Norwegian Jade

I’m a Platinum card member on NCL. This is my LAST cruise with them. Drink prices are outrageous, a 20 percent gratuity is added on everything, No more Latitude rewards parties for Gold, Platinum card members. NCL tours are double the cost for tours offered ashore. Our friends toke the day tour to Paris, stopped only at Effiel tower the view was through a fence. Did not stop at Notra Dome or Arch D Triumph , just drove by !! Cost : $ 400 !! Demanded their money back, NCL re credited them 30 percent.

Bottom line, we thoroughly enjoyed our cruise, even though, as Latitudes members, we were never invited to the Latitudes cocktail party. The ports of call were wonderful, the ship was clean and modern, the staff was competent, the food was hit and miss, but the music/entertainment was extraordinary.

I did this itinerary as I love Northern Spain, and had never seen Portugal. This is part of my DNA research, and loved finding that the celtic areas of Spain were part of this itinerary! This cruise is not offered that often, so when it comes around, be sure to book the cruise!

Since it was my first cruise, I'd hoped it would be great. The excursions were great, but staff did not seem prepared in getting the groups organized. Some of the excursions seemed too rushed and couldn't do all that we were promised we could do. Oft times, the staff at the excursion desk were rude. The service in the "free restaurants" was lacking as we had to wait up to an hour to get our food after it was ordered. Overall, I was disappointed and don't think I'll take another cruise.

The quality of the food and the menu selections were very good. The specialty restaurants were outstanding and provided the best overall service. The main dining rooms seemed to be hit or miss on the service issue. If you had the right waiter (and you didn't get much choice) the service was very good while others were less attentive and seemed like they were bored being there! The ship was very clean and comfortable and relatively easy to get around. As with the main restaurants, the bars and lounges had some service issues depending who was waiting on you. The entertainment was much better in the bar and lounge areas than the main theater. But, that is my opinion based on my personal likes. On a negative note about NCL: I signed up for the NCL program to bid on an upgraded cabin. What a joke! Don't do it! The ship had many upgrade cabins empty (only 2200 passengers with a capacity of nearly 3000) but no upgrade was offered at my bid. In addition, they did not notify me about any upgrade until 2 days before sailing. I like more advance notice than 2 days of which cabin I will be staying in. The ports of call were mixed as far as interesting. However, May 1, 2018 is an European holiday with many shops and restaurants being closed. Many people didn't realize this and had sighed up for shore excursions that day. When they announced on the ship, the day before (April 30) it was a holiday, many passengers tried to cancel their excursion, but were told they had to do it 48 hours in advance. Overall the cruise was very good, clean comfortable ship with good food and enough enthusiastic crew members to offset the ones who didn't want to be there!