Jade, interrupted...

[Itchy&Scratchy]

We were on Jade's 2018 Thanksgiving cruise which was rudely interrupted by a mechanical failure....

However, I'd like to review what we liked and didn't like about our very short stay on Jade, since it was our very first time on NCL.

Early flight out of ATL to MIA on day 1, got an Uber to the port, arrived right around noon. The registration line was out the door... however, we were inside the ship no more than 10 minutes later. Very quick and efficient.

We went to the buffet for lunch, and it was extremely crowded. The cabins wouldn't be ready until 2 pm, so people stayed put at the buffet with all their carry on luggage.
We proceeded to La Cucina, since I've read on CC about it accommodating spillovers. We found a nice table for the 4 of us and then saw our friends (4) who joined us in La Cucina. Their parents found a small table for themselves at the buffet area.

We had some unremarkable food for lunch. Hubby liked a passion fruit flavored dessert.
 
When the cabins became available around 2, an announcement was made and we headed to our rooms. We had an OV 5102 aft, and mom had an inside 8003 all the way forward.

Both cabins were fine, but had a different bathroom set up. We had a sliding door between the toilet and the rest of the bathroom. While the bathroom itself and the showere were spacious enough to move around, the toilet part was very short. I am 5'6 and by no means leggy, and I had a hard time finding room for my knees. My poor hubby is 6'1 and he had to do some serious origami to fit.

 

Both rooms were nice. I liked our location a whole lot better than my mom's, but we both had Sailaway rates, so we couldn't choose.

Our cabin had 3 USB outlets and a couple of regular electrical outlets. Our cabin was spacious enough for 3 of us.

 

On day 2 at sea we just hung around, played giant chess on deck 13, I think, used the hot tubs, sat by the pool, the boys ate a ton of soft serve ice cream.

 

We ate both breakfast and lunch at the buffet.

 

I particularly liked egg salad, and got a little big of a lot of items. The menu was nowhere near Princess level, but we never went hungry. Nutella was available at breakfast in single serve packets. That was a very nice plus. DS loved it!
I liked salmon mousse on a bagel, since real smoked salmon was nowhere to be found. There was always a line to get an omelette, so I only managed to get one on day 4. It was good. Ready made omelettes were flavorless.

Another pleasant surprise was free brewed coffee by cup in a machine. Tea selection was average to below average, so I didn't drink as much tea as I usually do. Unlike on Princess, waiters don't go around offering drinks and drink refills.

 

A smaller buffet and more sitting space at Great outdoors was very nice to have.
I think Princess buffets are organized better because you are not walking a mile with your food just to find a place to sit, and then you need to walk a mile back to get a drink. And, of course, first you get your kid's food, find a place to sit, get him a drink, put Nutella on his pancake, and only then you can go and get food and drink for yourself. :)

 

To be continued.

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Continued....

 

We didn't get to eat at either O'Sheehan's or Jasmine. Decks 6 through 8 were permeated with cigarette smoke, from aft all the way forward so we spent as little time as possible on those decks.

 

Before I forget, I must comment on the size of drinking cups and plastic glasses at the buffet. They were abysmally small. Child sized. A joke. Seriously. We had to go back at least one to get 2 more plastic glasses just to have enough fluids with every meal.

 

CREPES at dinner buffet were the culinary highlight of this cruise. We loved them. After MDR dinner all 4 of us would go to the buffet to get 1-4 crepes each. Mom liked them plain, I liked to get apricot or berry filling on a side (the person making crepes was always piling on the filling, and it was way too much, even for me), hubby and son loved Nutella filled crepes. Our kiddo also loved making a soft serve ice cream cone and got sprinkles at the crepe station for it.

 

One small note: to us personally crepes are a breakfast food, so we were a bit surprised that they were served only at dinner.

 

Cold cuts selection was rather subpar at the buffet. The salami/ham offerings were not good, but I liked Edam cheese.

 

[BirdTravels]

Wow! After all you have been through, thank you for taking the time to share your cruise (and food) with everyone here on CC!

[valleyvillage]

6 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

Wow! After all you have been through, thank you for taking the time to share your cruise (and food) with everyone here on CC!

BT you took the words right outta my mouth! Such a generous nature.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

thank you for your kind words!!!!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed threads posted by ludicrous_speed and barric about foods and menus they enjoyed.

 

ludicrous_speed

barric's menus

 

So, I decided to keep track of foods we ate and post our opinions of them.

Here they are:

 

Day 1

 

Crispy crab and cream cheese wontons were ok. Not better than a regular Chinese food restaurant. They were basically crab rangoons.

Shrimp and crab cake - delicious and delicate. We all enjoyed it. Very small, though, so if you like them - get a couple.

Smoked mozarella ravioli - good. Our kid liked them very much, but didn't like the sauce. For the following nights we ordered them plain, and the staff was very accommodating.

Seafood gumbo - my husband ordered it and liked it. I was afraid it'd be too spicy, so I didn't. It wasn't spicy at all - hubby let me try his soup. I didn't care for the flavor, but my husband liked it.

Cream of Cauliflower soup - we all enjoyed it. Very nice.

Classic caesar salad - mom said the salad leaves were limp and old. She didn't like it.

Breaded flounder file - our friends (all three of them) ordered it and sort of liked it ok. Our friends are very loyal to Princess and are greatly enamored by Princess food, so anything less than Princess quality is definitely viewed by them in a very negative light. They were NOT impressed by NCL food.

Beef sirloin medallions - my husband liked this dish.

Grilled atlantic salmon - my mom ordered this and it was ok. She liked it.

Shrimp scampi - I ordered it and liked it, but it was less of a traditional butter flavor, and more on a cheesy creamy side.

 

I took pictures of some dishes, but they all came out really dark and bad. The lights in Grand Pacific MDR were very dim, and my phone couldn't handle it.

Edited November 22, 2018 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

continuing:

 

Day 1 Desserts in MDR

We all ordered Warm Chocolate Lava cake. It was worth every bite. The trick to experiencing its true taste was to take a bite of all three ingredients at the same time: the chocolate cake, gelato and strawberry compote. Both cake and gelato were semi-sweet, so if sampled separately, they weren't very palatable. But together? Pretty heavenly. 

 

Day 2 dinner in MDR

Salmon Tartare was awesome. I had two, because I knew I'd love them and they'd be small. I was right. Mom also enjoyed her Salmon Tartare. Hubby took a bite of mine and loved it.

I also had Clam Chowder, which was just ok (I've had better at Soup Plantation/Sweet Tomato restaurants).

Kiddo loved the Thai Spring Rolls appetizer and the ravioli appetizer without the sauce.

Both mom and hubby ordered Scotch Barley soup, but mom couldn't eat it because it was too salty. Hubby agreed that it was very salty, but he enjoyed his soup. He has no problem with salt, while mom has high blood pressure problems.

Mom also had Mediterranean Veggies and they were ok.

I ordered Mushroom and Shrimp Pasta from the Every day classics menu, which was good.

Both mom and hubby ordered Hake and mashed potatoes dish, and the fish was average. We found that most meat/fish at MDR and buffet were pretty dry. Hake was dry-ish. Mashed potatoes were horrible - cold and flavorless. Our cafeteria at work makes better mashed potatoes.

Hubby also had Shrimp Pasta ala Vodka, which he enjoyed. I had one of his shrimp and it was good.

 

For dessert mom and I had Cherry Jubilee, which we enjoyed.

Hubby got Apple strudel (very good) and Carrot Cake (no sugar added) which was just average.

I also had Apple Strudel and liked it a lot. It was just right - not too sweet, good texture and temperature, and it was enjoyable.

 

The photo of the menu was provided by barric, since I forgot to take it.

Edited November 22, 2018 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Before I continue talking about food, I wanted to chime in about our general experience on the ship.

 

We only managed to have dinners at the Grand Pacific in the first 3 days. We had reservations at Alizar on other days, but never got to step foot in it (except for the "mustard grill", lol). It might be for the best, because the area in front of Alizar always smelled smoky, and I was afraid that inside Alizar  would smell the same. Our cabin was right under Alizar and we took the stairs a lot, so we ended up in front of that MDR quite a bit.

Grand Pacific didn't smell like smoke, and neither did the Theater.

 

Service in Grand Pacific was excruciatingly slow. The 3rd day was better - we had a waitress named Rami, and she didn't even have an assistant waiter, yet she managed to be quicker than our two previous waiters.

 

Our cabin attendant wasn't the best.... On our first night we discovered that we only had 2 towels for the 3 of us and we never got any lotion. Of course, our attendant was nowhere to be found. We called 00 several times, but nobody ever answered. I walked out and ran into somebody delivering room service and asked who else I could call about the towels. He gave me a number for General Housekeeping. 10 minutes later we had our towels. The next day our attendant left us 1 bottle of lotion.

 

Our body wash ran out on Sunday morning - she never refilled it. Called 00 again... They told us our cabin attendant would fill it during turn down service. It didn't happen. Had to call 00 again.... Some guy came over and refilled it about 10 minutes later.

She moved our stuff all the time, like taking our toothbrushes off the vanity and putting them into my cosmetics bag while she cleaned. Moved out clothing and pjs (they were on the table, so not in the way of her making the beds or cleaning the bathroom). We'd come back to the cabin to see our clothing, shoes, and personal items rearranged and moved elsewhere.

 

My mom's cabin attendant has been the exact opposite. Couldn't have found a better person to take care of her. The beds were moved as soon as we left a note for the attendant, and her fridge was unlocked right away. He went out of his way to make my mom feel taken care of. We left him a cash tip when we were running out of the ship.

 

Speaking of service, we were pleasantly surprised by staff walking around the pool deck, offering frozen juice packets and fruit kebabs on a stick. It was great! However, the waiters don't offer to get your drinks or refill them at the buffet like they do on Princess.

 

There were lifeguards on duty and plenty of child size life saving jackets on the pool deck. Something I don't ever remember seeing on Princess or RCI. My mom loved dancing on the deck (group dances) and the konga line. :) She also attended a couple of lessons or seminars in the morning. 

 

An unpleasant surprise was that the library had very limited hours when books could be checked out. On Princess the books are not locked, and anyone can walk in at any time and get a book. On Jade I was so surprised by the size of the library at a first glance, because there were plenty of books, but then I realized that they were all locked... 😞 I brought books with me, but I still love going to the ship's library and checking books out. Oh, and by the way, the library smelled like cigarette smoke as well. Pretty badly, I must say.

 

We found staff to be pleasant and helpful in general.

 

We all loved the Elements show. It was beautiful. However, a woman sitting in front of us "had bad calamari" and barfed all over the floor.

 

Oh, and my kid finally agreed to go to the kid's club! That only lasted 3 hours, but he had fun - they played active games on the basketball court. However, it was in the middle of the day, and the parents weren't quite informed that the kids would be outside in the sun for 2+ hours. I ran to our cabin to grab an SFP spray and a sun hat for DS. Our child burns extremely fast, being on a very fair side. Other kids were also complaining about being hot and getting headaches from being in the sun.

That was on the 2nd day of the cruise, and he refused to go back to the kid's club after that. But he did have fun! It's a start.

 

See, it's not all negative. We had some very positive experiences. :)

 

Oh, I forgot to say about the muster drill. My mom didn't go because she didn't realize she was supposed to, but they never checked the cabins or forced people to go at all.

Edited November 24, 2018 by Itchy&Scratchy

[Itchy&Scratchy]

Our OV cabin 5102 was pretty quiet at night, but in the evening it did have some kind of mechanical noise for a short time. We didn't hear any noise in the morning at all - I was afraid that being right under Alizar, we would hear noise from the staff getting ready for meals. Mom reported that her 8003 cabin was quiet. When I went to visit her, the rocking of the ship was pretty bad, though, but she didn't even need dramamine.

 

Day 3 dining

Mom and I ordered a Roasted Beet salad, Waldorf salad and White Cheddar potato soup. All three were very good, but we particularly liked the soup. Hubby ordered Minestrone soup and potato soup, and liked both.

Asian Spareribs were ok, but we only ordered them because we thought DS would like the spring vegetable roll. That vegetable roll was NOT something a regular 7 yo would have liked. It was a soft roll of unknown origins and didn't even look appetizing. Husband had one half and disliked the texture and taste, and I had the other half and liked it just fine.

 

For main course, husband and I ordered whole-roasted Sirloin with a baked potato. Both my husband's and my baked potatoes were raw and crunchy inside, which we reported to the waitress. The sirloin (we asked for medium) was perfectly medium, delicate and juicy. It was a sliced sirloin, not in a filet form. I asked for no gravy.

 

Mom and  my husband ordered Almond-crusted Trout. The trout was inedible - way too salty (even for my husband) and very dry. Mashed potatoes were barely edible.

 

I also ordered Bang Band Chicken and Shrimp - rice and shrimp were good, nice flavor, soft. Chicken was very dry.

 

We ordered Rigatoni Primavera with Pesto for our son, and all of us found it inedible. The flavor was bad, the pasta was too  hard.

 

For dessert we once again were delighted to order Warm Chocolate Lava cake. It was just as great as the first day. We also ordered Tiramisu, which was also great. It was flavorful and creamy. Some may say - too creamy, but we found it to be great.

 

That pretty much concludes my review. Did I mention that my husband and son both consumed untold amounts of soft serve ice cream on board? They loved it. The only complaint is that the ice cream was only served starting at 11:30 am, but both boys would have loved to start eating it at breakfast. :)

 

I wish we had a chance to complete this cruise, and get a lot more positive experiences. I am sure the islands would have been the greatest highlight of our journey, but alas - it was not to be. Maybe, next time.

[david_sobe]

Thanks for sharing your experience.  I cant imagine all you have been through.  I hope to be on the Jade in February. I am flirting with a sail away rate too.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

17 hours ago, david_sobe said:

Thanks for sharing your experience.  I cant imagine all you have been through.  I hope to be on the Jade in February. I am flirting with a sail away rate too.

you are most welcome!

We were very lucky to be on the first chartered flight out, but our friends with 2 little kids and 2 elderly parents - not so much. They got off Jade at 9 am on Tuesday and spent all day waiting for a plane. They finally got back home on Wed afternoon. Their journey home was a lot more arduous.

[Tatiana84]

I had no complaints on my trip. I did get seasick on seaday 1 and did not get to finish my DELICIOUS steak at Cagneys, but they were nice enough to let my husband take the dessert to my cabin. All in all, I really had no complaints. Buffet was hit or miss, the nightly crepes were AMAZING, Dinner at main dining room was s-l-o-w, my room attendance was on point and the ship did not feel crowded(except for the buffet like OP mentioned)... It's such a shame that it was cut short because from my experiences with cruising, they get better as the days pass by. Even my kids were bummed out that their trip was cut short, but we were lucky enough to fly with one of the kids they befriended at the kids club. The molten lava cake is a MUST.... I believe that was the highlight at dinner. Thank you OP for posting this