Very Pleasant Experience
Norwegian Jade Cruise Review to Europe - Mediterranean
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 72
11 Night Greek Isles & Italy (Rome Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 01, 2019
Ship: Norwegian Jade
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 5102
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
We had a great time on the Norwegian Jade and would definitely cruise with NCL again, given the right itinerary that would be appealing to us. And we greatly appreciate all the hard work from all staff members.. I can only imagine how much effort it takes to keep the ship in top shape for us!Embarkation
Very efficient and quick. All and all, it took us no more than 10 minutes
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Overall, we really liked all the food we tried on the ship. Out of all the complimentary restaurants, we had most of our meals at the Garden Café (just because it’s quick and easy), a couple of meals at the Grand Pacific and one at Alizar. As for paid restaurants, we ate once at Teppanyaki and once at Sushi. Teppanyaki was a lot of fun! They cook right in front of you and make a show out of it, accompanied by songs!
Some things that we felt could be improved are:
FOOD/BEVERAGES - Sometimes the desserts at the Garden café were not cold enough;
- Fruits selection/variety could be improved. At least in the Garden café, where we ate most of the time, the fruit selection was always the same;
- Alcohol drinks are very expensive.
Onboard Activities
Went to the pool once. We are not really into pools al that much. And seeing that a lot of people normally ARE, the pool area was always very busy and most of the time they had loud music and activities happening there, which, I am sure is great for some people, but it really is not our cup of tea.
We liked the shows/games that we went to.. Fun, creative and a good laugh!
Entertainment
PRODUCTION SHOWS – most of the time we really enjoyed them. Our favorite was "The Elements" show - very entertaining and really shows off all the incredible talents of the cast!
We also loved the cruise director Dave, Fabi and all the guest entertainers - juggler John Nations, acrobats (I do not remember their names, unfortunately), Russian dancers, the singer Robert (again, don’t remember his last name). We went to the shows every night and really enjoyed ourselves.
Children's Programs
Our children did not cruise with us.
Service and Staff
We really appreciate all the hard (and excellent!!) work done by the ship staff to make sure our cruise would be the best possible experience. We are very pleased with all the service!
Ship Quality
It didn't take our breath away, but I can definitely say that we really liked the ship. Wish they had a separate quiet area [with a dedicated pool and jacuzzi] for people who do not feel like being in the center of the main pool activities.
Something we felt was inconvenient (as far as layout of the ship areas goes) - GUEST SERVICE DESK is located in the area where there is often loud live music and it’s difficult to communicate with Desk Service staff when you have to yell to them (trying to be heard over the music).
Cabin / Stateroom
I am not really sure how to rate our cabin. From one hand, it was great (as far as its layout, size, cleanness, etc.)
BUT we did have an issue that put a damper on our experience. Every once in a while, we heard some loud noise that was coming from the outside, and it made it very uncomfortable for us to rest or sleep in our stateroom. The noise was not constant, but when it was on, it was quite disturbing. We reported this issue on a second day of our cruise and, to our knowledge, things were being done to investigate where the noise was coming from. However, the issue was not resolved. So in the end we just got used to living with the noise and used earplugs when we went to bed.
And at one point we were offered to move to an inside stateroom, but we didn’t want to do it, as it would have been a hassle to move and a downgrade from our Oceanview stateroom as well.
Ports of call
How can you not love beautiful, majestic Rome! This was our 3 time in the Eternal City and we are falling in love with it even more every time we visit.. the list of things to see and experience is just endless!
Thumbs Up
5
And once again I am not sure how to rate this 😊
Needless to say, the island itself is very beautiful and the views from some of its high points are truly awesome. However, this small island gets totally overwhelmed when they have several ships docked in the port. It was so crowded that we couldn’t take pictures without a dozen people passing through (almost non-stop). And I do realize it’s almost a hypocritical thing to say, since we were one of the many thousands of tourists who came with a cruise ship.
Anyway.. sadly, to us the Santorini experience was spoiled by all the crowds and rather high “tourist” prices on the food/drinks.
We love Athens and all the incredible historical places that one can see when visiting Athens! We booked a semi-private all-day Athens tour with PK Travels. Very good and informative tour. Just wish we had more time to "soak in" all the Athens experiences.
We did our own thing. Walked around a bit and then went to Ornos Beach. Caught a public bus that goes from the main bus station to Ornos beach every 30 minutes. Nice and easy. Same bus back from the beach. You can buy the tickets from a kiosk at the bus station, or on the bus from a driver.
Very nice (if slightly crowded) beach where you have to pay 30 euros to rent two sun beds and an umbrella. Kinda expensive by our standards, but I guess it's to be expected when you are on a highly popular touristic island!
We did a half-day kayak tour with a company called "Trekking Hellas". Excellent company and a great activity to do on the island! After kayaking we had some free time to walk around the old city. Such a great place to explore and learn the history of! Wish we had had more time in Rhodes!
Our ship was there for only 5 hours, if I remember correctly. Seeing that it's such a short stop, we decided we'd have an easy walk around the port, check out some shops, etc. Unfortunately, there is not much to do around the port. If you want to see anything at all, it's best to go into the town, which is about 30 minutes away by bus or taxi.
So much to see and do in Messina! And all kinds of day trips to choose from! We did a tour with a company "Discover Messina Travel" to Taormina and Castelmola. A very pleasant experience. There is also a lovely beach in Taormina that we visited when we had 2 hours of free time there.
Valetta is great! It was one of the ports where we wished we had had more time. There is a ton of things to see! We booked a semi-private tour with Amy Pace, a private guide. It was a very good tour, but because our time in Valetta was quite limited, we felt a bit rushed (and this is not our guide's fault, of course).
We did a shared tour for Rick Steves with Mondo Guides. Excellent system - you sign up for a tour on-line and if your group gets the minimum required number of people, you get an email with confirmation of the tour. We did a tour "Sorrento, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast". Good experience, however, it felt rather rushed. We visited three places - Sorrento, Positano and Pompeii. We only managed to have roughly one hour in each of these places (alghtough the original itinerary for Pompeii indicated we'd have two hours there). Both my husband and I felt that we'd rather have had 2 stops, but that they'd be longer. One hour for Pompeii is just not enough! The Pompeii stop was so short because we lost time while visiting first two stops (people on our tour were late to show up at the meeting place) and got into a traffic jam.
Livorno (Florence & Pisa), Italy Did not visit port
Our ship did not go to Livorno becuase we had mechanical issues of some sort. We docked in Rome instead for an overnight stop there.
Disembarkation
Quick and easy!