Review: Jade 11 Day Eastern Med - Feb 23-Mar 7

[OzCanuck]

We were all given a little bakery treat (which later ended up as the nightly nibble plate in our cabin). Then, we moved on to the laundry.

 

Yes, there is a machine that is built specifically to stick little yellow labels on clothes. In this case, someone's dirty underwear is getting tagged.

 

Giant washing machines:

 

And giant dryers:

 

Laundry guys feeding clean sheets into the sheet folding machine. I want one of these for home, I just don't know where I'd put it. I wonder if it does fitted sheets? I can never fold those.

 

Let's not forget the Sisyphean task of folding napkins on a cruise ship. Here's a machine just to help:

 

Sadly, not paid by the tablecloth.

 

And with that, the tour was over.

[OzCanuck]

Because the other half had wrangled LM all morning, I was on afternoon duty. I have no recollection of what we did. We walked around a lot. He napped. I think I napped.

 

We had a nice dinner at Alizar, and then went to the 'Showdown' show. I wish we hadn't.

 

It was lame. And, it was made worse by the awful hosting by Simone, the cruise director. He used his same stupid jokes he had used every other time he did an announcement. Yawn. Still not funny.

 

The premise was simple, the audience votes on performances by the ship's singers. When it came down to the final two, Simone asked someone in the audience to judge the applause. After a long pause, the audience member said, "Well, sorry Monica (or whatever her name was)" because clearly the other person was better.

 

All Simone heard was "Monica"... and he announced her as the winner, to the stunned disbelief (or was it the resounding apathy, I'm not sure) of the audience.

 

The only upside? LM had a good time.

 

Will continue with Crete soon....

[fireflies]

Thanks for your review and your candid perspective on the cruise. Have been curious about the Behind the Scenes Tour, appreciate the photos showing a different side of the Jade.

[OzCanuck]

Day 10 – Iraklion

 

We followed the same routine as usual, eventually getting off the ship around 10am and walking into town. We walked and walked and walked, checking out all of the tourist areas and some nice scenery. There were lots of beggars in Crete – I was quite surprised.

 

Some boats in the habour:

 

 

Fort (sorry for the bad horizon):

 

 

Church in downtown square. Though you can't see it in this photo, the comic book that the kid is reading has an interesting cover. I guess it's the hero of the story pictured, and he is smoking a cigarette. Don't see that too often.

 

 

Inside the church. Not very interesting but I was there so I took a photo:

 

 

Nice arched architecture near the port:

 

 

Eventually we had lunch at a pizza place way up in the city somewhere – not too many tourists for sure. The restaurant’s one high chair was quite frightening, but we made do with it. LM had a few bites of pizza…. I am worried that he is becoming a pizza addict.

 

We also stopped at a bakery and got some more baklava (yes, we love it). And it was ok. We’ve been to Greece before (Santorini and Rhodes) and I know that we prefer Lebanese baklava to Grecian. I believe the difference is rose water vs. honey? Not sure.

 

Note – there is actually a free internet terminal in the port building. Don’t know if anyone else noticed that.

 

It was about then that the weather started taking a nasty turn, and it became very overcast and windy. We started making a bee-line back to the ship and it started pouring off and on after we boarded. The wind was very strong, and looking out past the breakwater, I decided it might be a good idea to have a Bonine as a precaution. This was a very good decision, as it was rocking that night! The other half didn’t have one, and she was not in good spirits later on. Those forward cabins on deck 11 are about as bad as you can get for ship movement.

 

Fortunately, LM was never affected by and motion issues.

 

We “dined” at the Garden Buffet tonight, and I think LM feasted on pizza once again. I know people do deride the quality and taste of it, but it’s actually not bad for sitting under a heat lamp. The crust is pretty good.

 

Tonight’s show was Graffiti Classics, and they were pretty good. The comedy side of the act needs a bit of polishing in my opinion, but the music quality was great – and for the amount the ship was pitching and rolling, I think they did admirably. LM enjoyed the show and sat quietly taking it all in.

 

A note about our concierge, Karabi. Compared to Monica on the Pearl, I thought Karabi was excellent! She had a good routine of walking around Cagney’s every morning and stopping by each and every table to see if there was anything she could do for her clients that day. She always had a smile on her face and would take the time to say hello and greet you by name. Very professional.

 

We certainly didn’t tax her from a request standpoint – as we actually didn’t need dinner reservations or really much else. She did mention than our butler had told her we were vegetarian and that he was getting us the appropriate nibblies every night. Not sure why that info got passed on, maybe they have a client meeting where they discuss the guests and needs/issues.

 

But anyway, she comes with my highest recommendation.

[QuattroRomeo]

Must..resist...urge...to....push.....buttons:

Loved it!

 

Thank you for the interesting review and photos!

I bet LM will have the best childhood with all the 'boats' in his future..:)

[didytak]

Hi! Thank you for your great review! DH loved your pics from the behind-the-scenes tour! (His brain just works like that, too!) We're doing the Greek Isles on the Jade in June, and really appreciate all of the great info!

[OzCanuck]

Hi! Thank you for your great review! DH loved your pics from the behind-the-scenes tour! (His brain just works like that, too!) We're doing the Greek Isles on the Jade in June, and really appreciate all of the great info!

 

Thanks....

 

I still have two or three more days to add to this, but have some technical issues with photos right now. The chocolate buffet and Naples still to come...and the long commute home.

 

The behind the scenes tour is well worth the money! I would probably do it again on a different class of ship.

[OzCanuck]

Day 11 – sea day

 

OK! Time to use a defibrillator and shock this review back to life!!!!

 

We’re starting to feel like the cruise is coming to a close. Does anyone else notice that weird buzz that happens on a ship the last day or two? Everyone seems to be anticipating the end – there is a general ‘down’ feeling to some extent. Well, I’m feeling it today.

 

As I recall it was a beautiful, sunny day – unfortunately we didn’t make it to Messina during daylight hours – the views would have been spectacular.

 

I gave the other half the morning off and wrangled LM at Cagney’s by myself while she attended the gym. (At least, I’m told there is a gym on the Jade, I never actually saw it myself….?). He and I had a great time socializing, and then we went for a long walk around the ship to enjoy the beautiful weather.

 

The only thing on the agenda today is the Chocoholic Buffet. I am not someone who enjoys these things, and to that end we actually missed it on our Pearl cruise in December. Lunch at Cagney’s was followed by nap time, and then the Under 3 Zoo once again.

 

I’ve noticed LM seems to be the instigator/party animal at the zoo. I wonder if he’s like that at daycare??

 

We had dinner at the Grand Pacific, and it was HORRENDOUS. The service was just awful. They brought LM’s food long before they brought ours, and he finished eating before we had even received our appetizers. You can see where this is going to go…. By the time we got our mains, he was fit to be tied, and we had to trade off walking him around while the other ate. Not a great time.

 

Tonight’s show was Flash and Fever. Apart from the rather cheesy name, I really liked the act. It had enough weird stuff happening on stage that LM was very enthralled by the performance, which at the end of the day is all that we really cared about.

 

We met up with Karabi to get into the Chocoholic buffet early for photos. “Early” ended up being maybe 2-3 minutes before they opened it to the rest of the ship, however. I did manage to get some photos. We grabbed a couple of things and headed back to the room.

 

Some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OzCanuck]

And a handful more:

 

 

 

 

[OzCanuck]

Day 12 – Naples

We were very, very torn about what to actually do in Naples. I *so* wanted to go to Pompeii, but had also been warned off trying to take a toddler there. I suppose we could have done it, or even a tour down to the Amalfi coast, but of course, in the end, we slept late and had a late breakfast at Cagney’s.

 

View of Mt. Vesuvius from our balcony:

 

Everywhere, people were telling us how dangerous Naples is, and how you had to be so, so careful. I mean, how bad could it be? I’ve walked around Bogota, Colombia, and Cape Town, South Africa at night… could it be worse than that???

 

In the end we decided, and I am sad to actually admit this, to take a hop-on hop-off bus tour of Naples.

 

For some context, I’ve visited 55 countries (69 if you use the Travellers Century Club zones). In those visits, I have never even thought about doing a HOHO bus. But – have a baby and all of a sudden your life takes a weird turn.

 

I guess the important thing was that LM enjoyed himself. There were TONS of things to see… his constant squeals of delight made the two hours very enjoyable for us. (By the way, we sat downstairs on the bus, not in the open air).

 

A couple of boring shots from the bus ride:

 

 

 

 

After the bus ride, we found a nice, touristy pizza place – the name of which I forget. Once again LM braved the Italian high-chair of death, and we ordered a couple of glasses of beer, and a couple of margarita pizzas.

 

It was delicious - fantastic actually. Touristy or not.

 

"Elements" was tonight. I know, we should have gone to the show - but we had too much packing and organizing to do to get all of our stuff together for the next day. We had a very uninspired dinner at the Garden Buffet, sad to say....

[OzCanuck]

Day 12 - Rome, then Home

 

Because I had booked this vacation so late, we couldn't get the earlier flights back to Toronto on disembark day, and the later flights didn't look appealing - so we overnighted again at the Rome Airport Hilton.

 

We booked the NCL bus tour of Rome, followed by hotel drop off (around 3pm), which worked out well for us. What didn't work out well was the crappy weather in Rome, so when we were given 2 hours to self explore, we just hit a restaurant then met up with the bus for the final transfer.

 

I really like the Airport Hilton - did I mention that? We had a bit of trouble with our room, they immediately gave us a different one, and then comp'd us dinner at the restaurant. Very, very good service.

 

Unfortunately, our flight the next day leaves at 6:30 am to Munich, where we have a brutal 3 hour layover before the 8 hours to Toronto.

 

Once again, LM did not elect to close his eyes the entire day. Through luck, we were on an A330 (2-4-2), and we got the whole middle row to ourselves, which gave him a little bit of room to roam. Unfortunately he bored of that within about 20 minutes of take off, and spent the next seven and a half hours walking up and down the aisles. He wasn't bad per se, didn't cry much, he just wanted to be on the go the whole time!

 

So we got back around 7pm Toronto time, and once again he'd been up for twenty hours or so without a nap. This was Thursday night, and we both had to work Friday - so they can deal with his jet lag at Daycare.......

 

So what's next for us? We're looking at something for the May long weekend week... stay tuned.

 

For the record:

 

LM's flightmemory:

http://my.flightmemory.com/ntl

and he has now visited 14 countries.

 

He has a while to go before he catches up to dad:

 

http://my.flightmemory.com/ozcanuck

[happytraveller]

thanks for the great review your have done. It was a pleasure to read. Have you thought of doing the cruise from New York to Quebec. We are doing the one late September on Emerald Princess and are so much looking forward to doing this.

I will post a review when it has been completed.

[OzCanuck]

thanks for the great review your have done. It was a pleasure to read. Have you thought of doing the cruise from New York to Quebec. We are doing the one late September on Emerald Princess and are so much looking forward to doing this.

I will post a review when it has been completed.

 

I'm a bit torn about doing some "domestic". The other half is from eastern Canada and spent most of her life there. And, of course, I've toured there extensively. I do like Quebec City though; it feels completely out of place on this continent..

[cruiseclues]

Great Photo Review...all sorts of good things...suite photos...bridge tour...galley tour...food photos...and special thanks for the 11 Day Norwegian Jade Freestyle Daily. :):):):)

[kikki21]

Well done for finishing your review! I am still on mine, getting there! The Behind the Scenes tour looked good, the Mr is saying he wants to do a tour like that on our next cruise! :)