Norwegian Jade

“Whatever Floats your boat” – Well this certainly floated mine, and I hope will again in the very near future.

This was one of the most relaxing cruises we have ever taken; from the welcoming glass of champagne on arrival, the staff were extremely friendly & the food superb. Below is a brief summary

Dining
What a wonderful thought to know we could dine when we wanted (if we turned up at a particular restaurant and it was busy then we were handed a pager, we went to a bar nearby and the most we waited was 20mins), and we could chose what type of food/restaurant we wanted each day. Making reservations a day in advance was very easy and the restaurant of our choice was always able to offer a suitable time.

We dined in the Alazar restaurant and the Grand Pacific (dress code applies) twice each, and the food and service were excellent.

Our children loved the Blue lagoon and we had to force them to come and eat with us on some evenings, as the staff were so good with them, that little groups of friends would dine alone (making them feel so grown up...). The menus offered a good choice of “fast foods”.

The choice of hot & cold/international/British/local meals available at lunch or evening in the garden café was one of the best I have seen – with a special family section too. Free ice cream and squash went down very well with my boys…but by booking early NCL offered us a free soda package – what a saving that was!

I could go on and on about the dining, but I wont... Cagney steak house – WOW what size steaks and shrimps... Tex Mex & Jasmine Gardens – wonderful choice, we went twice, and it’s some of the best food I have eaten on a ship.

Dress code
One of the evenings we stayed on deck till midnight – grabbed some Indian food from the buffet and sat with friends we had made, under the stars drinking “buckets of bottle beers” – with 6 for the price of 5 aprox $25 it was a great evening.
Most evenings there were parties who had chosen to wear Black Tie and they were certainly not out of place, but again, whatever goes.

Accommodation
We booked an ocean view with porthole, the cabin was serviced very well, but in hind-sight I would definitely pay the extra for a cabin higher up the ship, even a balcony or suite as these are still excellent value for money

Kids Clubs
We have a 9 year old and a 13 year old and although they didn’t use the kids clubs during the day, once they had eaten we couldn’t drag them out. My 13 year loved “hanging out” with his friends and the staff in his age group

Entertainment
This isn’t the most important part of our holiday, and although we thought the shows very good and the singers excellent, we were slightly disappointed with the entertainment in the Spinnakers Lounge but perhaps the type of comedy offered just wasn’t to our taste.

Other points
The service charge is added on a daily basis and if you think about how much you would tip each time you went into a restaurant (i.e. 3 times a day) then $10 to cover everyone that’s helps make your holiday a success (exc bar staff who you can tip when the bring your drinks) isn’t too excessive.

We travelled to Southampton on 27 June for our 2 night cruise to Le Havre. Embarkation was very well organised and even though there was a very large queue we only had to wait about 10 minutes to be checked in.

From the outside the ship was very brightly coloured and our first impression was that it is a fun ship. We were greeted by crew who directed us to our cabin (an inside stateroom on deck 5). It was quite compact but it had all the usual facilities including a coffee machine, hairdryer and mini-bar. The bed was the most comfortable that I have experienced on a ship.

The Jade left Southampton for Le Havre at 16:00, and we were treated to sailaway drinks and a barbeque on the top deck. That evening we dined in the main restaurant, Grand Pacific, where the service and quality of food was excellent, and being freestyle you can eat at whatever time suits you!

The Captain made an announcement that we were in for a bumpy night as we were heading towards force 5 winds, luckily being on a low deck and mid-ships we didn't feel too much motion.

We arrived at Le Havre early the following moring and had decided to stay onboard the ship and try out the facilitie and public rooms onboard; the spa had an extensive list of treatments and was very reasonably priced.

We had lunch in the Garden Cafe which is buffet service, everything was very fresh and good quality and there was plenty of choice.

We had dinner that evening in Le Bistro which is a French Speciality restaurant, it has a cover charge of $15 per person but it is well worth it! There is even an original Van Gough painting in the entrance of the restaurant.

After dinner we went to see a show in the large 1000 seat theatre which was very enjoyable.

The following morning on disembarkation day we had a quick breakfast in the buffet style Garden Cafe, where everything was fresh, hot and good quality.

Disembarkation was an easy process as were carrying off our own case and could disembark at leisure.

On the whole we thought Norwegian Jade was an excellent ship, all the facilites were fun including the top deck where they had 4 hot tubs and 2 pools, one of which had a waterslide.

The only down side was that we only had 2 nights onboard which wasn't enough to experience everything; the ship has 13 restaurants and 12 bars which is great for a 14 night cruise. Drinks are very resonably priced, and whilst a service charge is added to every puchase at the bar, prices are similar if not cheaper than at home, however I did feel that shore excursions were slightly overpriced, in my opinion.

I would reccommend an NCL cruise to all people who like the Freestyle informal approach but still enjoy excellent food and service. The kids facilities are excellent and it is an ideal cruise for families as there is no dress code, althought we did dress for dinner and didn't feel out of place. The pace onboard is relaxed and you can literally do whatever you want when you want.

The official star rating is 4, but in my opinion the service and food borders 5 stars!