Norwegian Jade Cruise Reviews - Reviews

in major need of refurbishing and not just a touch up.  No padding in the chairs, torn upholstery, the walking track on deck 7-non-skid surface was totally worn off down to the deck.  The crew provided great service.  Also, they now charge for the lobster and rib eye steaks in the main dining room.  Basically fed you pork, chicken, and fish and charged for any up grades in meat and seafood.  NOT a good things.  I always look forward to my Lobster.  Don't know if this is new across the industry. 

The ship, the crew, the accommodations, were all great. They food, especially the Room Service, was not great, but overall, the whole experience was great. The La Bistro was exceptional and worth every penny. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our experience on the Jade. We love sailing with Norwegian. We would definitely book another cruise through NCL. The staff are truly the highlight of the cruise. They strive to make every wish come true. Make sure to take advantage of everything the ship has to offer!

We stayed in a mini-suite, which was wonderful.  The nightly entertainment was the best we've seen, and the shore excursions better than in the past.  We had a few slow ship departures, but other than that, things went smoothly.

Norwegian Jade is an older medium sized ship that is clean and very nicely maintained. We had a balcony room (9120) .The room accommodations were very tight.. The king sized bed was nice but took up most of the room making getting around a little restricted. The bathroom/shower area was extremely small  with very limited space for hygiene supplies. The balcony is of average size with a couple of chairs and small table. That being said our room attendant was consistently great and did an excellent job. The entertainment had a few nice shows but pretty much on the average side. Let me just say that this turned out to be an older crowd. My wife and I are in our sixties and we were definitely in the younger end of the crowd. Many activities seemed directed toward an older age group. The food in the buffet area was also pretty average, The blue lagoon is open 24 hours and a nice alternative a couple of days (especially on embarkation day) to avoid the crowds. I would also recommend the specialty restaurants of Cagneys and Teppanyaki. The ship never seemed crowded and plenty of lounge chairs were always available. The embarkation process went smoothly. Disembarking was a little slow but not too bad.

Love this ship and crew. Second time cruising on the Jade. Great staff and with very good food and enjoyable activities.  Really enjoy the free style cruising.

Time in San Juan could have been longer.  The noise level in the dining rooms & special restaurants were very loud.  The location of Moderno was not good, located over the atrium area the noise from this area was very loud. 

The food overall in the Garden Cafe was very good with a big variety of chooses.

The Jade is a well maintained cruiseship. Spotless everywhere you looked. The crew was extremely friendly and upbeat. The nitely shows were all outstanding. All in all, well worth the money. The stop at Harvest Caye was a total waste if you weren't into watersports. The fact that you cannot use your sail and sign card, and your drink package on the island is a real drawback. Bad, bad, idea. Otherwise, do this cruise on this ship. Well worth the money. We will do it again.

This was definitely a happy ship with smiling crew and officers, great food and entertainment, one of the best cruises of the many I've been on.  Very efficient and friendly service at all times.  The ports are the same old, same old, good for casual wandering and shopping, but not for the overpriced, underwhelming

"excursions" Norwegian offers. Only flaw was the inconsistent water temperature in the shower.   

Norwegian runs a great cruise out of this Tampa port. The boat was always kept clean, our room steward was friendly, as was the dining room and bar staff. One downfall was they were repairing the children's slide at the pool, so it was closed all week. Prime Rib and Chicken Parmesan were my favorites from main dining room. Lobster was only available for an extra charge. The staff at the martini bar were experts at mixing drinks. Their private island in Belize was beautiful.

Crowded cruise. A lot of people with unlimited beverage package meant bars were super Busy and inebriated by mid day. The cruise line has to be given credit for having a lot of activities to bring some crowd control but the weather and changed itinerary meant cruise always felt crowded. The entertainment every night was good. 

Liked the food entertainment and staff. Extremely disappointed that there was pool demolition in preparation for dry dock renovations. main pool closed as they tore out the water slide, made pool repairs and tore up tile. It was very noisy and distracting, congested pool area as the kids were forced to converge on the adult pool. jogging track blocked by a huge dumpster the entire cruise. Missed our Key West port of call due to fog in Tampa, port authorities would not let ship leave port. Complaint at front desk no response, emailed customer service and receive $12 per person for missed port. No compensation for the construction zone in pool area the entire cruise. Response from Norwegian was sorry but we have to continually renovate. I greet that has to happen in order to maintain the ship, my problem was that  this worked was planned and they should have communicated it to the customer before we purchased our tickets, that way we could have made an informed decision to travel on this ship or pick one of the others in their fleet. Hotels notify people all the time to let them know about upcoming renovations, Norwegians decision and response were unacceptable.  You can see videos of the demo on #cruisenorwegian

Restaurant food declining in quality. Staff that goes through the motions. Terrible internet service after having to pay through the nose for it. This was by far the worst Norwegian cruise we've ever been on.

we were fogged in as they close the port of Tampa, so we left 7 hours late. The cruise line cancelled the port call at Key West which was the main reason we booked the cruise. They did give us another day in Cozumel which does not compare.

The room was smaller than same rooms on the Gem. Specialty restaurants were great, nice entertainment for the shows. 

Some areas of the ship look a little tired but we had fun.

the worst part of the cruise was embarkation at the port of Tampa, hot long lines getting to the NCL checkin. I will not cruise from this non air conditioned, non heated (which we need when disembarking in 35 degree weather) port area ever again.

Here are the positives:

Very nice cabins (obstructed ocean view) with a lot of room. 

The room steward was great. 

I liked the concept of free style dining. 

The Tappenyaki restaurant and was great.  (The chef's made the experience!)

The bar staff was awesome. 

The food was good....not great but good. 

The variety of food on the buffet was great. 

Negatives:

The were repairing the pool during the entire cruise. 

The staff in the restaurants did not seem like they wanted to go out of the way to make your experience better.   Even at the specialty it felt like a drive thru...place your order and then we will bring it to you.  This distracted from what could have been a very nice dining  experience. 

The staff at the excursion desk was not good.  We booked an excursion and it was cancelled because there were not enough participants.    We then choose some alternatives, but they were all full.   The staff did not understand our frustration and instead of just apologizing and working with us to find an alternative they spent the time justifying the policy.  

It took over 2 hours to board the ship in Tampa.   

We had to leave Tampa late due to fog which impacted our port.   Issues with weather are unavoidable, but we would have liked more information so we could plan accordingly.     

There could have been more activities that were not an additional fee. 

Skip the wine tastings.   

In summary it could have been a much better experience.   I have had better experiences on other cruises. 

Favorite part of the cruise was the restaurants and food.  Great food and great service. Also the signage everywhere including outside and inside the elevators  to find areas of the ship including the fish on the rugs that are facing forward to tell you which way you are going was phenomenal.  No stress finding your way around the ship. The destinations were wonderful. Also enjoyed the different types of shows and entertainment.  Definitely would recommend this cruise to anyone.

Was able to see all the highlights of Central America in one trip.

Food was good with lots of variety. Shows were fun.

Son really enjoyed the kids club, meeting lots of kids from all over the world.

Overall this was a great experience for my family of 6.  It offered flexibility that is appreciated with larger families.  Tips for future cruise families, book your excursions ahead of time, and drink and meal plans.  I was disappointed in the inability to dine at the other restaurants on the ship because I did not book prior to arrival I find that unrealistic with a large family or group to predict what and where the group wants to eat that far in advance.  Also the checking in process was very painful...long process of one line waiting to get in building, then one line waiting to go up escalator, then another line to go through security, then another line to get ID and give credit card info for cruise, it took more than 2 hours ugh please improve this for future passengers!!

I expected the ship to look old/outdated.  I was pleasantly surprised that the cabin and interior of the Jade was as nice as other cruises that I had been on. The best things about the cabin were the unobtrusive cabin stewardess, the wheel near the cabin door the allowed "do not disturb", "make up cabin" and 2 other phrases to be used, and real sliding doors for toilet and showers.  The cabin was very tiny, and the bed configuration was awful for our family.  We had 4 individual twin beds that were incapable of being linked together with any other one to form an larger bed(s).  The entertainment was wonderful.  The crew were very nice and helpful.  My son has allergies to food and 3 of the 4 of us are lacto ovo vegetarians.  The food was very good (hubby noticed that there was no lobster and I noticed no fresh strawberries or blueberries).  I loved the variety of food for those with food allergies or constraints.  We ate in the Garden Cafe for 99% of our meals.  We ate one snack in a complimentary restaurant, but service was slow and food was merely ok.   The kids area was wonderful for our 5 year old son.  However, our 13 year old daughter did not like the teen area;  13-17 years is too wide an age range for either girls or boys.  

I have cruised on Carnival many times, so I was definitely comparing the two.

I was suppose to have priority boarding. That didn't happen, the line was like 2 hours long waiting in the hot sun. Finally arrived on the ship. This is my fault as I should have researched first.  Our mini suite was a "mini" suite.  I could not believe how small it was for the price I paid for it. I would think it is more a balcony room, although the one positive was it did have a coffee maker in it.

It was not as clean as it should have been. There was large build up of dust where corners met, like the the tp holder and wall etc.. Spots on the bathroom wall, where it had not been wiped down.

The children were allowed to run around everywhere. Not sure if it was the children's group or parents. They ran around in the busy cafeteria, would slip in front of you and reach up for food with bare hands. Gross! A child ran in front of an older woman and knocked her plate out of her hands. He got is roll he wanted and ran off again not even acknowledging the women.

They ran in the pool area, going from running to hopping on a lounge chair, back to running on pool deck. I was almost run over by children while relaxing in my lounge chair. NOT VERY RELAXING!

I had to ask a group of children all ages to please stop running up and down our hall way and to please quiet down. If I would have know where there room was I would have visited and asked the parents to have there children to quiet down.

The casino allowed smoking in the entire place.  There were not any non smoking areas. Being allergic to smoke meant I didn't spend much time in there. My husband table hopped when someone smoking joined his table.  When he complained to the manager, he was told this is the number one complaint in the casino, but management ignored it. My husband would have spent a lot more time there if they would have non smoking areas.

One of the pool bathrooms which had 4 stalls was horrible. 2 were lock with no one inside, one was nasty gross and would not flush. So the ladies had to wait in line for 1 toilet. This happened more than one occasion. I told someone it needed attention and it was a good while before some attended to it. Other time there would be toilet paper all over the floor. Not what I expected the bathroom to be like.

On the positive side, the staff were very friendly, and ready to help.

The food was great. Disembarking from the  ship was much better than getting on.

This was our anniversary trip and we both wanted a relaxing trip. It was maybe 50/50. 

I spent a lot of money on the cruise, I will not be cruising on Norwegian again.