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Norwegian Jade
Western Mediterranean, 2010
NORWEGIAN JADE
7-
Barcelona – Monte Carlo – Livorno (Florence) – Civitavecchia (Rome) – Naples (Sorrento)
– Palma, Majorca -
April 18-
By Lisa Plotnick
A Mediterranean cruise was on our wish list for a long time, and we finally got the
opportunity to fulfill this dream in April 2010. As my husband is a teacher, and
we have a school-
The cruise was on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Jade, a ship that is based in
the Mediterranean year-
PROLOGUE. Before I begin, I do need to point out two factors that, admittedly, impacted
our enjoyment of the cruise in a positive manner. First, as I will describe later,
we were upsold (upgraded with an additional fee) from our originally selected mini-
SHIP HISTORY. Norwegian Jade debuted in 2006 as Norwegian Cruise Line America’s (NCLA)
Pride of Hawai’i. Like her sisters in the Jewel-
Gross tonnage: 93,588
Length: 965 feet
Guest capacity: 2,402 (double occupancy), 2,816 (all berths filled)
Crew: 1,075
Cruising speed: 25 knots
Propulsion: Diesel electric
ARRIVAL AND EMBARKATION. Our arrival into Barcelona was somewhat chaotic as our luggage
did not make our connecting flight in Madrid despite a nearly four-
The Hilton Diagonal Mar was quite nice, located outside the hustle-
The following morning, we arrived at the Barcelona cruise terminal at 11:15. Boarding
was a breeze. There were numerous check-
EARLY IMPRESSIONS. Our first impressions were very positive. I was somewhat familiar
with the layout of Norwegian Jade as I toured near-
CABIN. As we are a family of three, and our son was 16 at the time of sailing, we
opted for a cabin with a lot of space, and booked a mini-
A separate bedroom and bathroom for our son was on the left after entering the cabin. Actually, it was its own cabin in itself, perhaps 100 square feet total, and included its own closet, drawer space, and television. Our son slept on a converted sofabed, and an upper berth was also available.
Continuing down the hall led to a large living/dining area with access to small (but
sufficient) balcony. This area was roughly the size of a standard cabin. On the left-
Courtyard and Garden Villa passengers also have access to a private courtyard that had abundant seating, a small pool, exercise equipment, and a large outdoor seating area one deck above.
Access to our deck was by key card, whether arriving by elevator or stairs. Additionally, a portion of one of the smaller dining venues, Cagney’s, was available to all suite passengers for breakfast and lunch. As this was likely to be our only time in such accommodations, we were certain to partake in these amenities, and they were certainly worth the price we paid for the upsell.
SHIP LAYOUT AND DÉCOR. I like the layout of the Jewel-
I had several favorite areas on this ship. One was Deck 7 amidships, where I often enjoyed an indoor window seat overlooking the promenade and the sea. The view of the promenade did not detract from the view. Similar window seats were located one deck below, and I enjoyed those, as well.
Also in this area were three of Norwegian Jade’s specialty restaurants—Jasmine Garden
(Asian Fusion, $15 per person), Teppanyaki (very popular, even at $25), and the sushi
bar ($15, all-
The two-
To my surprise, I also enjoyed the whimsically decorated Medusa Lounge, located between the Jasmine Garden Restaurant and the main show lounge. I nicknamed this lounge the “SpongeBob Lounge’ due to its décor that evoked the fictional cartoon character’s home of Bikini Bottom. I am not really a fan of whimsical design, so giving it a cute name was possibly my way of dealing with it. The bar in the corner depicts underwater plants, the mirror behind the bar is etched with jellyfish, the carpeting is adorned with starfish (actually, that’s kind of cute), and the chairs are orange and resemble starfish (but, are they ever comfortable). Columns in this room are green with red and yellow jellyfish appearing atop, and overhead pastel lights on a blue and silver ceiling look like seashells. There is dancing here in the evenings, and gatherings such as art auctions and club meetings during the day.
Not surprisingly, the ship’s library was a favorite spot. Not only do I enjoy ship libraries in general, the one on Norwegian Jade pays homage to a favorite liner, SS United States. This is one of the better tributes I’ve seen, including posters, framed newspaper articles, artifacts, and a ship model. (At the time, NCL owned the classic liner, and has since sold it to the SS United States Conservancy for less than scrap value.)
Yet, my favorite public room was the Grand Pacific Dining Room, the larger of the two main dining rooms. There is no charge for this venue, and the menu changes daily. I love everything about this dining room, starting with its entrance. The aft stairtower leads directly to its main doors. From there, there are more stairs to descend within the dining room—reminiscent of the Windward Restaurant on SS Norway. The room itself is beautifully decorated in dark wood tones and murals that depict moments in Hawai’ian history (that were also replicas of covers from Matson Line menus).
Outdoor areas were also nice. The main outdoor area outside the Lido restaurant included two swimming pools (one is adults only), a winding slide, lots of deck chairs, and four hot tubs. Keeping with the Hawai’ian décor, the pool area is flanked by lights that resemble palm trees, and tropical flowers are painted on the wall just forward of the pools. The ship also boasted a basketball court, and a promenade deck that included shuffleboard and a large chess set. (I had to make a correction to the setup of the latter.)
Finally, I had to smile at the various carpet design choices throughout the public areas. Here are a few examples:
DINING. Unlike most mainstream cruise lines, NCL utilizes open seating dinner for
all passengers, part of its Freestyle Dining program rolled out about a decade ago.
Passengers may have dinner in one of two main dining rooms, or opt for smaller, specialty
restaurants (some of which assess an additional charge). The specialty restaurant
offerings on Norwegian Jade included a steakhouse, tapas bar, and Asian, Italian,
and French-
Dinners in the main dining rooms were, for the most part, consistently excellent. Among the standouts for us were beef wellington, chicken piccata, and scallops. And, as described in the previous section, the ambiance was wonderful.
Papa’s Italian Kitchen was a major highlight for us. The meal, service, and atmosphere were superb. We were immediately presented with olives, several oils, balsamic vinegar, bread, and diced tomato. This was followed by an antipasto platter. We then were offered a choice of appetizers—I selected the Caesar salad and Neil had carpaccio. I ordered veal marsala as an entrée, and it was delectable. For dessert, I ordered the cheese selection, which was rolled in on a cart and sliced to my liking. The surcharge for this restaurant was just $10 per person, and well worth it.
Our other specialty restaurant meal was in Jasmine Garden Restaurant, where we indulged
in Shabu-
We had two meals—one lunch and one dinner—in the Garden Café buffet. As I generally
don’t enjoy buffets, we don’t do this too often. Yet, I liked the various stand-
We took breakfast on most days in the Cagney Restaurant. This room served as an alternate breakfast and lunch venue for passengers sailing in suites, and we made great use of it in the morning. Both table service and a continental buffet are offered. The highlight was poached eggs with scallop and lobster on salmon brioche—out of this world.
Another highlight was NCL’s Chocoholic Buffet. NCL has certainly not lost its touch
in this area. Treats included fondue, black forest cake, chocolate dipped bananas,
flourless chocolate cake, imaginative sugar-
SERVICE. Service was very good to excellent for the most part. Most of the crew members we encountered were very helpful, often without being asked for anything. As one example, when my husband ordered scallops for dinner one evening, he was asked by our waiter if he’d like a double portion as it typically consisted of just three pieces. To be certain that our treatment was independent of our level of accommodation, I often made our dining reservations in person without giving our cabin number until the very end. All of the hosts and hostesses were quite gracious and pleasant. When reserving a dinner in the Italian restaurant, the maitre d’ offered to set up a table for three by the window, in an area where there were typically tables for two.
Our concierge and butler were superb, particularly the latter. He took care of all
of our in-
DAYTIME ACTIVITIES. As we were off the ship for long stretches of time, daytime activities were not an important part of this cruise for us. We had just one sea day, which I spent getting photographs of the ship, yet we also participated in several organized activities. One of these was a presentation in the main Atrium called “Can’t Cook, Won’t Cook.” The Executive Chef was instructing the Cruise Director and Hotel Director on how to bake a cake, and it looked like they were having a lot of fun. This was very well attended, as was the subsequent sushi making presentation.
We also attended two events for Latitudes members. (Latitudes is NCL’s repeaters’
club.) The main Latitudes party, hosted by our Captain after lunch on our sea day,
was very nice. There was live music, the usual introduction of key officers and department
heads, free drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and prize drawings (no luck for us this time).
In contrast, though, the so-
EVENING ACTIVITIES AND ENTERTAINMENT. As this was a port-
The highlight was the cast of the Norwegian Jade Production Company, who performed
in both full production shows and smaller-
We also saw this talented troupe in two production shows. “Night of Enchantment,”
was well-
The only other show we saw was a performance of the Maestranza Spanish Ballet. This was a group from Barcelona, I believe, that performed a variety of Spanish dances, and we all enjoyed it.
PORTS OF CALL. This cruise was booked solely for its itinerary, and we made the most of our long days in port. We opted for the cruise line’s shore excursions in nearly all of our ports, given the distance from the piers, and journeyed on our own at our last port of call, located a short shuttle bus ride away from the ship.
Monte Carlo, Monaco
10:00 am – 7:00 pm
The approach into Monte Carlo was absolutely magnificent, creating a very nice introduction to our nearly weeklong visit to the Western Mediterranean. The city, with its various architectural styles, unfolded on many levels on a backdrop of jagged mountains. Our tour was called, simply, Nice, Eze, & Monaco. Although we traveled less than 30 miles roundtrip, there was so much to see in each place that the tour was scheduled for—and lasted—just under 8 hours.
The tour was exactly as advertised. After obtaining our tour stickers in the main show lounge, we exited the ship and boarded our bus. We traveled along the coast on our way to our first stop, Nice, France, where we had time to explore Old Nice on our own. We saw beautiful architecture, including the Opera House, walked by an outdoor market, and strolled along the promenade along the Mediterranean. The narrow streets were charming, as well as very steep in some places, yet we all handled them well. We discovered a bakery on one of these streets, where we enjoyed a fabulous Quiche Lorraine.
After reboarding our bus at the appointed time, it was off to the restored Medieval city of Eze, France. It was a trek getting up the stairs, yet well worth it for the beautiful views that awaited. There were plenty of stores on the way up (and down), mainly art galleries and perfume stores. This is the one location of the tour that I would say we were glad to visit, yet see little reason for a return trip as there’s very little to do.
From there, it was back to the principality of Monaco, where we had an extensive tour. We walked along part of the Formula 1 race route in Monte Carlo, where they were already setting up for the event that was one month away. The way people drive around here was as if the race was already in progress! We walked up steep hills to the Casino and its plaza, beautiful architecture, yet a lot of effort to get here unless one plans to spend time in the Casino (which we didn’t). Our final stop was Old Monaco, or “The Rock,” where we saw the royal palace, the cathedral where Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier married (although we didn’t go inside either), and more narrow streets with lots of shops. There were beautiful gardens here, as well. Thankfully, there were elevators and escalators to take us up to this level. I highly suggest comfortable shoes for this tour!
Livorno, Italy
8:00 am – 7:00 pm
It was an early call for our shore excursion, The Splendor of Florence, for which
we were to meet in the show lounge at 8:00 am. We checked in, received our tour stickers,
and were on the bus shortly thereafter for the 90-
Our first stop was an overlook at Michelangelo Park, across the Arno River from the old city. Other than terrific views, this park also offered a nice collection of statues honing some of Michaelangelo’s famous works.
Once in town, we went to the Galleria dell’Accademia to see the actual statue of David. Photos do not do it justice—it is impressive and imposing up close. Our guide provided explanation as we looked at the statue from various angles, interpreting the oversized hands (strength), feet (grounding), and head (intellect). The Statue of David is at the far end of a large room that is flanked by other Michelangelo sculptures, most notably some of his works in progress. It was interesting to see how he made this art form come to life. I know that gave me a greater appreciation for the masterpiece we came to see that morning.
The rest of the day was spent walking from one square to another, enjoying the various
architectural styles the city had to offer. Our tour centered on three areas of the
city: the Piazza del Duomo (Florence’s religious center), the expansive Piazza della
Signoria (with its many beautiful statues), and Santa Croce (featuring an extensive
tour of the Gothic-
Our guide provided superb narrative that enhanced this excursion greatly. The tour
also included a walk to the Ponte Vecchio, an interesting bridge that has been lined
with shops since at least the 12th century, and a three-
Civitavecchia, Italy
8:00 am – 8:00 pm
When planning this trip a few months ago, we were well aware that the enormity of Rome—both in size and history—would make it impossible to do more than a few sites in our allotted time. The tour that best fit our needs was called Roman Highlights, a walking tour that focused on the Pantheon and Piazza Navona in the morning (and billed as seeing the city’s famous Baroque monuments), and St. Peter’s Square in the afternoon. This was another long day—nine hours in all, including an hour and a half each way between Civitavecchia and Rome by motorcoach.
After driving past the Colosseum (with a location that was a great surprise—right in the middle of a busy roads), we traveled a bit further to where we parted company with our bus for the remainder of the morning. Among our stops was Trevi Fountain (very crowded; I was surprised at how small its square was), the Pantheon (beautiful domed structure with many statues and other works of art honoring ancient Roman gods), and Piazza Navona (a vibrant area with street vendors and artists, surrounded by a collection of beautiful buildings in various styles). Lunch was on our own, and we found a great pizzeria around the corner from Piazza Navona, where we talked with both locals and other tourists.
From there, we walked a few blocks to our bus for a quick trip across the Tiber to Vatican City, where we had an extensive tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. Although I am of a different religious background, I could not help but be enchanted, amazed, and even moved by so much of what I saw. St. Peter’s Square was, of course, very familiar having seen it so many times on television, yet being there in person was breathtaking. We entered St. Peter’s Basilica by way of a separate line reserved for tours. Our guide stayed us the entire time, describing much of the interior in great and fabulous detail. The first key piece was my favorite—Michelangelo’s Pietà. What an intricate, wonderful work, particularly the face of Mary and the folds in her skirt. Our tour continued throughout the immense and impressive interior of St. Peter’s Basilica, marked by soaring arches, ornate columns, mosaics, statues, and crypts. Its beauty is indescribable to any reasonable degree.
Although this was just a sample of what Rome has to offer, the tour was extensive
and quite informative. It was also exhausting, although this was likely influenced
by the build-
Naples, Italy
7:00 am – 7:00 pm
We greatly enjoyed today’s excursion, Flavors of Sorrento and Pompeii, a full day
tour that took us beyond the port city of Naples south to the Sorrentine Peninsula
(to visit the coastal village of Sorrento and a family-
Sorrento is a small and pretty village consisting mainly of Medieval-
Our next stop was a family farm a few miles away, where we had a lovely lunch of
antipasti, pasta with tomato sauce and ricotta, cream-
Bidding our hosts farewell, we returned to the bus for the trip to Pompeii. I had done a fair amount of research before our visit, and was still greeted with numerous, wondrous, surprises. The first was how tall the structures were—up on a hill, indicating how deep the ash and pumice covered the old town. The second was its immense footprint. It’s one thing to read about it, but quite another to be there, gazing into the remains of houses that once lined busy streets, walking across these same streets upon stepping stones, viewing the outdoor theatres, admiring the marble floors of some of the buildings, and looking across the vast landscape of the Temples. In many places, it is easy to imagine neighborhoods and vibrant street life. There is, of course, a lot of sadness. Plaster casts of several victims, including a dog, caught at the time of the devastation was very moving. I’ll never forget the facial expressions. So full of fear.
Before returning to the ship, we made a quick stop at a cameo factory. By this time, we were tired from our long day, yet confident that we had made an excellent shore excursion selection for a first visit.
Palma, Majorca, Spain
6:00 am – 6:00 pm
Our final port of call was Palma, in the Balearic Islands of Spain. After extensive, guided excursions in our other ports, we did not plan a tour here – instead, we thought we’d spend a few hours walking around on our own in the morning, returning long before the ship’s early evening departure.
I had done some research on Palma de Mallorca, and mapped out a walking route through the main part of town. Had it been later in the year, we might have opted for the beach, yet we were very glad with our decision to stay in the main part of town. NCL offered a shuttle bus for $10 per person for unlimited trips (payable on the ship), although we decided to use it for just one round trip. The bus dropped us off at the promenade by the sea across the street from the landmark Almudaina Palace and Catedral La Seu. We did not go inside the Palace, yet admired the public grounds that included a manmade lake, fountain, and beautiful archways. We also admired the beauty of the Catedral from the outside, as we wanted to make this a quick trip today. It was absolutely stunning.
We went further into town by foot, passing several town squares and government buildings on both main streets and narrow passageways. Architectural styles were varied, adding tremendous visual interest. A highlight was a stroll down the Passeig des Born, with its combination of modern restaurants and old buildings along a wide, paved pedestrian path.
We all enjoyed what we little we saw of Palma de Mallorca and hope to return one day, perhaps for an extended vacation. We did note that some passengers embarked the ship here, while others disembarked, so perhaps this is a future option.
DISEMBARKATION. The process of leaving the ship was exceptionally smooth. As Villa
passengers, we were able to select the hour we wished to leave the ship. We choose
8:00, were escorted off by our concierge, and were at the airport via taxi by 8:30
am. Luggage retrieval at the Barcelona cruise terminal was easy—passengers were directed
to the appropriate conveyer belt—and taxis were plentiful outside the building. Although
our experience was snag-
IN CLOSING. In summary, this was a spectacular vacation. Amazing historical sites
and wonderful pampering made for a special and memorable combination that will be
difficult to beat. As I wrote in my journal, I am truly going to miss this ship.
The layout is good, the food was excellent, the service excellent, décor fabulous,
and suite amenities impeccable. The itinerary was amazing, offering a lot in a short
period of time. The sites we saw on land were incredible—from the awe of the Vatican,
David, the Pietà, and Pompeii to the simple enjoyment of a bakery in Nice, gelato
in Florence, and a stroll down a beautiful path in Palma de Mallorca. We highly recommend
this trip to first-