Review: Western Med Jade cruise Nov. 1 -12, 2014

[QuattroRomeo]

Took me awhile to get the notes and photos together for this review, but hopefully it is of interest to someone on a similar itinerary in 2015! I will post the review and related photos in sections over the next few days.

 

We loved the itinerary on this cruise- start and end in Civitavecchia, with port stops in Livorno, Monte Carlo, Toulon, Barcelona, Valencia, Cagliari, Palermo and Naples. Originally the itinerary also included Tunis, but that was cancelled in April.

Our journey began flying out of Toronto to Heathrow, then on to Fiumicino airport. Because we had a port stop the first day after embarkation, we decided to spend 2 nights in Civitavecchia pre-cruise in order to be over the jet lag, and are glad we did. There were many people dragging their you-know-whats off the ship in Livorno! We stayed at the Tenuta dell Argento, a ranch hotel out in the country. It had beautiful scenery and was very peaceful, but we also found it a bit isolated and inconvenient for sightseeing. The hotel ads boasted about a terrific restaurant with the meats featured highly in the ads and reviews. But our experience was the pasta lunch we had there was far better than the meat-oriented supper. We also took their shuttle into town, but the driver spoke little English and the return shuttle pickup plans did not go well. We ended up using a phone in a restaurant, where they helped us reach the hotel front desk to arrange a pickup time.

 

photos of Tenuta dell Argento:

 

[QuattroRomeo]

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

Our walkabout in Civi included a visit to McDonalds, as I wanted a coffee. The McCafe was like no other we have seen! Beautiful, lots of Italian pastries along with an Italian style coffee machine. It's worth going inside just to see this cafe:

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

We had a pizza lunch at Ristorante Baffone in the afternoon. The restaurant is in a pretty spot set back from the main street, with a view of the water. We decided to sit at one of the outdoor tables. The service was friendly and we ordered the house red, a quattro stagione pizza for me, and for my husband, a sausage pizza. My pizza was good and I enjoyed it, although the toppings were a little sparse. My husband found his pizza sauce lacking any herbs, and the dough not quite cooked through, with very little sausage on top. The house wine was very good.

 

[QuattroRomeo]

Out on the sidewalk, there were several street vendors -the type you find lurking in every tourist area in Italy, which sell fake designer goods and assorted junk-and some of them came right up to our table and the other tables outside. They left junk on the table while moving on to the next table. There was no intervention by staff to send them away, and it was quite annoying. We felt we had to keep an eye on our belongings while we were eating, as they moved around the tables. We told them to move along but they took their time. A shame, because it was a beautiful spot to just sit and enjoy! All in all, an okay restaurant for lunch with a nice view, but if you see any vendors around, maybe sit inside! .

[QuattroRomeo]

On embarkation day, we took the hotel shuttle to port, and it was a smooth, fairly quick boarding. After muster drill, we met with others on the roll call for an informal meet and greet in the Blue Lagoon. It was great to meet so many people, and helpful too, as many of us were on a tour together the next day!

 

Photos: view of the port from the hotel, and the Jade leaving port (courtesy of Turtles06 on the X Silhouette):

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

With only 2 sea days, this was a very port intensive cruise. What we experienced on the ship, therefore, was not that much in comparison to our Caribbean cruise in Dec 2013, on the Sun. We did find the Jade's size to be very comfortable and easy to navigate. The cabin size was certainly smaller than the Sun, which we expected, but it was noticeable. We were pleasantly surprised to see that we had the same cabin steward- Phil- that we did on the Sun! We had stateroom 10150, a starboard balcony.

We liked the split bathroom layout and there was more shelving in the bathroom than on the Sun, but have to say the toilet area was tiny. The clothes closet had lots of hangers and there was a decent amount of shelf space for clothing. There were no bathrobes, but Phil brought them when we asked. We used the coffee maker a few times and the supplies were always replenished. I had pre-ordered the anniversary package, not because it was our anniversary but we had the package on the Sun and quite enjoyed it. So our flowers were waiting for us, and the bottle of bubbly with wine glasses. I wasn't even sure if there would be flowers, because I could not find anywhere to order just bouquets pre-cruise on the NCL site for our cruise. So it was nice to see them! The only thing that was not provided automatically, were the hors d'oeuvres. We had to advise room service to deliver them when they did not show up as scheduled, and it did not seem to be on their delivery schedule at all.

 

The coffee bar is always a regular spot for me, so I sought it out pretty quickly. The Java cafe was a bit disappointing in that it was located in the atrium and also functioned as a quite busy alcohol bar. It only had a rather limited selection of Carlo's bakery items. I missed having a dedicated coffee bar, and really missed the pastries that you used to be able to get- like the yummy cinnamon pecan rolls...! Not really a fan of Carlo's so we didn't even try those cupcakes on the Jade. The atrium area was often crowded and noisy, so not the best for a relaxing cup of coffee, although it was good for just people-watching. The coffee itself though was very good.

 

photo in the atrium-coffee bar to the right:

 

[rochelle_s]

Great start to your review. Looking forward to reading more.

 

 

Rochelle

[QuattroRomeo]

Dining on the Jade

We only ate lunch in the MDR Grand Pacific on embarkation day, and breakfast on sea days, and enjoyed the service and the ambience.

We visited Blue Lagoon 3 times for lunch, or rather, tried to; the first time, nobody showed up to seat us, so we left.. Visit 2, we got seated, but no waiter ever came, so we left. The third time we actually got seated and waited on, but the food was not worth the wait. There was no Visit 4..

 

During our first dinner at Le Bistro, we loved the ambience and the service. The menu was the same as on our last cruise and we anticipated trying our favourites. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a problem with the oven or else the warming table in the kitchen if there is such a thing, as everything was overheated, in a way that evaporated all the juices- for example, the escargot was dried out and no sauce left, it is disappointing not having any garlic butter to dip the snails in, and the coq au vin I ordered had very little 'au vin'! On a subsequent visit it was much better, but never lived up to the quality we had on the Sun.

 

We also attended the Jazz brunch on a sea day, held in Le Bistro, where they had a live band (note to self, next time do not be seated quite so close to loud band...)! The brunch included a menu service and a buffet table. The food was good both ways, although again, it was not as good as the Sun. There was a lack of attention to the buffet though, as plates ran out and nobody working there seemed to notice. I asked one of them to request some while I stood there waiting. It took a few minutes before they arrived and by then, a lineup had formed. While I waited for the attendant to give me a plate, she walked right by me and went to the other end of the table, where the lineup grabbed all the plates and I had to request more plates again!..of course I did not starve to death but it was annoying, and soured the experience somewhat. We loved the jazz brunch on the Sun so it was a bit of a let-down here. One small thing we noticed in Le Bistro on every visit we had, was the pilling on the white linen napkins, that left lint on dark slacks every time.

 

Photos are from the Jazz Brunch:

 

 

 

[aquarianne11]

Following your review! Awesome photos. Thanks!

A Med cruise is my dream cruise, hoping to book one for 2016. [emoji4]

[QuattroRomeo]

The Sun did not have a Jasmine Garden restaurant, so we tried it on the Jade. Unfortunately, we really did not enjoy the food and found it difficult to see how it could be a 'pay for' restaurant. The atmosphere was nice enough, and it was not noisy or crowded, so it had that going for it. But all the dishes we tried were swimming in sauces, even when they shouldn't have been- Singapore noodles for instance. We also expected cold spring rolls, and got deep fried egg roll type spring rolls, which we were told is what they call spring rolls for this type of Asian food. Okay, lesson learned. Others really liked Jasmine, so to each their own! But it will not be on our to-do list again.

 

[QuattroRomeo]

Moderno was excellent, our favourite restaurant on the Jade by far. We ate there 4 times, and enjoyed consistently great servers, food and ambience. DH loves the lamb at Moderno, and I like the chicken and steak, and of course the pineapple, which we order for dessert. The salad bar was terrific as usual, as were the little cheese buns.

 

We ate 3 times at Papa's Kitchen, the Italian restaurant. We really liked the minestrone soup, the calamari, osso buco. We had enjoyed this restaurant on the Sun so were familiar with the menu and had our favourites. The only disappointment I had was the chicken parmesan. I did not have it on the Sun, but on the Jade it was the blandest tasting dish I could imagine. The other dishes were good though and so were the desserts.

 

Chef's Table was offered on this cruise, and we considered signing up for it as we had a truly memorable evening at Chef's Table on the Sun. The Sun cruise, though, was a relaxing Caribbean cruise, where we looked forward to this event more than the actual ports; whereas the Jade cruise was totally different with all the European ports and very few sea days. As it turned out, Jade scheduled it on the same day as we were in Cagliari. Our excursion there included a major food element- a complete Sardinian lunch,(more about that later!), so when we learned that Chef's Table still had the same menu, we didn't sign up. If anyone doing our itinerary on the Jade tried it, we would love to hear about it! The daily programs were still advertising it well into the cruise, so it didn't fill up quickly. I imagine that if you want to try it, it would be available on a similar itinerary, without having to reserve as soon as you board the ship.

 

We ordered breakfast through room service every port day, and it was the most consistent room service we have ever had- one morning we had to call because the coffee thermos would not open, and Dragan looked after us personally and very attentively after that. Breakfast was always prompt, coffee was openable, and with lots of creamers as we had requested.

[QuattroRomeo]

Entertainment on board

We attended only a few shows in the theatre; we don't really care for the song and dance numbers on any cruise line, so we skipped those ones. But we did enjoy the Flamenco dancers, and the aerialists Roberto and Dorota, who were just excellent. The crew show was a good mix of crew singers, and included the Fountains show, which was really funny on this ship!

 

Usually we attend trivias and a few other silly contests like beanbag throws etc., but due to the port days, we only played trivia once and no other activities. We listened to a few activities here and there for a bit and there was a Spanish crew member who was terrific hosting them, a great witty sense of humour and really funny. His participation in Fountains near the end of the cruise was hilarious!

 

The Galleria shop was pretty large on the Jade but didn't really have a great selection of anything. It seemed like there hadn't been a supply of inventory in quite some time. The handbags and clothing were limited. In the latter part of the cruise there was a table full of Bijoux Turner purses, scarves and bangles, but no reading glasses. Some t-shirts were 2 for $10. There were the usual jewellery displays, and a display of few leftover glass items from Venice, obviously from a previous itinerary. I asked one of the clerks if there were any specialty items from our itinerary's ports, such as Sardinia. No, there was nothing brought in. So shopping wasn't the greatest, and we were charged 22% VAT for anything we did buy: as a result of Tunisia being dropped we visited only EU countries.

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

Just a few random ship photos:

 

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

Meet & Greet

Our roll call was very active; we had about 150 people, which was wonderful to set up a variety of private excursions. This is a huge benefit of being a CC member I think, allowing us and others to enjoy tours that would otherwise be out of reach.

We had a formal meet and greet on a sea day, in the Medusa Lounge. Considering the size of the roll call, the turnout was disappointing numbers-wise, but we enjoyed the snacks provided by the ship and the officers' greetings, and a small group of us enjoyed a gift exchange of items representing your home area.

The Medusa Lounge is a good-sized room for a gathering like this, the only caution is the tipsiness of the chairs! The high back orange chairs swivel and also tip (too far) from side to side. And no, we did not have any alcoholic refreshments..

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

Excursions

 

I set up 6 private tours-Livorno, Toulon, Cagliari, Palermo, Naples and Rome, with great participation from the roll call. There were several of us able to get tours organized this way, always great to see a variety of tours! Happily, everyone showed up on time and we were on our way with no difficulties. The majority of the ports we docked at, everyone exited on deck 4 gangway. In Naples and I believe Barcelona, the exit was on deck 7.

[QuattroRomeo]

Great start to your review. Looking forward to reading more.

 

 

Rochelle

 

Following your review! Awesome photos. Thanks!

A Med cruise is my dream cruise, hoping to book one for 2016. [emoji4]

 

Thank you both! Med cruises are special that's for sure.

[QuattroRomeo]

Livorno, Italy

 

The day after embarkation, we docked in Livorno! I had arranged a transfer service for those interested in getting driven to Florence to do their own thing for the day. I booked Nicola Scovenna, a private driver, http://www.livornotoflorence.com . He was very easy to communicate with via email to arrange everything. He was easy to spot at the dock, and led us to his very comfortable new van.

 

When we arrived in Florence, we had a stop at Piazzale Michelangelo for the fantastic view of the city; we then moved on to Piazza Sante Croce. The Basilica Santa Croce was a beautiful cathedral with amazingly big doors. The square held a market on that morning, and it was an authentic array of local foods, clothing and crafts. I enjoyed a pastry that I could not resist!

 

photos are the Basilica door, Nico Scavenna with DH,and Dante statue beside the Basilica:

 

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

treats at the market:

 

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

After a brief visit, Nico drove us to Piazza della Repubblica and dropped everyone off for the day. It would be our meeting point later on heading back to the ship. While everyone went their own way, Nico drove DH and me to Accademia. Nico had offered to reserve tickets to Accademia and Uffizi for us. He waited for us to finish our visit to Accademia and then drove us back to Piazza della Repubblica in order to visit the Uffizi.

 

Accademia had a huge lineup so we were grateful for the reservations. We happened to be there on the 1st Sunday of the month= free admission! But you DID need reservations. Of course the statue of David was the focal point of this museum, but there are plenty of other interesting things to see. The medieval paintings depicted heaven, hell and themes like burnings at the stake. There were other sculptures too; I particularly liked the Pieta.

 

The statue of David itself is quite large, and even more so because it rests on a very high pedestal. It is up so high that you cannot really see details up close.

 

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

 

[QuattroRomeo]

When we returned to Repubblica, we had some time to explore the area near the Uffizi.

Even with our transportation, we did a ton of walking, or so our feet thought! Everything in the town centre is cobblestones. We sat in the square for a while, where actual benches are scarce. Found the public water tap, which we were not expecting. Hubby filled his bottle and had a swig, then declared that it tasted different. Sure enough, it was bubbly..I took a look at the water taps..only in Italy!!:

 

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

Pedlars were everywhere, mostly selling those camera sticks with which to take your own photo. A few had purses spread out on the ground right by the Uffizi. Struck me as sacrilegious! I guess tourism really takes over the beauty of a place. Although this was November, it was still quite crowded in Florence, in fact it had the heaviest crowds we experienced in any of our ports, including Rome at the end!

 

photos are: purses for sale, human statue, and Nico's van:

 

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

We tried to go in the Uffizi earlier than the entrance time on our ticket, but no go. They do not let you in any more than 5 minutes ahead. Once inside, it was a bit challenging to find the rooms that you wanted to see, and we backtracked a few times. Finally managed to find the wrestlers sculpture I really wanted to see, and while it was certainly beautiful, I was very disappointed that you could not go into the actual room- it was roped off, and you had to admire it from a distance. So the image I got of it from a TV show was much better than in person! The time went by quite quickly, there is so much to see- full of sculptures, beautiful rooms and ceilings.

 

 

 

[QuattroRomeo]

 

 

shaky photo of the wrestlers, I was getting jostled in the crowd standing by the doorway trying to use zoom lens!: