Food Pics from Jade 14-night Med Crusie

[dos equis]

Hi guys! I took this cruise in May... and I just got around to upload all of my pictures. I've never posted pictures before, so we'll see how this turns out. I thought I'd post all the pictures of food that I took, because really, I took them all for you people! I have a lot of pictures... but I'll try to only post the ones that seem unusual or something that I havn't seen posted before on here.

 

I also have LOTS of pictures of the ship in general... so if anyone would like to see them, just let me know! We had an amazing time, it was by far the best cruise I have ever taken and I can't imagine anything being able to compare. The crew was phenomenal, and every day was just awesome.

 

Ok here goes. I can only upload 5 pictures per post.. so I'll be doing these over a few replies on here.

 

If this one worked, the order should be:

 

1: First lunch on the boat. The famous pretzel rolls really were great! I usually had one every day, never got sick of them. The salad bar was great. I'm a huge salad fan and I also never got sick of the variety of the salad bar. Some nights at dinner in the buffet they had a HUGE platter of sliced avocados. I'm talking like 100 sliced avocados. I think I might have ate the cost of my cruise alone in those things! But then again, maybe they're cheaper in Europe?

 

2: Our champagne and chocolate covered strawberries (soo good) from the romance package. It was myself and another girl who went on the cruise, so we never heard the end of the jokes about us getting the "honeymooners" package. It was especially awkward at the champagne and cake party, where we were called "party crashers." :(

 

3. The chicken from the "every day" menu in the Main Dining Room, Alizar. Really very good. Great service in there too, albeit quiet slow during peak times. We never had to wait "HOURS" like some people claim... we just ate elsewhere if we were that hungry! (The buffet suited my appetite every day... but maybe that's because I'm in my early twenties and I'm no "foodie")

 

4. The blueberry covered cheesecake and coffee in Blue Lagoon. Open 24 hours, it's an amazing little diner on the ship. This cheesecake was awesome!

 

5. Beers. 23 oz Stella. I think the price was $6.33 after tax and tip. Not awesome, but not terrible. I've paid much more than that in bars before. Much more. The cool thing was when we ordered beers in the lounge, they also brought us some crunk munch like peanuts and popcorn. We had just eaten a huge dinner though... so sadly all that went to waste. It was a nice gesture from the waitstaff though!

[dos equis]

And forgive me for calling her a "boat" in the last post.

 

 

Ok I think I've figured out how to attach these right into the post. You can still click on them to make them (slightly) bigger. I wish the size limit was upped at bit on here, because I feel like these might be too small? Sorry, if that's the case.

 

The infamous free margarita from Paniolo's. What can I say? It was free, indeed. (not actual size, but mighty close)

 

The chips and dip from Paniolo's. Comes whether you order it or not. The crab one (orangey colored) was the best. It was warm and really creamy.

 

The lobster tacos. There wasn't an additional $10 charge for these, which was surprising since I had read that there would be, and even seen it printed on some menus that were posted on here. So although initially that made me even more excited about trying them (I heard good things), they were a letdown. They were chewy and really ...cilantro-y. For lack of a better word. If you can call cilantroy a word. Overall, they were just eh.

 

Rachel got the fajitas. Much better. She liked them a lot.

 

Sorry to switch venues... here are the appetizer's from Papa's Kitchen. Bread, olives, and bruschetta. Not to mention they have an antipasto trolly that you can order from as well. Unfortunately we weren't given our choice, and we were just handed a plate of unidentifiable stuff. The waitress didn't explain it... but I sadly soon figured out that there were definitely anchovies on the plate. Not my style. My dinner of Osso Bucco was not that great unfortunately, but the dessert was a trio of panna cotta. That was REALLY good. It was only $5 to dine in Papa's Kitchen on port days, so it was worth it to try it out. I wouldn't go back though. I actually preferred the buffet.

 

Oh and dinner took 2 hours. We missed the show we had planned on going to that night. Ohhhhh welllllllllll.

[dos equis]

Here are the canapes from the romance package. Do not ask me to describe them. All I know/remember is one had grapes. Grapes?

 

French Onion Soup, Le Bistro. Pretty good! We went here with the package as well. The dinner comes with a house red or a house white. We asked for White Zinfandel and received it no problem. She (our waitress) asked what we were celebrating and we told her we had both finished up our Master's programs in school. So later that night we received our cake (also part of the package) and it read "Congratulations!" Very sweet of her to relay the message to not write "happy honeymoon" or "happy anniversary" on our cake. I found that the wait staff really took the time to chat with you if you seemed like you wanted to. And they left you alone if you seemed like you didn't. They were really knowledgeable and friendly.

 

Escargot. Had to try it.

 

Rachel's chocolate dessert at Le Bistro. She said it was only ok.

 

The best creme brulee I've ever had. Rachel Agreed.

[dos equis]

Chocolate fondue for two! Le Bistro

 

Um we kind of ate ourselves sick that night.

 

This is the late night menu for Blue Lagoon. Apparently after 11pm (I think?) the menu changes. I never saw a post that had this menu included. So I just thought I'd throw it on here.

 

Pear soup. Not good. It was from the MDR, Grand Pacific.

 

Beef something or other. Only ok. Also from Grand Pacific.

[dos equis]

I realize that menu is totally unreadable in the last post. Sorry for that. I can't upload a bigger file, so oh well I suppose.

 

The beer and sake offerings at the sushi bar.

 

Miso soup, tastes like it always tastes.

 

Our sushi dish. I know, right? We didn't finish it all and felt bad, but we had no idea we were ordering so much. Live and learn. It was all pretty good though. Very average.

 

Fruit sashimi for dessert!

 

My "Speakeasy Martini." I only order drinks with plentiful internal rhyme.

[dos equis]

You can order Tapas from Paniolo's, just ask for a menu. We ordered 3 things. This was something to the effect of spicy potatoes. They were served cold, so that was kind of weird.

 

Mushroom tapas. Very strange. Also served cold, but tasted pickled. I'd pass.

 

The only really good tapas dish in my opinion. They were spicy sausages and were served warm. They were actually really good. I wanted more. Mostly to get the taste of cold pickled mushrooms out of my mouth.

 

Il Popo. Very cool presentation, and tasted great. We were dining with another couple and they ordered it too. So we had two sets of these guys next to our table. Talk about awkward stares.

 

The "margarita tart" at Paniolo's. Not so good, but it did the job. By job I mean tasted sweet after a spicy meal.

[dos equis]

And for the finale...CAGNEYS. The cover charge for Cagneys was $25 on the Jade. It was the most expensive of all the paid restaurants. On the last day of the cruise, I noticed that it was printed as having a $20 cover charge, so I thought we could go there to celebrate the end of our cruise and save $10. Well we got there and found out that it was a typo (big surprise, each Freestyle Daily was FULL of typos... but I won't get into that) but they were doing the discounted price anyways. After the meal when we paid, they rang up the checks in a very weird way.. with lots of half offs but double this and that. It was weird. We were only charged $17.50 each though... so that was cool! .. ? I'm still confused.

 

Crab cakes. I hate to say it, but they weren't anything special for me. They tasted exactly like the crab cakes I ordered in the main dining room, except those were free.

 

Massive shrimp cocktail. Again, only ok. Nothing to write home about.

 

My prime rib. I have no idea why I ordered this. I don't usually eat steak so I thought because it had the word "prime" in it it was the best cut of meat? It was not very tasty at all.

 

Rachel, on the other hand, knows her steaks. She ordered the fillet, which apparently is "THE BEST, duh Jamie!" Hers was really good, probably the only outstanding thing of all the dishes.

 

The truffle oil fries. Disappointment. But probably only because we were in Belgium that day and I had fries already, from the BIRTHPLACE of fries. So needless to say, NCL's version couldn't stack up. They literally tasted just like every other french fry ever. Nothing special! So Cagney's was kind of a let down because it's so well talked about on here and I was excited to go to it.

 

All in all I thought the food on the ship was great, and there was always something tasty. The buffet is where we went most of the time. I will tell you though that a LOT of the people on this cruise complained about the food. Very loudly, and very rudely. I saw some lady with like 5 plates in front of her at the Garden Cafe...taking bites of what had to have been every item from the buffet and complaining about every single bite. Then she says "you'd think I'd be full after eating a full meal in the dining room then leaving there to come here and try to get some edible food, but no!" Um... what? Where do these people eat at home? Also, WHAT A WASTE.

 

I think NCL did a great job serving 2,500 people at once. It was obvious how hard the staff worked. If you have basic tastes and do not go in expecting everything to taste like heaven, then you'll be fine. Food is food is food. And it's fun to take pictures of apparently.

 

I hope this helped/tantilized someone out there!

 

I have more pictures, like I said, of the ship and crew and rooms and ports and everything. I filled up my 8gb memory card if you can believe it. So if you have specific questions about the Jade or any of the ports, I'll be happy to help. Just let me know.

 

 

-Jamie

[European_CruiseGirl]

Thanks! I really enjoyed the pics. :)

[sjbdtz]

2: Our champagne and chocolate covered strawberries (soo good) from the romance package. It was myself and another girl who went on the cruise, so we never heard the end of the jokes about us getting the "honeymooners" package. It was especially awkward at the champagne and cake party, where we were called "party crashers." :(

 

 

I'm curious about who was "joking" with you, and who called you "party crashers"?

 

YOU may have been two friends travelling together, but with same-sex marriages legal in many different countries, and several US States, and with NCL having a reputation of being quite welcoming.....I'm surprised anybody would have done anything other than treat you "as though" you were a couple.

 

Now if you wore a sign that said "we're here for the anniversary party, but....we're not together", then maybe I could understand.

[mypleasure]

Nice pictures. I only spent 2 nights on the Jade but I really liked that ship and will definately be sailing on it again for a longer cruise in future.

 

I agree with some of your comments about other folks. I am really annoyed when I see waste. On the night of the chocolate buffet it was truly disgusting to see what people had left on paltes and put out in the corridors.

[auducky2]

Thanks for the food review with pics! Looking forward to our trip on the Jade! :)

[UKANGEL]

Thanks so much for all those photos! It's really whetted my appetite for our upcoming cruise!:D Have to say we had a fab meal at Cagneys last time but each to their own eh?;)

 

Would love to see any other pix you have of the ship etc if you have time

x

[kruzkid]

NCL does read these boards! They posted this article on their facebook page!

[dos equis]

Yeah I just saw that! Thanks for letting me know. Some dudes were complaining about how they don't have the right to repost that stuff.. blah blah blah so I commented and said that I'm happy they reposted it.

[dos equis]

I'm curious about who was "joking" with you, and who called you "party crashers"?

 

YOU may have been two friends travelling together, but with same-sex marriages legal in many different countries, and several US States, and with NCL having a reputation of being quite welcoming.....I'm surprised anybody would have done anything other than treat you "as though" you were a couple.

 

Now if you wore a sign that said "we're here for the anniversary party, but....we're not together", then maybe I could understand.

 

When we went to the Champagne and Cake party, we were by far the youngest and the only same-sex group there (we're not a romantic couple, just best friends celebrating graduation). We bought the package for the deal, not to celebrate a relationship. The host at the party asked everyone to introduce themselves and "how long you've been together." Obviously Rachel and I didn't fit into that category. The host came to us last, only because I kind of shot my hand up as she started moving on after the other introductions. She said something to the effect of "ohhh, and here are our party crashers." I don't remember the exact wording, but "party crashers" was definitely in there. I mean, everyone laughed, it was fine. I just felt almost like she thought we were someones kids or something and were just there for free booze and cake. We paid for it just like all the rest of them, so it was just kind of awkward. No big deal though!

[globetrecker]

Great pictures and helpful reviews.