freestyle daily news for the Jade

[chonda]

would love to see some of the freestyle daily news for the jade. we are going on the 12 day med. in april from Barcelona would love to know what to expect. Any info would be helpful.

 

 

Thank you in advance.

[Grumpy and Wife]

We'll be on that same cruise! And, it's our first NCL so whatever info we can get will be much appreciated.

[Wingtips56]

We did the Med on the NCL Jade last year. It was great! In fact we did the B2B 9-night Western and 12-night Eastern.

 

If your cruise does the same routing as ours, you'll go right between the islands of Corsica and Sardinia ... France on the left and Italy on the right. We also went through the Strait of Messina, which is the surprizingly narrow channel between Italy's boot and Sicily. Scenic cruise.

 

Rome is tricky because the port is so far from town. Some people went on their own .... there is a rail station there at the Port of Civitavecchia. I think the train ride was a little faster than our bus ride in, although I don't know where the Rome station is relative to the sites. Dramatically cheaper than buying a tour, but you are on your own. We did see people left at the pier, even though the ship held anchor for an extra hour, since it didn't have to rush off as soon for the next port (see Athens, below).

 

We did "Rome On Your Own", as we wanted the safety of a ship's excursion in case the bus was hung up in traffic on the way back, but we didn't want to have to do St. Peters as part of every other tour. The bus dropped and picked up there, but we hoofed it on our own elsewhere. We had some good tips from Ivan at the Shore Excursion desk on-board, including the sage advice of going to the Roman Forum first, as it is an inclusive ticket with the Colisseum, but with virtually no line at the ticket sales office. Tour the Forum and then wander "next door" to the Colisseum and go straight in the entrance for ticket holders (since you already have it). Worked like a charm. Our guide on the tour bus on the way into town and St. Peters told us where the local bus stop was relative to where we got off the ship's tour bus, which bus to take that went directly to the Forum/Colliseum. After that we hoofed it (getting lost around "the Wedding Cake" once) to the Trevi Fountain, to the Pantheon, Piazza Navonna and back to the bus at the Vatican, in the six hours free time we had. Better knowledge of bus routes or not being so cheap to avoid taxis would have made it possible to do more without jogging.

 

Ask others about Athens, as we were diverted due to a general strike shutting everything down. We went to Nafplion (Nauplion) instead, with alternate excurions around there. We took the tour to ancient Corinth and Mycene, which was quite interesting. We didn't cry too much about missing Athens as we've heard it can't hold a candle to the scale of the Greek/Roman ruins at Ephesus, Turkey, which was the next stop it Izmir. A lot of people were cursing the ship, NCL and everyone else's mother for not going to Athens, but hey, it wasn't NCL's fault. If we'd ported at Pireaus, we might not have been able to get off the ship if the dock workers were striking too. Certainly, we'd be stuck on the pier as absolutely all ground transportation services were shut down. NCL of course reversed charges on the canceled Athens tours, but those who booked independent tours were out of luck.

 

Izmir is a big, modern city. Nuff said. We'd been to Ephesus before but went again anyway (ship's excursion), as we figured they'd have unearthed more since then. Ephesus is fantastic! If you've not been, choose the tour that spends the most time there, with a fully guided tour. The tours that include Mary's house with Ephesus spend too much time going up the hill to the ruins of a house associated with the Virgin. She's not there, I guess too busy appearing in pancakes and shower stall stains around the world, so it's overrated. It just takes too much time away to and the place itself really isn't an interesting site, unless you are religiously inspired. The first two feet up from the ground (painted red-line) is the only part that predates a restoration of the rest of the simple four stone walls. Everything else there is just an outdoor gift shop of religious souvenirs and holy cards.

 

Having been before, we opted for the smaller group (Ultimate Ephesus???) .. more $$, but it focused on the Terrace Houses, which were not developed when we were there in '94. These are under an ugly shed roof in the middle of Ephesus and are closed to groups exceeding 20 people, so the main tours won't go in. It was fantastic, though, as they are reassembling crushed houses that had been built spilling down the hillside. Tables with crumbs of ornate stonework/plasterwork that they were reassembling into door frame art, carved chair rails, etc. Quite the jigsaw puzzles. Repaired walls with frescoes, etc. So if you've done Ephesus before, do this tour. If not, do the main tour as we went right on past the famous library and other buildings, and didn't even peek into the 25,000 seat Greek/Roman ampitheatre.

 

Alexandria - we had just done an 11-day tour of Egypt (Cairo and all the way south) immediately prior to the cruises, so we just stayed in Alexandria. Not a particularly interesting tour (Best of Alexandria). Most people, of course, did the excursions to Cairo and the pyramids of Giza. If this is an overnight stop in port, and you've not done Egypt before, then spend the money and do the overnight trip to Cairo. It is just too long a bus ride and too rushed at too few places to take the single day trip. People off that one were exhausted and frustrated as they didn't get much time off the bus.

 

Valletta-Malta - Gorgeous little city around natural ports. Too short a stop in my opinion. We did the 3-cities boat ride and short walking tour of Valletta proper, up the hill. Very nice.

 

This was a very nice mix of port and sea days. We did the Western first, going to Casablanca, Agadir, Grand Canaria and Madeira, taking the overnight excursion from Casablanca to Marakesh, rejoining the ship at Agadir. I have to say that the collective sampling of so many ancient cultures in a short time span was really incredible, and would recommend this to anyone. And thank you NCL, as I didn't have to schlep a suit or tux around for a month for mandatory formal nights on the ship.

 

And Barcelona itself is quite a gem, so don't just fly in and out....spend some time. Have a pitcher of Sangria on Las Ramblas and watch the beautiful world stroll by.

 

You'll love the Jade. Probably still garish decor inside, owing to it's origin as the Pride of Hawaii, but just chuckle along with that. There wasn't time to redecorate when it transitioned to international service. Just time to knock out rooms to put in the casino and expand the shopping Galleria for Duty Free and Colombian Emeralds. Hoist a glass of fine wine to King Kamehameha, who's guilt statue looms over the Grand Pacific Main Dining Room. (We liked the more intimate "Alizar" MDR dining room and ate more there than in the GP. The food was good, except for the Blue Lagoon or whatever they call the miserable diner with just fried food midships. No reason to go there.

 

The entertainment was terrific ...hopefully they are still doing there own program on Jade (separate from all other ships), where the production shows are all totally live (no lipsynching dancers with canned music) and original shows. At the time, Jade was the only one doing this.

 

Steve