it was a vacation

The ship itself isn't as nice as some of the other ships I've been on but it was nice, clean for the most part. My stateroom was a little smaller than normal balcony staterooms even for NCL.  The crowd on the ship was an older crowd for sure but they were a lot of fun. We caught bad weather the week of our trip so pools were closed often. Glad we purchased the Spa pass was able to use that everyday. It's a little pricey but well worth the purchase. No kids under 18 are allowed and you have free range of Jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, lounge chairs, and more. 

The shows on the jade were great as always, activities were plentiful. I found that BINGO was more costly on this ship $39.00 for 3 cards allowing 3 games. Deal or no Deal was fun. Quest game is always a blast, and so is the White hot party. I was disappointed that Captain's night was not a big deal like it usually is on other ships they barely spoke about it or mentioned it on the freestyle daily. I missed it, but I guess I saved myself some money by not taking any pictures.

I found the food on the Jade not to be the best compared to other ships, I didn't like that there is no lobster night, they added al la cart items to the main dining rooms so if you want lobster you have to pay $20.00 for it. The specialty dining restaurants used to be a cover of $20.00-$24.00 per person now all items  are all al a cart.  They also got rid of the chocoholic buffet which was disappointing.

The staff was great everywhere you went everyone was kind and cheery. We never had to wait for long periods of time for dinner. (read some other reviews and there were lots of complaints about service and taking to long in the dining room I never experienced that). Some of the bars opened a little later which made it hard to get a drink but really not a huge issue.

I didn't really care for the ports of call on this trip. Cozumel I think was the most fun but I also didn't do any excursions so that may have been part of the problem. Also I was not happy finding out that I had to pay taxes to the state of Texas for any alcohol or tobacco I purchased in the Duty Free Shop. kind of defeats the purpose of duty free when you have to pay $3.50 per liter of alcohol once you get off the ship. Not sure I want to sail out of Texas again.

All in all it was a good trip I was away from work and met a lot of great people. Looking forward to my next cruise!