Our NCL Jade Feb 4 experience (1st time on NCL)

[bwascoe]

NCL Jade Feb 4 from Barcelona to Morocco, Grand Canaria, Madiera, & Malaga

 

From the perspective of: American couple, 30's, 4 cruises on Royal Caribbean. This was our first NCL cruise.

 

Hotel pre- cruise:

H10 Raco del Pi -This hotel is a short walk to Las Ramblas, good price, friendly people at the desk, and also a short walk to my favorite place for tapas/ pinxtos- Bilbao Berria. During a previous visit to Barcelona, we stayed at Le Meridian on Las Ramblas. Great hotel too, but lots of street noise and more expensive.

 

Embarkation:

The Barcelona port is the best port we've ever left from! Its very organized and we've never experienced lines or any wait of any kind (well, except for a short wait for a taxi on disembarkation day). We arrived between 12- 1pm. Handed over our luggage, went through security, went to the check-in counter, and then onto the ship!

After a little wandering around, we saw we could check our carry ons at the Jasmine Garden restaurant until our rooms were ready (which was at 3pm). That was handy while we had lunch in the Grand Pacific dining room. There was no information about lunch being available in the dining room and several staff members offered to direct us to the buffet, but from reading posts here on Cruise Critic, I knew that there would be lunch in the Grand Pacific!

 

Cabin:

At check- in we were told our room was upgraded. We had booked a balcony cabin and were upgraded to a "mini- suite". Its a lovely cabin... but I don't know about calling it a "mini- suite". I think the difference between the mini- suite and a regular balcony room is a little more space and a bathtub in the bathroom instead of a shower stall. I enjoyed having a bathtub, but its a high step into it for anyone who may be not as agile (I know my mother would have a hard time getting in & out of it).

Our room was on the 11th deck which is full of mini- suites and penthouses. I was worried about noise from the pool deck above, but the cabin was about 5 cabins from the bridge and we had either the gym or spa above us and never heard any overhead noise.

One simple thing I really enjoyed, that we didn't have on previous Voyager class RCI cruises- glass under the balcony railing! I could sun/ lounge on the balcony and see down to the water. Really enjoyable. It also helped since it was usually quite windy on the pool deck. It was nice to go relax on our balcony instead- a lot less windier and warmer there.

The only problem I had with our cabin was the pillows. I found them very flat/ dense/ etc.... not soft or fluffy at all. After the 3rd night of not sleeping well and having a sore neck, I asked reception if there were different pillows anywhere on board. Unfortunately not... so I guess now I know I need to bring my own pillow on NCL.

 

Food:

Grand Pacific dining room- we had lunch there twice. Both pretty good.

Alizar dining room - had dinner here a few times. I liked the lower ceiling and low lighting. Cozier feel than the usual big dining rooms.

There wasn't always something on the main dining room dinner menus that looked interesting to us, so those are the nights we went to specialty restaurants.

 

Cagney's steakhouse- our favorite dinner (I also loved Le Bistro equally though). We had fabulous service and sooo much fabulous food. Make sure you go totally hungry and tell the crab cakes I miss them ; )

 

Le Bistro- We payed an extra charge for the Fruits de Mer here and it was so worth it. Delicious. I also enjoyed that our waitress kept bringing us deserts! I guess she could tell that desert is just as important to me as the meal!

 

Teppanyaki- Great dinner here too. The chefs are entertaining, the food delicious, we also got complimentary martinis. It was also nice to change things up and sit with fellow cruisers.

 

Sushi bar- Great service- the sushi chefs were ready to make whatever we wanted next. Some of the sushi was not as great as I've had on land, but definitely the best quality "all you can eat" sushi I've ever had.

 

Paniolo's- Entitled a tapas restaurant, but its regular mexican. Regardless, we thought it was good... but we haven't had good mexican food in a while. If you live in an area where you have a good mexican restaurant, you could skip it.

 

Garden Cafe buffet- we had all our breakfasts, most lunches, and 1 dinner here. Best buffet breakfast choices I've ever seen on a cruise. Lunch had a great variety too. I was pleasantly surprised by the dinner we had there- it was really good. My husband was so happy there was lamb at the carving station.

For the few days of the cruise (until we left Morocco), the plates and utensils were handed out, food was dished out for you, etc... nothing was self serve in order to prevent noro virus, etc. I know many people grumbled about this, but I have no problem with any measures that keep me healthy and enjoying my vacation. But yes, it was soo much quicker once we could help ourselves to the buffet.

 

Entertainment:

Our favorite show was Elements (the second to last night), our second favorite the crew show (the last night). I highly recommend both of them! We didn't go to the show 3 nights of the cruise, but the other shows we did see we're pretty good. In retrospect, I'd still go to them.

The White Hot Party was great (regardless of what color you're wearing).

One of our cruise favorites is the newlywed/ not so newlywed game... but this time it wasn't that entertaining. Could have just been the contestants.

 

Port excursions:

Casablanca- We have learned that we like to plan our own excursions rather than book through the ship. For the Casablanca stop, we had a great guide, Mohamed Rhanimi. I found him through our explorer dot com. Before our visit, we planned an itinerary that included the Hassan II Mosque, stop at a patisserie in Casablanca, and the highlights of Rabat. We had a great day and Mohamed is very knowledgeable and personable. Highly recommended.

 

Agadir- For Agadir, we booked a day with Abdou of Souss Tours (found through Cruise Critic members) to the city of Taroudant. Agadir seems to be primarily a beach resort city. We went to Taroudant to experience more authentic Moroccan culture. The walled in old city of Taroudant was enjoyable to wander around with our small group of 4 and Abdou. I can't imagine visiting any Moroccan market with a bus load of people! There aren't as many grand sights as our previous day in Morocco, but it was nice to be able to shop and take in all the little things of Morocco that you may miss in the cities.

Do be prepared in Morocco to say "No, thank you" in arabic to all those who will come up to you offering to sell you something or help you for a fee. Also, agree on a price before taking a camel ride otherwise they won't let you off until you give them the amount they want (didn't get to warn our friends of this before their ride!).

 

Las Palmas- We booked the Trekking Bandama Crater excursion through NCL (couldn't find anything similar privately). This volcanic crater is something to see and we had a great guide and hike. After the excursion we had just enough time to walk over to the beach from the port.

 

Funchal- I had planned a tandem paraglide with Ruben from http://www.madeira-adventures.com. Unfortunately, this was the one day of our trip it rained. But Ruben was easy to get ahold of and very understanding. I wish it would have worked out. The cliffs and scenery on Madiera look fantastic.

 

Malaga- We booked a bicycle tour with Kay of http://www.malagabiketours.eu. Kay and Rashid were great guides through Malaga. It was about a 4 hour tour, but it was an easy ride with lots of stops (including a drink on the beach). I didn't think Malaga was going to be that interesting, but there are lots of great finds and Kay brought them all to life for us. They even took pictures along the way and posted them on Facebook for us! Note that when we docked in Malaga, you could either take a cab, a bus, or walk out of the port area. I saw that Malaga Bike Tours was right outside the port, so we walked. But it took us about 40 minutes just to get out of the port- we almost missed the tour! Next time, I would just hop in a taxi.

 

Overall...

I would definitely sail NCL again (as well as RCI). I missed having a more enclosed jacuzzi like on RCI. I really didn't like that you have to pay extra to use the steam, sauna, and jacuzzi at the spa, even if you have an appointment. But the extra costs on cruises are annoying me more and more. I guess I just have to plan accordingly.

 

If you're about to go on a cruise- enjoy! And if you've made observations comparing RCI and NCL, please share.

[Planmaam]

Good review, bwascoe, so glad you enjoyed your cruise. It's also nice to see a comparison between cruise lines that didn't slam one or the other; it's not a sin to like more than one cruise line! ;)

[christiecruise]

Thanks for your great review. I really appreciate the links to the private tour companies that you used, we are planning to do a few of the same ports.

Glad you had such a good trip!

[DMH15]

Thanks for a very nice and detailed review.

 

I do have to differ with you on one point. I do not mind the extra charges. I say let people pay for the extras they want instead of everybody. If you wanted all those extras included, then I imagine your cruise fare would have been higher. BTW, I am one who opts for a lot of extras. I don't expect for everyone to pay for my share, just because I tend to splurge on vacation. I like the choice being there,so the cruisers A to Z can decide for themselves.

[Aries 65]

Thanks for a great review. You're really making me anticipate my departure for the 2/25 sailing.