Norwegian Cruise Line, Norwegian Jade Review

Overall Rating

Kids Club
Excursions
Leaving

In my view, the staff, fellow passengers, entertainment, and food could all be improved on.
Over Priced in my opinion.

Where to start?

A large sum of money and a great deal of excitement were the build up to this two week Norwegian Jade cruise. Myself, partner and son had been looking forward to our holiday with great anticipation; we are not fussy holiday makers, just a young family hoping to make the most out of a stunning itinerary and a bit of luxury.

Unfortunately for us the whole trip was a nightmare from start to finish.

Upon arriving at Southampton, the valet parking was good and the complimentary glass of champagne was a nice touch, but within 5 mins of being on board and exploring the ship we thought that the ship was massively overcrowded. The outside decks were crammed - the inside restaurants were crammed. The bars were crammed. The lifts were crammed. The stairs were crammed. We quite literally could not find a spare seat on board. Hopefully this will not last all cruise we think "maybe it's just because it's disembarkation" ..no chance. NCL had in my opinion vastly overbooked this ship and I think there were quite simply too many people on it, but more of that later. For now we head to our cabin.

Our cabin was comfortable but small, however good use of mirrors allowed you to think it was bigger. The balcony was nice and clean. Overall it was pleasant, fine for out 14 nights. We have now been on board for about an hour, time to see if those crowds have gone. No they have not. In fact they have swelled and to make it worse the 'crowd mentality 'has set in. All over the ship there is pushing and shoving, queue jumping and overall rudeness mostly from British passengers. I am born and bred British, have lived in London all my life, but the behaviour of several snooty, Daily Mail reading passengers was an absolute disgrace and made me ashamed to be British.

This behaviour of fellow passengers continued throughout the cruise. Some passengers simply had no manners (mainly middle aged British women in floral dresses) but most were fighting their corner simply because the ship was so over-crowded. Many had a real problem with kids being on board, although to be fair there were many groups of very young kids swarming all over the ship their parents seemingly having a holiday from parenting. Parts of the ship were also designated 'no kids' areas, the Spinnaker Lounge for example was no kids after 11pm which was fine considering it kept out the unsupervised ones but was a shame for the kids that actually could behave themselves. This resulted in kids who were not in the kids club having nowhere to go so they hung around stairwells and played with the lifts.

Oh well "maybe food will perk things up". There are 13 restaurants on board. The handbook in our cabin says, a few restaurants may have a cover charge. Upon exploring we'd change that to the MAJORITY. There were only FOUR 'free' restaurants, all the others have a cover charge ranging from $10 to $25 per head. Out of the four free restaurants (that of course always felt overcrowded to me) two served the same menu (the Alizar and the Grand Pacific) one was a buffet (the Garden Caf) and one served Micro-waved American food (The Blue Lagoon). Of course the ones with a cover charge served nice food however anyone considering travelling with the NCL on the Jade should be under no illusion; EATING IS NOT FREE if you want even a half decent meal in my opinion. Furthermore the 'Freestyle' concept is just nonsense in my opinion. The overcrowding makes it impossible to eat 'whenever '. The staff are only too aware of this and rush customers through like cattle, on one occasion we were served all three courses together!

To go through the cruise day by day would be too painful so here is a summary!

The Jade is an American ship thus most of the staff you would imagine would be American however this was not the case. I would say at least 80% of the staff was from the Philippines, of course this was not a problem, most were smart, polite and well mannered, however there was a huge issue with the language barrier. Many of the staff had a very poor grasp of English and on a daily basis communication was an issue. Furthermore many showed signs of inexperience. One night of the cruise there was a power cut on some decks (!) the ship had to stop mid sea in the middle of night and the only assistance was one poor reception girl who could not speak English fluently in anyway. Most shockingly some members of staff were extremely rude towards some passengers. One male member of bar staff in the Martini Bar made two what we thought were extremely offensive remarks to my partner regarding her age, another female member of staff in the Casino on the euro roulette wheel was extremely rude and disrespectful toward me on our last evening. Needless to say on the final night I registered two formal complaints against these two members of staff before we left.

The entertainment blew hot and cold. Two comedians were good, a lovely piano player and a couple of good magic shows was the 'hot'. The 'cold' was the absolutely dire in my view 'Second City' cabaret act, which unfortunately for us was on nearly every night, this in tandem with the master of ceremonies was possibly the most vomit inducing tripe I had ever seen.

There was some good to the cruise (thankfully), the excursions were very good, we really enjoyed Pisa, Rome and Villefranche. Our son loved the Kids club and the staff that ran the club were very nice and worked really hard with the kids. Also the young man who cleaned/maintained our cabin was lovely. The positives really do end there.

We thought the 'days at sea' were a nightmare, the decks were completely packed there was no space at all around the pool (incidentally we'd say the pool is about the size of a postage stamp), there was not a sun bed going spare on the entire ship one afternoon, needless to say 60% of the sun beds were taken up by towels (and Daily Mails). And of course the pushing and shoving and bad manners of fellow passengers continued.

Throughout the cruise we felt nothing more than walking dollar signs and were permanently having sycophantic advertising shoved down our throats from start to finish. AND, they charge a $10 per day per head service charge to your onboard account 'for your convenience' (!!!!!!), needless to say the queue on the final day for reception was huge. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask!

Overall, overcrowding, some rude staff, some rude passengers, food not good enough for us, and what we thought was dire entertainment made for a very, very disappointing and frustrating holiday. We will never, ever travel with NCL again and I implore anyone considering doing so to think again.