ronandannette

Not a victim - never, every implied we were victims or that anybody or anything else was to blame. Not once. And all the "catering to me" I was looking for was some clarity and a kind word, after the fact.

This was a bucket-list trip for myself, my husband and my two elderly siblings. We are from Western Canada and none of us had ever been to the Maritimes. The deciding factor on choosing the NCL Jade was the itinerary. It was the only ship (and the only date) in 2024 that was porting in all four Atlantic provinces and the schedule was PERFECT for us. DH and I have sailed NCL twice before this and have a dozen more under our belts on RCCL, Princess, Carnival and Celebrity. We did not choose NCL specifically, or the Jade in particular. That said, we were willing to forgo a lot of higher expectations, which we did with no hard feelings. It's difficult to accurately rate the overall experience because this was such a special week for our family and seeing all the places fulfilled our dreams, regardless of many other less-ideal circumstances. 10/10 for itinerary. Embarkation was the worst we've experienced - ever. Boarding times meant nothing because nobody could get into the terminal until after 1:00 pm - all 4,000 of us lined up on the sidewalk in the rain outside the pavilion being blocked by a completely inadequate number of security personnel. More Port of Boston's fault than NCL's, I suppose, but horrible, none the less. 1/10 for embarkation. Disembarkation was much, much better. We had late luggage tags (private arrangements) and breezed off at 10:00 am; the whole thing took about 3 minutes from gangway to curb. 10/10 for disembarkation. The weather was also pretty awful. It was nice enough in each of the ports but really cold and windy while at sea. Almost all the outdoor activities were canceled for the week, including the bars and poolside grill being closed, and the exterior decks were closed themselves several times. Not NCL's fault of course, but it did have an effect on our enjoyment. What they could have controlled was the indoor temperature, which was so low as to be uncomfortable almost all the time. Also of note for any smokers, there is one smoking area only, on Deck 13 forward, and it closes in inclement weather. The ship itself is nothing to write home about. Nothing remarkable or especially impressive about it in any way. Lacking in any of the flashier amenities a lot of mainstream lines now offer on their newer ships, it is a very, very basic on-board experience. That said, it is in good condition (public spaces and our cabins) and is kept very clean. 5/10 for the ship. Most crew members seem very industrious, if perhaps not too enthusiastic. Service was generally good; prompt and professional but lacking a lot of personality, except of course for Washy-Washy lady and the two Coffee Song guys up in the buffet. They were adorable and made us smile every time. In other dining venues, the wait-teams mostly got it right but with less charm than your average Denny's. Our cabin steward was a ghost - service is only done once per day, basically whenever the guy gets around to it. The little wheel outside the door for "turn down cabin" is for nothing other than decoration. We didn't spend any time in the various bars, so I can't comment on service there. Due to the weather, the outside venues were closed for most of the week so it's not really fair to comment on the lack of service there; there were deck crew cleaning and moving things around regularly, if not bar servers. 6/10 for the service in general, with nothing egregious enough to really complain about. The dining situation is something that's been pretty harshly reviewed here lately and because of that, much of what we experienced was a very pleasant surprise! We ate at Alizar and Grand Pacific several times each and never had a wait, no matter what time we presented ourselves. At a glance the menus seemed a little unimpressive but each and every dish we ordered (except the strip steak - yuck!!) was very decent quality and nicely presented. 8/10 for main dining. We also ate at Jasmine, which was one of our favorite meals of the week. No charge but reservations are required and I highly recommend it as being worth making the arrangements. We ate at O'Sheehans twice and it was pretty weak; the staff really didn't seem to want to be there and the pub food was uniformly mediocre. Not recommended unless you've got no other options (it's the only 24-hour venue). 5/10 for casual dining. Our specialty meal was at Cagney's; all the venues were extremely difficult to book. I had booked Moderno and Teppanyaki pre-boarding but somehow the reservations did not appear in their system. The Cagney's meal was included in Free-at-Sea but if it had not been, the $100+/pp it would have cost would have been an outrage. No one at our table got exactly what they ordered and three-of-four steaks were not cooked to the correct temp. We could have re-ordered I suppose, but it was already so late, we just went with it. We were given quite the rush-job in general; our reservations were for 9:30 and the wait-staff were desperate to get done and get out. 3/10 for specialty dining - your experience may vary. Now for the happiest surprise - the buffet (Garden Cafe)! We've come to dread buffet venues on cruises. Our last few have been so unpleasant with crowds, poor behavior, noise and really bad food. The buffet on the Jade was none of these. Lots of room for everyone - move to the back; the Great Outdoors is lovely! People were mostly polite and wonder of wonders - the food was mostly all good to very good, especially the carving station at lunch and dinner. 10/10 for buffet and that's really saying something! Well done NCL Jade! Entertainment was underwhelming; a disappointment for us because we look forward to a nightly show on cruises. Nothing at all on the first and 5th nights. A production show on the 2nd and 6th nights, one of which (Elements) I actively disliked for too many reasons to go into. Blazing Boots may have been to someone's taste (not mine but others in our group enjoyed it) and the Motown Tribute, illusionists and acrobats were OK. There was no comedian and we didn't take in much live music but what we heard from a distance was nice. 4/10 for entertainment. Now, there's another thread of mine here describing our experience in missing the ship at one port, so I won't repeat myself here. It's also not really a fair part of the review as it won't apply to others in general. Open to questions, if asked.

No, it wasn't originally - it's just come to mind since discussions here and me realizing just how fortunate we were. Obligated...interesting word. It implies the bare minimum requirement. There's a lot more than strict obligation involved in a good customer experience. Intangibles. Things that don't cost a company anything. When a bartender on-board remembers your name or favorite drink, it's not because they're "obligated", it's because that person has a personal value for providing a great experience, or has been trained to do it to conform to a company culture that values it's reputation for providing an great experience.

OK but that would not be at all helpful if one needed their Passports to get to the next port or home. Our only saving grace was that we are Canadians and were in Canada. If worse-had-come-to-worse, we could have gone straight home from Nova Scotia, but without the Passports we wouldn't have been able to get back into the States to meet the ship in Boston or get on our pre-paid return flights from there.

Car and home insurance rates are calculated on a variety of factors specific to the individual and can be denied entirely or cancelled by the carrier if excess claims are made. Travel insurance (non-medical) largely requires no pre-qualification and there are many companies that sell it. I don't know if they share records on anybody's previous claims. I'm not sure I'm reading this right but are you suggesting we orchestrated this little escapade with the intention of conning the insurance company out of the cost of a late-night drive across a strange highway in the dark and a single night in a cheap hotel? That is truly hilarious! 🤣 I just got off the phone with the travel insurance people - the coverage is through Manulife. The phone agent couldn't find an exactly perfect match for the circumstances (I told them the truth, didn't try to spin the reason for the delay) but did find some verbage on "unspecified perils". He took the claim and said it will now undergo a "Claims Review" process and we may be asked for more details. It will then either be qualified or disqualified. Seems fair enough to me. Yes, but really that's just a fluke. Had we been foreign and left standing there without Passports, we would NOT have been able to rent a car or board a plane. Thinking about that kind of bothers me. And if we'd had the presence of mind, we could have asked the Port Agent but we were pretty rattled. It would have been nice for him to have mentioned it. And I wonder now what would have happened to our papers and belongings if we had NOT caught up with the ship? Best as I can tell, none of those "worst-case" scenarios actually happened. Sail-away time was 4:00 pm and the ship had already raised the gangway and were pulling lines 17 minutes before that. We watched them sail out. It didn't seem like they were very late, although they were later leaving from both Halifax and St. John than the published time. {{shrug}} Perhaps if anybody would have been willing to actually speak with me about it, discussions could have been had. As it was, all I got was basically silence from the person at Guest Services and a case number written on a business card to follow up with NCL shore-side.

An hour before all-aboard? No. It’s plenty.

I was editing to address this while you were posting. The policy either will or will not cover this circumstance. If it does we will collect. If not, we won’t. Simple.

We did. Fortunately the rest of our ports were private tours and the drivers were happy to cut things a bit short to get us back earlier than originally planned.

I never said one single thing about NCL being liable. Or wanting any type of compensation from them for anything whatsoever . Go back and re-read. Carefully. I said the on-board personnel could have offered some measure of concern without it implying any liability on their part. You know, like a regular person might “oh, we’re sorry this happened to you…” And as for the trip interruption insurance, it covers all kinds of things. This may be a one of them. I’ll find out from the policy provider. And what a bizarre comment for you to make anyway. Fire insurance covers your home even if you accidentally start the fire. Auto insurance covers accidents where the driver is at fault. And so on. If we are eligible under the terms of the policy, I will most certainly make a claim. Why wouldn’t I?

I don’t know anybody that has travelled widely over the past 25 years who hasn’t encountered glitches of some sort. Life is like that. It will take more than these (relatively) minor perils to keep me home. 😁

Oh Lordy, had it been just DH and myself, it would have been a lot easier!! This was a “bucket list” trip for myself and my elderly siblings. They are much less experienced travellers than we are and keeping them calm while we figured it out was half the job. Then they (my sister especially) was paranoid at the rest of the ports and fussed until we agreed to board at least an hour early. LOL We are now docked back in Boston and waiting to disembark. We are very much “all’s well that ends well” people and we are at peace! I’ll be checking with my travel insurance as soon as we’re on the ground, to see if the trip interruption coverage will apply. I’d love to get that huge rental car bill paid, but we shall see. If I communicate further with NCL I’ll come back with an update on the protocols as I do think it’s a matter of interest. Thanks to all!

Just ready to disembark and while the weather in ports was mostly pleasant, it has NOT been nice at sea. Very windy and cold on deck; almost all the outside activities cancelled all week and the top decks closed several times. It’s also been kept way too cold in the public areas and not comfortable most of the time. Everybody has stayed bundled up, even while dining.

On her right now. Not a WOW ship by any means and perhaps not a lot to hold the interest of a teen. A very, very basic on-board experience. But it's nice and clean and the food is good.

Knew? Yes, based on the manifests and us not checking back in. But I don’t recall the Port Agent asking our names (he may have; it was a stressful moment) and he definitely didn’t check our ID or boat cards. He also DID NOT have our Passports. Had we been foreign, I’m not sure we would have been able to rent a car or board a flight without them. We lost our Passports while cruising the Med a few years ago. We couldn’t board our flight home and were stuck in Barcelona for days getting it sorted out.

Yes, that was my point. WHEN would they reach out. What is the protocol? Perhaps I will find out if I pursue it further with shore-side Guest Relations. I have no expectations that they will follow-up with me.