Norwegian Jade Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We were a party of 6 flying to Venice from London Gatwick. The flight was delayed by 30 minutes but BA made up most of the time on the outward journey and we arrived in Venice airport almost on schedule. We collected our luggage and made our way to the arrivals hall where we were met by the NCL staff who directed us to wait until they had gathered all the transferring passengers together. We did not have to wait too long before making the journey to the bus directed by the very pleasant NCL staff. Venice airport is chaotic to say the least, too many people in too small an area however with the assistance of NCL we boarded the bus for the short journey to the port. Embarkation was a bit confusing at first but we soon found our check in area and were fortunate enough to have priority boarding as a result of having booked suites, we were on the ship and in our cabins about 30 minutes after leaving the bus.
Overall the cruise was lovely and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute.
Cabin Review
Penthouse with Large Balcony
The suites were forward facing with large balconies situated just below the bridge, ours was suite No. 10500 and although the furniture was a little dated the suite was very clean and we were well looked after by our Butler Flores and our cabin steward Jo. The cabins were great for entering and leaving the ports as the view from the front was fantastic, sometimes a little windy when the ship was at sea but not too bad. We only closed the outer door on one occasion when the wind was really strong. There was loads of room to store all our belongings and we had a seating area for 5/6 people plus a dining table and 4 chairs. Canopies were delivered each day at about 3.30 pm, a nice touch, they must have thought we would be hungry!
We appreciate the suites are more expensive but in our view worth every penny.
Port Reviews
Dubrovnik
We used one of the guys arranging taxi's who appear at every port to transport us to town and spent a while in the Old Town followed by a reasonable priced drink at a café which took Euros. We did need some local currency but most places take Euros. A lovely port and very friendly people. It feels very safe and was also very clean.
Athens (Piraeus)
Very disappointing, we decided to take a Hop on Hop off bus for a tour of the city and although we did go to the Acropolis we did not climb the hill and were soon back on the bus to tour the rest of the sights. Athens in our opinion is dirty with graffiti everywhere, some areas we passed were like slums and very intimidating. We stayed on the bus to the port and were glad to be back on board.
Split
Very pretty, clean and easy to walk around and get to from the port. We just did a little shopping had a couple of drinks and returned to the ship, I'm sure this is a lot more to see but we were quite happy just spending a few hours near the port.
Corfu
Don't take the Hop on Hop off bus it's a con. You see very little of what we imagined to be a beautiful island. I suggest you take a ships excursion or research a private tour where you will no doubt get more from Corfu than we did.
Mykonos
Tendered to the port from the ship which I understand is rare for NCL. Some lovely but very narrow lanes with the usual tourist shops. nice views, nice restaurants and bars. All in all a really beautiful island.
Venice
Venice is beautiful but very busy. We took the water taxi from the port to St Marks Square the taxi was only a short walk from the ship. This cost 15 Euro's each return and took about 20 minutes. St Mark's was really busy and we made the mistake of sitting down for a coffee at 12 Euros each and were told there was an additional charge of 6 Euros each because they had music, we left there and later found a lovely place (can't remember the name) on the Grand Canal where it was considerably cheaper. We walked the lanes for a while and took a 35 minute Gondola ride at 80 Euros but this was split between the 6 of us so very good value.