Review: NCL Jade 2-nighter, Southampton to Hamburg

[samshltn]

The party.

We are six lads, in three couples, who cruised from Southampton to Hamburg on the Jade last weekend. Two of us are Gold Latitudes, the other four had lovely new peach-coloured cards ;-) We had the Unlimited Beverage Package, inside cabins. We met up in the Admiral Sir Lucius Curtis at 1000hrs on the morning of our sailing for breakfast. We left there at 1100hrs, walked less than 10 minutes to get to the terminal. (So we recommend the Admiral as a perfect pre-cruise meet-up pub!).

 

Check-in and boarding.

The terminal was quite chaotic, even compared to other cruise terminals we've been to. Each member of staff contradicted the last ("All six of you go to desk 14", then at desk 14: "Please can you all go to separate desks"... and so on.) Security was badly organised as well, with each member of staff making up new rules by themselves, which all contradicted each other (Take your shoes off, leave them on, go stand over there, come back over here....) However we were boarded VERY quickly: we were in boarding group four, and barely had time to sit down and put all our documents away before we were called to board. That was fantastic.

 

Food and beverages.

On board, we headed to O'Sheehans for a pre-prandial beverage, and then to Grand Pacific for lunch. Here, the service was perfect, and there were barely any problems. Two of our party reported that their chips were stone-cold, however. At various times during the weekend we ate at the buffet (which had never appealed to me but was attractive to the rest of the party), Alizar, and O'Sheehans. We had no problems at any of these. The menus are limited but varied, and the food was of a reasonable quality. We found beverage service to be of a good standard everywhere, but one barman (At Topsiders) cut himself while cutting lemons, and proceeded to spill that blood into every drink he prepared thereafter. We moved to a different bar at that point. The $15 drink limit was scarcely a problem, although we did notice that a few of our favourites that we enjoyed on previous cruises are now above the limit.

 

We took Prosecco up onto the front of deck 14 to toast sailaway, then went downstairs to watch Southampton disappear into the distance from the Spinnaker lounge. One of our party's mothers lives locally, and drove down to somewhere near Lee-On-Solent and flashed her headlamps for us to see. The live band in Spinnaker at sailaway was fantastic. I think this was my favourite moment of the trip.

 

Cabin and steward.

We all thought the inside cabins were just great. We have three cruises currently booked after this one, and we have downgraded them to inside cabins because the ones on the Jade were so good. However, we had requested that the cabins be made up as doubles rather than twins. This had not been observed, and several phone calls and requests to the steward and guest services did not resolve this. The steward told us that he would do it at turn down, but he did not. We didn't see him again during the whole weekend. Towels placed on the floor to be exchanged were just folded and hung up again damp. Obviously, we didn't get towel animals.

 

Entertainment and facilities.

We saw both theatre shows that were on on our sailing: Welcome Aboard Variety, and Showdown. The variety show was a little pointless, with the exception of the opening number. We all enjoyed Showdown, however. Elsewhere on the ship, we enjoyed the band and the pianists and guitarists dotted around the place. We had a great time playing shuffleboard together. The gym is reasonably well equipped, the locker-room has a steam-room with a cold shower (which I very much recommend as a hangover cure!) as well as regular showers.

 

Disembarkation.

We received no notification of our check-out time (we're used to getting a 'you're leaving us tomorrow' notice delivered to our cabin, along with a summary of charges outstanding.), and we received no statement of account. We were awoken at 0803 on departure morning by the steward telling us we had to be out by 0800. At the same time, one of the party got a stern call from Guest Services saying that he had outstanding charges to pay. ("You MUST pay NOW. Guest services nine am!" <click>) (He went to pay them, he didn't have any). We left our cabins at a leisurely pace.

 

We had a lovely relaxing breakfast in La Cucina, and strolled off at about 1030hrs to start our sightseeing in Hamburg. (We highly recommend Miniatur Wunderland, and that you book it in advance.)

 

Summary.

we all very much enjoyed the weekend. The new cruises among us are already planning their next cruises on NCL.

 

I welcome any questions you may have.

 

Sam.

[L1211]

Sounds like a great two night cruise. How I wish I lived near a port and could wisk away on short hauls! Terrible cabin service. Shocking really. Glad the rest went well!

 

 

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[easyboy]

Glad your group enjoyed cruise, though short it was. Thank you for your feedback.

 

 

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[Pauser]

Thanks so much for posting! Glad you had a good time despite a few bumps along the way. :)

[Huntingdon1701]

Ironically, I sailed through check-in and boarding and found it was the smoothest of the cruises I've been on. Perhaps down to timing and the pressure of passenger at that particular time? I was a couple of hours later, so they must have used the extra time to get their act together.

 

It sounds like you were very unlucky with your steward. Aside from the towels and beds, they should have given you the check-out time and statement of account. I had both waiting for me in my room. I think some of the stewards don't put much effort into the short cruises because they think they won't get a tip - thereby making it a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

I agree that the Miniatur Wunderland was impressive. I ended up spending almost 4 hours there, rather than the planned one.

[piperferdel]

Thank you for the thorough report. Were you able to walk from the ship to Miniatur Wunderland?

Thanks Sam.

[samshltn]

Thank you for the thorough report. Were you able to walk from the ship to Miniatur Wunderland?

Thanks Sam.

It would be walkable, but we didn't. I would very much recommend taking the riverbus from the pier at Altona (right next to the ship) to Landungsbrucken and walking from there, or normal bus number 111 which goes all the way there.

 

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[piperferdel]

It would be walkable, but we didn't. I would very much recommend taking the riverbus from the pier at Altona (right next to the ship) to Landungsbrucken and walking from there, or normal bus number 111 which goes all the way there.

 

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Thanks very much :)