John Sultana
Age: 44
Occupation: Attorney
Number of Cruises: 3
Itinerary: 12 Days East Med
Sailing Date: October 5th, 2008
Norwegian Jade - 12 Day East
Med. Cruise October 2008
We just returned from 12
days Eastern Med cruise with Norwegian Jade. It was a
FABULOUS trip, but I wanted to pass on a few pointers
before the details fade. We are from the U.S., and this
is our 4th European cruise and 10th cruise overall (we
have also cruised Princess, Celebrity and Carnival). We
tend toward doing most of the ports ourselves, and
hiring private guides if necessary because we enjoy
researching the ports and like the flexibility and
efficiency of a private tour (we have found it to be
cheaper than the ship’s tours as well).
Flights and pre-cruise
stay in Barcelona. If possible, plan to arrive in
Barcelona a day or two early. We stayed at the Regencia
De Colon hotel. It is a sister hotel to the Colon, both
which sit at the foot of the Cathedral and a 2 minute
walk from La Rambla. The room was small, but well
appointed in a great location. We had to go to the Colon
to get ice for our drinks. We had dinner at Neya's. A
small tapas bar 1 1/2 blocks from the hotel. The food
was great-tapas and paella..and very inexpensive.
We really enjoyed the city. La Rambla is maybe 6 blocks
long and activity abounds! We spent much of the time
just watching the street mimes. They get dressed up in
amazing costumes and hold perfectly still til you come
up to have your picture taken….then they go into action!
Quite a site to see. La Rambla is also lined with plenty
of street vendors, artists etc. But they even have
street vendors that are pet shops along with the normal
florists and trinket sellers. We had sangria at a street
side cafe. Ugh...it was thick and really sweet and
reminded us more of children's cough syrup than a
cocktail.
On the day of embarkation we took the hop off/hop on
bus. We took the north route to catch all of the
architecture and it really was a beautiful ride. It did,
however, take the entire morning as the traffic in the
city was really bad. We bought a one day ticket that
would have allowed us to take the south route if we had
the time. Two day tickets are also available. Cash only,
but you purchase the tickets at the boarding stops. We
thought Barcelona was beautiful, we were pleasantly
surprised. It is a very easy city to do on your own.
Cabs are very easy to get either in the city or at the
pier. It is about 10-15 E from the pier to the close end
of La Rambla. Make sure and negotiate price before you
get in.
We had late seating, traditional dining. We love
traditional dining, however, due to the lateness of some
of the tours we ate every night at 8:45 pm. That's
pretty late even for folks who like to have prolonged
cocktail hours! We were rarely finished with dinner by
11pm. I won't comment too much on food...but...all of
the soups were absolutely fantastic..we never had a bad
one. Many of the nights I had a hard time choosing which
entree to select as none of them completely excited me,
but they were all good.
The Ship. It’s not as fancy or as laden with
goodies as some of its sisters, but the Jade is a very
nice ship. The crew is attentive and there are many many
activities planned.
Downsides – it is short on public spaces; smoking
is allowed in the one lounge where a lot of activities
are scheduled, so you can’t really escape it (the high
percentage of Europeans adds to the smoking population
too); and the rooms are small even for cruise ship
standards (no drop down bunk, so kids sleep together on
a pull-out couch).
Upsides – I thought the food in the Windjammer
was a step above the usual (don’t miss the Asian and
Greek nights, the pastries at breakfast, the desserts
and the fresh melon), and there is an excellent “salad
bar” with unusual ingredients at lunch in the dining
room; the bartender at the Champagne Bar makes a killer
Chocolate Mint martini (skip the frozen drinks at the
pool bars – they are WEAK); there are a ton of fitness
and game activities planned if you’re interested. Do go
to the port talks – they are very informative. I’m
impressed with how NCL aids the independent traveler and
does not solely push their excursions.
The Ports.
Rome/Civitavecchia. After much consideration, we
decided to book a private full day tour in Rome visiting
some of the familiar places and including a few new
ones. After researching companies to use, we decided on
LimoinRome - Claudio Caponera (www.limoinrome.com) as
our driver/guide for the day. We shared this tour with 3
couples from our roll call. Our itinerary included The
Roman Forum, Coliseum, Mouth of Truth, Circus Maximums,
the Key Hole (Sov Mil Ordine Di Malta), Palatine Hill,
Baths of Caracalla, The Catacombs, the Pantheon, Trevi
Fountain, Spanish Steps, Capitol Hill, and Gianicolo
(great views of Rome from this spot) and Borghese
Gallery. Claudio arranged for our lunch stop at
Ristorante Massenzio. Good meal. If we could have
eliminated one thing in the itinerary it would, in our
opinion, have been the Borghese Gallery. After a full
day of sightseeing, I for one was on "information
overload". I would suggest that the Borghese Gallery be
done by itself or perhaps along with a walk through the
garden areas.
Athens. We hired a taxi driver from Spiros at
spirostours@yahoo.com for the day (8:30-2:00) Spriros at
spirostours@yahoo.com . This ended up being a boon – it
costs 25 euro each way from Piraeus on the meter anyway,
and saved us hundreds of steps in the heat. He parked at
the back side of the Acropolis (it is not necessary to
climb the hundreds of steps from the Plaka) and waited
for us, then took us to the old Olympic stadium
(actually pretty impressive), the Temple of Zeus, to the
President’s house in time for the changing of the guard
(actually worth the stop), the Parliament building, the
Roman Agora, and then the Greek Agora and Plaka. We
zipped through it all – again because we got out early I
think, and were driving instead of walking – and were
back on board by 2, exhausted.
Ephesus. We hired a private tour guide for this
port -- Denizhan at ephesustours@yahoo.com . We combined
with another family I met on our Roll Call. I join the
list of Cruise Critic people that highly recommend him.
He was knowledgeable, personable, proud of his country,
and completely professional. We started early and were
through most of Ephesus by the time the first tour bus
arrived. Since it reached 105 degrees that day, we were
EXTREMELY grateful to have gotten to see it before the
hottest part of the day. Be sure to also see the ruins
of St. John’s Basilica. Denizhan also took us inside a
local and historic mosque and explained a lot about
Islam and Turkish politics. Lunch was the best of the
trip. We also visited the museum in Selcuk, which was
fine, although it is hard to compete with the Vatican,
the Egyptian Museum, and others on this trip. Definitely
try apple tea if you can – hot or cold, it’s delicious.
All in all, a great stop.
Alexandria/Giza. You definitely need a guide/tour
for this stop. Most passengers ponied up for a RCI tour
of some sort, and I was a little nervous not to, reading
all the postings about police convoys. But having a
private tour guide (we used Rasha El Ashmawy at
www.egyptdailytours.com) worked out great, and we were
very happy with the day. We didn’t have to wait for the
convoy (and I felt safer, being less obviously a tourist
in a small vehicle), we lingered at things that
interested us, and went quicker through things that did
not. Price for a family of four was $100 for adults and
$90 for kids; a group of seven was $80 for adults and
$70 for kids (solar boat museum, going inside the
pyramids and mummy room at the Egyptian museum extra,
but lunch included). Keys to this day are FLEXIBILITY
and HUMOR, and you should realize that even if you do it
with RCI there might be glitches – for example, the
entire bus that took the RCI Nile trip got sick, and
cartouches ordered on a different RCI tour turned black
when they were worn into the pool back on the ship.
However, on the whole we heard that the RCI tours were
pretty good. Our tour included the Giza plateau, where
we walked around near all three pyramids, drove to a
vista, drove back to go inside the medium sized pyramid
(Kefern) and then visited the Sphinx.
Lunch was a quick falafel
sandwich, and then we went to the Egyptian Museum
(including mummy room) and back out to shop at the Khan
Al Khalili bazaar in Islamic Cairo. We left the bazaar
at 6:00 sharp, and pulled up to the ship at 9:25 (had to
be back onboard by 9:30, so you really do have to watch
your time). Rasha did not travel with us, but checked in
with us all the way back to make sure that we made it
back on board. Tips about this particular Giza/museum/bazaar
itinerary: 1) change money before you get off the ship
if possible because Euros/dollars are not accepted until
you are at the bazaar; 2) take toilet paper in your bag
– bathrooms are often bare; 3) take small change for the
bathrooms; 4!) resist resist resist people offering you
anything (even people that claim to work for the sites
you are visiting) – you will suspect it is a scam, but
then you will not want to offend them, so you will go
along, but it will end up being a scam at the end. We
had a number of people flat out lied to us – “I work for
the government, not a tour guide, come see, I don’t want
to take your money” – and then demand “baksheesh;” 5)
take water and umbrellas – Giza plateau is really
exposed; 6) at the bazaar, decide what you are willing
to pay and stick to your guns – as a rule of thumb,
Rasha told us to chop their asking price in half or more
– if you can’t settle with the first guy, you will
probably see the same thing a few stores away; 7) about
going inside the pyramids – a claustrophobic, hot,
crowded, and stinky experience – but my family was glad
they did it. The middle pyramid (Kefern) offers much the
same experience as the largest pyramid (Khufu), but
priced at about $6 instead of $20. The experience takes
ten to fifteen minutes at either pyramid; 8) The Museum
– so many treasures crammed right next to each other,
it’s overwhelming – read a little before you go so you
can sort out the experience before you’re there. There
are actually two mummy rooms to see for the additional
admission price of $20 – if you’ve seen a mummy before,
you can honestly give this a miss, but if you haven’t,
it is fairly interesting. If the line is long, see the
rest of the museum and check back in later – it
fluctuates depending on tour groups; 9) Get to Islamic
and/or Coptic Cairo if you can – much more atmosphere
than downtown where the Museum is; 10) Do NOT eat at the
bazaar – most expensive (and worst) “snack” of the trip;
11) DO try mint tea mmmmmm.
Valetta. This is the one port where we decided to
do one of the ship’s organized excursions, a “jeep
adventure” tour of the island. Having just recovered
from a pinched nerve in my back, I don’t know what
possessed me to book this excursion. The ride is VERY
bumpy and rough, especially around the limestone
quarries, so if you have any back or neck problems, you
should opt for a different tour. That being said, the
“Malta Jeep Adventure” is a good way to see a lot of the
island. Each vehicle is an open-air jeep with seating
for four people. There is a recorded guided tour playing
in English to explain the various monuments or sights as
you pass them. The last stop was at Golden Bay where we
had free time to swim or lounge on the beach. Again, we
are not big on organized tours, but this one was a good
value for the money. Something that we found surprising
was that all the signs were in English.
Overall this is one of the best cruises we've done and
we highly recommend others to give it a try if you like
to visit many ports with less sea days. Weather was
great throughout the trip and glad we choose early
October to do this cruise. The members of our roll call
were a pleasure to meet and share tours with. We have
great memories of this adventure. Would definitely do
this trip again.
