Live From the Jade, Nov 13 to Dec 21, from Athens to Cape Town

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 1 - Nov 13 - Athens (Embarkation Day)

 

 

 

 

 

And we’re off to Kusadasi, Turkey 

 

 

[www3traveler]

When you can, would you please post a list of the Officers?  Thank You

Have a wonderful adventure.

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 2 - Nov 14 - Kusadasi, Turkey (Ephesus)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Finished off the evening by watching the 9 pm show in the Stardust Theater featuring classical guitarist Dimitris Dekavalles.
 

 

We met our CD Danny who is from Southampton and seems to have a lot of fun energy which is always a great trait for a CD to have! The Stardust Theater is definitely a different design than we’re used to, but we were also quite impressed with the variety of different seating options from different viewing perspectives. 
 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Kusadasi, Turkey and will be going on a tour of the Ephesus ruins this morning.

 

 

 
Something tells me the sea gulls smell something tasty! 😂

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

18 hours ago, www3traveler said:

When you can, would you please post a list of the Officers?  Thank You

Have a wonderful adventure.

Here is a picture I found up on Deck 12 of all of the officers on the ship. As you can see, there are quite a few! The main ones are:

 

Captain - Frank Juliussen

General Manager, Vesna Radar Campos

General Services Manager, Humberto Abarca

Food & Beverage Director, Adrian De Kock

Cruise Director, Danny Turner

Executive House Keeper, Christopher Wright

Executive Chef, Menino Sebastian Luis

  

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Our NCL excursion today was called Magnificent Ephesus and was about 4 hours. There were multiple buses going on this excursion as there were 100+ lined up waiting to get their stickers as they exited the theater.

 

 

But luckily when we boarded our bus, it wasn’t crowded at all! 😁

 

 
Here are some pictures along the 40 minute drive.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Then some from once we arrived at the Ephesus ruins, which existed between the 3rd century BC and the 4th century AD.

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 
There were also two Viking cruise ships in port with us as well today.

 

 

[DooBop]

Hi Ken,   Nice photos (and nice weather). Thanks for sharing. Just want you to know we are out here cruising with you virtually. 

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, DooBop said:

Hi Ken,   Nice photos (and nice weather). Thanks for sharing. Just want you to know we are out here cruising with you virtually. 

Welcome aboard! We were in Kusadasi back in August when we were on the Princess Regal. The only place we didn’t visit at the Ephesus ruins this time was the Terrace Houses, which were pretty cool. But at $35 pp for today’s excursion, we couldn’t really complain to much. 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a picture from our balcony of the sea gulls that are keeping us company while we wait to go to dinner at the Alizar MDR. Hopefully the food will be just as tasty as it was at Le Bistro last night. Well, one can hope anyway. 😂

  

 

[www3traveler]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Here is a picture I found up on Deck 12 of all of the officers on the ship. As you can see, there are quite a few! The main ones are:

 

Captain - Frank Juliussen

General Manager, Vesna Radar Campos

General Services Manager, Humberto Abarca

Food & Beverage Director, Adrian De Kock

Cruise Director, Danny Turner

Executive House Keeper, Christopher Wright

Executive Chef, Menino Sebastian Luis

  

 

Yes, it takes a lot of people to run a ship.  The Jade should have all together 900 plus crew members from 50 plus countries.  Thank You

[Lauren Spray]

I enjoy traveling along with you on this great journey.  I look forward to more chapters.

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off. Next stop is Tel-Aviv (Haifa) day after tomorrow! BTW those were two Viking cruise ships in port with us today.

 

 

Edited November 14, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Lupush]

Wow!  What an itinerary!  My wife and I did our Honeymoon to the Canary Islands on the Jade almost 11 years ago.  Thanks for bringing back some memories for us!

[Ken the cruiser]

This evening after dinner in the Alizar MDR we headed off to watch Deal or No Deal, which amazingly enough is now on all 3 cruise lines we’ve been on since cruising started back up, Celebrity, Princess and now NCL.
 

 

But since we got there a few minutes early, the lights were on, so I took a picture of the Stardust Theater just to show those that haven’t seen it before how unique of a design it is.

 

 

Then after Deal or No Deal we stayed and watched the 9 pm show featuring singer Spencer Robson.

  

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 3 - Nov 15 - Sea Day

 

Note: I found the Freestyle Daily on the NCL app, so I’ll be posting it now on the current day rather than the evening before, plus it will hopefully be a little clearer to read! 😁

  

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

After eating breakfast at O’ Sheehan’s this morning, which was was tasty, we headed to Guest Services to find out a few things.

 

1. This surprised us a little bit when we read the below in the Freestyle last night. Who knew the ship didn’t already have our “second leg” information as we are booked on a B2B. Since we obviously didn’t have a printer, we pulled up the cruise tickets in our eDoc we had previously saved to a file, and the Guest Services rep recorded the bar code number into their database. I’m sure there was a logical reason for this, but it has never been requested on any of the other B2Bs on any of the other cruise lines.

 

 
2. When we originally booked our B2B and found we would have to purchase bottles of water since they are not included if you purchase the regular beverage package, we bought online a 24 “liter box” pack for each leg. As you can see we’re just finishing the last of the 2 small free ones (in the below picture on the left) we got on embarkation day. We’re now wondering if we really need another 24 pack for the next leg. However, since you can’t delete the order if purchased online, we asked Guest Services what options we had to change the order to a 12 pack. They said to just come by Guest Services on the first or second day of the cruise and they would come take 12 of the liter boxes away and credit the difference to our account.

 

 
3. We’re in a Club Balcony cabin and get 1 free bag of laundry per leg. However, since each leg is 19 days long, our steward was thinking we might get one per week. But didn’t know for sure. When we asked Guest Services for clarification, they suggested we ask the folks at the CruiseNext desk to get a definitive policy answer since NCL usually doesn’t offer this long of a cruise.
 

I’m also going to ask what the policy is to exchange the free bottle of bubbly we got when we boarded for a bottle of red or white wine. We asked out steward and he was going to check. However, this is day 3 and we haven’t heard back from him yet. So thought I’d ask this question while we were there asking about the laundry guidelines. .
 

However, since they weren’t open yet, we’re going to go down a little later this morning to hopefully get a definitive answer, so for those interested, stay tuned …

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Here was our location about an hour ago when I did another internet speed test, which I was quite surprised in a positive way with the results I received.

 

 

 
We also found the below Bridge window viewing station, which is open from sunrise to sunset, quite interesting. I had taken some more pictures of the bridge, but then we read that taking pictures of the bridge and crew members inside were strictly forbidden. So I deleted those. But here’s a picture of the viewing station.

  

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Here is something we noticed that’s a little odd for our first sea day that probably isn’t to those who cruise regularly with NCL. We’re on this awesome 19-day cruise from Athens to Dubai. We’re going to a variety of uniquely located ports in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Oman and the UAE, many of which most of the 1,500 passengers onboard have probably never been to. And yet, there are no historical lectures scheduled or even a destination port briefing to sell excursions.
 

 

This is another unique difference we’re finding with NCL when compared to the other cruise lines we book with. But then, we’re old and enjoy listening to lectures and port presentations whereas maybe a more younger NCL demographic might not be, and we get that. But this is not your typical NCL itinerary, and a large majority of the passengers are actually 60 and older. Hopefully, they’ll add at least some port presentations to their sea day offerings later on, but we just thought this was a little odd.

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

3. We’re in a Club Balcony cabin and get 1 free bag of laundry per leg. However, since each leg is 19 days long, our steward was thinking we might get one per week. But didn’t know for sure. When we asked Guest Services for clarification, they suggested we ask the folks at the CruiseNext desk to get a definitive policy answer since NCL usually doesn’t offer this long of a cruise.
 

I’m also going to ask what the policy is to exchange the free bottle of bubbly we got when we boarded for a bottle of red or white wine. We asked out steward and he was going to check. However, this is day 3 and we haven’t heard back from him yet. So thought I’d ask this question while we were there asking about the laundry guidelines. .
 

However, since they weren’t open yet, we’re going to go down a little later this morning to hopefully get a definitive answer, so for those interested, stay tuned …

 

Just found out from the CruiseNext person that because of the length of this cruise, the powers that be have said that each passenger in a Club Balcony suite will each get 2 free bags of laundry rather than the normal 1 bag per cruise!! Hopefully this “long cruise” perk will extend to our second 19-day leg as well. 😁

 

We were so happy with that decision, I didn’t want to ruin the moment and decided not to ask about changing out the bubbly for a cheap bottle of wine, which they probably wouldn’t do anyway.

[Ken the cruiser]

Just received this from our steward regarding our stop in Israel tomorrow. One of the “low stress” reasons why we’re glad we book NCL shore excursions when we can, especially on this B2B.

  

[LouChamp]

Mahalo for your posts. Have been blessed to have visited many of the ports on your voyage and appreciate your sharing with us. Enjoy the vacay and as I say to everyone…post food pictures lol!

[Ken the cruiser]

8 minutes ago, LouChamp said:

Mahalo for your posts. Have been blessed to have visited many of the ports on your voyage and appreciate your sharing with us. Enjoy the vacay and as I say to everyone…post food pictures lol!

Sorry, but no. Food pictures will not be something I will ever post, unless it’s an awesome one of a kind “flaming” type picture. For example, one time we were eating in the Celebrity Reflection Luminae restaurant and our waiter brought us a chocolate dessert ball and poured flaming alcohol over it. Now, if a similar event happens again, I might post that type of picture. 😁

[Ken the cruiser]

But I will post pictures for example when a bird comes to visit while I’m sitting on the balcony, reminding me once again why fully-shaded aft-facing cabins can be a cool place to sit for so many reasons! 😁

 

[Travelexpert35]

Love your posts. Great information. Will be following along on your B2B adventure. Enjoy!!