Background We have previously cruised on the Pearl and the Jewel and decided to try this sister ship and get away from winter. The fact that the Jade sails in Europe year round is a definite plus.
Travel and Hotel After an uneventful flight (Moncton-Montreal-Frankfurt-Barcelona) we booked into the Hotel Parallel. It's central, easy walking distance to a variety of restaurants, clean, free Internet in lobby, economy in price and ideal for a before or after cruise hotel for a night. It offers a continental breakfast that was ideal before heading to the ship. We met up with cruising friends from South Africa who had just finished the Jade Eastern Med cruise and caught up on news.
Embarkation Embarkation was fast and easy and we dropped our carry-on luggage in our cabin and headed up to the 12th deck to the Buffet restaurant for lunch. Stateroom Our stateroom was on Deck 8 and our two stewards 'Dee' and Asep were terrific. Our room was tidied by 10 each morning and they saw to our every need without us asking. We had a ocean-view stateroom which was small but with a lot of storage - more than we actually needed.
Good location, quiet, 2 of us in cabin with room for 3 so lots of storage space. Tight area around the bed. Comfortable overall.