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Norwegian Epic

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Wonderful experience

Melbourne

The good: The ship is in great condition in all common areas. we had great weather once outside of Tampa. No issues with sailing. Disembarkation was quick we got off at 8:30 am without effort. I'm focusing review on food and entertainment since these are hot button issues currently.

The Bad:  The food on this ships sailing was a C- in the buffet and the MDR.  The overall vibe was that NCL reviewed every dining option, menu and production and cut everything back by either elimination of item, decreasing quality of ingredients, eliminating items that are popular with guests, eliminating items that involve increased staff time to prepare or serve.  What remains is rationed and portioned by the staff. 

Generally, if you cruised NCL before you first realize all the typical cruise items that are missing from the ship: cookies, quality ingredients, hot desserts anywhere, extremely small portions of served items. I can list examples but you can get the general gist of the situation.  

Buffet: items gone are charcuterie not just basic 2 cheese slices, mortadella (available every day), Pork Salami (?) this is the charcuterie now.  The salad bar is only 6 to 8 bowls which is just basic iceberg lettuce, carrots, onions, cauliflower, broccoli . And you get TWO choices of salad dressing . That's it.  some days a new item pops out and one disappears. but no basic salad bar compliments like bacon, olives, radishes, celery, sesame seeds. not even croutons and so on.  I use this as an example how something so simple was knocked down to the most basic level.

Meatballs this is one of the items that would be repeated up to 4 times in one meal on buffet: grilled meatballs, cold meatballs and broth, meatballs in tomato sauce, BBQ meatballs.  and if you didn't get it enough it served another day too. 

Hardly any fish.  NO COOKIES  EVER! Cookie gate.

Carvery was serving bologna tube ( I'm not kidding), Pressed meatloaf , roast chicken etc.  When something was offered like fresh turkey the staff would carve a piece 1 inch long and ask you to come back for more.

Desserts:  well if you like pound cake, jello cubes and slices of watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe your in luck. this was served every single day 2 x day. the other desserts were the same base yellow/white cake with white shortening frosting. the only difference is if it was called Pina Colada it had yellow sauce on it. If it was strawberry it had red sauce and so forth. No more then 3 types and one chocolate offering.  It looked like a dessert station from an AYCE Chinese buffet. 

In the ethnic section they had a stir fry set up on the endcap with pan, oils, sauces.Yum! but wait its ONLY FOR LOOKS! they aren't offering it its just filling a hole in the display. in this regard there where a lot of holes on the buffet table because they didn't have enough food out for guest.  Once a certain allotment of food was out it was gone.  Side note: I witnessed   a waiter filling up the coffee pot to pour at guest tables.  He filled the carafe with hot coffee from the machine and then took two cups of hot water and dumped it in the pot.  Even the coffee was watered down if you got it from staff.   Anyhow you get the gist. In O'sheehans I order a sausage slider it came it was 2 quarter size slices on a roll , the popular carrot walnut cake has been swapped out for a flavorless carrot cake. I  ordered spring rolls as an app in Jasmines it came as 1 roll, if you shared you had to cut it in half or order another. Just cheap all around. 

MDR: only ate twice. no lobster night on 7 day cruise.  It was obvious that reduced wait staff in dining room as wait times longest I have every waited on a NCL for a 2 top (more on this later) at one point we had 13 guests ahead of us. The MDR menus are uninspired and repetitive.  Service is wham bam since there is no assistant waiter but a food runner the main waiter does it all: take orders, take drink orders, fill water, clear table etc.  No chit chat just hello and order and serve. It was hard to decide what to eat because the choices were just so Blah.  But a theme emerged here in just two nights. smaller portions, minimal dishes that require production or extra staff hands. No offer of parmesan cheese for salad or pasta, no cracked pepper, no cleaning of table before dessert etc etc. Also No hot desserts such as creme Brule, lava cake, crisps, souffles just cold cakes, pound cakes and they are frozen absolutely aren't made on board. maybe decorated but not produced. The main entree were simple and straightforward and edible but nothing I couldn't make myself. Side note: La cucina you can no only order 1 item on the left side of menu and 1 item off the right.  That's it.  Price of meal was 108.00 (yeah right) for 2 apps and 2 entree . my antipasti was 1 piece of cheese, 2 olives, 1 slice of salami, breadstick if anything cant remember it just pare for course it seems. 

Entertainment: Another new low for NCL. on this ship we only had 1 show in the theater at night. At 9 pm 4 x wk a MOVIE was scheduled.  The show times were either at 7, 7:30, 8, 8:15 and had no consistency. So like us if you expected two showtimes a night and you already made specialty dining or MDR reservations you were out of luck on seeing the entertainment.  This also created a massive influx of guests slamming the dining room prior to showtimes and making the dining room back up. This really made a lot of cruisers mad.  What was onboard was a magician - repeated 3 times or more, Elements and Blazing Boots (which repeated on 2 separate nights, elements  2 shows on the last night)an acrobat that rotated. Just no consistency in the show schedule and the dining schedule.  

WHEEL OF FORTUNE - 

If this is the future of entertainment. God help us.  Don't go expecting a real life stage production of the T.V show ala Carnivals 

Family Feud on Vista class or any RC  game show. This was an embarrassment.  it is a pure cash grab.  The show is a a windows 97 slide projection of the wheel fortune on a movie screen. It looked like someone created it in the backroom.  3 contestants stand on the stage at a 4 foot podium and "play" the game with the cruise director.  You have to pay to play.  People were walking out. It was boring and cheap.  Don't believe the marketing hype. it was pure garbage.

 Not much else in entertainment if you missed the show you had the casino, or 3 hours of karaoke, or some musicians around the ship until the club got going at 10:30pm or 12 depending on the night. yes, had the typical glow party and one or two other events but many hours at night to pass. 

Free at sea drink 

Still a lot of out of stock on beers and liquors as the cruised progressed. Many people upset as even items like Coors light wasn't in stock.  Many of the cocktails are pre made and before anyone argues or disagrees you have to pay attention to what the bartender is doing.  IF you order a Long island Ice tea all the alcohol is premixed in a branded liqueur bottle and only the coke is added to it.  Same at martini bar all the NCL cocktails are premixed only dumped in shaker to ice it and then poured in glass.  All the Drinks of the Day are premixed and stored old  flora de cana bottles and just dumped in glass.  Very few NCL drinks are made are handcrafted.  If you order a specific drink and specific liquor they would make it fresh.  If you order a Bullet old fashioned you will get that. IF you ordered just an old fashion you got the bottom shelf liquor. This was for any all drinks. 

The mojito bar doesn't even make real mojitos anymore.  The two drinks I  ordered were premade and mint was stuck on top for garnishing.  No muddling of the mint for mojito. Just premixed and garnished. Time saving and cost effective and guarantee you wont order another! Money saved!  Also the spirit list readjusted so that some common alcohols are now in the premium package such as Woodford reserve, crown royal, some vodkas etc.  Likely not a game changer for a non drinker but if you appreciate handcrafted cocktails you will have to make an effort to order specific drinks and locate a conscious bartender.  Some of them just toss bottom shelf liquor together with juices, sodas, waters and push it out. 

Will I go on NCL again? Probably not in the Caribbean as so much competition likely its not worth there price point as of now. Maybe in Europe or elsewhere if its port intensive and not much time is on the ship.  

As a sidenote: I sailed this same ship but in Greece in 2023 and the experience was the complete opposite of what we experienced now in  2024.

The Jade is no jewel

An entire week of our toilet not flushing and flooding. Spent half our vacation at the service desk trying to get our toilet fixed. Then on the last day Norwegian offered a room change...when we would be getting off the ship the next day. Multiple times we had to get up in the middle of the night and use a public washroom on another floor. What a nightmare. How is this acceptable for what is meant to be a luxury vacation?

I always did like Norwegian (I'm a silver latitudes member so I've been on a few now) but wow have they ever gone down hill. The food has gone from a 10 to a 5. They put out the same food in the buffet constantly. No variety at all. And the main dining room food is average tasting food to say the least. Customer service was also terrible. Hard to even get a smile out of some people. Not to mention, most of the staff can barely speak English. Doesn't make for a great experience when you can't even have a conversation. Not sure where the comedy shows went either? 

Terrible cruise. Done with Norwegian now and onto better cruise lines.

Well as a huge fan of the Jade and loyal NCL cruiser I can not argue with a lot of the recent negative reviews. My travel group came with an open mind but we feel very let down by NCL. They have obviously cut back on many things however, there short sighted savings will actually cost them more as loyal customers go elsewhere. The buffet has very little choice with the same dishes repeated many times. I will say however that the main dining room still has a high quality of food and plenty of attentive staff. This can not be said for other areas onboard. One area in need of huge improvement is the bar service and staff allocated. You seem to wait in line to be served everywhere you go with very few bar staff run off their feet and obviously stressed out. Maybe this is due to the increased uptake of drinks packages as everybody seems to have one on this cruise. Some bars cope better than others. Some form a line right to left for serving. Others it’s just a free for all where many inconsiderate people just dive in and shout louder than others to jump the line! Some staff are still absolutely fabulous but others just don’t want to be there and it is like you are invisible to them. With regards to customer service, my elderly mother (recovering from recent illness and surgery) was in a room where the toilet flush kept breaking down. You do not pay huge amounts of money for a vacation to then have to get dressed to find a public restroom at 0230 in the morning because the one in your cabin does not work. This was not a one off either, this happened the first four nights! Eventually my mother was at breaking point and went to guest service saying she wanted to get off the ship and leave the cruise as this was all too upsetting for her ( those of you with gall bladder removal will understand the need for a flushing toilet) Guest services said she did not have to leave and they would move her room and would leave a voicemail in her cabin to notify. On returning from an excursion there was no voicemail or message on door etc so back to guest services we go! Now we are told there are no rooms available. Well my mother now in tears again was distraught so we asked for the ship to delay leaving port so we could pack our things and get off! All of a sudden they found a room for her to move to! What a disgusting way to treat an elderly lady that through no fault of her own just wanted to have a cabin with a working toilet. Since the move she has enjoyed her vacation so much more. Not that NCL care about that, at NO point has anybody contacted her to see if things are now ok. No apology, no offer of a meal for all she went through etc. Sometimes in life it’s the tiny thoughts that make a difference and obviously Norwegian just don’t have any regard for their customers anymore. One final note. I don’t know if the cruise lines pay different rates at ports for where they dock etc but I have never been on a cruise where we alway dock so far out from where all the port facilities are. Very long walks in the hot sun with no transport put on so difficult for those with walking issues. They score their excursions on how physical they are on the body etc, maybe they should start doing this for their ports of call if they are paying the cheapest rates for docks miles away. So despite sticking with NCL throughout the pandemic, we still cruised and went through all the stress of tests and masks etc they are now saving on costs with both staff numbers and onboard quality in many areas including things that cost no money like, how are you? So for us, we shall be leaving with a very dissatisfied taste in our mouths and will take our money back to Royal Caribbean( who will probably end up buying out NCL in the long run) as the drop in standards will lead to a drop in loyal customers who leave when they no longer feel valued and witness the drop themselves.

Huge drop in quality at NCL

Went on this cruise because we had been on the Jade before and it was really fantastic.Hmmm well not any more really disappointing, the food was just awful and very repetitive,hardly any choice,there was just nothing that I could say I enjoyed.its really sad as I was really looking forward to it.

All the staff seemed fed up as though they didn’t want to be there,I was not happy as the toilet didn’t flush as it should,I reported it three times,look I am nearly 75 and not in the habit of telling lies, The guest relations said I had only reported it twice (WRONG) I am not stupid might be old but I know how often I reported it.

Well can you imagine having to get up and go to a toilet at 3am  having had an operation a few months ago .to cut a long story short they finally moved me but not before a lot of hassle.i love cruising,but this has really put me off ,does any one care any,more I think not what a sorry state the world is in. The Jade was my favourite ship but that’s it no longer, agree or disagree that’s up to you but,no one will change my mind and it is so sad to feel this way,after cruising all this time with Norwegian all these years and being a platinum cruiser it’s the end for me,wake up NORWEGIAN or you will lose more cruisers I and my family have well had enough and left, bye bye

So sad

Where do I begin:

Bad food, lack of dining space, high prices for everything including tips and surcharges.  Two good restaurants:  The buffet and Murano (with additional charges, expensive).  The room (family room) had a drop down bunk bed.  Had to get onto the bed sideways.  Room very tight to move around; no real place to sit down!  Safe inacessible for a short person (I am 4-11 1/2).  Bathroom was nice; had to get mattress topper to actually sleep on bed.

Dining room had frozen pancakes for breakfast; had to drink decaf tea most times as passenger coffee was burnt and extremely strong Starbuck's coffee.  The cafe (paid) coffee was, however, good!  O'Sheehan's food was not good.

Had Guest Services get us into Alizar dining room.  First day there was a line a block long waiting to get in.  Couldn't get a reservation.  Service was good, but some items ordered never came.  Most days my husband had double portions (i.e. soup, caesar salad, steak, shrimp alfredo and dessert as portions were constantly small..  One day they had a fish dish which advertised as a fresh and sea fish (no such fish).  Another day in the buffet, they had a carving station for meatloaf and another a carved chicken.  However, the food was good in the buffet especially breakfast where they had chefs (2 stations) making omelets and custom egg selections.  Entertainment was minimal and most days hung out in either the casino or the lounge outside the casino playing solitaire on my phone.

As per my husband's cigar bar buddies, food was meh and couldn't find cookies until they asked at dinner for them. Otherwise, you had to pay for them w/ room service.  

Additionally, two ports were dropped.  Booked the cruise because it was out of Tampa and had cigar bar for my husband.

This was the most expensive exercise program I ever had ($1100 for an inside room).  I lost 5 pounds.  Too long (11 days) to be on a ship that was not that enjoyable.  The best part of the cruise was their personnel.  They were eager to help passengers in an above-average manner and always were friendly especially in the casino and buffet.

I love cruising.  It's the ultimate relaxation.  Usually, do not want the cruise to end.  Not this time.

I guess it's back to RCL, Carnival and Princess.

Do Not go on the Jade=-An expensive mistake

We enjoyed our cruise and overall had a good time. The itinerary was great, the crew friendly and helpful, the activities were diversified.

The ship was sold out and very crowded at times, especially the pool and early dining times. Without a reservation the waiting time to enter any Main Dining Room before 8 pm was at least 30 min. Lines to enter MDR would form long before opening time. Once, we managed to enter Alizar before 6 pm to sit at a shared table. We had to wait a long time to be served - left the restaurant after 8 pm, missing the 7 pm show.

It looked like everywhere the number of staff was cut. Not enough waiters, not enough cooks in the kitchen. On average people were waiting half an hour for a drink. We waited more than half an hour for our breakfast to be served (eggs benedict) in Grand Pacific.

Moreover the food was below the past high standards of NCL. The everyday selection in the buffet and MDR was limited. Some of the classic dishes were not prepared correctly, e.g. caprese salad was served with processed mozzarella, not fresh mozzarella. Instead of good quality food like salmon, there was flounder in MDR and generic fish in the buffet. Many dishes were not seasoned properly, mostly not enough salt.

 The food in the specialty restaurants was outstanding and the service superb. But we remember the times when the food and service in MDR was comparable to what we experienced at Cagney's on this cruise.

Embarkation was quite chaotic - the staff ignored boarding times. Disembarkation was smoother.

The food was below the past high standards of NCL.

We’ve sailed with NCL for years, always a great experience. We’ve also cruised with several other lines 

We choose to stay with NCL because of the “freestyle dining” 

We’ve booked the Haven once , the owners suite twice all the others have been suite balcony or standard balcony’s 

We also booked a cruise for the Mediterranean in November prior to boarding the jade … may have to rethink it ! 

We just got off the jade  our first cruise since Covid 

What a complete disappointment.

They changed everything …

 No more “ evening tear down”. 

No more towel animals  which we loved ! 

We seen our room steward on Tuesday when we boarded, then a week later when he brought our laundry back to us and of course this morning when we where leaving    He didn’t clean our cabin one day when we requested and set the marker for room cleaning   Very disappointed 

The food has gone down hill  even at the speciality restaurants   We had 4 dinners and only used 3 

Bar service was a 15 minute wait  in line 

I didn’t see anymore then 4 servers running cocktails at the pool for a full pool deck ? Used to be 15-20 of them 

No white party. Just a very boring dance party 

No Ice sculpture no foodies … nothing but glow sticks ???

My brother in law grabbed some steamed veggies off the deck buffet, where the burgers & hotdogs are   There was a CATERPILLAR IN HIS BROCCOLI 

He brought it to the cooks by the grills …. They did NOT THROW AWAY THE PAN the caterpillar was in 

Just discarded the plate he brought to them 

That’s disgusting

Very disappointed 

This 11 day cruise was a lot of fun. Most of the staff was great. We found the guest service staff not as friendly as the cabin steward, bar and wait staff who were all very friendly. o’Sheenans, which is the only restaurant open after 10 or 11pm,  was not very good. The food was pretty bad and the service was slow and not friendly like the other restaurants on board. The Jasmine was wonderful. Great service and delicious food. The other restaurants were all very good too. 

There were 4 or 5 fantastic shows in the theater and the rest were entertaining but nothing over the top. The smaller bars had some very talented singers as well. We found the activities offered on the ship during the at sea days to be limited. Most revolved around NCL getting you there to sell you something. But our last two days were at sea and by then we had met so many wonderful people we just hung out with them at the pool. The ship was sold out and very crowded at times. Especially the pool and early dining times. 

We found the theater show times of 7:00pm and 9:00 to be a little challenging. 7:00 pm is early when the main dining rooms don’t open till 5:30 . There was about a 30-45 minutes wait almost every night for the main 2 dining rooms if you wanted to eat before 7:30. After that they were more open. We made the best of it and overall had a great time.

Nice size ship

Recently went on a cruise on the Norwegian Jade recommended by friends.

Over all the experience was good except for my stateroom (obstructed view).

I have over 30 years of cruising experience with other cruise lines. And have obstructed view cabins in the past. I was not prepared for the cabin assigned to me. Stateroom had 2 small windows, view being blocked by a lifeboat. I could not see the ocean around this obstruction. With other cruises allowing me to a least see the ocean around the obstruction.

I would not recommend taking a cabin with an obstructed view on Norwegian. Having to pay extra for the obstructed view and extra traveling single.

I had the opportunity to bid for a larger cabin. Which I did. But was not approved. Notified of this decision by Norwegian at 4 pm on the day of the cruise. If I knew of this decision sooner. I could have placed a higher bid or paid for a larger cabin.

Other than this all went well. Embarkation and debarkation went very smoothy. Facial Recognition was used upon debarkation which made this process go very smoothy.

All staff where very courteous and did their jobs as expected.

Meals where above average compared to some other cruise lines. And offered quite a variety. Entertainment  was also good.

Stateroom issue

A mediocre cruise experience overall.  

Pros: Cabin steward did a good job. Nice whiskey selection. Gym is nice (especially the steam sauna in the locker room). Cigar room is great.  Sushi restaurant was pretty good. 

Cons: Food was just ok overall (even in specialty restaurants). Shows in main theater were "meh." The biggest problem was the service in bars and restaurants:  inexplicably, infuriatingly slow. Be prepared to wait 20-30 minutes for a drink. Or, to wait 20 minutes to be seated in a half-empty restaurant.  On past Norwegian cruises, I felt like the staff really tried to make sure the guests were taken care of. On this cruise, it really seemed like many of the staff were in a bad mood, and just didn't care. 

I wrote to NCL customer service; they were dismissive and uninterested.  I've overall really liked Norwegian in the past, but can't imagine sailing with Norwegian again in the future.

Keep your expectations low

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