Dining on NCL Jade

[oceanbill457]

My wife and I completed the British Isles cruise this past Sunday. The service in almost all the dining venues was very poor. Our first night we dined in Le Bistro. There were very few diners, yet the service was spotty at best. We hoped this was an anomaly, but the next night we dined in Alizar and once again the service wasn't good. The next morning we decided to have breakfast in Osheehan's. After waiting 15 minutes for our order to be taken , I inquired about the service. Almost immediately, Dusan, a maitre'd intervened and personally delivered our breakfast. He later intervened to assist us on two occasions at other venues. We acknowledged his professional service onboard. One morning , we decided to have breakfast in the Grand Pacific. We noted the food service for all guests in our area was slow. Then our waiter began serving the guests, and we observed meals being delivered to guests behind us who arrived ten minutes after us. It turned out our breakfast was delivered to those guests. The waiter then realized this, and apologized profusely. Dusan was on duty and again delivered our meals. If this feels rambling, I apologize. Things didn't improve much on the rest of the cruise with one or two exceptions. This despite sometimes half empty specialty restaurants. My wife and I have sailed on five Oceania cruise, Oceania is owned by NCL. The service was almost always impeccable, and the food exceptional. Perhaps NCL needs to borrow some of that expertise. It seemed to be a coordination problem between the galleys and servers. On previous cruises, we received evaluation forms one or two days prior to the end of the cruise. When I inquired at Guest Services, I was told, I would receive an email survey. I have yet to receive that survey . I highly doubt the results of these surveys can correct shipboard deficiencies, since they can't be timely. We chose this cruise because of the wonderful itinerary. We enjoyed the port visits, and good service by our steward, and bar personnel. Sadly, the cruise was marred by the food service.

[ElaineKeagy]

Go back to Oceania. Much better service.

 

 

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[Jldevlin]

We were on this cruise as well and found the opposite of your experience ...Fast service everywhere ...one night we were out of Cagneys in 45 minutes !!!!!

[smithop]

How was the quality of the food, were you satisfied?

 

I think I would have gone down to the guest services desk and requested a change in gratuities, cutting them in half to 10%. That is what I do for poor service in a land based restaurant. If the food is bad quality but good service then I tip normally but don’t go back - its not the servers fault. This would have given you the opportunity to offer feedback that the service was bad.

 

 

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[Itchy&Scratchy]

Go back to Oceania. Much better service.

honestly, you can't compare the prices/luxury level of the two....

[Oakman58]

Sorry you had such a bad experience. My wife and I were on this same cruise and didn’t experience any of the issues you did. Quite the contrary, we had excellent service not only in the restaurants but also in the bars. Of the cruises we’ve taken this one was our best experience. I do know that some passengers were unhappy since I saw the maitre’d at the Alizar restaurant getting chewed out by passengers on two separate nights. Cruise line employees that deal directly with the passengers have a tough job and I personally could never do it. I doubt I would lase one week working on a cruise ship.

Everything on our cruise wasn’t perfect but it was probably as close as any ship could come. My biggest disappointment was not making Edinburgh due to high wind and waves, but things like that happen when Mother Nature is in charge.

By the way, I received a post survey email from NCL on Oct 1st.

[oceanbill457]

I received my post cruise email today after I had written my review. Here were my choices:

1.Rate and Review a Shore Excursion that you recently experienced, and help other cruisers better enjoy their vacation.

2.We love to hear all about your travels throughout the world with Norwegian Cruise Line and this is your chance to tell everyone.

3.Need answers? See questions that have been answered by past cruisers or post a question of your own.

No where was I given an opportunity to comment on service during the cruise. This hardly seems like a valid critique. My wife and I are not demanding people. We never banged fists or berated the servers. I'm glad some guests got good service. Our experiences were different. Oceania did not have this itinerary this year. I would have gladly paid more for a more pleasurable experience.

[Oakman58]

I received my post cruise email today after I had written my review. Here were my choices:

1.Rate and Review a Shore Excursion that you recently experienced, and help other cruisers better enjoy their vacation.

2.We love to hear all about your travels throughout the world with Norwegian Cruise Line and this is your chance to tell everyone.

3.Need answers? See questions that have been answered by past cruisers or post a question of your own.

No where was I given an opportunity to comment on service during the cruise. This hardly seems like a valid critique. My wife and I are not demanding people. We never banged fists or berated the servers. I'm glad some guests got good service. Our experiences were different. Oceania did not have this itinerary this year. I would have gladly paid more for a more pleasurable experience.

 

Yes, I received that email today also but that is not the post cruise survey email. My guess is you're not going to get the survey. Make what you will of that.

[oceanbill457]

I guess they could somehow intuit my survey would be negative. It appears this email survey method may be unique to NCL. It would certainly be more useful to the ship to receive real time feedback; as was done in the past..

[littlelulu01]

One thing I find helpful is to request the same servers. We just got off the Bliss. Had lunch first day in one of the mdrs. It definitely pushed us to purchase a dining package. We had excellent service first night at Le Bistro. We asked servers schedule and then had the hostess book our remaining nights with same server. On the longer Jade sailings this is really beneficial. The right server makes a big difference. Sorry about your experience. It’s hit or miss with mdr dining- so much that we’ve given up on it. But specialty dining, especially Le Bistro should be excellent food and service.