Enjoyable Cruise

Norwegian Jade Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

jmcc827

Contributor Level: Third Mate

106 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Reviews: 3

Helpful Votes: 103

Overall rating:

4.1 out of 5

5 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: February 01, 2019

Ship: Norwegian Jade

Cabin type: Balcony

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Overall this was a good cruise. This was my daughters 1st cruise. The embarkation process was smooth and easy. We boarded and went on an adventure on the ship (ok, we tried to get to our room to drop off our carry on, but the rooms weren't ready yet). The buffet was open and we went and got lunch, simple sandwiches were very good! We got to our stateroom (balcony room) and determined the 3 was the "maximum" number we would want to put in this room. This was OK as we knew it would be tight. The design of the room was different (my wife and I have sailed the Sky previously), looked well kept and was clean. Our first stop was Harvest Cay, Norwegian's private island in Belize. The beach was nice but the water was murky due to ongoing dredging operations just off the island. We opted to go to the pool. It was very nice, not overly crowded. The one complaint that we had with this port is that even though it is NCL's island, your on-board card is no good here. While we understand the NCL is attempting to support the local economy, some sort of extension of your already paid cruise would be nice (complementary buffet, maybe a beer&wine shack). We chose not to do any excursions here, but adding $100/person plus having to buy lunch/drinks makes for a very expensive day. The next stop was Costa Maya. We did a tour of the Chaccoben Ruins there. We had a nice tour of them. The market place was crowded with cruise ships in port. This was a tourist "trap", all kinds of things to buy if you wanted. The food on the cruise was good, we enjoyed the buffets, we went to Grand Pacific and the Alizar main dining rooms. We went to Cagney's and were surprised to see guests there in T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops dining there. Disembarkation was very smooth. I recommend using the porter service to get to your transfer after. We had many bags and it so nice to have the porters handling them. At the end of the day, we would likely do this cruise again.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Easy, got to the pier early. Not a real long wait at the Cruise terminal

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Cagney's was wonderful (as always). La Cuchina was ok, my daughter isn't really into Italian, so ordered a pepperoni pizza -- pretty sure it was the same as in the buffets. The buffets were good, excellent variety, food was fresh.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

Wish we had known about the "Activities Cards" sooner than the last day, may have participated.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Elements was one of the best shows we have seen on a cruise. The C-Notes were OK at best.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Our room steward Anthony was excellent! Very attentive, very helpful with information we needed.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

The Jade was set up a little differently than any other ship we have been on, the atrium was only 2 levels (other lines/ships we have been on, the atrium has been 4-5 levels with glass elevators). The casino was located almost "out of the way" and was not overly populated at any time.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

The cabin is ok, and although the cruise line says you can sleep 3-4 in these rooms, I would not want to be the one on the pull out couch. Odd design to the room, the bed is positioned in such a manner that if you are doing anything at the corner mirror, no one else in the room can get past you. Our room steward, Anthony, was amazing with keeping our room in a state of readiness for us.

Ship tip

If you embark early (before the staterooms are ready) head to the Buffet to grab some lunch and then head to the poolside to people watch!

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Harvest Caye, Belize

3 out of 5

NCL owns this island, but none of the food and drink on the island are included in your cruise. This caused us to not spend the entire time on the island. While I understand that NCL is trying to support the local economy, $32 for 2 adult beverages and a cola is a little crazy! It would be nice if NCL offered some of these things as part of their whole Freestyle thinking.

Thumbs Up 3

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

4 out of 5

We enjoyed the tour of Chacchoben ruins. Our Guide Arturo was interesting and provided a good history of the Mayan culture and explanation of the ruins. The Market Place on the island was a bit overwhelmed with tourists while we were there (2 NCL ships and a Carnival Ship in port).

Thumbs Up 4

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Quick, easy, simple

2 Comments

jmcc827 5 years ago

Not really sure what the "activities cards" are - we had gone to sit in on one of the trivia games, and found that people had activities cards to be signed by the crew member running the event. We were at the last day so didn't investigate them much.

Thumbs Up 0

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Lori75 5 years ago

What are the "activities cards " you refer to? We ste sailing the Jade in 3 weeks.

Thumbs Up 1

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Other reviews of this sailing

It was a nice cruise

CRUISE WAS FINE BUT THE LUGGAGE WAS NOT!

Last time for Norwegian