Norwegian Cruise Line

NORWEGIAN JADE 93,502 tons 2,394 passengers Length: 965 feet Beam: 106 feet 15 decks Crew of 1150 International crew Launched: December 2006 Bahamian Registry

Best for People who Want:
European itineraries with dining flexibility, and an international passenger mix.

Should be Avoided By People Who Prefer:
A traditional cruise experience with formal nights, and a specific dress code.

In 2006, we attended the christening and inaugural sailing of the Pride of Hawaii. At 93,500 tons, she was the largest and most expensive cruise ship ever to sail under the U.S. flag. The ship completed the NCL program of new ships designed and built to sail the Hawaiian islands.

Just two years later -- due to problems meeting the legal requirement that crews of U.S.-flagged ships must be 90 percent U.S. citizens -- Norwegian Cruise Lines has just one ship, The Pride of America, remaining in Hawaiian waters.

The former Pride Of Hawaii now sails European itineraries year-round, and has been renamed the NCL Jade.

During her dry-dock, the ship's hull artwork (an NCL signature) was repainted, and she went through typical updating such as replacing worn carpeting and upholstery. A rather large Jade Club Casino was also added (replacing what were previously cabins), but the balance of the ship's interior remain unchanged.

Except for the addition of the casino and a shift to an international crew, little has changed in the physical appearance of the ship's interior. The décor designed to reflect the "Aloha Spirit" of the Hawaiian Islands remains intact, along with the island-themed Waikiki Beach Pool and the Bali Hai Bar & Grill.

What was once called the Aloha Nui Café (the ship's casual buffet) has been renamed the Garden Café --although the décor remains Hawaiian themed.

Norwegian Cruise Lines representatives confirm that the interior décor remained unchanged in hopes that with a change in circumstance, the ship could one day return to the Hawaiian Islands.

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Onboard Experience:
While the Jade continues to sail in Europe, one can expect a very International passenger mix, including a wide range of ages.

In April 2008 the Jade became the first NCL ship to implement an ambitious upgrade program called Freestyle 2.0 (which will be rolled out fleet-wide by June 2008). Read the full details of the 2.0 upgrades here: NCL Freestyle

Upon boarding, guests are greeted with a "bubbly welcome" -- the first step in Freestyle 2.0. Aside from new cabin amenities, the most noticeable change is NCL's commitment to upgrading the dining experience with higher quality ingredients and the addition of signature dishes to each of the ship's specialty restaurants.

Other amenity upgrades focus on the mini-suite and above cabin categories, but there are some interesting initiatives available to guests in the most basic cabins.

During our sailing, the line was experimenting with a new entertainment program as well, which when refined will no doubt be expanded fleet-wide.

This ship features 10 restaurants, three swimming pools, a large spa and beautiful public rooms. The ship's new style of accommodations - 10 Courtyard Villas - along with its two Garden Villas comprise the largest, most luxurious and innovative suite complexes at sea ( the entire Jewel Class of ships has similar accommodations). The suite complex has a private courtyard and sundeck with private pool, and both Courtyard Villa and Garden Villa guests have exclusive access to a concierge lounge. Freestyle 2.0 added butler service to the courtyard that Villa passengers share.

Additionally, The Jade features a bar complex where a martini bar, a champagne and wine bar, and a beer and whisky pub all coexist. There are also nine other bars and lounges for passengers to enjoy.

Décor:
The ship's interior design is vibrant -- luxurious in some areas, whimsical in others; eclectic in some areas, and daring in others. As a package, it comes together beautifully to establish a comfortable and welcoming "Aloha Spirit" for the ship. How well that translates for Mediterranean sailings I'm not sure. The colors of Hawaii are everywhere: fuchsia, sea blues, greens, yellows and vivid reds abound and surround, in everything from carpet and wall treatments to elaborate glass ceilings and light fixtures. While one won't be wowed with understated elegance on this ship, it does somehow exude an energy, a feeling of coming to life.

Public Rooms:

The Stardust Theater, the main entertainment venue, features dramatic masks inspired by Greek theater, though they look more Venetian. The mask theme continues throughout the room, from the stage curtains to the carpet. The royal blue and gold theater-style seats bedazzle the eye.

The Spinnaker Lounge's aquatic theme has carpet of oceanic waves complete with swimming fish, white egg-cup barstools, and maple cocktail tables topped with green-tinted glass tops. Medusa's Lounge has vivid purple couches and orange chairs atop a starfish carpet; enormous jellyfish glass decorations confuse the design even further. Medusa's is the ship's Karaoke venue; it's also used for various game days with passengers playing Wii. Just off of Medusa's are several rooms available for private gatherings to sing Karaoke or play Wii games on large flat-screen TVs. Bar City is a conglomerate of adjacent bars: Magnum's Champagne and Wine Bar, Mixer's Martinis and Cocktail Bar, and Tankards Beer and Whiskey Bar. Bar City has a very "uptown" atmosphere, and is a central drawing point for late-evening nightlife. All the bars share the entertainment provided by a sole piano player.

In the central lobby area opposite the guest relations desk, the Aloha Bar features comfortable wicker style chairs and tables; guests can purchase premium brand coffees and pastries, as well as drinks. In the evenings, a classical quartet soothes the guests.

Chairs & Loungers		in Spinnakers Nightclub

Plush queen-size loungers in Medusas		A king-size lounge-bed in Medusas

Cuisine:
The food quality, variety, and taste is better in the restaurants that carry a cover charge. However, NCL's $55 million commitment to the food department is already showing improvements to cuisine throughout the ship. The key to taking full enjoyment from your NCL cruise is Freestyle Dining; as part of this, you should plan on sampling the surcharge restaurants. When pricing your Jade cruise, mentally add $100 - $120 per person to the quote. If that deal is still attractive, book and enjoy all that Jade has to offer.

Restaurants:
The two main dining rooms are the Grand Pacific and the Alizar. Other dining options include a French restaurant, Le Bistro; the Asian Fusion Restaurant, Jasmine Garden; Teppanyaki, with Benihana-style Japanese tabletop cooking (where the theater of preparation is a large part of the dining experience); the Steakhouse, Cagney's; a casual Italian trattoria, Papa's Italian Kitchen; a Tex-Mex, tapas and salsa restaurant, Paniolo; the buffet restaurant, Garden Café; and the outdoor portion, not surprisingly called the Great Outdoor Café; as well as a 24-hour restaurant with American comfort foods, the Blue Lagoon.

Grand Pacific is inspired by the first-class dining rooms on the Matson Line ships that once sailed from San Francisco to Honolulu. Artwork around the room, featuring paintings of traditional Polynesian life, is derived from the Matson Line menu covers. The Alizar is smaller and much simpler in decor, but features the same menu.

Garden Court Carving Station		Outdoor Grill near Garden Cafe

Teppenaki Japanese Restaurant		Le Bistro

Reservations-only restaurants with a cover charge include Cagney's Steakhouse, decorated with palomino-style leather chairs in yellow and black; Paniolo Tapas Bar & Restaurant, which takes its name from the Hawaiian cattle ranchers known as paniolos at the Parker Ranch on the Big Island; Jasmine Garden, the Asian Fusion restaurant with a good variety of seafood selections and teriyaki meats; and Papa's Italian Kitchen, where they custom build your pizza and offer a wide selection of Italian pastas and meats, as well as a delightful antipasto cart brought to the table.

If something lighter than a full menu in the dining room is more your style, there is the Garden Cafe on the Lido deck, which also serves as an evening casual restaurant. Food is served fresh from "action stations" as part of the Freestyle 2.0 program. Weather permitting, there are frequent barbecues on deck, particularly in the afternoon when passengers return from port visits. The ice cream bar dishes up sundaes, sherbets, and plain old ice cream.

NCL is presently evaluating and changing the costs of the surcharge restaurants, so specific pricing information may be inaccurate. At this writing, surcharges vary from $10 to $30 per person, depending on the restaurant.

Electronic displays located next to all restaurant entrances show which restaurants have space available, and which may be full. If you'll have to wait, you're given a pager that will flash when your table is ready. On our sailing, I rarely saw a line for any restaurants.

Service:
With the change from Pride of Hawaii's American crew to the Jade's more traditional international crew, service is very much in line with what one would expect on any of the mass market lines. I found the crew friendly and eager to please.

Tipping:
$10 per adult per day and $5 per child are added to your folio automatically. Fifteen percent is automatically added to bar bills and spa services. NCL suggests that concierges and butlers be tipped separately in accordance with the services they provide.

Entertainment:
During our cruise, the Jade was experimenting with a new entertainment program that will be tweaked and adjusted until they feel it's set well enough to expand fleet-wide.

Gone are the familiar poolside cruise doings, replaced by a program of almost non-stop activities throughout the day -- including a variety of seminars dubbed NCL U, covering topics ranging from "Beers, Margaritas and Martinis" to educational lectures on digital photography, or lessons in Improv relating to every day life (led by the Second City Comedy Troupe onboard).

With the new entertainment program, the Second City Comedy Troupe appears in a variety of forms almost every night in the Spinnaker Lounge, now dubbed the Spinnaker Cabaret.

On evenings that Second City isn't performing in the Cabaret, there's an interactive evening with a production of Tony and Tina's Wedding, and another night there's NCL's new White Hot Party Night. The White Hot Party will soon be found throughout the fleet; on Jade, the cabaret was filled with passengers dressed in white (with White Hot T-shirts available for sale in the hallway in case you didn't pack white), led by the energetic cruise staff in a frenzied disco party.

Another initiative, Monte Carlo Night in the casino, was promoted extensively, and though the cruise staff dressed up as showgirls, jokers, etc, to energize the place, I think it struck most passengers as simply an attempt to draw people into the casino.

Over time, I'm sure they'll determine which activities are popular with the passengers and which are not, and try some new things to replace them. But inevitably this program will spread throughout the fleet, as it builds on the "Freestyle" idea. There was so much going on around the ship that there was no way I could even get a peek at everything, let alone participate in it all.

Those who want to stay busy all the time won't be disappointed with the Jade, and those who want to enjoy the sun and the ship, without getting involved, certainly won't have trouble doing so.

Cabins:
For upscale luxury, check out the ship's two Garden Villas. Each one offers more than 4,390 sq. ft. of luxury living, complete with butler and concierge service. Every villa has three bedrooms, each with a king or queen-size bed and private luxury bath, and access to a private courtyard with pool, hot tub and sundeck. The villas also include a cappuccino machine.

There are two Owner's Suites and 10 Courtyard Villas, where you have to settle for sharing a beautiful courtyard area with pool, hot tub and sundeck with a select few of your fellow passengers.

Also available are Penthouse Suites, Romance Suites, Mini-suites with private balconies, Ocean View cabins with balconies, standard Ocean View staterooms, and inside staterooms. The ship also offers 27 state-of-the-art wheelchair and handicapped-accessible cabins. The top suites come with their own espresso machines, and all staterooms have in-cabin coffee makers (which I found came in surprisingly handy, even though free room service was available).

The Freestyle 2.0 upgrades shine through in the top 48 suites on the ship. They have been furnished with the "Bliss Collection" of new bedding, which includes Euro-top mattresses, a full pillow menu, and down filled duvets.

The courtyard for the Courtyard Villas now has a butler to attend to your every need, and also offers small versions of the buffet's action stations and snacks. Also included with these suites is access to a private dining area accessed electronically by inserting your cabin card. This room is available to suite passengers for breakfast and lunch, offering made-to-order items from a menu as well as a small buffet. Morning breakfast portions seemed small, but they were more than happy to double them up on request.

There is plenty of choice in standard cabin categories. The standard cabins are a bit small by industry standards, but well designed, with cherrywood veneers and bright, colorful décor. I particularly liked the bathroom design, with a toilet separated from the central washbasin by a sliding glass door, and the shower with a sliding glass door opposite. The Jade also has quite a selection of family-friendly connecting staterooms, including some family suites.

The mattresses in the standard cabin, while not furnished with the Bliss Collection, came with upgraded bedding and duvets, and a body-forming foam cover above the mattresses.

I did have two issues with the cabins -- at least my standard balcony cabin. The lighting was lacking, making the cabin interior very dim, and there didn't seem to be (at least I never found it) a single switch to turn off the various lights in the cabin.

My other problem was with the tables in the cabin. Both the night stands and the "desk" were more like simple tabletops on chrome stands. None had drawers or storage space, and the desk chair is really more like a kitchen chair.

The ship's public rooms have WiFi access, but for in-cabin computer use you'll need to bring along a cable to connect.

Owner's Suite		Owner's Suite Dining Area

Bar and Bedroom Entrance		Master Bedroom

Private Pool Deck		View from other end

Outdoor Balinese Beds		Cabanas surround the pool

Fitness/Spa:
The Pool Deck, Sports Deck and Sun Deck are expansive, and sheltered from the wind. You'll enjoy the views they offer as you sail into a spectacular port. Forward on the Pool Deck, the fitness center has one room filled (too filled, in fact!) with up-to-date equipment (and a view), and another for aerobics classes. The free weights area can accommodate only one buff person at a time. A full-size basketball/volleyball/tennis court on the Sports Deck, two golf driving ranges, a batting cage, jogging track and aerobics classes scheduled throughout the day round out the program.

The Steiner-run Ying & Yang Health Spa & Beauty Salon includes massage and steam rooms. Some of the "traditional" massage treatments they claim to offer are derivatives and may not be as authentic as those offered by therapists who practice the disciplines in their native habitat. Also note that the service fees in the Spa include a space for an additional tip -- but that does not go directly to your therapist (it is pooled), so if you want to tip your therapist, take cash.

Kids:
Norwegian Jade is wild about them, as witness: interconnecting cabins, a kids-only pool and water slide, and the Splashdown Kid's Club, featuring a kid cinema and video arcade. Where most at-sea children's programs turn their backs on the under-threes, NCL welcomes even those in their terrible twos.

In addition to selections from their own menu, young passengers can eat hot dogs and chicken nuggets in the Kid's Corner buffet, with mini stools and low tables. The complimentary Kid's Crew program is organized by age group: Junior Sailors (2 - 5), First Mates (6 - 9), Navigators (10 - 12) and Teens (13 - 17). Families can gather in the Card Room for a game of Monopoly or Clue, sing together during family karaoke night, or compete in a "Family Feud" game show.

Attire:
"Freestyle Cruising" means you can get as dressed up -- or down -- as you please. It doesn't mean that you're free to wear shorts in restaurants or public areas after 6 p.m.

There are several nights designated as Formal, though dressing formally is entirely the option of the passenger. I was indeed surprised that perhaps up to 30 percent of the passengers on our cruise did wear suits or even tuxedos on Formal Nights.

Tipping:
NCL charges $10 per day per passenger to your shipboard account, the same as other cruise lines. However, on NCL the charge is referred to as a "service fee" and unlike other lines, NCL guests cannot have the charge removed.