Norwegian Cruise Line, Norwegian Jade Review

Overall Rating

Beautiful clean ship, excellent food & service, great food, fantastic staff

Lack of sunbeds on sea days, too many unsupervised children

We have just returned from a 2 week Med cruise on the Norwegian Jade August 2008. First time cruisers in our 30's & maybe a little apprehensive of what to expect...absolutely no need to be! Both my husband & I really enjoyed the whole experience. Embarkation went like a dream, no queueing or confusion extremely well handled. The Norwegian Jade is a fabulous & impressive ship, well laid out & very tasteful (Not sure where others had been looking who commented negatively on the ships decor!?)
We had an obstructed view stateroom, big enough, lovely queensized bed with all the facilities you require. Always kept immaculately clean by our housekeeper.
The food was delicious, we ate in all the 'free' restaurants & tried several of the 'charged' ones too. Not once did I have cause for complaint or struggle to find something I liked. I did have reservations with having to pay, but its worth what is basically as little as £5 a head for a fabulous speciality meal. They also have 2 for 1 offers on some of the charged restaurants if you go before a certain time. The 'Alizaar' has a paging system where if there are no free tables immediately, they give you a pager & you can go have a drink for 10-20mins & they buzz you when your table is ready...BRILLIANT IDEA!
All of the staff were lovely, all spoke very good english & no matter where you were on the ship they would always have a smile & a hello.
Shore excursions did seem a little expensive but we did many of them on our own. The 2 we did do were very well organised with excellent guides.
Shuttlebuses for the ports into cities & towns were fantastic, continuous & we didn't wait any more than 5 mins.
The only complaint I had was more towards some of our fellow passengers. There seemed to be a trend towards allowing some of the children to use the entire ship like a huge playground towards the end of the cruise. Running around in packs up & down stairs & generally making a real nuisance of themselves. This is the responsibility of the parents, not the cruiseline, though I feel in the future NCL should possibly have a no unsupervised children policy?
In a nutshell WE LOVED IT!! It was value for money & does exactly what it says on the tin. I just feel that people who have reviewed this ship in a poor light, maybe previously P&O/Royal Carribean passengers, or just people who didn't read NCLs info before they booked.