Review - Norwegian Jade - March 12 - 23, 2018 - Panama Canal

Thank you for the great trip report! I am looking at sailing on the Jade to Greece (the eastern Med, I guess) in 2019. I have heard that she is an older ship. I know she has had some refurbishment. I wonder how her condition is?

Stained carpets, worn furniture, things like that? When we sailed on the Jewel in 2010

she was looking pretty dated!

Thanks for any insights.

Colleen

Thank you for the great trip report! I am looking at sailing on the Jade to Greece (the eastern Med, I guess) in 2019. I have heard that she is an older ship. I know she has had some refurbishment. I wonder how her condition is?

Stained carpets, worn furniture, things like that? When we sailed on the Jewel in 2010

she was looking pretty dated!

Thanks for any insights.

Colleen

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Thanks cknic! That is what I was hoping for. Looking forward to trying Norwegian again!

:D

ProjectHandbag, do you happen to remember what the excursions for Panama/Gatun Lake were? I'm going on the same cruise in November and they haven't listed Panama excursions yet. For personal reasons, my mom and I are hoping to do one of the tours that goes into Panama City, but I don't know if those are offered or not.

Such a great review! I truly enjoyed reading it. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Doing a Panama Canal cruise is on my list, maybe when my kids are older. They don't seem all that interested, lol. Sounds like you've have a busy, fun cruise with your family all planned out!

Colleen - I thought the Jade was in great condition! Nice and fresh.

Noodle 77 - I only have the shore excursions order form which has the names of the tours, but not the descriptions. Note to self: save the full set of descriptions next time!

This was a great review!! So glad you had a great time. We also enjoyed it very much!

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Projecthandbag, thank You what a wonderful review. We just booked the Panama Canal cruise for next April 1st. I have some questions if you have a minute or two;);). We have free drinks with our package. But only up to 15.00 per drink. What is the average cost of say a rum runner or Pina Colada, etc.?;););)

Is there a dress code in the specialty restaurants?

Who was it you used for the 10.00 transfer to the Miami airport?

Are there kiosks to check your on board bill? I've read that you can't do that on the room tv's.

Do you recall the showtimes? I'm looking to make reservations at the specialty restaurants and the dining rooms before hand. Although that doesn't seem possible online quite yet.

Again Thanks!

Hello Holdon216,

Glad you liked the review! You will enjoy the cruise next year. All the drinks I tried (and I tried a lot of them!) were under $15.00. My two favorites were the frozen mango meltdown and the painkiller. I could go for one of those right now on a cruise ship! In the specialty restaurants we dressed nicely, but I don't think the men wore ties. They both wore pants and nice shirts. The ladies wore casual dresses to Cagneys and capris and nice shirts to LaCucina. I don't remember the transfer company to the airport. The hotel set us up with whoever they use and we paid for a round-trip transfer at that time. There were two kiosks to check your bill in the area where the customer service desk was. You can print the bill. I used the NCL app on my phone and could review it there. Showtimes were 7:30 and 9:30 each evening. Hope you have a great cruise.

hello holdon216,

glad you liked the review! You will enjoy the cruise next year. All the drinks i tried (and i tried a lot of them!) were under $15.00. My two favorites were the frozen mango meltdown and the painkiller. I could go for one of those right now on a cruise ship! In the specialty restaurants we dressed nicely, but i don't think the men wore ties. They both wore pants and nice shirts. The ladies wore casual dresses to cagneys and capris and nice shirts to lacucina. I don't remember the transfer company to the airport. The hotel set us up with whoever they use and we paid for a round-trip transfer at that time. There were two kiosks to check your bill in the area where the customer service desk was. You can print the bill. I used the ncl app on my phone and could review it there. Showtimes were 7:30 and 9:30 each evening. Hope you have a great cruise.

thanks so much!!!!

Great review so far. I will be on this exact cruise a year from now (3/11/19)

Me you!

Oh wait, I'm going with you.

ProjectHandbag, do you happen to remember what the excursions for Panama/Gatun Lake were? I'm going on the same cruise in November and they haven't listed Panama excursions yet. For personal reasons, my mom and I are hoping to do one of the tours that goes into Panama City, but I don't know if those are offered or not.

We're going April 1, 2019, and can't book anything until 90-100 days out, but you can go to your NCL.com page and search for excursions. For Panama, narrow your search by selecting the Panama Canal/Gatun Lake excursions.

You'll find thirteen different options. We're looking forward to the Ferry which means we basically get to go all the way thru. Hopefully, the ride back to the ship won't be torture.

This link may or may not work...https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions/search?destination=Panama+Canal+Cruises&port=PCG

LOL, your friends need to get out more. Anytime a restaurant has the Spanish word Diablo (Devil) in the food description that food is going to be super spicy (HOT). The fast food chain Taco Bell offers 4 types of taco sauce, mild, hot, fire, and diablo.

 

 

Having just been on the Jade this past January I’m really enjoying your review. I love the way the Jade buffet is laid out, the food stations never seem crowded. I too love the ambiance of the Grand Pacific dining room.

I thought the same thing, and had the same dish on the Escape in April...I enjoyed it very much.....

Still, a great review, I am thinking of booking a cruise on the Jade soon...thanks for this.

Review Continued

Disembarkation. It was chilly in Miami - boo! Disembarkation was the typical madness, perhaps a little better than usual. The buffet was busy for breakfast - I like going to the dining room for the last breakfast but we didn’t do that this time. We had put our big bags out the night before and just had carryons. We chose the walk-off disembarkation and stood outside on deck for a bit. Found our luggage easily and went through customs very fast. We waited for our pre-arranged transfer to the airport ($10.00 per person) for a while. Uber XL was expensive I thought, $40.00.

All in all, this was one of the best cruises I’ve taken. I really enjoyed writing this (long!) review and will do more. I realized I should have taken more pictures and taken names of the great staff members I met. Thank you everyone for you kind comments too!

Next up this summer:

NCL Star - Venice, Greece, Croatia and Montenegro! We are going with another couple and my friend takes lots of pictures so I’ll be covered. This is my first trip to the other side of the world! We are staying in Venice two nights pre-cruise and have excursions purchased for each port so it will be a busy cruise.

NCL Dawn - Bermuda - This will be my 4th trip on the Dawn to Bermuda. I absolutely LOVE this cruise. I will see it with new eyes as I’m going with six cruise newbies. Will I survive the cruise with a drink package with my adult kids, their friends and my Mom? That’s the big question. We have lots of plans such as “alter ego” night: dressing up as someone else; dancing every night, a slot pull, a scavenger hunt and checking out that pirate ship at the dock. And, we will go to Horseshoe Bay!!! Yay! I love Bermuda!

Are you doing Star this summer? I read your panama cause i just booked it on the Joy for Feb 2020, and i booked Star Venice-Greece May 2019. I got an H2 front owners on Joy, and a front owners on Star, but thats why i book so far out. LOL Plus I have to save, save save $$ up

Are you doing Star this summer? I read your panama cause i just booked it on the Joy for Feb 2020, and i booked Star Venice-Greece May 2019. I got an H2 front owners on Joy, and a front owners on Star, but thats why i book so far out. LOL Plus I have to save, save save $$ up

Oh yes indeed I did the Star Venice/Croatia/Montenegro/Greece Cruise this summer!!!! <3<3<3 I will be writing a review shortly with tons of pictures. I know I said the Panama Canal Cruise was my favorite, but I hadn't been to Europe yet! I loved it so much and cannot wait to go back to Europe. We just returned (today) from our Family Cruise to Bermuda on the Dawn out of Boston and I will write a review about that too. JoAnne

Thanks for the review.

Joined!

Loving your review! Do you have nay photos of menus? People are still curious if they have been updated... Would love to know if the cruise is 11 or 12 days does the menu start over?

I'm really enjoying your wonderful review. We are on the Jade 4/1/19 and looking forward to the experience.

Following along as we are on that cruise as well! :)

"

I love that the smaller ships, including the Jade, still have a walk around promenade deck. We spend so much time walking around and around and enjoying the air and sea and exercising."

 

I so agree!! This is one of our favorite features and we hate it that so many of the ships now do not have this!

On 4/3/2018 at 9:56 AM, cknic said:

I'm really enjoying your wonderful review. We are on the Jade 4/1/19 and looking forward to the experience.

Hey cknic

Come join us on the roll call 

On 4/4/2018 at 11:06 AM, carefree20 said:

 

Yes, this is a fantastic review. We are also on the Jade 4/1/19!

Hey carefree20

Come join us on the roll call

15 hours ago, Gizmosmum said:

Hey cknic

Come join us on the roll call 

Thanks for the invite but we had to cancel this cruise..health reasons. 

Have a great time.  Carolyn