Any fans of the Jade out there?

[Red-Sol]

Basically  we usually sail on the Breakaway and Breakaway Plus sized ships. There are a couple of sailings I am seriously considering on the Jade but have no familiarity at all with it. For any Jade fans out there tell me what you love about it in order to convince me to give it a try. 😉

 

[roger001]

Spinnaker Lounge and Great Outdoors.  But basically you have certain preferences for cruising, type of onboard activities that make you either a big ship lover or the smaller ship lover.  We prefer the small.  We have no use for all that the big ones offer or the size.  The Jewel class (Jade) are perfect for us.  

[ChiefMateJRK]

6 minutes ago, roger001 said:

Spinnaker Lounge and Great Outdoors. 

This!!!

6 minutes ago, roger001 said:

The Jewel class (Jade) are perfect for us.  

Same here, although so far I've only sailed on the Pearl (twice).  We have B2Bs on the Pearl this fall and the Gem in 2024.  Really looking forward to each.  😎

[dmms]

We did a nine day Italy and Greek Isles sailing on the Jade in 2019 - October before Covid shut down. Had a great time. Yes Spinnaker is a lot of fun! And Bruno the concierge was fabulous! Nice  crew, good ambience. I too like the activity on the larger ships - but for an interesting itinerary the Jade is a good choice. No complaints at all.

[MichiganBound]

Jade was my first NCL cruise ship and it remains my favorite.  Jewel class contain the perfect sized ships for me.  I don't need all the bells and whistles of the larger class NCL ships: go-carts, climbing walls, giant water slides, etc.  As long as I have a nice cabin, multiple bars/restaurants, a nice thermal suite, and a casino...I'm good to go.  As others have noted, The Great Outdoors and The Spinnaker Lounge are highlights!

[Red-Sol]

A couple other comments/questions from me.

One of the attractions for me for the bigger ships was the type of entertainment they had. Over the years we have seen some really good shows. I am assuming that Jewel Class ships don't have quite the Style/class of entertainment...but is it at least decent? We aren't any type of Broadway Theater snobs and are easy to please if it is at least halfway decent.

Like most of you have already mentioned..we don't have any need for go-karts, water slides, rope courses yada yada...but one area we did get a lot of use out of was Spice H2O...Is there anything like that on Jewel Class ships?

If things ever return to complete normalcy I am assuming that the Jewel Class ships might appeal more to those more mature and graying people (ahem like me...at least as far as age is concerned 🤣) and less to families with kids...would that be correct?

[casofilia]

Love the small ships but haven't been on the large ones.   Jade, Spirit and Jewel are just right; numbers, shows, dining and so on are right for us.

[ArtInMotionPersians]

We enjoyed the ship and layout very much.  Yes, it's older, but quite charming - old school fancy; woodwork, glass, brass.  Lots of outdoor space.

 

It's been a few years, so take that into consideration.... The passengers were about half in the 30-50 age group, there was about two dozen teens.  The entertainment was focused on the 60+ age group.  The bands, the shows, even the late night dance parties.  I now know every word to Sweet Caroline, Mustang Sally, and Proud Mary - I learned them on 80s night.  😑   The teens were bored to death, there was just nothing for them, thus with endless teen energy, they ended up making themselves a horrible nuisance.  It was nice to see the older crowd really enjoy their music every night, that made us smile.

[dhanakorn]

I’ve sailed Jade twice and really love the ship. I’m not very good with words so I’ll let the photos convince you why Jewel-class ships are favorite to many NCL cruisers. Photos below were from my recent Greek cruise last September. 
 

 

Spinnaker lounge on deck 13 is a great space to relax and enjoy the view. Many modern ships turn this premium area into suites. Although NCL did a better design with Observation lounge on some newer ships. 

 

While she doesn’t have Waterfront, the classic promenade is nice place to walk around. 

 

 

And many people mentioned about the Great Outdoors. It’s a very nice outdoor dining area on the aft of the ship behind the buffet room. You could enjoy your breakfast while watching the sunrise from here. 

 

Or spend a quiet evening watching the sunset. 

 

It’s also a nice place to relax in the afternoon watching the wake. Food and drinks are available here the whole day. 

 

 

 

[Crazy planning mom]

Great photos.  Thanks for sharing.

[dhanakorn]

NCL is usually very good with entertainment. During my cruise last September we had an amazing show every night. 

 

Blazing Boots

 

Palace of Lights

 

I’m not sure if it’s unique to Jade or not. But during my last two cruises on Jade, they brought the performers from earlier shows and incorporated them into the Grand Finale show on the last night. The ceiling in the theater can open up for some surprise acrobatic show (sorry it’s spoiler if you’ve not seen it). I love the shows on Jade more than the shows on the bigger ships. 

 

The main MDR with grand piano playing during the dinner. 

 

Pool deck day time

 

Pool deck night time

Edited March 6, 2022 by dhanakorn

[Red-Sol]

Some really great and beautiful Pics..Many Many Thanks!

[Sand and Seas]

Thanks for the great pictures and reminding us of the things we love about the 'smaller' ships😊

[MichiganBound]

I'll just add that on the entertainment question, I was always perfectly satisfied on Jade.  Whilst they don't have Broadway productions, the shows they do have range from good to excellent.  As someone above said, the Blazing Boots show was first class.  I really enjoyed it and I'm not even a country music fan!

[Sailing12Away]

The one thing I dislike about the jewel class ships is the elevators. You can only take some elevators to some floors. So if I'm aft, I have to find the correct deck to walk back to front in order to take the "right" elevator that I need, otherwise it's go up to 12, then walk, then go up to 13, then walk, then go up to 14.

 

Also didn't like that you had to walk through the buffet every time you wanted to go to the back of the ship, always just found that odd. There's a lot of hidden gems though of places to find that are practically deserted and you'll have them to yourself if you know where to look.

[Red-Sol]

I would like to thank everyone for their contributions to this thread. I must say that I am very impressed and I now understand why many of you have a preference to some of the smaller ships. Actually I never really stopped to consider that that many of the features of the larger ships were things that I really didn't use or take advantage of anyways. It appears that the smaller ships have everything that I personally would want.....and that "bigger isn't always better".....Call Me "convinced" 😉

[EllieinNJ]

Thanks for reminding me how nice the Jewel class ships are.  We have done the Gem, Pearl and Jade in the past but lately the bigger ships like Epic and Breakaway with the Joy booked in September.  I am considering a smaller ship for next year 

[BermudaBound2014]

I really like the Jade (and similar sized vessels). We were on her right after the refurbishment changing out her Hawaiian theme (which was a bit much even for this Hawaiian loving girl). She's not too big, not too small. The big broad way entertainment was missing but it was a very port intensive Norway trip so honestly, we didn't attend a show, and didn't miss it. The big girls have their place, but the Jade holds a special place in my heart. 

[The Traveling Man]

7 hours ago, Sailing12Away said:

The one thing I dislike about the jewel class ships is the elevators. You can only take some elevators to some floors. So if I'm aft, I have to find the correct deck to walk back to front in order to take the "right" elevator that I need, otherwise it's go up to 12, then walk, then go up to 13, then walk, then go up to 14.

 

OTOH, the elevators are something I really like about the smaller Dawn and Jewel class ships.  They are a bit smaller, but there are far more elevators per passenger on the smaller ships than there are on the mega-ships.  The ratio usually works out to 12 elevators for about 2000 pax vs. 16 for 4000.  Yes, in some cases "your elevator doesn't go all the way to the top," but it really doesn't take that long to learn the ropes.  The main advantage, as I see it, is that there are three banks of elevators, fore, main, and aft.  The larger ships usually just have two large elevator lobbies, one fore and one aft.  That makes for a much longer walk, on average, to get to an elevator on a mega-ship.  It just seems like the wait time for an elevator on the smaller ships is less, the smaller cars seem to load and unload faster and more easily, and I kind of enjoy the glass panorama elevator cars on the small ships.

[BermudaBound2014]

16 minutes ago, The Traveling Man said:

  The ratio usually works out to 12 elevators for about 2000 pax vs. 16 for 4000.  

 

I have never seen this calculation but explains why the big girls are terrible on debarkation day.

[The Traveling Man]

7 hours ago, Red-Sol said:

I would like to thank everyone for their contributions to this thread. I must say that I am very impressed and I now understand why many of you have a preference to some of the smaller ships. Actually I never really stopped to consider that that many of the features of the larger ships were things that I really didn't use or take advantage of anyways. It appears that the smaller ships have everything that I personally would want.....and that "bigger isn't always better".....Call Me "convinced" 😉

The one thing I really enjoy on the larger ships, and really miss on the smaller ones, is the variety of entertainment venues on the big ships.  We really enjoy the comedy club, especially when they schedule the dueling pianos of Howl at the Moon.

[Red-Sol]

2 hours ago, The Traveling Man said:

The one thing I really enjoy on the larger ships, and really miss on the smaller ones, is the variety of entertainment venues on the big ships.  We really enjoy the comedy club, especially when they schedule the dueling pianos of Howl at the Moon.

This is a concern I have as well. I think it may be offset a little though by possibly not needing to make reservations for the venues on the smaller ships and just walking in...whenever! 🙂

[complawyer]

we've been on many ncl ships in the past 11 years, pearl, spirit, getaway, epic, jade, dawn, star etc.

i have mentioned this before. my criteria is the ports and costs. i rarely if ever research any given ship, other than to see the available cabins and their specific locations. you tube is a good outlet to view some of the specific cabins, although some of their videos are in fact dated. 

 

the only ship that disappointed me was the star and only because from the get go, it had mechanical problems out  of hong kong, and some of the ports that i was excited about seeing were canceled. ncl made it  up by offering either a full refund, or a 50% reduction in the original fare and a 50% reduction on our next cruise. since we were already in hong kong, and it was a 14 day sailing ending  in singapore and we had already bought  return airline tickets, this was a no brainer.

 

i really dont have anything bad to say about any of the ships we've been on, and each one has its virtues. we try and book either a suite or a haven suite as either of these  type cabins enhance the entire cruise experience

 

loved the waterfront on the getaway.  moved up from a mini suite to a suite on the spirit  (before the renovations) and loved the cabin. had a 2 bedroom suite  on the jade and the epic and was most happy.

 

i've mentioned before, my needs are minimal.. a glass of champagne in one had, an ice cold heineken in the other, and a mojito from sugar cane waiting for me when i finish the other 2. let me lounge and/or veg out on my balcony and all is right with the worlds.

 

a few winning hands at blackjack in the casino wouldn't hurt either

[Happy fool]

We have sailed on the Jade. It was a port intensive cruise. I’m more interested in where the ship is going than in the ship itself. For us, it was a good size, large enough for entertainment, but it didn’t have the feeling that we were dealing with huge crowds. I haven’t been on any of NCL’s large ships, but when I was on larger ships on other lines I didn’t care for the larger size. As for the elevators, I try to avoid taking them since walking up and down the stairs adds a little exercise to my day, ha, ha. 

[CarrieAP]

We did back to back Greek Isle cruises in Oct on the Jade. Had previously been on the Epic, Breakaway and Getaway. The Jade seems a perfect ship for itinerary intense cruises. One thing we did like compared to the others was no crowded atrium for shows and events. The venues are much more relaxing and enjoyable. We too love Howl at the Moon and such but the entertainers were engaging and there was more room to enjoy our drinks and the music. One other improvement over the others is O'Sheehans. LOVE the set-up on the Jade, tons of booths lining the windows, much nicer atmosphere, with accurate and better prepared food choices. We stopped in many afternoons upon returning from our excursions. 

 

And lastly, there are many more indoor spaces to hang out when the weather is bad. Did a TA on the Breakaway with cold, windy weather so no access to the Waterfront. The lounges are tiny so ended up in our cabin during sea days due to lack of space to simply sit and read. The Spinaker is wonderful as others have said.