Just off the Jade - best cruise ever!!

[Butch25]

Patrick is a great concierge. We had him on the Pearl 3 years ago in Alaska. We are doing a 5 day on the Jade out of Tampa on 1/3/17 and would love if Patrick was our concierge again.

 

Enjoying your review as my wife and I want to do this one in a few years when she retires. The accompanying pictures are great also.

[Tricialy]

How long did it take you to walk the walls? I'm hoping to do that and ride up the cable car - sounds like there will be time to do that? Which museums did you see, and did you feel the Dubrovnik card was worth it in the end?

 

Thanks for the review. :)

 

I want to say it took us less than 2 hours to walk the walls. We stopped to take quite a few photos and bought some water along the way. We also stopped to enjoy the view and at the Maritime Museum and later the Franciscan Monastery. I think the card was worth it - it is 153 HRK if purchased online - entrance to the walls is 120 HRK, the Maritime Museum was 40 HRK, and the Monastery 30 HRK - so cheaper than paying individually (if the prices I'm finding now are correct) I liked being able to purchase with my credit card before the trip - you pick up the card at the Tourist Information Center outside the gate.

 

 

Patrick is a great concierge. We had him on the Pearl 3 years ago in Alaska. We are doing a 5 day on the Jade out of Tampa on 1/3/17 and would love if Patrick was our concierge again.

 

 

He might be there - from what I remember him telling us he has a shorter than normal vacation in August (I think) and then he goes to the Breakaway for 83 days. Not sure where he goes after that. He was really great.

[Tricialy]

Monday was a day at sea. We went on the Platinum Behind the Scenes tour at 10 am - it was pretty much the same tour we took on the Jewel, other than the sheet folding machine in the laundry area was broken and being worked on, so we didn't get to see that (I always think that's one of the most interesting parts.) We got our ships pens - had to ask the Latitudes Consultant as they're not leaving them in the rooms any more.

 

Went to lunch at Cagney's and forgot about the Latitudes Reception being held in the Spinnaker Lounge.

 

The weather is hot and dry (the entire trip) and the seas were really smooth. Here's an example:

 

 

We spent the afternoon reading on the balcony and had dinner at Cagney's that evening.

[Tricialy]

Our second port was Piraeus - Athens. We had booked a small group tour with PK Travel, but there weren't enough people for the tour to run - they offered us a private tour or to put us into contact with the others who had reserved the same date. We did that and took a private tour for 4. The price was very reasonable and customer service and communication with PK Travel was amazing.

 

Our new tour partners were just a few doors down from us, also in an aft-penthouse, so we all had priority disembarkation. I like how Patrick handled disembarkation. As groups entered the Star Bar to wait he took down their room numbers and took groups down based on arrival time. We tend to be early everywhere and it always seems like the groups who come in at the last minute end up on the elevator first.

 

We met our driver at about 7:45ish and were off to the Acropolis, beating the crowds and huge tours.

 

The Acropolis and surroundings were amazing - hard to imagine how they were able to build such things so many years ago. (I say that a lot, sorry :D ) I have to wonder did an artisan spend his entire life working on one pillar?? We also saw the Changing of the Guard, the Temple of Zeus, Panathenaic Stadium, the New Acropolis Museum and had a gyro for lunch.

 

Our driver was one of the best we've ever had - not a licensed tour guide, but he shared a ton of information with us.

 

 

 

 

[Huntingdon1701]

I want to say it took us less than 2 hours to walk the walls. We stopped to take quite a few photos and bought some water along the way. We also stopped to enjoy the view and at the Maritime Museum and later the Franciscan Monastery. I think the card was worth it - it is 153 HRK if purchased online - entrance to the walls is 120 HRK, the Maritime Museum was 40 HRK, and the Monastery 30 HRK - so cheaper than paying individually (if the prices I'm finding now are correct) I liked being able to purchase with my credit card before the trip - you pick up the card at the Tourist Information Center outside the gate.

 

That's really helpful. Thank you - sounds like it should be easily manageable, and I'd like to see those museums too.

[Tricialy]

Sorry for the delay, we were called out of town unexpectedly and didn't take my laptop.

 

Our next port was Santorini - I had booked a small group tour to Akrotiri that met near the Hospital in Fira at 11:30 - we docked at 8 a.m. and I mistakenly thought we didn't need to rush off the ship. Santorini is a tender port and there were several other ships in port that day. We left the ship about 9:15 and once we got to the Old Port area we were able to find the cable car line - it was really long. We didn't think we'd make it to our tour, so we ended up taking the ferry to Oia (I think it was 15€ pp) - the trip over was a nice ride, we sat on the top deck of the ferry and had a nice view.

 

Got to the dock near Oia and took a bus to the town. When you get there they ask which bus you'd like to take back to Fira - I believe they left every hour.

 

We walked around Oia a bit, it was a beautiful town for about 30 minutes and then all the tours arrived - once that happened - it was just a crowd of people walking in a loose line through town. So, if you're going to go - go early. Once it got so crowded, we headed back to the transportation company for our trip back to Fira. Kudos to the bus drivers - traffic was nuts, people walking in the street and not paying attention, driving scooters and 4-wheelers (again, most not watching where they were going and weaving in and out of the other traffic.)

 

We get back to Fira and find the line for the cable car - people are saying it is a 2.5 hour wait (not sure if anyone actually knew, but the line was really long and winding through town) So, we decided to walk down the donkey path -600 steps that were quite slippery in places. The walk wasn't that bad and wouldn't have been bad if we had worn better shoes - sandals aren't the best, but we figured since we had a short tour that we'd be riding the cable car. We were scheduled to return to Santorini the next week and had a longer tour planned. We ended up cancelling that tour as I was afraid we wouldn't make it to the meeting spot on time and it was quite expensive.

 

About the steps - the walk itself wasn't all that bad, some of the rocks were really slippery and we saw quite a few people fall. I know one woman broke her ankle after a fall on the steps (we shared a table with her at Teppanyaki later in the week) - The donkey droppings were easily avoidable and you just had to watch for the donkeys coming up and down - they tend to go where they want and more than once the workers were sending groups of donkeys without riders back up to the top and the herd would just run up the steps - be ready to move out of the way.

 

All in all - Santorini was our least favorite port. It seems like they shouldn't allow so many ships in port if they can't handle the traffic. Apparently, I am the only one who didn't love Santorini.

 

 

 

Edited July 22, 2016 by Tricialy

[Tricialy]

Our last port for the week was Split, Croatia - we were off the ship early and walked into town.

 

Our tour didn't meet until noon, so we walked around quite a bit before meeting our guide. We booked through Viator and the tour company ended up being EuroAdria Tours. The guide was good, a very sweet guy. The first half of the tour was Split and Diocletian's Palace- he told us interesting stories about the history of the area. We had a short break and then headed to Trogir, which was really neat too. I really enjoyed seeing the old buildings. It was our last stop in Croatia, so we had to find somewhere to spend our last bit of Kuna - I bought lavender soap.

 

Since we were early for our tours - we walked through the market that was outside one of the gates - lots of fruits, vegetables and flowers - if you have time, it's worth walking through.

 

 

 

[littlelulu01]

Regarding Santorini: Was it as crowded your second week visit? I've read several reports now about the 8am arrival being very crowded. This was originally Kusadasi and when replaced, it added to the already overcrowded Santorini day. The 2pm arrival dates look much less crowded with most ships leaving in the afternoon and the Jade not leaving till much later.

 

I have booked a boat trip on Alex boat rentals. Pick up at old port where tender drop off is so no need to ascend or descend from Fira. Cost wise 700 euro for 5 hour charter max 5 persons. Quite pricy if we can't find another couple to split the cost but after reading all the reports about the crowds on the 8am arrival day I'm thinking it's worth it?

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for sharing.

[Tricialy]

Regarding Santorini: Was it as crowded your second week visit? I've read several reports now about the 8am arrival being very crowded. This was originally Kusadasi and when replaced, it added to the already overcrowded Santorini day. The 2pm arrival dates look much less crowded with most ships leaving in the afternoon and the Jade not leaving till much later.

 

I have booked a boat trip on Alex boat rentals. Pick up at old port where tender drop off is so no need to ascend or descend from Fira. Cost wise 700 euro for 5 hour charter max 5 persons. Quite pricy if we can't find another couple to split the cost but after reading all the reports about the crowds on the 8am arrival day I'm thinking it's worth it?

 

I was shocked - I had read that it was really crowded and then others said it wasn't so bad. I generally think people are more likely to complain than to say something positive, so we really didn't worry about the crowds and figured they weren't as bad as everyone said. They were much worse than we expected. I was also very disappointed about missing Kusadusi (I understand, but really wanted to see Ephesus -that was why we originally started with the Adriatic Cruise)

 

The second week we got off the ship as early as possible and it wasn't so bad. We had a tour booked that was supposed to return to the Cable Cars at 8:30 PM (with last tender at 9) and cancelled it after returning to the ship the first day - there was still another large ship in port when we were there until 10 PM.

 

Your boat trip sounds awesome, I hope you find another couple to share it with.

[Tricialy]

The first port of the second week of the cruise was Corfu, Greece.

 

We hadn’t planned an excursion, but I knew I wanted to go to Achilleon. Achilleon is a palace built by the Austrian Empress Elizabeth in 1890. I was hoping there would be some people offering tours near the port. There were a lot of taxis and past them was a city bus with a large map and a lady selling bus tickets. I believe we paid 5€ for the entire day on the bus. She said we’d have to take this bus into Old Town and then go to another bus stop (that wasn’t difficult to find) and catch the number 10 bus to Achilleon. She said the next bus left at 9 AM. We decided to give it a try. If you walk a bit further than the Corfu bus stop there are HOHO busses available. We exited the bus in Old Town and then weren’t sure where to go, it wasn’t as easy as she made it seem – and some of the street signs were written in Greek. Needless to say, somehow we found our way to the correct bus stop (guess it must not have been all that hard) – we get there just before 9 AM to read the schedule posted at the bust stop and find out there wasn’t a 9 AM bus, but a 10 AM bus – so we looked around for a while and caught the 10 AM bus.

 

We got to Achilleon and paid the 8€ entrance fee. They have headsets in many different languages that you can use as you tour the palace (included with entrance fee) There were one or two small tours already there, but we beat the big cruise ship tours (my favorite thing to do) We really enjoyed our visit – and took the 12:30 bus back to Corfu. We ended up in Old Town (the stores were open now) and had no idea where we were. We just kept walking around and looking in stores when we saw some city gates and walked out – thinking to take a taxi back to the port. We look up and see the bus that returns to the port and off we went.

 

 

 

[poly3503]

Was Fire and Ice on your cruise? We have been on two cruises where they performed and they are amazing!

[getupgo]

This is great. We are going October 5 and I'm printing this out. Thank you. Great detail.

[Tricialy]

I don't think Fire and Ice was on board, but I can't say for sure.

 

Next, we're back to Santorini - we were one of the first one's off the ship, but just walked around at the Old Port area and took the first tender back that they'd let people return to the ship on. We hung out at the pool most of the day. We've never stayed on the ship on a port day, there were more people on board than I would have expected, but lots of room by the pool! It was also a great day for a nap and to spend some time on our balcony reading.

 

 

Edited July 26, 2016 by Tricialy

[Tricialy]

We really enjoyed the next port of Mykonos. Most of the ships in port were tendering in, but we were docked. The dock is a ways from town. Originally I had planned to catch the ferry to Delos. We had attended a port talk earlier in the week and decided to go ahead and book the Delos tour through NCL.

 

We met in the Stardust Theater and our tour exited together. Since we were docked, we had to take the Sea Bus over to the Old Port Area - there we boarded our boat that was headed for Delos. Our guide was good and I am glad we decided not to do Delos on our own, she shared a lot of interesting information with us.

 

The buildings were amazing. It was a beautiful place. Our tour returned us to the Old Port area - where we could walk and meet an NCL Shuttle bus to take us back to the Jade (free) We also walked around the shopping are of Mykenos for a while. Lots of shops, but not one Diamonds International ;) (this is where we need a sarcasm font)

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2016 by Tricialy

[littlelulu01]

I was shocked - I had read that it was really crowded and then others said it wasn't so bad. I generally think people are more likely to complain than to say something positive, so we really didn't worry about the crowds and figured they weren't as bad as everyone said. They were much worse than we expected. I was also very disappointed about missing Kusadusi (I understand, but really wanted to see Ephesus -that was why we originally started with the Adriatic Cruise)

 

The second week we got off the ship as early as possible and it wasn't so bad. We had a tour booked that was supposed to return to the Cable Cars at 8:30 PM (with last tender at 9) and cancelled it after returning to the ship the first day - there was still another large ship in port when we were there until 10 PM.

 

Your boat trip sounds awesome, I hope you find another couple to share it with.

 

Thank you for the info. Yes very hard to judge but from sounds of it it seems pretty consistent that 2 pm arrival not that many complaints and 8 am arrival complaints about crowds. The 8 am arrival was the addition so I think that tipped scales. Sorry about Kusadasi.

 

Our roll call is pretty small so doubt we will find someone to share. Perhaps we will get lucky and find someone while waiting for tender. I thought about price though and think with those kind of crowds, and the great alternative experience, it's one of those times the cost is worth it.

[Tricialy]

 

Our roll call is pretty small so doubt we will find someone to share. Perhaps we will get lucky and find someone while waiting for tender. I thought about price though and think with those kind of crowds, and the great alternative experience, it's one of those times the cost is worth it.

 

 

Our roll call was small too - the smallest of any cruise I've ever had. You'd think there'd be more participation for a cruise that is less common than most. You'll have a blast either way!!

[Tricialy]

Sadly, our last port was Katakalon (Olympia) Greece. We booked a tour with Olympic Traveller to go to Ancient Olympia. Our tour met right off of the dock and we had a large tour bus for 24 people. Our tour guide, Jo, did a great job telling us facts about the area on the way to Olympia.

 

First we visited the museum, which was interesting. I really liked that the museum had a "no selfie" rule - we were told that too many people took inappropriate pictures with the ancient (and often nude) statues. (how sad is that??) Honestly, it made the visit much more enjoyable as all the exhibits weren't being blocked by people taking multiple selfies of themselves while everyone else had to wait.

 

Then she took us on a tour of the site. It was beautiful with lots of trees. The site was dedicated to worship Zeus. We visited the stadium and saw ruins of temples dedicated to Zeus and Hera. The area is considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The first Olympic games were held in 776 BCE. After touring the site - we had the choice of eating a Greek lunch at a restaurant or having time to visit the town near the Olympic Site -we choose to visit the town and browsed quite a few nice shops. The people were friendly and almost everyone wanted to know about the Presidential Election - they had some interesting thoughts on the matter.

 

 

 

[Tricialy]

We had excellent service during the entire cruise. We never ate in the main dining rooms, but tried Cagney's, Teppanyaki, La Cucina, and the buffet. We always had attentive service.

 

We got to know the servers at Cagney's pretty well after eating breakfast there almost every morning - Christer, Marian, and Leilah were awesome. The Asst. Maitre D was too. We had a lot of fun talking to them. They change hostesses for breakfast and lunch each week - so we had two different ones, but both knew our names after the first day of the week.

 

Jose was our room steward and Flor was our Butler - both were very friendly. The concierge, Patrick was also very nice and always spoke to us when he saw us. I've had other concierges that don't bother with you if you aren't in the Haven area.

 

We did ask why the tv screens would show a specialty restaurant as being sold out when you always see empty tables - we were told that it's because they stagger how many people they let in - so there aren't 80 people arriving at say 6 PM (or whatever time they open) and once a table is reserved it's blocked out for 2.5 hours - so if we had a 7 PM reservation and finished by 8 PM, that spot wasn't open for someone else to book until 9:30. (makes sense)

 

We did laundry twice using our Platinum perk - there was a nylon type laundry bag in the room that we've never had before - I guess it's a new suite thing, but it held more laundry than the paper bag we've gotten in the past - this time all my husbands shirts came back not only cleaned, but pressed too. We had the same thing happen on the Jewel, but these are the only two ships we've had clothes come back pressed with the Platinum Perk. (people on CC swore it couldn't happen and that I was wrong last time!) That was really nice being on the ship for 2 weeks.

 

 

We didn't go to any of the shows, but I hear they were good - and my husband spent some time each evening in the casino - which wasn't busy at all. I hear they usually aren't as busy on European cruises.

 

Internet - one of our booking perks was the 250 minute internet package - it was painfully slow. We'd purchased a package two years before on our Baltic cruise (if we hadn't been selling our house, I wouldn't have sprung for it - I quite enjoy disconnecting) and it wasn't too bad - the internet on this cruise was painfully slow. It took 23 minutes at the internet cafe to print our boarding passes (then they tore them up at the airport and printed new ones - wish I hadn't wasted the time)

 

Our last at-sea day was my birthday! I had never been on a ship on my actual birthday before. I received a cupcake from the room steward, pieces of cake from the Butler and the Concierge. When you check in at any of the specialty restaurants a notice pops up on their screen that it's your birthday, so everyone at Cagney's for breakfast and lunch knew. We also ate at Cagney's for dinner that evening - and they sang and brought out yet another small cake (the singing is quite embarrassing) When we returned to our room that evening there were two more plates with more cake on them. I felt so wasteful leaving them uneaten, but it wasn't happening.

 

 

Taking a B2B cruise?? We had a meeting near the end of the first week in the Spinnaker Lounge - we received "In Transit" stickers to wear or put on our keycard so we could leave the Jade and come back on at anytime. We did not have to disembark if we didn't want to, but we went down to the terminal to try to use the free wi-fi. (it wasn't that great) Since we'd already visited the sites we wanted to see in Venice, we didn't stay off for very long. The best thing is that we didn't have to attend muster drill again.

 

We waited in the Star Bar for priority disembarkation the last morning. I had pre-booked a taxi for 8:30 AM - We walked off about 7:45 ish. We have always carried our own bags off and were told we couldn't do that at this port - not sure why, other that in some of the terminals you have to ride an elevator down from deck 7 where you disembark to the ground floor of the terminal and lots of luggage would fill up the elevator. The terminal we were at on this day didn't have the elevator, but on that day during the first week we did have to use the elevators. When we got down to the luggage area - all the luggage wasn't off of the carts yet, so we had to wait a few more minutes. I guess someone shouldn't have given the OK for people to start getting off quite yet.

 

We found luggage and waited for our cab - which arrived right on time and took us to the airport. We found the American Airlines gate, which didn't open until around 9:30 for our 12:10 flight - got our luggage checked and headed for the gate. 9 hours later we arrived in Philadelphia, to find our flight delayed, luckily our connecting flight in Charlotte was also delayed - so we arrived home at 2 am the next morning to find one of our suitcases didn't make it. I wasn't too thrilled with AA, but at least I was home and not missing my luggage on a trip. When they finally delivered the suitcase two days later - it had a flyer that it had been inspected by TSA - which is undoubtedly what caused it to miss our tight connections.

 

We have Global Entry, so the TSA Pre-Check was nice and when we landed in PHL - all we had to do was go to a kiosk, scan our passports, fingerprints, and take a photo - and we walked right out. Best money spent - if you're planning to travel internationally and are interested - apply early. We received our conditional approval in early January and the first appointment with CBP was in April.

 

I can't say enough about the staff on the Jade - they were friendly and amazing - like NCL used to be when we first started cruising. I hadn't seen that level of service on our last few cruises - never bad service, but not the over-the-top service we received.

 

Thanks for reading!! I'll try to answer any questions you may have

[EllieinNJ]

Thoroughly enjoyed your trip report. Just a few questions Did you find you had to arrange a cab back to the airport in advance or were there plenty of cabs there you can take? We have a 1:20pm flight. Most say you have to be at the airport 3 hours before your flight but on cruise critic many say that Marco Polo airport is so small that you shouldn't get there too early. How early were you? In Katakolon, were you very pleased with the tour. I cannot decide about reserving this tour or DIY with the Rick Steves book. In Corfu, did any of the taxi drivers tell you what they charge for a tour? We will be there on a Monday and many places are closed on Monday. Also, you mentioned you took a bus. Was this the HOHO bus? Thanks in advance for any advice. Ellie.

[sjbdtz]

We had excellent service during the entire cruise. We never ate in the main dining rooms, but tried Cagney's, Teppanyaki, La Cucina, and the buffet. We always had attentive service.

 

We got to know the servers at Cagney's pretty well after eating breakfast there almost every morning - Christer, Marian, and Leilah were awesome. The Asst. Maitre D was too. We had a lot of fun talking to them. They change hostesses for breakfast and lunch each week - so we had two different ones, but both knew our names after the first day of the week.

 

Jose was our room steward and Flor was our Butler - both were very friendly. The concierge, Patrick was also very nice and always spoke to us when he saw us. I've had other concierges that don't bother with you if you aren't in the Haven area.

 

We did ask why the tv screens would show a specialty restaurant as being sold out when you always see empty tables - we were told that it's because they stagger how many people they let in - so there aren't 80 people arriving at say 6 PM (or whatever time they open) and once a table is reserved it's blocked out for 2.5 hours - so if we had a 7 PM reservation and finished by 8 PM, that spot wasn't open for someone else to book until 9:30. (makes sense)

 

We did laundry twice using our Platinum perk - there was a nylon type laundry bag in the room that we've never had before - I guess it's a new suite thing, but it held more laundry than the paper bag we've gotten in the past - this time all my husbands shirts came back not only cleaned, but pressed too. We had the same thing happen on the Jewel, but these are the only two ships we've had clothes come back pressed with the Platinum Perk. (people on CC swore it couldn't happen and that I was wrong last time!) That was really nice being on the ship for 2 weeks.

 

 

We didn't go to any of the shows, but I hear they were good - and my husband spent some time each evening in the casino - which wasn't busy at all. I hear they usually aren't as busy on European cruises.

 

Internet - one of our booking perks was the 250 minute internet package - it was painfully slow. We'd purchased a package two years before on our Baltic cruise (if we hadn't been selling our house, I wouldn't have sprung for it - I quite enjoy disconnecting) and it wasn't too bad - the internet on this cruise was painfully slow. It took 23 minutes at the internet cafe to print our boarding passes (then they tore them up at the airport and printed new ones - wish I hadn't wasted the time)

 

Our last at-sea day was my birthday! I had never been on a ship on my actual birthday before. I received a cupcake from the room steward, pieces of cake from the Butler and the Concierge. When you check in at any of the specialty restaurants a notice pops up on their screen that it's your birthday, so everyone at Cagney's for breakfast and lunch knew. We also ate at Cagney's for dinner that evening - and they sang and brought out yet another small cake (the singing is quite embarrassing) When we returned to our room that evening there were two more plates with more cake on them. I felt so wasteful leaving them uneaten, but it wasn't happening.

 

 

Taking a B2B cruise?? We had a meeting near the end of the first week in the Spinnaker Lounge - we received "In Transit" stickers to wear or put on our keycard so we could leave the Jade and come back on at anytime. We did not have to disembark if we didn't want to, but we went down to the terminal to try to use the free wi-fi. (it wasn't that great) Since we'd already visited the sites we wanted to see in Venice, we didn't stay off for very long. The best thing is that we didn't have to attend muster drill again.

 

We waited in the Star Bar for priority disembarkation the last morning. I had pre-booked a taxi for 8:30 AM - We walked off about 7:45 ish. We have always carried our own bags off and were told we couldn't do that at this port - not sure why, other that in some of the terminals you have to ride an elevator down from deck 7 where you disembark to the ground floor of the terminal and lots of luggage would fill up the elevator. The terminal we were at on this day didn't have the elevator, but on that day during the first week we did have to use the elevators. When we got down to the luggage area - all the luggage wasn't off of the carts yet, so we had to wait a few more minutes. I guess someone shouldn't have given the OK for people to start getting off quite yet.

 

We found luggage and waited for our cab - which arrived right on time and took us to the airport. We found the American Airlines gate, which didn't open until around 9:30 for our 12:10 flight - got our luggage checked and headed for the gate. 9 hours later we arrived in Philadelphia, to find our flight delayed, luckily our connecting flight in Charlotte was also delayed - so we arrived home at 2 am the next morning to find one of our suitcases didn't make it. I wasn't too thrilled with AA, but at least I was home and not missing my luggage on a trip. When they finally delivered the suitcase two days later - it had a flyer that it had been inspected by TSA - which is undoubtedly what caused it to miss our tight connections.

 

We have Global Entry, so the TSA Pre-Check was nice and when we landed in PHL - all we had to do was go to a kiosk, scan our passports, fingerprints, and take a photo - and we walked right out. Best money spent - if you're planning to travel internationally and are interested - apply early. We received our conditional approval in early January and the first appointment with CBP was in April.

 

I can't say enough about the staff on the Jade - they were friendly and amazing - like NCL used to be when we first started cruising. I hadn't seen that level of service on our last few cruises - never bad service, but not the over-the-top service we received.

 

Thanks for reading!! I'll try to answer any questions you may have

 

 

thanks for posting! We board the Jade on August 6th and it will be my first time having my actual birthday onboard too. :)

 

 

This thread was informative for me, and I appreciate it!

 

 

thank you,

Stephen

 

 

.

[Tricialy]

Did you find you had to arrange a cab back to the airport in advance or were there plenty of cabs there you can take? We have a 1:20pm flight. Most say you have to be at the airport 3 hours before your flight but on cruise critic many say that Marco Polo airport is so small that you shouldn't get there too early. How early were you? In Katakolon, were you very pleased with the tour. I cannot decide about reserving this tour or DIY with the Rick Steves book. In Corfu, did any of the taxi drivers tell you what they charge for a tour? We will be there on a Monday and many places are closed on Monday. Also, you mentioned you took a bus. Was this the HOHO bus? Thanks in advance for any advice. Ellie.

 

Cabs: We booked in advance because had read here on CC that there weren't as many cabs available at the port on disembarkation day. There weren't, but there were cabs available - there just weren't as many lined up as say in Miami. We were off fairly early - not sure how many were available if you disembarked later. It was 45€ to pre-book, so we did that for piece of mind.

 

Airport: I had read horror stories about the airport and that airlines shared check in counters, so your airline might not be open if you arrive more than 2 hours early (seems like that's cutting it close to me) We flew AA and arrived at around 9, I believe - there was already quite a line when we arrived - the ticket agents were there, but the counters weren't open. I'd say they opened about 9:30 for our 12:10 flight. Once the counters opened, the lines moved quickly. The did have an agent checking passports - he asked us more questions than the Italian (or US) Customs Agents did - where we worked, what we did, etc. I guess they are making sure the US will accept us when we landed in Philadelphia. I wouldn't bother printing boarding passes before you get to the airport - they re-printed them all for us. Customs was easy - didn't have to remove our shoes, but you do have to take tablets out of your bag if you have one - there was signage, so you knew in advance (wish some US airports have that)

 

Katakalon - we were pleased with the tour, we booked the 6 hr. Olympia guided tour, while others on our bus booked the Olympia Experience - the only difference being lunch. We were able to add the lunch if you had wanted while we were on the bus (I think it was an additional 17€ pp) - a lady met us before we left Olympia to collect the rest of the money we owed (we had paid a deposit through PayPal to book the tour) - almost everyone but us and one other group added (or originally booked) the lunch and they said it was good. I think having the guide was worth the extra money.

 

Corfu - we actually took the Corfu city bus that runs to the port. I always read about people doing that, but we had never done it before. We don't have public transportation in our city, so I'm never sure what to do - validating, etc. I didn't ask what the taxi tours cost. I know when we walked out of Achilleon to wait for the bus - there were a lot of cab drivers there waiting for the people they had brought. I think I read in Rick Steves that cost 80€, but not sure how up to date that was. There were HOHO busses available if you walked a little further through the parking lot.

 

Hope this helps - if you think of anything else, just ask!! I'm jealous of your Panama Canal trip you have booked - that might be our next cruise!!

[EllieinNJ]

Thanks so much for your quick reply. I don't know why there are not many other trip reports for this cruise so I am eager for any information I can get. I did read many of last years reports, but information can change, especially what happens on the ship, shows, restaurants, etc. This is only our 4th cruise but the first B2B. I know my husband will like the port days but I'm worried about the 4 sea days. If he gets too bored, he says he will cancel the Panama Canal cruise because it also has 4 sea days. I hope he's kidding because we will be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary on that cruise. Ellie.

[Huntingdon1701]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. It's been really useful, and I'm looking forward to September.

[drvmywifecrzy]

sounds like a fun trip