Live From the Jade, Nov 13 to Dec 21, from Athens to Cape Town

[EllieinNJ]

What a wonderful review.  Thank you.

[Ken the cruiser]

10 hours ago, mellerio said:

Hi Ken,  Thanks for sharing your cruise experience.  We will be on the Jade starting Jan. 14th and on to the  13th of Feb.

What was the name of the excursion you did in Richards Bay?  I just looked at the NCL excursions for Richards Bay and didn't see any thing like you were on.

:Looking forward to an interesting cruise.  Thanks again for sharing.

Thanks. I posted the description of our Richards Bay “safari” excursion at post #424. 

[jolli]

Hello Ken….Thanks for all your wonderful photos and explanations about these two cruises! I now know what to expect when we arrive at these various ports since we’re cruising on the Jade from Cape Town 26 Jan and ending in Athens on 3 March…..the other way round! I look forward to all these amazing places and something we’ve been looking forward to for two years! Now we can cross Africa off our Bucket List! 
Safe Travels and Happy Cruising! By the way I never knew these live Cruise Reports existed until I found you…I love the idea! 
Happy Holidays and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you both! Cheers from John and Annette in Brisbane…Australia

[Ken the cruiser]

19 minutes ago, jolli said:

Hello Ken….Thanks for all your wonderful photos and explanations about these two cruises! I now know what to expect when we arrive at these various ports since we’re cruising on the Jade from Cape Town 26 Jan and ending in Athens on 3 March…..the other way round! I look forward to all these amazing places and something we’ve been looking forward to for two years! Now we can cross Africa off our Bucket List! 
Safe Travels and Happy Cruising! By the way I never knew these live Cruise Reports existed until I found you…I love the idea! 
Happy Holidays and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you both! Cheers from John and Annette in Brisbane…Australia

Thanks! You’re going to have such a great time on your cruise! There are so many cool places to visit on the B2B between Athens and Cape Town.
 

But I have to say if it’s in your budget, I would definitely recommend the NCL Valley of the Kings (and Queens) excursion we took in Luxor, which included lunch while cruising down the Nile! Petra, of course, was another excursion not to miss. Also, the “safari” excursion we just took at Mossel Bay was also super awesome if you enjoy looking at a wide variety of animals. Then the most thrilling one was the Sand Dunes excursion in a 4x4 SUV in Fujairah!! But whatever you decide on, you’re going to have a  great time!! 😁

Edited December 22, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[philamike]

Thank you for sharing your journey!  I'll be on the Jan. 26 sailing from Cape Town to Dubai, and it was great to get a sense of what to expect in the common ports.

 

Thanks again,

 

- Mike  🙂

[jolli]

Hello Ken…yes we’re doing all the excursions that you’ve mentioned Ken but all Private shore excursions with a nice bunch of people…Americans…Canadians….British and of course us Australians! I always like to meet many nationalities when cruising…it makes for lively conversations about travel! We’ve booked the Addo Elephant Park…St Lucia Wetland to see hippos in the estuaries and Tortoises in Mahe on the Seychelles….a cruise in a Felucca on the Nile and staying at the Steigenberger Hotel at Luxor overlooking the Nile…swimming in the Indian Ocean on the island of Praslin…..seeing the Lemurs on Nosy Komba…..all of these are private! We shall of course be visiting Aquila Game Reserve near Cape Town for 2 game drives…afternoon and early morning included in our accommodation cost! Nothing has been spared on this cruise….a once in a lifetime experience for us! I think this is the same for everyone who have decided to cruise with us all! I shall try to post photos but we shall not have wifi on board the Jade…way too expensive for us Aussies! In fact I think wifi should be included in the fare….all hotels have it now and the ship is virtually a floating resort! Once again thanks for sharing your Adventures! 
Cheers Annette and John

[Ken the cruiser]

8 hours ago, jolli said:

Hello Ken…yes we’re doing all the excursions that you’ve mentioned Ken but all Private shore excursions with a nice bunch of people…Americans…Canadians….British and of course us Australians! I always like to meet many nationalities when cruising…it makes for lively conversations about travel! We’ve booked the Addo Elephant Park…St Lucia Wetland to see hippos in the estuaries and Tortoises in Mahe on the Seychelles….a cruise in a Felucca on the Nile and staying at the Steigenberger Hotel at Luxor overlooking the Nile…swimming in the Indian Ocean on the island of Praslin…..seeing the Lemurs on Nosy Komba…..all of these are private! We shall of course be visiting Aquila Game Reserve near Cape Town for 2 game drives…afternoon and early morning included in our accommodation cost! Nothing has been spared on this cruise….a once in a lifetime experience for us! I think this is the same for everyone who have decided to cruise with us all! I shall try to post photos but we shall not have wifi on board the Jade…way too expensive for us Aussies! In fact I think wifi should be included in the fare….all hotels have it now and the ship is virtually a floating resort! Once again thanks for sharing your Adventures! 
Cheers Annette and John

Those all sound like awesome excursions! It also sounds like you'll be cruising with a combination of folks from different countries which would make a very competitive Progressive Trivia team! 😂

[Ken the cruiser]

I just wanted to say Thank You to NCL for making such an awesome B2B cruise possible! We recently arrived back home after our 38-day cruise on the Jade, and I was finally able to take a look at the pictures I posted on my "big computer" and wow did the memories come rushing back! 😀

 

If you ever have the time, money and overall desire to see a part of the world less traveled by cruise ships, at least by the ones we've sailed with, these pair of NCL itineraries are definitely worth further research. We have cruised all over the world to a variety of very cool places and this Athens to Dubai to Cape Town B2B ranks right up there at the top with the best of them! 

 

[Crazy planning mom]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I just wanted to say Thank You to NCL for making such an awesome B2B cruise possible! We recently arrived back home after our 38-day cruise on the Jade, and I was finally able to take a look at the pictures I posted on my "big computer" and wow did the memories come rushing back! 😀

 

If you ever have the time, money and overall desire to see a part of the world less traveled by cruise ships, at least by the ones we've sailed with, these pair of NCL itineraries are definitely worth further research. We have cruised all over the world to a variety of very cool places and this Athens to Dubai to Cape Town B2B ranks right up there at the top with the best of them! 

 

NCL certainly has some great itineraries available.  I don't think the other mass market lines such as RCL and Carnival offer the same level of itineraries.  Yes, you can take a premium or luxury line but NCL offers  some great itineraries for a more modest price.  Thank you again for your wonderful review.

Edited December 26, 2022 by Crazy planning mom

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, Crazy planning mom said:

NCL certainly has some great itineraries available.  I don't think the other mass market lines such as RCL and Carnival offer the same level of itineraries.  Yes, you can take a premium or luxury line but NCL offers  some great itineraries for a more modest price.  Thank you again for your wonderful review.

Thanks! TBH for some reason we always thought NCL focused on the younger working-class family demographic with 7-10 day itineraries. But, those longer more unique combinable itineraries are there. We just had to take the time to look for them, just like we have to with the other current cruise lines we book with. Another thing that recently caught our eye was NCL’s new 10% military discount! We now have 3 cruise lines, Princess, Celebrity and NCL, in our favorite goto list!  😁

[kirsten1526]

On 12/18/2022 at 10:23 PM, jolli said:

Hello Ken from Australia! Your photos and information about the tours has been wonderful and very informative…thanks! Use wondering if you’ve met many people who’ve done private shore excursions in all your ports? Probably not many on this cruise….we have mostly private ones now since the travel industry has opened up more for 2023! I sincerely hope that the CD will have more talks on all our ports when we cruise in January 2023….it makes the cruise much more interesting for us all! Did he have a slide show too? 
on another note and I’m not sure if the question has been asked before….do you know if you’ve had many cases of Covid on board? Is there a quarantine period within your cabin for 5 days? I wouldn’t like that since this cruise is fairly port intensive and I don’t want to miss out on any port! Let me know please to annettejolliffeathotmaildotcom…..putting in the symbols of course! 
Cheers for now Annette …Keep on enjoying all your cruises of the future and looking forward to more reports! 

We took privates aside from Fujairah. I heard some unlucky NCL ones were delayed so poorly because of our embarkation issues that the excursion teams were constantly getting refunds.  Richards Bay was a nightmare. My group was the very first off the ship thanks to the concierge team and we were off at 12:15 (port embarkation was scheduled for 11am). Others in suites that had booked NCL excursions had to wait hours for the entire group number before leaving. Some poor people going to St Lucia had 30 minutes on the boat only. It’s really been hit or miss but I’m thankful to take private. 
 

I do know of people who has Covid on board- the concierge was recovering Day 1 of sailing. The captain had it our first few days. Waiters had to wear masks if exposed and continued to wear them if positive. I know at least one passenger had it at some point as one of my tour guides told us she was in communication with someone from the ship trying to book a tour. There were also a lot of coughing people on the ship, especially toward the end, and suddenly more passengers wore masks. 
 

hope that info helps 

[BigRedFan]

On 12/20/2022 at 2:11 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

What an awesome experience at the Garden Route Game Lodge. I’ll just let the pictures tell the story! 😁

 
But before boarding the bus, we had to tender over. We waited about 40 minutes before it was our turn to get on the tender. Luckily, we showed up at 9 am to get in line rather than 9:30 like was suggested. It was 9:30 am when I took this picture. As you can see the line expanded a bit.
 

 
It took about 25 minutes to tender over to Mossel Bay.

 

  
Even the bus ride was awesome. Check out the leg room in the 2 sets of seats at the back of the bus! Definitely a total 180/from our ride yesterday in the back of the tour bus to the Addo Elephant Park! 😁

 

 

 
This was the scenery along our 70 minute drive to the park.

 

 

 

 
Sheep!

 

 

 
Let the hunt begin!! 😁

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mother and child rhinos

 

 

 

Mom

 

 
Maybe dad? Notice the bigger horn at the base.

 

 

Water buffalo

 

 
Mom and baby!

 

 

 

This was a female mongoose quickly running into the brush! Notice the white on the tail. I know. Who knew! 😂

 

 

Initially, we could only see one cheetah on the hillside.

 

 
Then a second one popped his head up. If you look closely, you can see the tip of his tail!

 

 

 
This was a secretary bird we saw off in the distance after we entered the lion section of the park.

 

 

Then finally, there they were. One male and two female lions! 😁

 

 

Ah, the good life! Not a care in the world. Ain’t it grand! 😂

 

 

Then a truck was coming up along the other side of the fence that caught their attention.

 

  

Obviously, nothing to worry about. But the male did keep an eye on it for awhile.

 

 

Then we caught his eye! 😂

 

So off we went back to the other side of the fence where the birds and antelope play among the another creatures.

 

 
A bunch of Ostriches!

 

 

Female wildebeests 

 

 

Young bachelor wildebeests waiting for their turn!

 
The king wildebeest, but only for one season. Then it’s the strongest of the bachelors turn.

 

 
 

 

Then came the zebras!

 

 

 

 
Then on the way out we saw this family of ducks! 
 

 

As you can see it was an awesome excursion!! 😁

 

I was on this tour as well and it had to be one of the best ever!  A great culmination to a once in a lifetime itinerary.  I am reliving all of it through the pictures.

Happy New Year!

Genzi

 

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, kirsten1526 said:

We took privates aside from Fujairah. I heard some unlucky NCL ones were delayed so poorly because of our embarkation issues that the excursion teams were constantly getting refunds.  Richards Bay was a nightmare. My group was the very first off the ship thanks to the concierge team and we were off at 12:15 (port embarkation was scheduled for 11am). Others in suites that had booked NCL excursions had to wait hours for the entire group number before leaving. Some poor people going to St Lucia had 30 minutes on the boat only. It’s really been hit or miss but I’m thankful to take private. 
 

I do know of people who has Covid on board- the concierge was recovering Day 1 of sailing. The captain had it our first few days. Waiters had to wear masks if exposed and continued to wear them if positive. I know at least one passenger had it at some point as one of my tour guides told us she was in communication with someone from the ship trying to book a tour. There were also a lot of coughing people on the ship, especially toward the end, and suddenly more passengers wore masks. 
 

hope that info helps 

Thanks! We did meet a couple on our last NCL Mossel Bay "safari" excursion that had taken a variety of private excursions on the Dubai to Cape Town leg and said they had a great time and even showed us closeup pictures of the lions they saw on their private early morning "safari" stop at the Hluhluwe Game Reserve at Richards Bay. OTOH we had an afternoon NCL excursion to the same park and didn't see any lions. But I also heard as you suggested that some folks did run into NCL excursion issues early on, but we didn't as we left on our excursion around 2 pm. 

 

However, the folks we were talking with did run into a few private excursion issues along the way. At Reunion they took a private excursion (almost) around the island and ran into some issues. They asked if we remembered hearing 6 names being called over the ship's loudspeaker, which we had? That was them. Fortunately, they were able to get back to the ship about 8 minutes after last call. 

 

Then on that an early morning private excursion to the Hluhluwe Game Reserve I noted above, they didn't get back to the ship until 10:30 pm that night, and we thought we were late getting back around 9 pm as we waited for the guests that were stuck on a broken down 4x4 in the park. It seems after their private tour guide dropped them off at the park for their park-guided early morning excursion by someone else, their tour guide got cornered on the way back to pick them up and take them back to the ship by a bunch of rhinos in the park. Luckily, the ship wasn't scheduled to leave Richards Bay until 3 am. So, stuff does happen on private excursions too. 

[jolli]

7 hours ago, kirsten1526 said:

We took privates aside from Fujairah. I heard some unlucky NCL ones were delayed so poorly because of our embarkation issues that the excursion teams were constantly getting refunds.  Richards Bay was a nightmare. My group was the very first off the ship thanks to the concierge team and we were off at 12:15 (port embarkation was scheduled for 11am). Others in suites that had booked NCL excursions had to wait hours for the entire group number before leaving. Some poor people going to St Lucia had 30 minutes on the boat only. It’s really been hit or miss but I’m thankful to take private. 
 

I do know of people who has Covid on board- the concierge was recovering Day 1 of sailing. The captain had it our first few days. Waiters had to wear masks if exposed and continued to wear them if positive. I know at least one passenger had it at some point as one of my tour guides told us she was in communication with someone from the ship trying to book a tour. There were also a lot of coughing people on the ship, especially toward the end, and suddenly more passengers wore masks. 
 

hope that info helps 

Hi Kirsten…..we too are taking a private excursion to the St Lucia Wetlands  with Tom Browns Tours….there will be 8 of us! Are we able to get off the ship fairly quickly if not on an NCL excursion? We’re meeting him outside the terminal so I’m hoping we shall get there quite quickly…are the Wetlands a long drive from the terminal ? Did you see lots of Hippos and BirdLife? Did you have lunch at the Boat Club overlooking the Estuary? I’m hoping for a Wonderful experience! Can you reply to me on Annettejolliffe@hotmaildotcom please! Replacing the dot with a full stop of course! 
Cheers Annette and John Australia

 

[jolli]

Hi Ken….besides the Covid vaccinations….do we need to have any other vaccinations for these cruises? Cheers Annette and John

[Ken the cruiser]

25 minutes ago, jolli said:

Hi Ken….besides the Covid vaccinations….do we need to have any other vaccinations for these cruises? Cheers Annette and John

That was all NCL said that we were required to provide, unless we wanted to periodically take an antigen test based on a Greek requirement since our initial embarkation port was Athens. Proof of a yellow fever vaccine may have been required if you had recently been to one of the currently “infected” African countries in the past 14 days from what we had read. But since none of the ports we visited on our cruise were on the current YF list, NCL never required us to have one.
 

But it did give us a little scare as the rumor onboard was either Seychelles or Madagascar might be asking for proof of a YF vaccine if we wanted to get off the ship when we got to their respective ports. But that requirement never materialized. 😁

[kirsten1526]

14 hours ago, jolli said:

Hi Kirsten…..we too are taking a private excursion to the St Lucia Wetlands  with Tom Browns Tours….there will be 8 of us! Are we able to get off the ship fairly quickly if not on an NCL excursion? We’re meeting him outside the terminal so I’m hoping we shall get there quite quickly…are the Wetlands a long drive from the terminal ? Did you see lots of Hippos and BirdLife? Did you have lunch at the Boat Club overlooking the Estuary? I’m hoping for a Wonderful experience! Can you reply to me on Annettejolliffe@hotmaildotcom please! Replacing the dot with a full stop of course! 
Cheers Annette and John Australia

 

We had plans to do St Lucia and Imolfoze. Due to late embarkation and face to face immigration we had to choose one as we wouldn’t make our wetlands tour at the time we booked. I’m actually happy with our choice of the game reserve as we did see so many rhinos, elephants, birds, warthogs, giraffes, birds, etc. and lots of baby animals. 
 

I think if you are coming from Cape Town you might not have the immigration issues? Though you might have them elsewhere. Just be prepared for delays and be flexible and you’ll be fine. 
 

While we did see the lions at Addo, we had to use binoculars and it was still difficult to see them. 
 

As Ken said, there were unlucky people on both NCL excursions and privates. They did the immigration and some debarkations by NCL excursion number and also by Cabin level (deck 12 first all the way to Deck 4 last). I know people skipped the queue as they went before their group was called and I think that exacerbated all of the issues. 
 

but maybe NCL also learned more about what to expect at the ports. We expressed our dissatisfaction with the port issues with the concierge and hotel/restaurant powers that be on the ship and their advice was to avoid booking first time itineraries. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[kirsten1526]

14 hours ago, jolli said:

We’re meeting him outside the terminal so I’m hoping we shall get there quite quickly…are the Wetlands a long drive from the terminal ? 

 

Oh forgot this… I think it’s quite a long drive and there are road closures along the way. Granted cars can drive faster than coaches. 
 

our tour guide offered a best case scenario of 75 minute drive each way 

[jolli]

11 hours ago, kirsten1526 said:

We had plans to do St Lucia and Imolfoze. Due to late embarkation and face to face immigration we had to choose one as we wouldn’t make our wetlands tour at the time we booked. I’m actually happy with our choice of the game reserve as we did see so many rhinos, elephants, birds, warthogs, giraffes, birds, etc. and lots of baby animals. 
 

I think if you are coming from Cape Town you might not have the immigration issues? Though you might have them elsewhere. Just be prepared for delays and be flexible and you’ll be fine. 
 

While we did see the lions at Addo, we had to use binoculars and it was still difficult to see them. 
 

As Ken said, there were unlucky people on both NCL excursions and privates. They did the immigration and some debarkations by NCL excursion number and also by Cabin level (deck 12 first all the way to Deck 4 last). I know people skipped the queue as they went before their group was called and I think that exacerbated all of the issues. 
 

but maybe NCL also learned more about what to expect at the ports. We expressed our dissatisfaction with the port issues with the concierge and hotel/restaurant powers that be on the ship and their advice was to avoid booking first time itineraries. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Yes …because we landed in South Africa and have been cleared by immigration we should have no worries getting off the ship fairly quickly….thank goodness! Our tour to the Wetlands begins at 9 am and meeting Tim Brown at that time! So should be a good day I’m hoping! Since we’ve already been to Aquila Game Reserve with two Game Drives near Cape Town…Botlierskop Game Reserve and Addo Elephant Park ….I wanted to see the Wetlands for a different experience! Hopefully we shall have seen lots of animals at the three other Game Reserves! Thanks for all the info Kirsten! Annette 😎😎🇦🇺

[davehils]

We are doing the Cape Town to Dubai leg on 26th January. 

Many thanks to Ken and others for all the valuable information. 

On a frivolous note, how many "dress up or not "nights are there likely to be and how many people were dressing up. Will a tuxedo but really out of place?

We haven't cruised NCL in 25 years and tgings gave changed a lot!

[Ken the cruiser]

5 hours ago, davehils said:

We are doing the Cape Town to Dubai leg on 26th January. 

Many thanks to Ken and others for all the valuable information. 

On a frivolous note, how many "dress up or not "nights are there likely to be and how many people were dressing up. Will a tuxedo but really out of place?

We haven't cruised NCL in 25 years and tgings gave changed a lot!

None that I'm aware of. As far as folks dressing up, on occasion I would see a few gentlemen with sport coats on and maybe a tie, but it was their personal choice. When we went to dinner each night, regardless of where, I wore a nice polo shirt and dockers and my DW wore what she felt comfortable in.

[frogandtoad]

Ken, or anyone else that was on this cruise, do you know if Guest Services has US money on board if we needed to change larger bills into smaller bills?

[Ken the cruiser]

53 minutes ago, frogandtoad said:

Ken, or anyone else that was on this cruise, do you know if Guest Services has US money on board if we needed to change larger bills into smaller bills?

As far as I know they did, especially when you consider they have to pay folks in $$$ to close out their account at the end of the cruise if they have refundable OBC.

[sherrihall128]

Wow, what a great live review. With the pictures and plans of shows/entertainment, it was a great follow along post! Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

 

Also, I think my family and I will be on one of your upcoming cruises in October 2024 on the Getaway. We plan to be on the one from Haifa to Istanbul that departs on October 9th.

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, sherrihall128 said:

Wow, what a great live review. With the pictures and plans of shows/entertainment, it was a great follow along post! Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

 

Also, I think my family and I will be on one of your upcoming cruises in October 2024 on the Getaway. We plan to be on the one from Haifa to Istanbul that departs on October 9th.

Thanks! We will actually board our B3B a few weeks later in Athens on Oct 28 with transition ports in Istanbul and Venice before disembarking in Civitavecchia (Rome). But your 10-day cruise looks pretty awesome!