Norwegian Jade Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,044 reviews

Wonderfull Tour of Ancient Sites with NCL

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Norwegian Jade
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TwinCruiser
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Feb 2010
Cabin: Courtyard Villa with Balcony
Traveled with children

I booked this cruise the same week it opened in Dec 2008 as a stop in Egypt was our highest priority and this week worked with the kid's school vacation schedule. We originally booked an aft facing AF mini suite for a really good price. Prior to the cruise, we received an upsell to a courtyard villa . This was very exciting as we had never done a "suite" before and I was determined to make the most of these additional benefits !

Expectations going in: Again, the primary reason for booking this cruise was to be driven to the great ports we wanted to see and also the significantly lower price that NCL was offering compared to competitors. We expected average to below average food quality and service. We also fully understood that the winter in Europe could be cold and rainy. After much research, I decided to book all excursions privately so that I could control the schedule and modify to fit the needs of children and also to avoid all shopping and long lunch stops. I wanted to concentrate our tours on the historical and cultural sights

Our flight to Barcelona was uneventful. I had arranged for all transports in Barcelona to be handled by Barcelona Day Tours and was very satisfied with them. We were met at the airport as promised by Juan who quickly got us to the very nice mini-bus which easily handled our 10 pieces of luggage and 5 people. We then proceeded immediately on our ½ day tour around Barcelona. Juan was great in answering questions and giving us information about the area even though he was not an "official" guide. We essentially had the use of the van/driver for 4 hours and could have given him any direction we wanted. As we were tired from the flight, we let him take us on the typically tourist route. He had great enthusiasm for Barcelona and we saw everything we expected to and a little more. At the end of the ½ day, he dropped us off at the Hilton Diagonal Mar which was a very nice hotel although not really near the Ramblas area. We shopped at the mall across the street for sodas and other supplies for the cruise and enjoyed free drinks and food in the above average executive lounge at the Hilton which is a nice perk about being Diamond with Hilton.

Cabin Review

Courtyard Villa with Balcony

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