First NCL cruise - Jade January 25-Feb 6

[5Stringer]

We just returned from the 12 Day NCL Caribbean January25-Feb 6th cruise. After a dozen cruises on Celebrity, we found this itinerary and decided to give NCL a try. We have always chosen the longer itineraries and this one seemed perfect for us, and it gave me the chance to leave the suit at home and try Freestyle dining.

 

Embarkation: Well, this wasn’t the best start of the cruise as we showed up at Tampa pier around 11:30, which seemed to be peak time. It was rather chaotic and the lineup to pass our bags to the porters disintegrated into a mass mob of people clamoring to dump their luggage. The fact that there apparently were not enough porters for the volume did not help. Anyways, not NCL’s fault and in total it took us about one hour from curbside to board the ship.

 

Like most recent cruises from Tampa, we were also informed that our departure would be delayed until 10:00 PM for what they called “diving operations”. I also noticed that the crane on the loading dock was lifting goods (dry-dock related??) onto the higher decks until late in the night. It would have been nice to experience sailaway during daylight, but again it just wasn’t meant to be. I was dinged on taxes for any drinks we ordered while spending our extended time in Tampa, which I’ve never experienced before.

 

Cabin – we had a balcony room mid-ship on the 9th floor. By comparison, our past similar cabins on X were a bit larger, and I feel X had a bit more storage places available. Our cabin steward was excellent, took the time to learn our names, and was always very friendly and efficient at his job.

 

Pool- Past experience with X told us to hit the pool area early on our first sea day to claim our chairs, so we were pleasantly surprised to find a fair selection still available at 9:00 am. Of course, there were still chair hogs who claim a chair (or six!) and we didn’t see them return for hours. As with X, nothing was done to deter this from happening. Sea days later in the cruise saw the pool level area fill up faster. There seemed to be a limited availability of chairs on the level overlooking the pool at most times. We really enjoyed listening to the daily vibes of the reggae band that played.

 

On the second last day of the cruise we were surprised to see the larger pool drained and netted over. I’m not sure why this happened, but it caused some tension on the deck due to the lack of communication as to why this was happening and also the fact that there were now kids in the main pool which was supposed to be adults only.

 

Food – OK, first, I found the food options on Celebrity to be a bit better, but secondly, we didn’t starve. I was happy with the breakfast selections from the Garden Café (two trays of bacon selections- soft and crispy!!) It was challenging at times to find a table even for two of us. The staff were excellent and diligent clearing off plates and tables, though. Most dinner meals we ate in the Alazhar Dining Room were OK. This was our first experience with Freestyle Dining after past cruises with set times/tables and we both really enjoyed this. The fact that I didn’t have to put on a suit to eat a meal was fine by me. We ate at around 7:00 each night and never had to wait for a table for two. My only beef (no pun intended) with our nightly meals in the Alazhar was that depending on what section we sat in, service from start to finish ranged from 45 to 90 minutes. A couple of times we skipped out on dessert in order to make the 8:30 entertainment in the Spinnaker. the self-serve soft ice cream was great, and late night snacks at the Great Outdoors (pizza, nachos, cookies) were good.

 

No issues with bar service. We had the UBP and visited a fair number of locations during our cruise and never had too lengthy of a wait and found the service to be friendly.

 

Casino- I really enjoyed the fact the X casinos are non-smoking, and personally the Jade casino was too smoky for me to visit. On the other hand, I probably saved a few bucks. Too bad NCL couldn’t have offered 1 or 2 non-smoking nights in the casino.

 

Entertainment – We took in some of the theatre shows. “Elements” was probably one of the best I’ve seen- fascinating from beginning to end. The acrobatic couple were also excellent. “Showdown” and the juggler were also good. Personally, I found the illusionist and comedian more “meh”.

 

On most nights we caught the 8:30 entertainment in the Spinnaker Lounge, which was standard cruise fare- Newlywed/Not so Newlywed game, Jeopardy, etc, nevertheless a good way to pass time before the 9:30 theatre show. The White Hot party in the Spinnaker was a blast, though rather crowded. Barry in the piano bar was also a fun venture.

 

Disembarking: - This went painfully slow. The self-disembarking group took a long time to complete, so that delayed the process down the line. We were only ½ hour late getting our color called, but it was another mass exodus when they called our color plus another at the same time, and then another color shortly thereafter.

 

If there were one main reason I’d cruise NCL again I’d say it would be for the people. I found my fellow passengers that much more relaxed, talkative and friendly than previous cruises. Our table for two in the dining room quite often resulted in great conversations with other couples seated on either side of us, and it was easy to strike up a conversation whether in the elevator, by the pool or most anywhere on the ship.

[Clarea]

Interesting and informative report, thanks!

[BrianSimpsonKY]

I am on the JADE in late April...I appreciated this review!!!

 

 

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[easyboy]

Thank you for your honest assessment. The people really makes the difference in a cruise.