Angie & Hannah's NCL Mini-Cruise
Angie has spent 4 years in the travel industry, and dreams of cruising the Indian Ocean. Hannah is a familiar voice to members of our Voyagers Club, with 21 years experience in travel.
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27 - 29 June 2008
We travelled to Southampton on 27 June for our 2 night cruise to Le Havre. Embarkation was very well organised and even though there was a very large queue we only had to wait about 10 minutes to be checked in.
From the outside the ship was very brightly coloured and our first impression was that it is a fun ship. We were greeted by crew who directed us to our cabin (an inside stateroom on deck 5). It was quite compact but it had all the usual facilities including a coffee machine, hairdryer and mini-bar. The bed was the most comfortable that I have experienced on a ship.
The Jade left Southampton for Le Havre at 16:00, and we were treated to sailaway drinks and a barbeque on the top deck. That evening we dined in the main restaurant, Grand Pacific, where the service and quality of food was excellent, and being freestyle you can eat at whatever time suits you!
The Captain made an announcement that we were in for a bumpy night as we were heading towards force 5 winds, luckily being on a low deck and mid-ships we didn't feel too much motion.
We arrived at Le Havre early the following moring and had decided to stay onboard the ship and try out the facilitie and public rooms onboard; the spa had an extensive list of treatments and was very reasonably priced.
We had lunch in the Garden Cafe which is buffet service, everything was very fresh and good quality and there was plenty of choice.
We had dinner that evening in Le Bistro which is a French Speciality restaurant, it has a cover charge of $15 per person but it is well worth it! There is even an original Van Gough painting in the entrance of the restaurant.
After dinner we went to see a show in the large 1000 seat theatre which was very enjoyable.
The following morning on disembarkation day we had a quick breakfast in the buffet style Garden Cafe, where everything was fresh, hot and good quality.
Disembarkation was an easy process as were carrying off our own case and could disembark at leisure.
On the whole we thought Norwegian Jade was an excellent ship, all the facilites were fun including the top deck where they had 4 hot tubs and 2 pools, one of which had a waterslide.
The only down side was that we only had 2 nights onboard which wasn't enough to experience everything; the ship has 13 restaurants and 12 bars which is great for a 14 night cruise. Drinks are very resonably priced, and whilst a service charge is added to every puchase at the bar, prices are similar if not cheaper than at home, however I did feel that shore excursions were slightly overpriced, in my opinion.
I would reccommend an NCL cruise to all people who like the Freestyle informal approach but still enjoy excellent food and service. The kids facilities are excellent and it is an ideal cruise for families as there is no dress code, althought we did dress for dinner and didn't feel out of place. The pace onboard is relaxed and you can literally do whatever you want when you want.
The official star rating is 4, but in my opinion the service and food borders 5 stars!
Why not ask a question or submit a comment about Angie & Hannah's Norwegian Jade review?