November 2nd cruise on Jade

[Mammasan]

Hi. We just signed up for NCL's Jade Nov 2nd cruise in the eastern Med. Plan to arrive a day before boarding in Istanbul and wonder if anyone has advice for a nice, but not luxurious, hotel that is close to the action and not far from port. Cruised the western Med on the Jade last August, so weather was great, but could not dock in Morocco due to swells outside the breakwater. Not expecting much from the weather on this cruise, but wonder if anyone has had a problem docking at any of the ports around this time due to swells, etc.

[Cardex]

Hi. We just signed up for NCL's Jade Nov 2nd cruise in the eastern Med. Plan to arrive a day before boarding in Istanbul and wonder if anyone has advice for a nice, but not luxurious, hotel that is close to the action and not far from port. Cruised the western Med on the Jade last August, so weather was great, but could not dock in Morocco due to swells outside the breakwater. Not expecting much from the weather on this cruise, but wonder if anyone has had a problem docking at any of the ports around this time due to swells, etc.

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

I am also on this cruise and we have a great roll call for our sailing - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=818302

There is lots of info on hotels and private tours.

 

I also cruised the Med last Aug on your sailing :D

[Mammasan]

I am new to this cruise critic board posting thing. What exactly is the roll call all about? Is there any get together planned onboard for cruise critic members on this cruise? Any info will be appreciated. We especially want to find out all we can about this cruise, as we are bringing friends along who have never cruised before. We have been on the Jade before, as I said, and also took a cruise in the Caribbean on the Sun, which we enjoyed very much, but are relatively new to cruising. We like to wing it when we travel, so put off cruising until some good friends of ours talked us into the Caribbean cruise. We like the freestyle nature of NCL, as we do not want to dress up very much while on vacation, nor want to be held to specific times or tables to dine. We appreciate good food being from Northern California, but the itinerary is our first consideration, so NCL food, while not great, is good enough for us. Some of what we have eaten on board was very good. Anyway, any advice or guidance re cruising on NCL and especially on this particular cruise would be helpful. I have been to Istanbul (1954 when it had far fewer inhabitants and no trams--only ancient streetcars and the ubiquitous horse drawn carriages), Venice, Naples (Sorrento, Pompeii), Rome, and Barcelona before, so not concerned about how to get to attractions, etc., just concerned about weather in November in these ports. We arrive on the 1st, so will have one more day to explore Istanbul and we plan to stay in Spain for 3 days after we disembark. Our friends will only have 2 days in Barcelona. We would appreciate any info re adequate hotels near the old port and Las Ramblas. We stayed out in the Port Olympic area (Poblenou) on our last visit in August, but November might be wet, so being a little closer to the gothic quarter, etc., might be a better location. Any suggestions?

[Cardex]

I see you have posted on the roll call. Come back, introduce yourself and ask any questions you have.

We have a meet and greet planned but time and date are not set yet. I think there are about 60+ people signed up so far for the M&G.

 

There is also a Facebook group if you are interested -

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=95922598908

[Clay Clayton]

We stayed at the Grand Yavuz Hotel, post Jade cruise, April of 2008. We were very pleased with the location, service, room size, and most importantly the cost. We ended up there through the recommendations of Nejat, our tour guide. Anyway, the website doesn't do the hotel justice IMHO, must nicer than that Athens hotel we stayed in pre-cruise for about half the price. Here is their website:

http://www.grandyavuzhotel.com/