies (about 8-10) in a loop.We had to ask at reception for a movie time table.

A TA from Tampa to Southampton has a 6 hour time zonechange. They were mostly spread out over the six sea days, once even having twoin a row. That means losing an hour of night going east. Although it is hard onthe crew, the changes are made during the night. It is announced in the Dailypaper and a special note card is left on the bed the night of the change.

The Cruise

This Cruise went from Tampa to Key West to Miami and acrossthe pond. One interesting event was as we were entering the port in Key West.The channel between buoys is rather narrow and right in the middle of the buoyswas a drifting sail boat. As we stood at the front we watched the sail boat,waiting to see movement out of the path of our rather large ship. Finally theship let go a few very loud blasts of the ship’s horn. There was suddenmovement aboard the sailboat and it quickly moved out of the channel. Not surewhat was going happening on the sailboat but they were quite oblivious to theapproaching ship.

Dining

After the DSC, dining is probably the most talked abouttopic with cruising. Our CC leader hung a small white board on her cabin doorfor people to leave comments. She told us that most were concerning diningissues; a steak too done or “confusion” in the dining room. Not sure what thatmeans except maybe getting orders mixed up. Out of 20 meals, we experienced two“mistakes.” Once with a table of eight, the server gave my entrée to the personnext to me and vice versa. We recognized the mistake and traded plates. Anothertime I ordered soup and my wife a salad and we both got the soup. Quicklyfixed. Not sure I would label that as wide spread confusion.

Chef’s Table is no more.

Overall the food was great. Once the fries and nachos werecold but other than that we were very pleased. One thing that had us guessingall the time was portion size. We would order an appetizer or entrée and neverhad any idea about the size of the dish. It could be tiny or pretty large.Also, my wife read about asking for smaller portions. She asked and it wasentered into the system to be always given a small portion and it showed up onthe computer each time we dined. But, it did not seem to make it to thekitchen’s computer as we never saw what was obviously a smaller portion served.

One example; ordered short rib confit with hummus for an appwith smoked ribs with slaw and beans for the main. With the app, the hummus wasa smear that was almost painted on the plate. With the ribs, it came withalmost a cup of beans and a half cup of slaw. Based on the app, I ordered acouple more sides that then proved to be way too much food.

Tip: we often like to eat the meal but have desert later.Sometimes we ate the meal and then went to the show and returned for desert.Many of the restaurants were fine with us doing this or with sending out desertto our room for later. We also found that dining staff are willing to go theextra mile to make you happy. Once my wife ordered one entrée but saw asparaguslisted with another. She asked and asparagus appeared with her entrée. Anothertime she saw tiramisu offered as a desert in one restaurant but we were atanother. They still went and got her the tiramisu. The key is often asking in avery polite manner. We try to talk with our servers, ask about where they arefrom and just try to be nice and it pays off. We have yet to meet wait staffthat didn’t want to go all out in serving us.

The Jasmine Garden is an Asian restaurant that is next tothe Sushi Bar and the Teppanyaki area and used to be “specialty” or with anupcharge. It is now complimentary and very popular. It sometimes has thelongest wait for a complimentary site. Once we were told it would be a 45minute wait. It is worth visiting.

One complaint that is often voice is waiting to be served,“we waited for over an hour and finally got up and left.” Is that a one off orcommon place? Every time we ate, I recorded the time between the order beingtaken and the app served and then when the main served. With over 20 mealseaten at restaurants on board, the average wait for the first appetizer was 9.2minutes and a total of 24.6 minutes till the main entrée was served. What I didnotice that caused numbers to be higher were two things. The larger the group,the longer the meal. Tables of eight took more like 40 minutes before the maincourse. But also realize that if one person orders 2-3 appetizers, that willstretch things out as they will serve each app in sequence and no one gets themain entrée until that one person eats all of their apps, one at a time. Our20+ meals were all served in a timely manner.

Reservations

This subject defies all logic and understanding. On eachship, there are complimentary and specialty restaurants. You can makereservations at all the specialty sites and some of the complementary butsimply put, the system is broken. First, there is the ability to bookreservations online pre-cruise but it appears that there may be a percentage ofseats limit and some have been told by staff that it may only allow 25% to bebooked pre-cruise. Once on board you should be able to book using theiConcierge app but that never worked for us. Second, you should be able to bookat the restaurant or at the reservation desk next to reception. There are alsoscreens around the ship that show each restaurant and how booked it is for eachtime slot that evening.

Now for reality. Even though the screen showed a restaurantfull, twice we walked up and were seated immediately in a specialty restaurantthat was actually half full. Once we asked for a booking at Cagney’s and weretold the earliest seating would be at 8:45pm. At 6pm we walked up without areservation and were seated immediately. The restaurant was about 25-30% full.I counted 14 empty tables for two and several larger tables. By the time weleft the larger tables were still empty as well as 6-8 of the tables for two. Ihave read about this enigma and have now seen it with our own eyes. We askedstaff about this inconsistency and always got answers that avoided thequestion, like talking to a politician.

Internet

We did not use the internet services. However, if you startby telling me that it is a slow service, charge me by the data used, not by theminute.

Thermal Spa

This is an extra service that can be purchased for theentire cruise or by the day if slots are available. Online, it appears thatsome of the ships have extensive facilities for each sex and then unisex. Onthe Jade, it is very limited especially in the unisex area. And it is all hot(except of the cold plunge). My wife and I purchased it for the cruise butwould not again with the Jade. The unisex area has a larger hot tub and sixtiled, sculpted lounges. They did look out the front of the ship, but no onereally looks, everyone seems to doze. For me it was too warm and not verycomfortable. I tend to be hot natured and everything there was too warm for me.My wife runs cool and really enjoyed warming up on the lounges, ten minutes wasenough for me. The male areas had more stuff, saunas, hot tubs and cold plungebut not really into hanging out with a bunch of other guys I don’t know eventhough Ancestry.com tells me I’m 40% Scandinavian.

IConcierge

NCL has been promoting an app that can be downloaded on toyour phone. This app is meant to keep you up to date with all that is happeningon board and even connect to your friends. You download the app and activateonce on board. You are then able to see all that is going on, see menus andmake reservations and check your on-board account. Great idea but not yetworking as intended.

We downloaded the app a few months in advance of thesailing. We live hundreds of miles from the ocean and many more from any cruiseship but we began to get notices that we had connected to the ship’s WiFi.Then, a couple hours later, a notice that we were then disconnected. This wouldhappen several times a day. Either they have a super powerful router on someships or there is a glitch in the system. We ended up removing the app untilarriving in Tampa. It did activate as advertised when we go on board.

Unfortunately, it never quite worked. Most times the app didnot fully open. The few times I got far enough to see dining and makereservations. The ability to make reservations never worked. The one thing thatdid work was the ability to check our on-board account which proved to bebeneficial. We ate at one of the MDRs one evening and ordered two beers; oneBlue Moon and a Sam Adams. Next day a charge of $60.71 appeared. I expect topay a little more for a Blue Moon and a Sam Adams but that was a little muchfor an orange slice. It took three visits to reception to get it straight soglad we caught it early.

Entertainment

Tastes varies greatly. Some love the shows and some, not somuch. On the Jade, a smaller ship, there is only one main show, shown at 7pmand 9pm each evening. There are no reservations, first come basis. There areoften a variety of music found at different venues. My personal, introvertcomments follow. Everyone wants to be a comedian. The Motown singing group, thejuggler, the hypnotist and even the person overseeing the Muster Drill tries tobe a comedian. Problem is that there are only so many cruising jokes and ifyou’ve been on one cruise, you have heard them all. Second, they delight inchoosing people from the audience to participate and it always ends in embarrassment.They say, “don’t worry, you’ll never see the people watching the event again.”Sure, but it is taped and runs on the TV system everyday for the rest of thecruise. You may become famous.

Suggestions for NCL

Sports bars are great and have multiple TVs showing alimited scope of sports. Hang a white board or have a designated screen thatshows scores from all the games played the night before.

The Cruise Next is a great program. One certificate costs$250 and gives you a $250 deposit on a cruise taken in the following 4 yearsand immediately gives you $100 back in on board credit. Basically you get thecoupon for $250 at a cost of $150. The more you by, the more you save. Theywould also like you to book a future cruise while on board, giving you a freeupgrade if you do. They have printouts of future cruises but they lack actualdates and pricing. You can wait in line to talk with the cruise consultant andwatch them search the information on their computer. Personally, I like to domy own research on NCL.com; it can be quite a process unless you are alreadyset on a location and date. I believe that NCL would book a lot more cruises onboard if they allowed access to their web site.

 

 

Thank you for the review. I am looking at the transatlantic in April 2018. Can you tell me how the weather was? Thinking about what I would need to pack.

[williamfturcotte]

Great Review . So fair and very helpful . I wish all reviews were this honest . We are going on a nine day Jade cruise in two weeks . Thanks

[firstcarib]

:D

Great Review . So fair and very helpful . I wish all reviews were this honest . We are going on a nine day Jade cruise in two weeks . Thanks

We were on this T/A cruise too-the revamped Jade was great! We loved the differences made in the refit -we had travelled on her last October the " other way" over The Pond,& even though we had a good time then too,she was looking a little tired in some areas. But now most of her is looking spruced up. Just need to get rid of the old chairs in Mixers /Magnums& those horrid orange pointy things still in the new Bliss Lounge(it was previously Medusas-& still has the nasty orange chairs in one part of the revamped area!!) But I heard all the old chairs were being ditched at Southampton-so I hope that's true!

Food in both MDRs was good-not outstanding but we always found something nice on the menus. New casual dining area O'Sheehans on deck 8 was great for breakfast-a sea view,waiter service,nice but small selection( but no fruit!! -only served at lunchtimes..why????!)

Shows were mainly good-Elements was superb! Marlon our Cabin steward was fantastic-his towel cake made my birthday special.Wouldn't choose an inside cabin again( but we booked too late for a balcony!!) as it was so dark my husband just wouldn't wake up!!!😜But it was a great cruise, interesting stops,especially the Azores. We met some lovely folk,plus we really enjoyed our free UBP-we just need to diet & go on the wagon now!!;p

[Clay Clayton]

Considering Jade for next April, other choice is Epic for the start of our retirement year of travel. We have sailed Jade before but none of the big ships so the additional venues on Epic are enticing for all the sea days. But the short beds and bathroom design have us concerned. So here finally is my question - were there enough onboard activities to keep you occupied during the sea days? I am fine with reading a book all day but hubby tends to want a little more.

 

Regarding the 50% discount, when we were Gold, we got the bag special at the discounted rate.