Norwegian Cruise Line, Norwegian Jade

just back from 7 days on norwegian jade,got off to a bad start when arrived in venice found the airport staff very ignorant and uninterested in helping us.my wife checked in and was told they do not accept normal bank cards ie visa debit card.got herded about like sheep by italian speaking people holding plackards saying norwegian jade,once on board we were left standing with no idea where to got,no ships map,got pointed in the right direction to desk after asking.they accepted our bank card that was a relief.the room was nice ,no towels one of the days and no bottled water dispite requesting it on our list which was left on bed.wander why we payed $25 a day for this privalage,on any day at sea it was impossable to get a sunbed,the towel brigage had been up since dawn..the buffet was luke warm and not very appealing,pretty canteen style.the wworst part was trying to negoctiate threw the always looking over their shoulders and in a hurry italians,who i think must have been deaf as they only shouted rather than talk.we had one good nights entertainment in the theatre the rest of the entertainment consisted off your usual,mario lanzo and abba impersenations,wow even a 70s disco once again abba made an appearance.we dined outy one night at the jasmine garden it was really good.full marks. and then again we walked outof the blue lagoon after i sampled the delights of an english style fish n chips revolting,consisted of two rubber battered brown looking sardines which i was told was whiting,must have had sunburn,sweet peas mmmmm and french fries,my wife had the chefs salad cosisting of lettace,lettace,pepperami slices well three pieces of cut ham or maybe bacon couldnt decice and a very generous helping of mayo, oh and some warm crisp on the side.the ship looked great but i dont think it met the needs of every one,it was far to busy i dont think they coped all that well with the ship being full.and to the holiday it was not my worst experiance as i got gout with 3 days left dunno if that was a good think or not

my wife and I are frequent travellers usually staying at 4/5 star hotels. however we were recommended to try a cruise by various friends so we booked 7 days on the Norwegian Jade from Venice to the Greek Islands.

Good points

Ship was lovely, cabins were great, we had a balcony cabin.

Crew were so helpfull and friendly

excursions etc were well organized and cruise itinery was excellent

Bad points

Too many children on board, impossible to get near swimming pools or hot tubs for kids

People were having to go out at 7 am if they wanted to swim.

Food was reasonable but strange menus in main dining rooms, if I wanted roast beef and yorkshire puddings or chicken and 2 veg etc I would have stayed at home.

Buffet was a joke food was varied ( good curries ) but mainly of canteen quality, also days when ship was at sea all day almost impossible to find a table, you also had a good chance of being knocked over by kids running around dining area, no one seemed interested in controling them

Drink prices were extortionate with wine around the $35 / 40 per bottle mark

There was a good house wine available at $ 25.00 a bottle but this was not on any of the wine lists, we only found out about it by accident

Also beer abd soft drinks were expensive before they added the 15% gratuity

to your bill

Excursions were also very expensive and many people just refused to pay for them.

All in all not the best holiday NCL try to be all thing to all people and it just does not work

On the full days at sea there are just too many people on board

Will probably try another cruise but not with NCL and certainly not during the school holidays

We enjoyed our 7 day cruise in May 2012. Food was excellent, service to the

rooms adequate and the entertainment very good.. Staff was very friendly.

The tours are expensive but aren't they all??? Croatia was our favorite destination. This is our second cruise with NCL and would do it again..

Gary is a great cruise director and very helpful.....

JD

MONTREAL,CANADA

Ideal Cruising delivered everything promised for our 7 day Adriatic cruise on Norwegian Jade.

We left the husbands at home because it was a last minute booking and it was the right decision as it would have cost a fortune at the bar with 15% being added to every bill (don't understand why they don't just increase the prices so you know when ordering what it will cost)! Also $12 per person per day gratuities is added to your bill making the cruise not such a bargain as we at fist thought (cruised with Thomsons - All Inclusive - previously) but still extremely enjoyable.

Loved the itinary, particularly Croatia which we have not visited before but do intend to return.

We were allocated an inside cabin (compact but adequate) on deck 10 (aft) which was good for us because when we were at sea we preferred not to be around the pool areas where it was a bit noisy. Food/Restaurants/staff/cleanliness were all excellant. Entertainment was good and we particularly enjoyed RJ Red. We have invested $250 deposit with NCL for our next cruise with them which we can take over the next 4 years so we will be looking for a bargain in 2013!

HELLO EVERY ONE JUST GOT BACK FROM 9 DAYS ON THE NORWEGIAN JADE NCL , HAD A GOOD TIME , THE FOOD WAS GOOD, BUT THE DRINK WAS VERY OVER PRICED! $6.50 FOR A PINT! I LIKE MY PINTS, THE STAFF WERE VERY NICE - BUT YOU CANT HELP BUT FEEL THEY ARE UNDER PAYED! - THEY WORK 12 - 15 HOURS A DAY, 7 DAYS A WEEK FOR 9 MOUTHS FOR VERY LITTLE MONEY! YOU HAVE TO TRY THE STAKE HOUSE - THE BEST STAKE IN THE WORLD!, THANKS FOR READING :)

hello fellow cruisers,

look, i mostly get peed off by people running down cruise lines,sure you will get your ups and downs,but overall most of them do a great job.

my wife and i have cruised only four times, carnival / msc/ hal / and just recently on the ncl norwegian jade.we were lucky enough to be able to have a balcony on all cruises,(we save our pennies)the cruise on the norwegian jade through the mediterainian was just fantastic.

all of our cruises had things we were not 100% happy with,but these were few and far between.

i know we are all paying our hard earned for these cruises,but you try to run a ship that in most cases holds 2000 passengers or much, at a 100 % strick rate,and your name would be god.

even at home,all of us have things go wrong when we do them ourselves.

so lets all get off the cruises lines back,and give them some cheers for doing what i would call 'a pretty good job'

thank you

regards,

noel cameron

[email protected]

Between the two of us, this was our 15th cruise. It was interesting that first-timers liked it but experienced cruisers were very disappointed. The lower cost was obliterated by seven (7!) specialty restaurants at extra charge. Drinks were high priced and heavily pushed(we had 7 servers approach us in less than 10 minutes). The food was mediocre and poorly prepared/presented. The variety of food was poor. Our favourite was the Blue Lagoon - at least the food was dependable and plentiful. Our room (for a significant up charge) was lovely and the professional entertainment was excellent. Other entertainment was pretty lame. We won't be cruising NCL again.

This was our first cruise experience. I would recommed NCL to anyone as a first taste of cruising, the freestyle concept worked well for us it gave us so much choice and flexibility. We had a wonderful time, the staff were attentive and very friendly. The food was excellent and there was enough variety to suit our tastes. The service charge was not a surprise as we had researched the cruise thoroughly before we went. We dont drink very much but did not find the drinks charges overpriced, the wine list was reasonably priced comparable with any good restaurant. We only had to wait for seat in one of the restaurants once and this was only for 20 minutes and we took advantage of the offers on cocktails 'buy one get one free' The size of our stateroom was adequate, it was very clean. We took 3 tours the quality varied but this was down to the local providers, again we had researched these beforehand and only took tours we didnt think we could do independantly and took advice from the ships staff which was honest and accurate. We went to one show on New Years Eve and this was spectacular. We couldnt find a fault with Norwegian Jade and their staff and we also met a lot of other satisfied experienced cruisers during the cruise. Those who were not satisfied I suspect were serial complainers !

This was our first cruise and can i say it was wonderful. The ship was very clean and comfortable. we opted for a inside cabin to keep cost down it was small but enough room to get dressed in and sleep. The food was wonderful so much choice we never had to use any of the other restaurant's the main food hall that was included in the charge was fine. Drinks were pricier and of course most excursions cost a arm and a leg we opted to explore alone there was a charge for the bus shuttle from the ship but this was not expensive. if i could find anything to moan about it was the bill (Service Charges) 12 Dollars per day per person !!! i always though a service charge was at the customers discretion !! I'm sure some customers including us were not expecting to be left with a hefty bill after such a wonderful holiday. we are no way tight but we tipped as we went a long and also left a big tip in our room for the staff to which i must say work so hard. i would love to know why the Norwegian jade and their sister ships fill the need to pass this charge on the there customers. its expensive to travel on this ship so be warned . its such a shame i would love to go back for a another holiday but due to the service charges and the principle of what tipping means to me i would not . maybe norwegian enterprises could pay there staff a decant salary and stop passing this on the there customers

Excursion over priced information given for being able to do your own thing was very poor indeed, and we were warned constantly about missing the ship or being late back because of local transport which we found very good, and the only people that were late back were your own excurions.

Drinks were overprice which lead to people sitting in there cabins drinking there own if they were not as pricey people would enjoy more of the hospitality and drink more in your bars Overall experience as compare with other cruise lines very poor and would be very unlikely to recommend to friends and family.