Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) - Norwegian Jade

I went on a Christmas cruise on the Norwegian Jade, lasting 14 nights and doing a european route, Italy, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Malta.
Overall the holiday was fantastic and i had a great time, the countries were great, excursions went well and the cruise itself was great also. I'm going to be reviewing the cruise, the ship, the crew and the onboard service.

The Ship
The Norwgeian Jade, formerly known as the Pride of Hawaii, is truly a fantastic ship. It has a huge theater seating well over a thousand, tons of restaurants, gym, pools, jacuzzis, tennis court, golf nets etc etc, the works. It's well maintained, i found no faults with the ship at all, one of the buttons in the levator was broken but i can put that down to the kids that were always playing in there.
The room was good, we had a mini suite at the back, there was 3 of us and we thought it was a little cramped, it can take up to 4 but i think for 2 it's perfect. Bathroom was great.

Service
Everyone was really polite, the crew was of mixed nationality, the waitresses and waiters being mainly Filipino. Our cabin crew were also filipino and very polite, but their standard of work wasn't the best. Little things really, like forgetting to leave toilet paper, not dusting at all, wanting to get started early so they could get shore leave. This wasn't all the time but each time there seemed to be something.
When we boarded the cabin wasn't set for 3 people only 2.

Recepcionists weren't the best to deal with, their general attitude with problems were for us to fix it ourselves. For disembarking we were told to get colored tags for our luggage, each color representing a time for us to disembark, starting at 7am going to 9:15. We wanted 9:15 as i had a long drive home, when i went to pickup the tag i saw none were left, i went over to reception who told me each time was limited! Now whilst i can understand this the leaflet telling us about the tags said we could choose whatever time we wanted, it said nothing about each time being limited. The receptionists solution was for my bags to go earlier and then i go later, but whatever i chose it was my fault as the tags had already been out a day. After poiting out that the leaflet lacked this info the receptionist reluctantly got some more tags out from the office.

I heard quite a few people during the cruise complain and they were never overly helpfull in trying to fix the problem.

Costs
Ok so they was a service fee per person per day, we knew about this and agreed to it no problem, but when i first went to get a round of drinks i found an "auto gratuity" was also added. So in effect we're paying two service charges, it seems the bar staff don't get any part of teh set daily fee.
There are 3 restaurants that are free, or included in your cruise cost, the rest of the restaurants are extra, and even then some of them charge again for certain dishes. The term i've seen others use for Norwegian Cruise Lines is that they "knickel and dime you to death", and it certainly seemed that way, there were lots of charges all the time and many of them were quite high! we spent 1200 dollars 3 of us on 14 days of service fees and drinks.

Food
In general the food was ok, there was a buffet where it was ok, but the other guests were terrible, it think they get into this buffet grab as much as you can mentality and frankly it seemed like a zoo!
The formal restaurant on the Norwegian Jade was good, very good. We ate there every night. but the booking system was a joke, they only booked a 1/4 of the capacity and many people would have to wait an hour to eat, we made a point of booking early. The dress code was not enforced at all! during evening meals there would be many of us in our suits and ties, or maybe just smart shirt and trousers but they would let people in their t-shirts and jeans.

Would i go with NCL Norwegian Cruise Line, or on the Norwegian Jade again? yeah I think so, but only becuase I know what to expect, i'd be going on other lines before i went NCL again.