LIVE Norwegian Jade May 1,2024

[umaine89]

I have never cruised on Norwegian before, so I am looking forward to trying something new and comparing to RCL and Carnival. I booked this cruise 6 days before it departed as kind of an “emergency” stress relief. Feel free to follow along. My last live review was in 2021 on a half empty boat, if you’re interested in reading about the golden age of cruising, haha. I have been on two RCL cruises and an Avalon cruise down the Danube in the last couple of years but I want to document my impressions of NCL so I am picking up the virtual pen again.  

Most important part of the cruise to me is how to Pina Coladas compare. I understand that there is no Kracken on NCL but Gosling will do. 

 

 

[Hmmcminn]

Thanks.  I’ll be taking this cruise in August, so I’ll be following along!

 

if you get the chance can you post the Freestyle Daily schedules?

I hope you have a great time!

 

 

Thanks

[njkate]

I’m sailing on her mid June so look forward to your reviews 

[All-ready2cruise]

I'm sailing on the Jade in less than 3 weeks, yikes, lol.  I'm bringing a friend along who's never cruised before so expect it to be lots of fun. 

Have a wonderful time on your cruise. I'll be tagging along to see how much you enjoy your cruise. 

 All the best. 

Connie

 

[dmwnc1959]

Enjoy your cruise! I watched her leave yesterday on the PTZtv Port Canaveral webcam.
 

[umaine89]

@dmwnc1959 I got scared I missed my cruise! The boat is leaving without me 😂. I’ll flying down Tuesday night, renting a car and staying in Orlando and will be on it on Wednesday. 
 

Big question, lots of time when I return and I’ll still have the rental car. Tour Cape Canaveral or go to water park for the day?

[schmoopie17]

We spent 14 days on the Jade a little over a month ago. Great ship...awesome service and food.

 

Do yourself a favor and stop by the Martini bar and ask for Shane. Best bartender we've ever had on NCL. We would sit at the bar and within two minutes of sitting down, he'd have our drinks in front of us without even having to order. Say "Hi" from "Bulliet on the Rocks" (me) and "Cosmo with a lime" (Mrs. Schmoopie). 

[dmwnc1959]

32 minutes ago, umaine89 said:

@dmwnc1959 I got scared I missed my cruise! The boat is leaving without me 😂. I’ll flying down Tuesday night, renting a car and staying in Orlando and will be on it on Wednesday. 
 

Big question, lots of time when I return and I’ll still have the rental car. Tour Cape Canaveral or go to water park for the day?

I've never not arrived a day or two ahead of time! There's a huge weight off of your shoulders when you're already there that morning when you wake up and not 1000 miles away standing in an airport check-in line. 

 

Depending on your interests, Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center could be lots of fun. With any extra time left over, there's a Titanic museum about 30 minutes from the airport.

[eyecantwait]

Looking forward to following along as we'll be on the Jade in July.

Thanks!

[dexddd]

KSC is great if you have time.

 

Rental cars if busy day can be long waits.  At least before restart.

[dmwnc1959]

Just now, dexddd said:

KSC is great if you have time.

 

Rental cars if busy day can be long waits.  At least before restart.

Totally agree. As for post-cruise, remember to always allow plenty of time to get your rental car dropped off, transfer to the departures terminal, and for check-in and TSA clearance. Once you've back-tracked that clock 😉 you'll know how much 'free time' you'll have. 

[umaine89]

Flight out is at 515p. I figure hit the airport at 3p. I can go to the Admirals (AA) club so hanging out at the airport isn’t the worst thing. Kennedy Space Port/Center opens at 9a so I’m thinking that might be the ticket. 
 

I booked the flight through Expedia and somehow a rental car for a week is ~$35 + taxes/fees on top of what the plane ticket was through AA direct. That said, I usually rent Hertz and walk right to the car and drive out and same when returning. This is Fox car rental so the process may be more time intensive. 

[zqvol]

1 hour ago, umaine89 said:

Flight out is at 515p. I figure hit the airport at 3p. I can go to the Admirals (AA) club so hanging out at the airport isn’t the worst thing. Kennedy Space Port/Center opens at 9a so I’m thinking that might be the ticket. 
 

I booked the flight through Expedia and somehow a rental car for a week is ~$35 + taxes/fees on top of what the plane ticket was through AA direct. That said, I usually rent Hertz and walk right to the car and drive out and same when returning. This is Fox car rental so the process may be more time intensive. 

I would add an extra hour for airport arrival. MCO is always crazy and security takes forever. 

[goldmom]

Another option is the Astronaut's Hall of Fame museum which is outside of Kennedy Space Center, but relatively close.  We were there many years ago and found it fascinating.  You can sit in an actual space capsule.  Boy are they small!  You can probably spend an hour or two there.

Enjoy!

[umaine89]

I stopped by Walgreen's to get some sunscreen and I saw this right inside the door. The last time I was on a big boat, I was still dealing with COVID tests like these. 
 

 

I am glad that I don’t have to deal with that now. I can’t believe that they are $24 each though. 

[Faulkh]

Thanks for sharing following along never sailed on the Jade

[Atlgator]

On 4/28/2024 at 11:34 AM, schmoopie17 said:

We spent 14 days on the Jade a little over a month ago. Great ship...awesome service and food.

 

Do yourself a favor and stop by the Martini bar and ask for Shane. Best bartender we've ever had on NCL. We would sit at the bar and within two minutes of sitting down, he'd have our drinks in front of us without even having to order. Say "Hi" from "Bulliet on the Rocks" (me) and "Cosmo with a lime" (Mrs. Schmoopie). 

We will be on the Jade in several weeks. Are there any other bartenders to look for at the various bars while on board? We always find a couple bar tenders that are awesome and we really enjoy and tip very heavily, and they do remember you always.

[schmoopie17]

There was another guy at the Whiskey bar (connected to the Martini bar) who was also very good. He made a Grass Clippings for us to sample (I loved it...will be on the lookout for it on our next cruise). Never got his name, but he was always smiling.

 

Mrs. Schmoopie gravitated to Shane (as did many other women) so we always had our seat waiting for us at 4:15 in the Martini bar. 

[umaine89]

Cruise starts tomorrow which means starting the journey to Orlando. First stop PHL and the Admirals Club. 
 

 

The salad bar is nice and the AA credit card was giving free guacamole from 3-5p. 

 

That’s Orlando off the right side of the plane. 
 

 

Plane landed 15 minutes early. And no good deed goes unpunished (especially when dealing with American Airlines), so our gate was not ready and we ended up sitting on the runway for over 30 minutes which made us late arriving…

 

 

That's the terminal way over there. 
 

When we got in, I got a rental car from Fox which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone and will make my way to the port tomorrow. Tonight I’m at a Doubletree. 
 

 

 

 

[dmwnc1959]

Sneaking in at 5am this morning...😁

 

[dmwnc1959]

And, in case you were wondering, you're at Terminal 10...😁

 

 

 

Edited May 1 by dmwnc1959

[cruiseny4life]

11 hours ago, umaine89 said:

When we got in, I got a rental car from Fox which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone and will make my way to the port tomorrow.

I've never rented from Fox. I've considered it several times. Then I read the small print and the directions to get to wherever the rental location is. I know how they save money! But, I'm not willing to take the savings they pass on to me for the rigmarole. 

 

I hope embarkation goes smoothly for you today!!

[schmoopie17]

1 hour ago, cruiseny4life said:

I know how they save money! But, I'm not willing to take the savings they pass on to me for the rigmarole. 

 

Rigamarole. One of my dad's favorite words...and I've never heard anyone else ever use that word in the 36 years since his passing. In the immortal words of Bob Hope, thanks for the memories.

[goldmom]

May I ask a silly question?  Why did you rent a car if you're only in the port city overnight?  Did you just rent it for one day or are you using it to drive to the port and park it there?

 

It seems it would be easier to just arrange a shuttle or taxi to the hotel and port.

 

Just curious.

[umaine89]

Yeah I rented a car and am parking it at the port for 5 days. It’s pretty close to price of private shuttle. And I came in a day early wanted to go to dinner last night and hit Walgreens for sunscreen and Dunkin on the way to the port today. Then my flight is out late on Monday so I am going somewhere after I get off. 
 

Feels like I am getting close. 

 

That said, don’t rent from Fox. The offsite location and upsell isn’t worth whatever I might have saved.

 

View from parking garage. 

 

 

Toyota Corolla is fine for its purpose though. 
 

Hit the garage at 1210. Made it through security quickly but wasn’t excited by the line to check in. 
 

 

There was a split in line and one side was regular and one side was Latitude premium or something. Talked to the people behind me and we decided they weren’t going to kick us out if we went left instead of right. So that’s what I did. 
 

1247 walking on. 

 

37 minutes from parking to on the boat is good time.