Just off the Jade

[Peachypooh]

We just got off the Jade on it's modified Caribbean itinerary. It was a good trip overall.

 

The good- The garden cafe is set up really well with several islands with different types of foods. Like one for breads, one for desserts, etc. Also the seating area had ample tables and chairs and the Great outdoors had a much more extensive selection of food vs the Pearl or Gem.The overall quality of food was excellent.

The Bliss lounge is now midship on deck 7 and the activities that are held in the Atrium on Pearl and Gem are held there. This means if you meet friends at the Java Cafe you are not in the middle of a trivia contest or other activity. The Captain was very good at keeping to our schedule.

 

Ports-Grand Cayman. We had good weather and were able to tender in. We visited the Royal Palms Beach club where we rented a cabana. Beautiful location on seven Mile Beach and the cab ride was only $4 pp.

Jamaica-We stayed in the Falmouth port area and had lunch at Margaritaville.

Aruba-Our favorite stop. We booked a day pass at RIU Antilles and the hotel was beautiful with an extensive included buffet.

Curacao-We booked a day pass at the HIlton which was a poor choice. It is very rundown with tripping hazards everywhere. In fact I did fall and scrape myself up pretty badly. However it was the best snorkeling of the trip.

Bonaire-we had been there before and took the 1 hour Tuk Tuk tour. It was very enjoyable and our guide was a long time resident that had all sorts of informative things to say.

 

Cabin-This was the biggest complaint we had. Quite a few things were not in good repair plus when I walked in there were handprints all over the walls as if the previous tenants had been a kindgergarten class. The room steward seemed very overworked so I spent two days wiping off the handprints myself instead of adding to his duties.

 

Why I said things could be better- There was just something blah about this cruise and most people we talked to expressed it too. I think it was a combination of quite a few newbies bumbling through their jobs. The washy washy guy looked like he was very young but he did a good job with a smile on his face We had some service issues but did not complain because more than one crew member said it was their first cruise and I didn't want to start complaining about them.Our room stewardess was switched out at the beginning of the cruise. She was so tiny and looked so worn out I hope they gave her a few days sick leave.

Internet was our biggest complaint. I could access my email via my phone no problem but my husband wanted to use the shipboard terminals and it was not working. It was down for maintenance sometimes but also they were running old versions of Windows and the one machine with Google Chrome would freeze.So bring your own device to login.

 

All in all we had a good cruise but we are looking at a different ship for our next cruise. If you are taking this ship it will be fine. Just take your own internet device and realize the staff will be young and inexperienced. The Captain ran quite a few safety drills in port so the staff is being well trained.

 

I can answer any questions.

Edited February 6, 2018 by Peachypooh

[portofrome]

Thanks for your review!

[cagpjg]

I will be on the Jade in April, did you eat at any of the speciality restaurants? Any recommendations?

[Peachypooh]

I will be on the Jade in April, did you eat at any of the speciality restaurants? Any recommendations?

 

Food is so subjective but here are my thoughts on the specialty restaurants we ate at.

La Cuchina- Very good food. We ate there twice and tried various entrees. I had a steak

and asked for spaghetti with marinara on the side one time and it was excellent. The minestrone soup

was very tasty too.

LeBistro- Also very good. I ordered the lamb chops without the olive sauce. The best lamb chops

I have ever had.

Cagneys-Have never had a bad meal at Cagney's. They had a shrimp dish with asparagus that my

husband said was excellent.

[tef43]

We will be on this itinerary on the Jade at the end of March.

 

Sketchy internet is a non-issue as I do not ever schlep a laptop or other device on a cruise. The phone is turned off and locked in the safe as soon as we get to the cabin. OFF THE GRID!

[evandbob]

Thanks for your comments. Before I retired, I always asked customers for their post purchase opinions/reviews, not to get someone in trouble, but to see what areas needed better training. I always wanted my businesses and employees to excel, so customer feedback, both positive and negative, was vital to the continuing success of the business.

[stormynow]

Just did a 4 day on the Jade and very disappointed. Never been on a cruise that did not serve prime rib at least once. Very tough menu for us. Kitchen very busy serving kosher meals wrapped in tin foil for many quests. Pool deck closed the 1st day.

[Peachypooh]

Just did a 4 day on the Jade and very disappointed. Never been on a cruise that did not serve prime rib at least once. Very tough menu for us. Kitchen very busy serving kosher meals wrapped in tin foil for many quests. Pool deck closed the 1st day.

 

So sorry to hear that. Hope if you take another cruise it will be better.

[Chipster2]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review.

[cabincop]

Thank you for your review. What kind of cabin? I’ll be on Jade in Sept. I’ve sailed her once before. I’m in balcony cabin 9668

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Clarea]

Thank-you for your report/review.

[cdncruzer]

Just did a 4 day on the Jade and very disappointed. Never been on a cruise that did not serve prime rib at least once. Very tough menu for us. Kitchen very busy serving kosher meals wrapped in tin foil for many quests. Pool deck closed the 1st day.

 

Just home yesterday from the Jade. Tons of beef options on the menu, prime rib offered once in the MDR on our 10 day cruise. I have been on cruises where the staff had alot of kosher meals to prepare...requires some extra work on their part for sure.

[Keith1010]

Glad to hear you had a great cruise and appreciate the report.

 

Keith

[newmexicoNita]

We just got off the Jade on it's modified Caribbean itinerary. It was a good trip overall.

 

The good- The garden cafe is set up really well with several islands with different types of foods. Like one for breads, one for desserts, etc. Also the seating area had ample tables and chairs and the Great outdoors had a much more extensive selection of food vs the Pearl or Gem.The overall quality of food was excellent.

The Bliss lounge is now midship on deck 7 and the activities that are held in the Atrium on Pearl and Gem are held there. This means if you meet friends at the Java Cafe you are not in the middle of a trivia contest or other activity. The Captain was very good at keeping to our schedule.

 

Ports-Grand Cayman. We had good weather and were able to tender in. We visited the Royal Palms Beach club where we rented a cabana. Beautiful location on seven Mile Beach and the cab ride was only $4 pp.

Jamaica-We stayed in the Falmouth port area and had lunch at Margaritaville.

Aruba-Our favorite stop. We booked a day pass at RIU Antilles and the hotel was beautiful with an extensive included buffet.

Curacao-We booked a day pass at the HIlton which was a poor choice. It is very rundown with tripping hazards everywhere. In fact I did fall and scrape myself up pretty badly. However it was the best snorkeling of the trip.

Bonaire-we had been there before and took the 1 hour Tuk Tuk tour. It was very enjoyable and our guide was a long time resident that had all sorts of informative things to say.

 

Cabin-This was the biggest complaint we had. Quite a few things were not in good repair plus when I walked in there were handprints all over the walls as if the previous tenants had been a kindgergarten class. The room steward seemed very overworked so I spent two days wiping off the handprints myself instead of adding to his duties.

 

Why I said things could be better- There was just something blah about this cruise and most people we talked to expressed it too. I think it was a combination of quite a few newbies bumbling through their jobs. The washy washy guy looked like he was very young but he did a good job with a smile on his face We had some service issues but did not complain because more than one crew member said it was their first cruise and I didn't want to start complaining about them.Our room stewardess was switched out at the beginning of the cruise. She was so tiny and looked so worn out I hope they gave her a few days sick leave.

Internet was our biggest complaint. I could access my email via my phone no problem but my husband wanted to use the shipboard terminals and it was not working. It was down for maintenance sometimes but also they were running old versions of Windows and the one machine with Google Chrome would freeze.So bring your own device to login.

 

All in all we had a good cruise but we are looking at a different ship for our next cruise. If you are taking this ship it will be fine. Just take your own internet device and realize the staff will be young and inexperienced. The Captain ran quite a few safety drills in port so the staff is being well trained.

 

I can answer any questions.

We have been on 2 slightly disappointing NLCcruises, one was when there were several new crew members.Like anyone on a new job it was a challenge for them as well. I did finally go to the hotel manager and complain but hopefully in a pleasant way. The other was the Jewel, not the ship itself but the same complaint you had, the service was challenging. The problem that time was it was the frist sailing for the ship. Everyone was learning.

For you, maybe it is time to try a different class of ships. You could be just getting bored with the Jewel class.

Look at it this way, Peachy, you got out of our cold weather for a few days and got to see some new ports.

Thanks for your very objective report. I trust your opinion.

Edited February 7, 2018 by newmexicoNita

[newmexicoNita]

Just did a 4 day on the Jade and very disappointed. Never been on a cruise that did not serve prime rib at least once. Very tough menu for us. Kitchen very busy serving kosher meals wrapped in tin foil for many quests. Pool deck closed the 1st day.

A four day cruise is very different from a normally longer cruise. I can guarantee you, most of the time prime rib is served on NCL ships. We were on a 5 day Celebrity cruise several years ago, no prime rib and have been of 3 or 4 four day cruises, again, no Prime rib that I can remember. I know Carnival didn't have it and I am pretty sure RCI didn't either.

[Peachypooh]

We have been on 2 slightly disappointing NLCcruises, one was when there were several new crew members.Like anyone on a new job it was a challenge for them as well. I did finally go to the hotel manager and complain but hopefully in a pleasant way. The other was the Jewel, not the ship itself but the same complaint you had, the service was challenging. The problem that time was it was the frist sailing for the ship. Everyone was learning.

For you, maybe it is time to try a different class of ships. You could be just getting bored with the Jewel class.

Look at it this way, Peachy, you got out of our cold weather for a few days and got to see some new ports.

Thanks for your very objective report. I trust your opinion.

 

Hi Nita,

Thanks for your comments and also thank you to everyone who thanked me for my review. You are right, I think we will try a bigger ship. Came back here to cold weather and am missing the warm Caribbean already! Alice

[Peachypooh]

Thank you for your review. What kind of cabin? I’ll be on Jade in Sept. I’ve sailed her once before. I’m in balcony cabin 9668

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

We had friends on deck 9 in a balcony cabin that had no problems at all with maintenance or service.

[Peachypooh]

Thank-you for your report/review.

 

You're welcome and thanks to all who posted their thanks.

[gam888]

Hello Peachypooh, and other folks who have just returned from the Jade. Could you please tell me how many live bands rotate to play in their lounges? We like to do a bit of ballroom dancing. We just got off the Spirit and were pleased that they incorporated three sessions of ballroom dancing during our 10 day sailing. Did the band play tunes that are dance-able in a regular evening? We sailed on the Jade awhile ago, I remember there is a main lounge and a Bliss lounge on the Jade. But they would only schedule one live band at a time during the evening, but never having two venues with music simultaneously happening so you could pick and choose. If you want to see a live band, there would only be one place to go at a specific time. I wonder if things have changed?

How was the entertainment in general? Thanks!

[luv2kroooz]

They had three true bands on the Jade last week - 1 was a 6 piece orchestra with sax, trumpet, trombone, drummer, bass, and keyboard. They rotated throughout Bliss, Atrium and Magnum's. They played jazz, swing, and a tribute to Duke Ellington.

 

They had a four piece cover band in the Spinnaker pretty much every night - Hi Lux Band. They played from 7:30 til about 11:00 on many nights and covered anything from the 50's to country to pop. They played during many of the them parties (country hoedown, sock hop, etc). They also played on deck one or two days.

 

Then they had the C-Notes Trio which is a 3 piece band from St Lucia. They played reggae and pop. They rotated on deck, Bliss, Spinnaker.

 

I would say between 8 and 10pm, you could dance in Spinnaker or Bliss. The atrium and the other lounges are really not configured for dancing.

 

They also had a solo pianist that played along to prerecorded tracks as well as a duo that covered pop hits. They had two solo guitarists as well. I thought the musicians for the most part were very good.

 

I don't enjoy evening shows in general, but they did offer different shows on most of the evenings (comedy, variety act, musicals, singer, magician, etc.)

[gam888]

Thanks blcrusing for your detail descriptions of all the bands on board, much appreciated!

[wp bob]

We were also on the Jan 26 sailing. It was good but not fabulous. Ship was completely sold out.I found service slow and the food ok except for the specialty restaurants and Jasmine. After 2 dinners in the main dining room, we used the buffet or jasmine. The theme buffets variety were good and included some of the dishes from the dining room menus. The cruise director Rob was on his first time as head director but did well with Vlad as his assistant. The casino is extremely smoky - they need to ban smoking there like other lines have done since it overflows to the adjacent areas. We were on deck 4, outside cabin. Plenty of drawers and closet space, bathroom ok. I thought the ship looked fresh with lovely upholstery from the drydock. This was my first time on NCL - I kept waiting for some kind of lecture program on the sea days as an alternative to bingo and art auctions.

[ew101]

I'm very glad they are still having some dancing - it is falling in popularity sadly. On our two Jade trips Vaughn the Bandmaster would gauge the mood and move the bands around. When there is comedy in the main show room the show band can play a jazz set. The Jade and other smaller ships are suffering from a "draft" of experienced crew to the newer larger ships. We love the old school wraparound promenade deck on the Jade. We have had great experiences aboard.

Edited February 11, 2018 by ew101