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

Thank you to all CC members who have gone before me and written reviews! Here's mine:

My husband and I traveled with another couple. Our ages are from mid-fifties to early seventies. This is our 10th cruise, five on NCL, four on Princess and one a lifetime away on Carnival. I like NCL the best, I think it’s a “vibe” thing, there is just a more energetic, lively feeling on NCL than Princess. It’s not necessarily a demographic issue as on this Panama Canal cruise the older people on board kept saying they had never seen so many old people! ha. There were not many children, teens or young adults on board as it was an 11 night cruise.

I read David McCullough’s “The Path Between The Seas” before the cruise. I also watched the PBS American Experience Season 4, Episode 3 (or the other way around) Panama Canal episode, both as recommended on Cruise Critic. The book was not an easy read; if you are crunched for time, watch the documentary and read Book 3 of the book. At least watch the documentary - knowing the history, feats of engineering and all the incredible obstacles that were overcome to build the canal will enhance your experience going through the canal, plus you will feel very smart. I was surprised there were no lectures or movies about the Panama Canal on the two sea days we had prior to arriving there.

We live in Maine so leaving Boston to arrive in 83 degree Miami was a treat. We stayed at the Best Western Premium nearish the airport. What a busy airport, every 60-90 seconds I’d see an American Airlines plane overhead for landing. On embarkation morning, Uber was $30.00 plus a 35 cent wait time so we opted for the hotel transfer of $10.00 per person. We arrived at the port at 9:00 for a 9:30 check-in. The agents let us in the building and we were guests 9-12 in the building and were able to sit in chairs. At a little after 10:00 we were allowed to check-in and we were Group 1! If you are upstairs waiting to board, check out the drink machine - water was $2.00 for a 20 oz bottle, cheaper than on board. I didn’t write down what time we were on the ship - I must have been too excited! Muster was quick and painless. More to follow . . .

Cant wait to hear more!

Subscribed... doing exactly this cruise later this year!

we are doing this sail on Star very soon! cant wait to see some pics!

Review Continued:

The Jade is a fine ship. My only “complaint” is something I’ve never experienced - the atrium was underwhelming! Only two floors, small and no “wow” factor! Have to say I was disappointed. I understand it’s probably wasted space, but I love a beautiful big atrium! 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 hated being on the Royal Princess with no deck other than the jogging track up high to walk on. The rest of the Jade was beautiful and very well kept up; all public areas looked fresh.

We participated in the Upgrade Advantage program was upgraded from an oceanview to a balcony for $245.00 pp. I was so so excited when I received my congratulations email three weeks before the cruise which tells me I may have bid too high. That was okay though - I really wanted a balcony for a 11 night cruise and the price was better than what it would have originally cost. Our friends scored a mini-suite several weeks before us as an upgrade. The room was fine, a small couch, no desk though - just two little areas with a small shelf. I did miss the desk or a table. Lots of places to charge electronics. There was not as much storage as I’ve had on other ships, a small closet, only three big drawers and four cubbies. One small nightstand so I had to use the couch as my nightstand. Balcony was the typical size and bathroom was the typical Dawn/Sun/Jade layout with a door instead of a shower curtain which is nice. The mini-suite had tons of storage space and a big closet. I had a coffeemaker which I used every day as I didn’t like the coffee in the buffet - way too strong. The room steward brought me extra coffee pods. There was a notification about keeping your beach towel - if you lost if they would charge $25.00. Huh? Who would take one home with the sunscreen stains, etc.? Upon deep reflection I came to the answer to the riddle: they don’t want people using two or three at a time and that’s what everyone does at the pool, or they don’t want you being careless and leaving them ashore.

Service on the ship was outstanding across the board. Everyone was so pleasant and helpful. The Washy-Washy guy at the buffet was my favorite. He stood there for hours and had a funny comment for everyone that passed. He started my morning off in a great way as I always left him smiling. Richard Matic was the Cruise Director and I thought he was outstanding also. He was so visible, always out and about. We really enjoyed his “stories” he told every night at the shows and he was better than some of the comedian acts! Service in the internet cafe, dining venues and casino were outstanding also. I bought four Cruise Next certificates and the two ladies there were great and no sales pressure to buy.

Me again: what is the best way to add a photo? Thanks!

Me again: what is the best way to add a photo? Thanks!

Shutterfly. Simply “copy” the image and then “paste” here in your comment box.

Thx for taking the time to do this review! Looking forward to the rest (and memories of our Canal transit on the Jewel last year).

Thank you for your help with the photo tip! Here we are in Group 1 - all smiles!

Review continued:

We had the drink and dining packages. Drinks were readily available, never much of a wait. Service at the pool was great. I found the best drink ever - Mango Meltdown. Heard about it on CC, but didn’t try it until halfway through the cruise. I’m sure it has 1,000 calories, but oh well, too delicious to pass up!!! The Painkiller was pretty good too and I never knew that nutmeg has the property of taking years off your age - that’s a pretty great side effect. It's amazing what you learn from bartenders.

The Garden Buffet is very well laid out, lots of choices. Seating was fine, most of the time we ended up towards the back of the ship though. We loved the Great Outdoors!!! I wish all ships had this area. We ate twice at Cagney’s - outstanding - my favorite was the baked potato soup - to die for! Oh, and that Oreo Cheesecake was fantastic too. We ate twice at La Cucina - underwhelming and glad we didn’t pay for it. They had small wiggly chairs - the chairs in the buffet were much better! Watch out for the shrimp dish with “Diablo” in the title, my tablemates had it and couldn’t eat it as it was way too spicy for them. No warning in the description or from the waiter. We ate at Grand Pacific - what a beautiful dining room at the back of the ship. We also ate at Jasmine Garden and O’Sheehan’s - again, I was underwhelmed, both were just okay. Service at all venues was outstanding! Oh, and butter is a big issue on Princess - I’m happy to report there was butter everywhere on NCL!!! Yay for Butter to go on the BREAD. I am a bread addict and the bread was as good as I remember.

We did spend some time in the casino. The casino is big and roomy compared to other ships we’ve sailed on, but dark and a little dated. The casino staff was great, especially the supervisors and pit bosses, they had great, funny personalities, but the dealers were pretty serious. The slot machines were quite old though - haven’t seen a lot of those machines in a long time. There were very few newer machines. We didn’t play slots, our friends did and they thought the odds were typical cruise ship odds, not as good as land based casinos. The casino was not very active which surprised us, maybe the age demographic plus the extended time on ship made it quieter. I didn’t think the smoke was too bad unless someone lit up at our table, then it was bad. I don’t know if it’s a lack of ventilation but . . . I’ve never seen a casino dealer or supervisor wave a hand or clipboard to get smoke away from them before. It has to be hard breathing in that smoke and they should have fans to get the smoke away from them. You can only use one hand to pick up cards - there was a lot of fussing about that, funny what gets people going. One thing we learned was that your accumulated points are good for 18 months and you can renew them on cruises you take in that time. You do have to start over for a drink card though.

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

Nice photo, looking forward to more.:)

do you remember the names and locations of any good bartenders?

Review continued:

Watch out for the shrimp dish with “Diablo” in the title, my tablemates had it and couldn’t eat it as it was way too spicy for them. No warning in the description or from the waiter. We ate at Grand Pacific - what a beautiful dining room at the back of the ship.

 

.

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.

Lovely review!

Yolo - I think you will enjoy the cruise.

Turtles06 - thanks for the photo help!

Oakman - I agree with you about your spicy comments. I should have tried the dish to see how spicy it was. The waiter brought our friend pesto pasta to replace the shrimp dish and he didn't care for that either. I tried it and thought it was good.

Review continued:

Entertainment

Comedian Rod Long - he was entertaining. The other comedian on board - name withheld to protect his identity - was not funny. If we had been sitting nearer the aisle we would have left. It was all we could think about as we sat trapped. I don’t know if he tried to make his act clean and failed or if he was typically bad. He tried a few “old people” jokes and those fell flat too.

Comedian Juggler Dan Bennett - his juggling was better than his comedian act in my opinion. He had the constant mumbling talk, cerebral kind of George Carlin humor which isn’t my favorite but the guys liked it. He did some amazing juggling tricks, but the set up to get there was long sometimes.

Duo Nika - an Ukranian husband and wife strength and acrobatics show. Outstanding! I’ve seen a lot of these acts and I thought their artistry and dancing added a lot to their act. They were so muscled and lean and I think they were the only two people on board who would have sunk like rocks in the salt water pool!

Mystika Magic Show - They were good, typical props, boxes, cages, etc. Again, not my favorite type of show, I like magic without a lot of props which I think are just used as tricks. Give me a white bird coming out of your hand and I’m amazed!

Laura Wright - I wish we had gone to her show, we heard her singing and she sounded great.

Elements Production Show - Extra Outstanding! Best show I’ve seen at sea (I haven’t been on a big ship though). I loved this show, they brought back the acrobats (who we later saw smoking outside which really surprised me), the magician and the dancers. I really enjoyed the dancers and a couple of them did some circus type numbers. The show ending was great and beautiful. At the end of the show, NCL did their tribute to all the staff members who make a cruise great - all departments were represented. I love that and being able to show our small appreciation for all they do to make our cruise memorable. There was a surprise there too which I LOVED. Highlight of my night. I won’t spoil it.

Port Reviews up next - and some pictures. It will be a day or two before I get my act together.

Mikey B - I've realized one thing: I was bad about noting down names of the great people - the washy washy guy and the bartenders at the pool - next review I'll get names, ranks and serial numbers! The pool bartenders were a lot of fun and personable, BUT - it was a quiet cruise. Would they have the time or energy on a cruise full of sun worshippers and party animals? I've seen cruises where they have three deep at the bar to get drinks out to. :tropical-drink::beer-mug::cool:

Thanks for the review.

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

We are also on this cruise 3/11/19

Loving your review and reliving the cruise! We were on the Jade with you and had such a great time. We've been on 6 NCL cruises and this might have been my favorite!

Like your review, we were on the same sailing. I will say Cagneys was wonderful! We went to Teppanyaki wasn't real impressed with it. I really like the set dining times and having the same wait staff for every meal. We enjoyed our cruise very much.

do you remember the names and locations of any good bartenders?

I was on this cruise as well. We had three memorable bar tenders who worked mostly at the pool bar during the day and then at the whiskey/martini/wine bars in the evening. Miguel Francis was fantastic. He always remembered us as my husbands name is Francis. He went out of his way to get us drinks evevn when he didn’t have ready access to ingedients. The other two were Michard and Ray. They were crazy, funny yet professional at the same time. Enjoy!

Review Continued Ports:

Panama Canal Day - I leaped out of bed at 5:00 and went out onto the balcony. It was still dark, but all I could see were so many other ships - tankers, cargo ships, oil and gas ships, but no other cruise ships of our size. I was fascinated by the ship “traffic”. I’ve never seen so many other ships on a cruise. Of course there should be ship traffic dum dum (me) - it’s the Panama Canal! We went underneath the new huge bridge they are building and then it wasn’t long until we were at the first lock of three. I thought the distance would be greater to the locks. It took two hours to go through all three locks, going up wasn’t as impressive as going down, but we were watching from the balcony and side of the ship - if I did it over, I’d be at the front or back of the ship - later we at the Great Outdoors and that was a great view. It was interesting seeing how the pilot boat and other boats approached the Jade to “take it over”. I counted 26 sailors getting out of one boat onto ours! There was a ship narrator but we couldn’t hear him on the balcony, again, I think I’d be somewhere public so I could hear him. We did hear him say that it cost NCL $444,000.00 to go through the locks, into Gatun Lake and back out again! A typical fee is $100,000.00. The highest toll was 1.2 million dollars for a ship going through the new locks. We went through the old locks and I was happy about that. It was hot and humid this day. Gatun Lake is huge, a parking lot for ships waiting to get into the locks. We returned late back through the locks, this was so impressive going down!! We were eating lunch at 1:30 at Grand Pacific and had a seat right at the rear of the ship! This was amazing! Such a view and you could see the locks right up close! My only regret is that we did not do a full transit - I would have loved to see the Culebra Cut - the dug out part of the Canal. I had a great day here.