It's a long story, but I was on a two week Med cruise on Jade two weeks ago (my first NCL Freestyle cruise) and I then 'won' (yes won) the mini-cruise!

All I can say is the atmosphere was somewhat different on the full length cruise. The mini-cruise was much more of a party/booze cruise. Strangely even though the ship was probably full for both cruises, the mini-cruise seemed so much more crowded!

I've never done Carnival cruise, but RCI and NCL spend a lot of energy trying to extract your cash from your wallet. That's how they can offer some low fares. Yes, the mass-market lines are a bit like Butlins. If you want an upmarket experience you have to pay a lot more and go with Cunard or similar.

Sorry to hear that you got a bug!

[ 06-29-2008: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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Originally posted by viking109:
Probably not helped by someone I witnessed dip her finger in the salad dressing to decide wether or not she wanted it.

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That is disgusting... worse than the woman [actually I've seen a number of people do it], pick up a roll and squeeze, say too hard/soft, and try the next one.. yeuch. Sorry you aren't well.

These 2 nighters are enough to see a ship and that's it. As far as the 'cruise experience' goes they do not match up at all. I hardly think my recent 2 nighter on Oceana with blow up dolls [& other items], is the norm for a P&O cruise. Note P&O are now calling them Party Cruises, instead of Weekenders. People just rush around trying to cram everything possible into 2 nights/one day.

I go on these to see ships I don't want to sail for a week on, or to see those I am not likely to get a chance to sail for longer on. Satisfies the curiousity

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Originally posted by PamM:
People just rush around trying to cram everything possible into 2 nights/one day.

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Yes, that made the Jade seem crowded on the 2 nighter. Everyone went to the shows, booked an alternative dining room and all went to the Disco etc.

On a two week cruise, people have time to pick and choose what they did, so spread out making the ship seem less crowded.

[ 07-10-2008: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

Many of the cabins seemed to be at full occupancy, mainly with a full complement of adults rather than children so this probably didn't help with capacity especially inside the ship in the evening. The ship seems well designed for outdoor cruising and the weather wasn't particuly cooperative to allow the outside space to be fully utilised.

We spoke to a number of people who had cruised before. Many, like us had booked to try NCL out to see if they liked it and the opinion was universally no.

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Originally posted by richard_maidment:
We spoke to a number of people who had cruised before. Many, like us had booked to try NCL out to see if they liked it and the opinion was universally no.

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As I've already said, the problem is that a two day experience is very different form a two week one - and so are many of the passengers.

In two days you do not have time to sample the 13 dining options and probably would not even get the hang of navigating your way around the ship. In fact you would probably be in a permanent state of confusion due to information overload.

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the problem is that a two day experience is very different form a two week one - and so are many of the passengers.

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Malcolm I''m sure you're right, this cruise was heavily discounted being comparable in price to a ferry trip and attracted a different crowd than we're used to.

Fair comment! Did you try any alternative (additional charge) dining?

Lumping three of the bars together just made for one huge mega noisy area and therefore they could not really be classed as separate bar areas.

I did not like that design aspect much. I like a range of bars that are seperate spaces with walls.

Strangely, these bars were not as noisey and as crowded on the longer cruise.

The deck surface is interesting, sort of like a plastic concrete finish.

Yes, like sand-paper.

I had wanted to try out a modern cruise ship ( so that I don't have to keep living in the past ) , but even taking into account that it was only two days, was hugely disappointed and have to say that it seemed more like a giant cross channel ferry.

Unfortunately, I would say that the newer NCL ships and newer RCI ships are state-of-the-art in terms of modern design. What I dislike the most about the mass market ships is their 'Hard-sell' of the onboard services and the mainly 'chav' entertainment. Of course if you want a more upmarket experience you ned to pay more - NCL have been offering 14 night ex UK cruises for £799 which is very cheap by UK standards.

Did you see the 'Mod' show onboard? I was not that impressed and it was by far the best one offered over the two weeks! RCI have better production shows, though.

The QM2 is a 'newish' ship well worth a try.

[ 07-16-2008: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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Originally posted by viking109:
Malcolm - Tried out the Jasmine Garden which actually was quite good...

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I liked it too! All of the chargeable dining rooms were very good.

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Originally posted by viking109:
I was amazed at the staggering number of cctv cameras on board.

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The Captain did a Q&A on the Med cruise and was asked about them. He joked that they were everywhere apart from in the cabins. He said there were 1000.

I believe that all the major cruise lines do this now to combat assaults on staff, theft, vandalism, improve security and to record other serious incidents such as man overboard for legal evidence. It's a sign of the times! Personally I don’t feel intimidated, I feel a little more secure.

All in all we loved the Gem, primarily for the sheer choice of dinning experiences. Although most carried a cover, we were more than happy to pay that bearing in mind the quality of the food, which was excellent. The main dinning outlets were included in the initial cost of the cruise, and although no Azamara, on the whole they were also good, we seemed to have faired better in this respect than yourself Malcolm on your Longer Jade cruise.

The Gem never felt crowded over the 11 nights we were on her, in fact we remarked that it seemed less crowed than the RCCL cruises we have done, especially so when compared the the Navigator and the Mariner of the Seas.

I have to agree with Pam that two nighters are not the best way to assess the general feel of a ship. We learn't that the hard way by two very poor weekenders with P&O, which to be honest has put us off from taking a longer trip with them, although recent reviews havn't exactly helped either.

For us star class has a lot to offer, wrap around deck, rear facing alfresco dining area, varied dinnig, excellent theatre(entertainment not as good as RCCL} etc. so much so that we have booked another week on her in October, something we do not normally do{repeat a good cruise experience}.

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Originally posted by CliveB:
I'm on the Jade for a two nighter next week, back to back with a two nighter on the QM2, with a night in the Grand Harbour in between, both ships new to me.

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That should prove interesting Clive! The two ships are almost beyond comparison.

The QM2 is an astonishing ship and most aspects of the Cunard experience are quite a few notches above the NCL/Jade experience, in terms of quality. The food and service in the ‘Britannia’ dining room is usually on a par with Jades chargeable options. I bet two nights on the QM2 nights will only wet your appetite and you will have to go on her again.

Jade of course offers a contemporary mass market experience with some attractive fares. (Six nights on board the QM2 in an inside cabin can cost as much as an Ocean view on Jade for two weeks). However you do get what you pay for!

I did enjoy exploring ‘Jades’ multitude of dining options and Freestyle worked for me. Much of her Hawaiian décor remains. Personally I would recommend both ships, depending on what you required and how much you wanted to spend.

Are these the Freestyle 2.0 enhancements?

[ 07-10-2008: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

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Originally posted by viking109:
I'm going to have to add not particularly free or stylish in general. By the way my wife asked if I could see the doctor. Yes, but it would cost $120 and I would have to go and find him.
I suppose this is the norm on most ships, even though my food poisoning I am sure came courtesy of NCL.

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Originally posted by viking109:
...even though my food poisoning I am sure came courtesy of NCL.

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I did Jade last weekend and preferred her to Gem. The Pride of Hawai'i remnants make her different to the rest and she's less gaudy in decor. I had none of the problems anyone else did. It was a fantastic weekend, crew were immensely friendly and I was sad to get off. There were a few drunks and hen parties aboard. Some had stayed awake all Saturday night and a stupid women in an evening dress climbed into the hot tub at 5am. Souvenir tat was dreadful. Her list was excellent! When she turned she went over more than Independence OTS! Glad there's no Bliss. That also makes her different. One thing I really didn't like was the racket from other cabins and above. We were on Deck 11 and it was dreadful listening to people running about on the deck above when you're trying to sleep. When are they going to put in soundproofing? That's my only real complaint. Porterage (unlike Dover) and refreshments laid on by NCL in the terminal (unlike Dover) were a bonus. I was dreading lugging everything on. I'd definitely go on a longer one.

Oh, I though the symptoms wre similar?

A question about the previous short. Did you have proper luggage tags or those cut out paper ones? We had cut out but noticed some had coloured.

Glad that you enjoyed the experience, Patsy.

For the longer cruise my TA sent a ticket and proper tags. For the short one it was an e-ticket and paper tags (...but I had a couple of real tags left from the full cruise).

I've written a ridiculously long review of my two week Med cruise on Jade: Here

[ 07-16-2008: Message edited by: Malcolm @ cruisepage ]

We could collect tags on the last night for putting cases out and they had all the different colours per deck. Not many did it though. I hate those paper ones you have to somehow attach. Pam had a broken stapler but it did the job.

I did and am trying to persuade Rowan to go on one. Won't be until 2011 though as she's not doing anything next year and we want to go back to Norway in 2010. Unless I can persuade her hubby to let her two two trips.