Just back from the Jade

[wallygator21015]

My evaluation of the NCL Jade:

 

I just returned home from a 13 night cruise around the British Isles, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium and France, on the Jade.

 

I would rate the Ports of Call a Ten. Our cabin stewards would get a Seven. We had a balcony on deck 9. Some days we would not receive ice, and some days they skipped providing wash cloths? Overall, the cabin was clean, but they never bothered to clean the outside balcony. The same debris was on the deck of our balcony for the entire cruise?

 

The food and service seemed to be best in the Blue Lagoon? When we dinned in the regular dinning room the food was somewhere between a three and a six rating; while the service was only in the area of being a Five.

 

I believe that since service people are aware that their tips are automatic, they are not motivated to go the extra mile, or ever push themselves to perform at a higher level.

 

I personally have been a passenger on 61 cruises. I have noticed a steady decline in the service and the quality of food provided on all of the major cruise lines. Last year I was on Royal Caribbean for two weeks and the food was of very poor quality, while I was also on their sister cruise line, Celebrity this past January, and the food was exceptional. Nonetheless, I have talked to other passengers who have cruised on other Celebrity ships and they claim that Celebrity has also lost their edge.

 

I have been on eleven NCL cruises and I actually believe that their food is better than Royal Caribbean and Carnival, but nowhere near the quality of Celebrity.

 

Overall, my cruise on the NCL Jade was very good considering the Ports of Call, and price that I paid for it. I will cruise again on the NCL Jade if the price is right and I like the Ports of Call.

 

 

 

Not that anyone cares; here are my rankings for the major cruise lines:

• Celebrity
  
• HollandAmerica
  
• Norwegian
  
• Carnival
  
• Princess
  
• Royal Caribbean
  

Wallygator :cool:

[tiyana4]

Very interesting....do you have any pics posted yet? We are sailing on the Jade next year and would love to see the ship.

[garycarla]

Thanks for your quick, down and dirty review. Glad to get a perspective from somebody that "gets it".

 

Especially:

" I personally have been a passenger on 61 cruises. I have noticed a steady decline in the service and the quality of food provided on all of the major cruise lines."

 

I would love have this as an automated response to many posters. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get that CLASSY service and outstanding food from years ago? Yes. But it just is not there anymore. We keep cruising through, including a great trip on the Jade earlier this year.

[sottovoce]

 

I believe that since service people are aware that their tips are automatic, they are not motivated to go the extra mile, or ever push themselves to perform at a higher level.

 

So, Wally, do YOU work for tips? If not, does that mean YOU "are not motivated to go the extra mile, or ever push [yourself] to perform at a higher level?"

 

For what it's worth, we've always had very good service on our six NCL cruises, at least comparable to what we've experienced on HAL, Celebrity, and Renaissance. Including last December on our twelve-day Jade Mediterranean cruise.

[sjbdtz]

Thanks for your quick, down and dirty review. Glad to get a perspective from somebody that "gets it".

 

Especially:

" I personally have been a passenger on 61 cruises. I have noticed a steady decline in the service and the quality of food provided on all of the major cruise lines."

 

I would love have this as an automated response to many posters. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get that CLASSY service and outstanding food from years ago? Yes. But it just is not there anymore. We keep cruising through, including a great trip on the Jade earlier this year.

 

 

 

Hold on. Did you just say "from somebody who gets it", in response to someone who said "I believe that since service people are aware that their tips are automatic, they are not motivated to go the extra mile, or ever push themselves to perform at a higher level. ?

Did you actually read the review? Your response seems uncharacteristic.

Mine, on the other hand.... :rolleyes:

[sjbdtz]

I believe that since service people are aware that their tips are automatic, they are not motivated to go the extra mile, or ever push themselves to perform at a higher level.

 

 

 

Do you believe in ghosts? Doesn't mean they exist!

 

 

How would the service people know that you weren't planning on giving them an EXTRA tip, if they went the extra mile? Answer: they don't know. They always try hard.

[garycarla]

Very good points.

 

* Tipping in itself is really strange, since the server does not KNOW until after you are done with your meal if or how much you are going to tip (in situations where a tip is normal). If you are a regular at a restaurant, they of course have an idea of what you would do, but in a new place, the whole tipping scenario is rather illogical

 

* As to the comment about - auto tipping means less service. the vast majority of jobs that folks have do not result in tipping. What is their incentive? (answers not required)

 

Tipping is just a strange animal. And by the way, we tend to tip well, especially in our regular places.

[skperson]

Had to laugh as I read the comments about staff not knowing if they might get an extra tip. That's so true.

But the reason I laughed was that it reminded me of a Third Rock from the Sun episode where John Lithgow learns about tipping. He starts the meal by showing the waiter a stack of dollar bills and says 'this could be your tip". But every time the waiter can't answer a question or forgets something, he removed a bill from the stack! So, I guess, that's one way to try to show the wait staff that there might be an extra incentive...

 

Personally, I find being pleasant and respectful to the staff usually produces great service. We tipped our room stewards extra on the second last night of our recent cruise, and on the last morning, one of them dropped by to wish us well and thank us again for "the extra". It didn't sound like many people left an extra tip for them, but really, they were excellent and deserved it.

[newmexicoNita]

My evaluation of the NCL Jade:

 

I just returned home from a 13 night cruise around the British Isles, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium and France, on the Jade.

 

I would rate the Ports of Call a Ten. Our cabin stewards would get a Seven. We had a balcony on deck 9. Some days we would not receive ice, and some days they skipped providing wash cloths? Overall, the cabin was clean, but they never bothered to clean the outside balcony. The same debris was on the deck of our balcony for the entire cruise?

 

The food and service seemed to be best in the Blue Lagoon? When we dinned in the regular dinning room the food was somewhere between a three and a six rating; while the service was only in the area of being a Five.

 

I believe that since service people are aware that their tips are automatic, they are not motivated to go the extra mile, or ever push themselves to perform at a higher level.

 

I personally have been a passenger on 61 cruises. I have noticed a steady decline in the service and the quality of food provided on all of the major cruise lines. Last year I was on Royal Caribbean for two weeks and the food was of very poor quality, while I was also on their sister cruise line, Celebrity this past January, and the food was exceptional. Nonetheless, I have talked to other passengers who have cruised on other Celebrity ships and they claim that Celebrity has also lost their edge.

 

I have been on eleven NCL cruises and I actually believe that their food is better than Royal Caribbean and Carnival, but nowhere near the quality of Celebrity.

 

Overall, my cruise on the NCL Jade was very good considering the Ports of Call, and price that I paid for it. I will cruise again on the NCL Jade if the price is right and I like the Ports of Call.

 

 

 

Not that anyone cares; here are my rankings for the major cruise lines:

• Celebrity
  
• HollandAmerica
  
• Norwegian
  
• Carnival
  
• Princess
  
• Royal Caribbean
  

Wallygator :cool:

 

Wallygator, some may not care about your views on cruise lines, but I think it is interesting and most of us do like to see how others feel about the cruise world.

By the way, I would pretty much agree with your ratings, except I am not a strong supporter of Celebrity, I think they are grossly over-rated. I would put NCL second probably and Princess third, I think with Celebrity just below Princess. Amazing how we all see things in different light.

 

Thanks for posting.

 

Nita

[1particularharbor]

I was also on this particular Jade cruise. I have to agree that the ports of call was the main draw for us too. However, being seasoned cruisers ourselves and had recently cruised on another NCL ship ...I found the attitude of the staff we encountered on the Jade to be rude if you dared to mention you were not satisfied with something ..one encounter we had in the dining room was extremely rude...which led us to opt not to eat there again. I did not encounter this on prior NCL cruises.

 

Personally, I find that it is the "luck of the draw" regarding the wait staff you have in "freestyle" dining since likely you encounter different ones at each meal in the dining room

...and comparing the way "it use to be" having one waiter during your entire cruise made it easier for the waiter and the cruiser to become accustom to to each other and the waiter to remember your favorite choices of beverages etc. An example: I recall requesting lemon for ice tea and the wait staff would have the lemon on the table when we arrived in the dining room for the rest of the cruise.

 

We found the Blue Lagoon to be our choice for dining on the Jade.

 

Another thing that occurred with us was with the room service breakfast order. On the Room service menu that was available 24 hours a day had the offering of an egg omelet. We added this to the breakfast card that you hang out on the door the night before. The room service staff called us right before the time to deliver and said they could not furnish the omelet as it was not available on the card. I know this might sound like we are expecting too much from room service but IMHO it was simple to include. Flexibility might be something to consider..maybe adding this to the breakfast room service menu card. Having an omelet is not an unusual offering for breakfast and in fact it is served at breakfast on the Lido.

 

We enjoyed our Jade cruise because we took the approach

.....don't like something ..try to avoid it ..

...and by doing this we made the best possible cruise experience we could by enjoying the beautiful British Isles.

 

One other thing I noticed that I think would have helped the cruisers on this particular cruise (especially first/new cruisers) would be to have all information available in the daily bulletins about shuttles and options other than just the ship's tours...as there were many we talked to that were not able to take the excursions due to health issues/$$$ cost of the excursions but wanted to at least get off the ship and enjoy things near the port ...and others told us it took some of their valuable port time to just to find out from the locals where to go and what there was to see....

 

1ph