This cruise was chose based on the great itinerary. Weather was great for this time of year in almost every port. Having cruised with NCL before I enjoy freestyle cruising, however this time around NCL left a bit to be desired. We stayed in cabin 10658 with three adults. Sofa folds out to a third "bed", however if you are an average size adult your legs and feet will hang off the end of the bed. Sister is 5'3" and her feet hung off, so really it sleeps 2.5 people comfortably. Good size bathroom, nice balcony.

We ate in Grand Pacific and Alizar dining rooms most evenings, terribly slow service. Plan on 2+ hours to eat. Staff was never overly friendly, and did not seem to work to hard for extra tips. Food was often cold, or incorrect from what was ordered (chicken sandwich instead of tuna one day, wrong drinks the next, rock hard cookies, etc). Food was just mediocre, out of all the meals the three of us had about 3 meals each that we thought were pretty good. Steak frites was one good meal, and another was in Jasmine Garden, good sushi (xtra $ of course) and good pork dumplings. We missed the traditional buffet theme nights you get on other ships, no seafood night, no chocolate bar...so the food really dropped the score down for me. The main buffet offered the same food every day for bfast and lunch with out any changes...this can get old but there was a decent variety to pick from. My "made to order" eggs benedict were ice cold one day however.

Theatrical shows were fairly decent, magician was a joke, but the singers and dancers were good. The Russian duet was great! We really missed the traditional interactive game shows that were done on our other cruise. To many bands and not enough other forms of entertainment, it was nice on the NCL spirit to go to a game show every night the Jade did not have this. Read more