My Review of B2B on NCL Jade:9-23 May 15

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Hello Everyone. I wanted to write a personal review of our wonderful trip aboard the Jade. This was a B2B and was a retirement cruise for my wife. So let me give you the background for this trip. Also, I will try and cover all the parts of the ship that we visited; all the ports we visited, and what we liked. There was not too much that we didn't like.

1. We are from Cincinnati, OH. My wife and I are in our 60's. We love historical places; so this cruise made sense, since it visited some great historical ports. We have been to several of the ports before when we sailed on RC Splendor. We were traveling with friends and family. Our group was 10.

2. We had a aft Penthouse Suite. 10666. Great location. First time doing an aft cabin, and we loved it. The seas were calm; most of the time we never felt movement. No debris or soot on balcony floor. Balcony was very large. We had sailaway for both trips on our balcony. The butler provided snacks for the sailaway.

3. We flew in on Delta nonstop from JFK. Flight was on time and no issues. We prebooked a water taxi with venicelink. 99euro for the three of us. My sister was part of our group.

4. We booked the Hilton Molino which is almost across from cruise port. Hilton has water shuttle to St. Marks; it runs every 40 minutes. Since I am a diamond member with Hilton they upgraded us to a family suite; two bedrooms, kitchen, living room, and huge bathroom.

5. We arrived mid day; so we took the shuttle to St. Marks; we did some shopping and ate an early dinner. My sis collects souvenirs from every Hard Rock Cafe; so we found the Hard Rock (just off St. Marks), and she bought her gifts.

6. We ate breakfast at the hotel around 11am; and hopped on the vapperetto at the hotel. price to cruise port was 9 euros. A little high for a five min ride; but still cheaper than a water taxi. We arrived at port around 12:30 and headed to berth 107 for checkin. The concierge met us; (his name was Bruno), and he was great. Since my sister was solo and with us; Bruno said she could go everywhere with us; since she was family. I thought that was great. We were escorted to our floor. Once in our room; our Butler "Joha" introduced himself and explained how everything worked; including the expresso machine. The Butler is in charge of restocking the expresso machine; and also he brought snacks every afternoon.

7, We attended muster lifeboat drill at 5pm. Our station was Grand Pacific Dining Room. We went back to our cabin and had the group over for sailaway party. The weather was bad. It rainied as we were leaving Venice; the sailaway party at the pool (they were cooking lots of food), well it got rained on. Our balcony was so large and covered that we were able to stand out there and sail past St. Marks. Stay tuned for part II; the first night aboard Jade, and second day onboard and our First port.

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1. Our first night onboard the Jade. We ate dinner in Alizar dining room. It is smaller than Grand Pacific; but both dining rooms are at opposite sides of kitchen. Both dining rooms serve same menu; which is served by the galley in the middle. Food was good; bar service was slow. I think because the wait staff has to go into the galley to get the drinks, it takes more time. I also think NCL should have a dedicated bar staff. The main waiter and ass't waiter should take care of tables; and the bar staff should do drinks. I believe this is not how they do it. Wait staff does everything. Since this was day 1 dinner; everyone was nervous; but we had great time and food was good. Let me also say, there are electronic boards all over the ship; telling you wait times for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When you have ten people in your group; you can't always get the exact time you want. We normally ate around 8:10pm. Now facts about the dining rooms. Alizar is only open for dinner. Grand Pacific is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Garden Cafe (the buffet), is open for all three meals. Blue Lagoon (just above the Atrium), is open 24 hours, and has limited menu; however, in a pinch, this is a great place to eat. Food is cooked to order, and you can sit at a big window and stare out at the beautiful scenes. Back to after dinner. We missed the welcome aboard show. We hit one of the lounges for after dinner drinks and then went to bed. Let me tell you about myself. I travel for a living; I'm a flight attendant for a private corporation; so I travel the world; I have been to every continent, except Antartica. I have been to most major cities more than 4-5 times. Bottom line; where am I going with this. Time Zone changes do not effect me like they do my wife. That said: I was up at 6am on day two. Day 2 was our first port call to Dubrovnik. We were to arrive at 2pm. So I am up and in the Garden Cafe; the only ones there this early were the staff; I like being alone; so I took pictures of the staff, got to meet the cooks, and the Garden Cafe Manager; and also got to greet the Washy Washy crew. By 7am, a few guests started to walk in. ** La Cucina Italian is across from Garden Cafe, and they have overflow seating for breakfast and lunch. At peak times the Garden Cafe will be crowded; but I never saw La Cucina that crowded. The Great Outdoors; (which I nicknamed the Outback), was wonderful to sit at early morning. The breeze was blowing and you could watch the waves on the sea. I liked the Garden Cafe. They had lots of choices for all three meals, the staff were very friendly; they chatted with you and there were plenty of workers to clean up your dirty dishes. We were there for mothers day; they had some great Cakes for Mothers Day. My crew didn't get up until 9am. Since we didn't arrive in Dubrovnik till 2pm; I had time to explore the ship. It wasn't until day three that I found the best way to navigate the ship was to look for the fish on the carpet and the sliding glass doors. The fish on the carpet would be swimming forward; letting you know where the front of the ship was; and on the sliding glass doors to the decks they also had fish which pointed forward. Good to know. Next up Dubrovnik our first port of call

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We arrived right on time. We booked the ships excursion. It was Dubrovnik coastal tour and old town. Our first stop was to a fishing village. It was pretty and we walked up to the top of some steps to a old church and graveyard. This was cool. The view overlooking the sea was awesome. We went down to our bus and our second stop was to a local resturant by a small river. Here they gave you wine and cheese along with the view. Our third stop was the old walled city. This walled city was bombed out during the war in the early 90's. There was a half marathon today; so downtown was crowded and they had a rock band playing in the middle of the square. We got to the walled city a little late; thus we could not climb the wall to walk around. It is inside the walled city I met Rochelle; Rochelle was the cruise critic coordinator for the meet and greet. She did a great job; and she was on B2B also; so she was in charge of meet and greet for both weeks. More on that later. After the city tour; we hopped on bus and headed back to the ship. Tonight we ate in Grand Pacific Dining room. Its' much larger than Alizar, but has same menu. We had a great dinner and went to the 9:30 show. All the shows were very good. Tonights show was Shout The Musical. It had the NCL singers and dancers. It was very good show. Tomorrow is Sea Day

[SFO-F/A]

Love your review, so far. I was on the first half of your trip, May 9-16.

 

We were a group of 8. When we ate together in the Grand Pacific, 3 times, there was a designated bar server. He got all our drinks. Actually there were more than one, depending on where you sat. The waiters and bus boys did not get our drinks. We knew to order our second glass of wine as soon as we got our first, because it took a while to get the drinks, since there were so many people in the Grand Pacific and the food comes out quickly. As soon as the last person finishes their appetizer, the mains all come out at once. We loved the Grand Pacific. It is a beautiful dining room.

 

Dubrovnick was one of our favorite stops. We didn't have a tour, we only wanted to walk the wall. It took us a couple of hours to do that, stopping for pictures and at one spot for drinks and a bathroom break. We took our time and let younger people go past us. (we are all in our 60's) What a beautiful sight, looking out at the spectacular sea on one side and in on homes/apartments, windows, cats, hanging laundry, gardens, on the other side. After walking the wall we enjoyed the shops and having a snack in the old town. There were plenty of taxi's waiting at the ship and at the old town to take you back and forth. They have a set fee, so no haggling!

 

Looking forward to reading the rest of your review. It's fun to compare what people do in the ports.

Edited June 6, 2015 by SFO-F/A

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Today was a sea day. Nice to have a break. So taday was leisure day. Some in our group bought the spa passes for the week. So you know they were gonna hang out there. The day was nice. Sunny and warm. It was German beerfest at the pool. So for lunch the chefs set up a BBQ and served german food. Brats, Metts, pork, schnitzel, and german potato salad and all the side itms. They also had a beer bar set up next to the food. There was the house band playing German music during lunch. it was great lunch. They had black forest cake for one of the desserts. It was great. Oh something i forgot from last might. We got back to ship around 8:30pm so we ate in Garden Cafe. It was Mothers Day. They had prime rib. It was very, very good. They had some special mothers day desserts. Awesome and delicious. Also since today was a sea day we had our cruisecritic Meet&Greet. This was arranged by Rochelle. She did a great job. She has excell spreadsheets prior to the cruise so we could sign up for all the cruisecritic events. Our Meet&Greet was at 11am in Le Bistro. It was attended by about 18 members plus the cruise staff. I thought the crew was represented fairly well. they told us why they were there; to make sure we were totally satisfied during our vacation. Thank you Rochelle for putting this event together and thanks for doing next weeks also. The entertainment tonight was a husband and wife aerobatic team. Very good show. The ship was easy to navigate once you figured out that the fish swim forwad. Bars on the ship. My group played music trivia. Normally this was in Madussa lounge. Beatles trivia, 70's disco trivia, plus other music trivia. Always fun. Some in our group did the Martini tasting i think it was $10 for an hour of tasting. The martini bar is located next to Madussa lounge. You could walk a few steps and start the trivia contest. We also liked the Spinnaker lounge. Went to White Hot Party both weeks. This was fun and chance for the crew to let loose. At least some of the cruise directors staff. We did hang out in Atrium bar a few times. Carlos is the main singer there and he's very versatile. Robert was my fav bartender at the Atrium Bar. If i am missing anything let me know. Also if you want more detailed info about a bar the crew or our stateroom, please ask away. Next up was Athens Greece. My wife had never been to Athens, so she was looking forward to it.

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We arrived in Athens around 7:30 am. We booked NCL Acropolis and Plakka shopping. Our first stop was the replica of the Olympic Stadium. This was built in downtown Athens. It was made to look like the original stadium many centuries ago. It looks great. From there we headed to the Acropolis and our guide told us about all the Greek God Legends. Like Apollo, Nike, and a few others. We stopped by the amphitheater which is still used today for concerts Up to the Acropolis. It was very windy today so u had to hold on to your hats. We spent over an hour there and finally headed down. The Parthenon has been undergoing renovations for over twenty years. We walked down and our guide took us to the Plakka; the small shopping district at the base of the Acropolis. We had a Greek lunch and shopped before heading back to the ship. It's always. nice to be back on the ship. You get the feeling of security and safety. We ate dinner tonight in La Cucina. Food was good, service was very slow. In fact it took us so long to eat that we ended up going to the 9:30 show and came back for our dessert. We ran into the cast of the show "Shout the musical". The singer and dancers eat in same dining venues as the. Guests. I ran into quite a few of the guest artists in Garden Cafe. So we finished La Cucina around 11:30. I had chicken Parmesan with pasta and my wife had chicken Marsala and shrimp. I forget what others had. By the time we finished dinner and dessert it was time for bed. Tomorrow Ephesus, Turkey

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This is one stop everyone was waiting for. My wife and I had been here in 2007 and we were excited to be back. We booked private tour with Shore Excursions and they were excellent. We had minivan with driver and guide. So our first stop was to the Temple of Artimis one of the last remains of the old -7 Wonders of the ancient world All that's left is a column of marble blocks in a swamp. There is a large map on a sign showing what the temple looked like back in the day. It was still nice piece of history. Next we went to The Virgin Mary's house. Although no one can say for sure if she lived here. Legend has it that Mary lived here the last several years of her life. It's a small house and quite a big tourist attraction. Our last stop was to Ephesus. These are ruins that have been unearthed over the past 50 or so years. Our guide said there are over 3,000 people digging for artifacts at different sites in Turkey. The site we visited is called Ephesus 3. Meaning Ephesus 1&2 are finished with and three is the current dig site. The amount of ruins at this site is amazing. Lots of stories to go with the site. Perhaps the most memorable piece of history is at the end of our tour. The Colissium. Legend has it that the Apostle Paul preached to the Ephesians in the Colissium. It held around 20,000. Very cool. My wife is a Methodist Pastor. This site makes her so happy when we all get to stand where one of the Apostles stood. After the tour our guide took us back to the ship. At the dock there is a Starbucks Coffee Shop. It is the only Starbucks Coffee shop we came across during our two week cruise. Tonight we ate in Grand Pacific. I guess one of the most differences with Freestyle cruising is; different waitstaff every night. Since we were a large group we never sat in same area in Grand Pacific. No worries. Food was still good. Service was good and all had a great time. Tomorrow day six is a sea day.

Edited June 8, 2015 by AF-1

[DavyJoneses]

Enjoying the review...have always wanted to do that itinerary.

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I forgot to mention on our first sea day we had a medical emergency. A female crew member had to be medically transported to a hospital. We were sailing from Croatia to Athens and had another half day before we reached Athens. The Captain came over loudspeaker to tell us we would be stopping Off the coast of Greece and a boat would come out to pick her up. I was right above the transfer station. All I could see was a female who was unconscious sedated and her husband both leaving the ship. Carrying the gurney were four men; two had chef hats on, so I figured she was part of kitchen or wait staff. Anyway I ran into the captain at a cocktail party. All he told me was she was in surgery. Don't know anything more than that. Today was sea day. Weather was a little chilly on deck. I told my friends the bar staff hate cold days at the pool, the don't make a lot of money on drinks. Anyway. We played trivia and ate a lot. They had another bbq at the pool today. Nothin special just some jambalaya and hotdogs. I like Garden cafe. The have so many options and they have some good desserts. The French fries are always hot. Pizza is ok. I would prefer it being cooked a little more. But it's ok. I love the wok section. Never ate from salad bar. Don't like salads. I enjoyed the Un-sweet ice tea and flavored water. We had dinner in Grand Pacific. The menu choices in main dining were good. You could order a steak every night, as well as pasta or fish. I had goulash soup twice. It was that good. Had crime brûlée for dessert twice. So that tells you how much I like it. Although the waitstaff in main dining seem rushed they do their best to make it an enjoyable meal. No complaints from any of our group. We went to 9:30 show tonight. It was Elements. This is NCL main attraction. They did a great job. Today I took behind the scenes tour. We visited the galley, laundry, crew area, backstage theater, and the bridge. While in the theater the young lady who directs all the shows told us where to sit for tonight's show. There is so much going on, if you sit too close to the stage u miss the acrobats mid theater. Wonderful show. Next up, Split, Croatia.

[AquamarineBreeze]

I'm enjoying your review! The timing is perfect as I'm leaving for the same B2B on the 20th. Please excuse my trivial question ... Where exactly is the Starbucks in Kusadasi? Personally, I'm not a fan (I'm very picky about my two favorite drinks - coffee and wine), however my daughter adores their frappes etc and misses them while we are in Italy. I know she would be extremely happy to stop in since it will be a few more weeks before she can get one in NYC.

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The starbucks is a regular one. Its located right at the port. You go thru security and thenyou will come into the shopping area at the port. Starbucks is located where all the ahops are. Great iti erary and lots of wine.

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Today was our last port call for the first week. We stopped in Split. The town is five to ten minute walk from the ship. You can actually see everything from the port. We did a walking tour. About 15 minutes into the walking tour I left. I didn't feel I wanted to follow the guide; so I went around town on my own. The main part of the the town is the palace. Actually the entire town centers around the palace. The day was pretty nice; sun and high 70's. Went back to the ship to enjoy trivia again. The staff were so friendly on this ship. Tonight we dined in Grand Pacific. We had a farewell dinner; three people in my group were getting off in Venice and four more were joining us. Tomorrow was turn around day. Because we were back to back we got stickers to wear; the stickers said; "still on vacation"; this was to let the port customs and cruise staff know that we were cleared; and didn't need to get in security line with the new cruisers; also we wore the stickers onboard so we would not have to go to muster drill. Everything went very smooth; we stayed in same room so that was nice. During our stopover we took the vapperetto to St. Marks. We bought round trip ticket. We met a few of our friends who were joining us. We did a little shopping and ate lunch. got back to ship around 3pm. We sailed at 6pm.

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This is the second half of my B2B on Jade. Our itinerary this week was Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, and Olympia. Since we sailed only in Greece everything in onboard shops had Vat Tax applied. We hosted sailaway party on our aft deck. The weather was beautiful. Sailing past St. Marks and downtown is awesome. The shows for this week in the theater were different and we got a new cruise director. Last weeks cruise director was Archie. He was from South America. This week's cruise director was Rodrigo; he was from South America. He kept telling everyone he was single and he may be available for the woman onboard. He had energy and was funny. The sailaway party by the pool went well; the weather for this party was great. Tomorrow is sea day.

[AquamarineBreeze]

Thank you for the info (about Statbucks ... and the wine :)).

I know Rodrigo. He's quite funny!

Did you have to go to Guest Services for the stickers on turn around day?

Great review!

[pfm18]

I am leaving for this itinerary this Saturday, June 20th!

 

 

Sadly only doing the 7 night cruise but your review has me excited :)

[AF-1]

Thank you for the info (about Statbucks ... and the wine :)).

I know Rodrigo. He's quite funny!

Did you have to go to Guest Services for the stickers on turn around day?

Great review!

 

The stickers were in an envelope delivered to our room. There was a letter explaining how turn around day worked and two stickers. I also attended a briefing about turn around day. It was held in spinnaker lounge. The gal who gave briefing had maps of venice and extra stickers

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The stickers were in an envelope delivered to our room. There was a letter explaining how turn around day worked and two stickers. I also attended a briefing about turn around day. It was held in spinnaker lounge. The gal who gave briefing had maps of venice and extra stickers

 

you should have same crew as me; with a few exceptions. Since Rodrigo came aboard the middle of May; he should still be there when you board.

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Our first day was a sea day. This day was almost an exact duplicate of last weeks sea day; by this I mean, they had the German Beer Fest by the pool for lunch. Activities around the ship were the same. However, the show for tonight was called Showdown. It was like American Idol. It was good. They had four of the NCL Singers have a sing off competition except someone from the audience voted as to who had to go. It's funny and the singers were very good. The menus for week two were almost the same as week one. There were a few changes; and of course if you eat in any of the specialty restaurants; they have same menu all the time. That't about it for Day 2. Tomorrow is Corfu Greece.

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Everyone in our group of 10 took tours. I did not. I have been here before; so I walked to downtown Corfu and explored on my own. It's about a 15 minute walk from the ship; and its a straight shot. You can pretty much see the ship from downtown. There are taxi's available and there is a shuttle bus from the port. I do not know how much this costs, since I did not use either. Downtown Corfu is very nice. The streets are clean, and there are some that are paved with cobblestones. There are two castles in downtown Corfu. I went to both; they are free to walk thru. The one castle on the far end of town has a coffee shop at the top. The view was great and so was the WiFI. Very fast wifi. I did a little shopping downtown and bought a few items that were made in Corfu. My wife bought some greek olive oil. I did find a McDonalds downtown; you would not know it was there. There are no Golden Arches; the arches are brown to match the rest of the buildings in downtown. Tonight onboard was the Super 70's funkadelic party. The cruise staff dressed up like the Village People and were part of the show. I really have to say; the sea was very calm the entire two weeks. You barely felt any movement onboard ship. Most of the time you didn't know the ship was at sea. So smooth. Tomorrow my second fav stop of the trip:Santorini

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There are so many things I can say about Santorini. It's beautiful, and its very beautiful. We did NCL shuttle bus tour. The bus took us to Oia, at the far end of the island; we stayed there about 2 hours and the bus brought us back to Fira; in Fira you could eat dinner and shop till you dropped. The shuttle bus tour included tickets for the cable car. Oia village is so nice. The houses, the water, just everything is painted pastel colors. In Fira; which is the town overlooking the cruise port; it is nice; however, the streets here are fairly narrow and you bump into all the other cruisers. We docked at 1:30 and last tender departed at 9pm. This is one port you won't forget. Tonights show was a magic show; we did not go to this show. Tomorrow was may fav port call. Mykonos

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Why is this stop my favorite? Well many reasons. It's beautiful; the water is clear and clean. The colors of the downtown are pastel much like Santorini. The downtown area; which is called Little Venice; has great food, and great shopping. We did not do a tour here. NCL provided free shuttle buses to downtown area. From the downtown bus stop, it was a five minute walk to the shopping area. At the far end of downtown are the Windmills. They don't work; they only provide a picture perfect shot of the Mykonos. We ate lunch downtown at a Italian restaurant and we shopped. We arrived at 8am and departed at 6pm. We were the only ship in port. You can get lost downtown; and this is because the streets do not go straight; they wind around in different directions. The downtown area was built to fool the pirates and they made the streets curve and sway. So before you embark on shopping make sure you get your bearings straight; otherwise you will end up somewhere different from where you started. Tonights show was a group called 4Ever. They were like the singing tenors. Very good. They sang in three different languages. But no matter what language they sang in; the music was great. The NCL White Hot Party was in Spinnaker Lounge. We attended last weeks party; so this week my wife decided to skip; I did not skip; I went and stayed for about an hour. Tomorrows port is Olympia. The port is called Katakolon.

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I was looking forward to this stop. It was the only stop in 14 nights that I have not been to before. This is where the original olympic games were held. the games were moved to Athens many years later. we took the NCL tour to Olympia. The bus goes straight there and straight back. The tour showed where the games were held; they talked about some of the early games; and they have the actual arena where the foot races took place. You can do a mock olympic run and have your picture taken at the starting line. When we finished the tour inside the stadium we got on bus and went to downtown Olympia. Here we shopped and ate. We boarded the bus to head back to the ship. Back at the port there are lots of shops. We have about three hours to shop. there are coffee shops/resturaunts along the water and it provides a beautiful backdrop with our ship sitting right there in front. My wife did some shopping and I sat in a coffee shop with my buddy and we got on the wifi. Back on board the ship we had dinner reservations for Le Bistro. This was a great place to eat. Perfect setting; food was excellent, and wait staff were superb. I think Le Bistro has a lot more items on their menu than Cagneys. I ordered three desserts. They had a creme Brûlée ; they had a chocolate fruit fondue, and they had a fruit tart/pie. All three were great. The fruit fondue is for two people. Tonights show was Elements. We saw this show last week; and we went back. It is that good.. Tomorrow is sea day. I will give you a two week synopsis of our trip; I will point out all the things we loved, I will give you info as to how many ships were in port; port times; crowds in the ports, and anything else you may want to know about this trip. See ya.

Edited June 15, 2015 by AF-1

[cmsgtwhite]

Great review AF-1! Did you take any photos of your room? We are booked next March in 10166 (just a couple of doors from yours). Also any comments that you might have concerning the room is greatly appreciated. GO Air Force!!! :)

[nomadiccrocodilehunter]

Awesome review AF-1. We are doing the Greek Isles itinerary at the end of this month. You are responsible for getting me very excited. Thank you.

[AF-1]

Great review AF-1! Did you take any photos of your room? We are booked next March in 10166 (just a couple of doors from yours). Also any comments that you might have concerning the room is greatly appreciated. GO Air Force

 

I took a few pictures out on balcony. Will try and upload them when i get back home. The room was comfortable for our two weeks. Plenty of storage; i brought a power stip so i could charge phones, tablets, cameras. Bathroom has sink, tub, and seperate toilet area. There is a sit down makeup divan right outside the bathroom. There are two safes in the room. You have the expresso machine. Our butler Joha came on day one and showed us how to use it. So if you dont feel like walking up to deck 12 for coffee the machine is great. There is small dining table with four chairs in one corner of the room. A couch and another lounge chair with foot stool. Balcony had a chair and table plus a chaise lounge