Six of us joined the Jade to celebrate our 50th birthdays. We flew to Venice from Glasgow, and we were picked up and taken to the ship. The embarkation process took ages with lots of queuing and then eventually we got on board - our suitcases would take a while to arrive. Since we had 3 hours to spare we decided to head into Venice - this was easy: we took the monorail to the vaporetto station and got on a vaporetto, managing to get seats outside at the back and just enjoyed the ride down the Grand Canal, taking lots of photos. We got off at St Mark's Square and had a wander about, had a gelatto and looked in the shops. We then took a water taxi straight back to the cruise terminal so that we were back for the safety talk.

TIP: your case doesn't arrive in your room until later so wear or pack an outfit for exploring Venice in your hand luggage.

We were in twin bedded rooms on Deck 10 with a balcony. They were quite small and you would not want to be over weight to manoeuvre in the loo! HOwever they were clean and there was soap and shampoo provided. We were on the starboard side and I have to say we saw most of the sunsets each evening which was lovely. There is a tea/coffee machine and a hairdryer in the room and a fridge. The mini bar is expensive as it is the world over! Read more