NCL Jade Cruise Review - March 27th - April 6th 2013

[kikki21]

 

We went to the back of the ship and took some night shots and had a few night caps in Spinnakers and went to sleep dreaming of our 2nd day in Istanbul!

[ColinIllinois]

Very enjoyable review. Thanks for taking the time to post all those great pics. For some reason I wasn't hungry when I started reading and now I'm starving. :D

[kikki21]

Very enjoyable review. Thanks for taking the time to post all those great pics. For some reason I wasn't hungry when I started reading and now I'm starving. :D

 

Stay tuned - there's more to come and more food pics too! :D

[chris_kelowna]

Thank you for your beautiful and informative review. DH and I are going on this cruise next April and it's wonderful to get such a good idea of where we're going. Do you happen to remember the names of the tour companies you hired?

[kikki21]

Thank you for your beautiful and informative review. DH and I are going on this cruise next April and it's wonderful to get such a good idea of where we're going. Do you happen to remember the names of the tour companies you hired?

 

Thank you!

Still not finished yet!

A member of our CC roll call group booked the tours we took in Ephesus and in Istanbul and we had a discount as we booked both.

It was through Istanbultours.com. If you have a look on the website, there were links to what tours they could do.

Everything else we did DIY! :)

[kikki21]

Our daily last night suggested that today would be partly cloudy and 15c.... so we were pleased to wake up to this!

 

 

It actually got up to 24c today!

 

It was the day of the mosques, new and old.

 

 

We headed for the Blue Mosque first, it is free to enter but they ask for donations after you have visited for the upkeep of the building etc.

If you are deemed not suitably attired, you are handed blue cloths to wrap around you and you should wear a headscarf on your head if you are a woman.

 

 

It was certainly a spectacular building inside and out.

 

 

How big is that light? This area was segragated off as the mosque is used for prayer in between visiting times.

 

 

The mosque is named Blue due to the tiles in the building which were very ornate.

[AquamarineBreeze]

Yea, you're back with your review!

I was wondering if you had snuck off on another cruise ;)

[kikki21]

Yea, you're back with your review!

I was wondering if you had snuck off on another cruise ;)

 

Well I am soooooo trying to get this review finished one day very soon! :p

 

I wish I had another cruise booked this year, working on that but I see you have succeeded and the Jade's lured you in again!!!! Yay! :D

[kikki21]

 

We were also dressed in blue to match the Mosque!

 

 

Outside the Mosque was also stunning.

 

Next up we stood and listened to our guide explaining the history of the Hippodrome and how the columns there were imported from around the world like this one from Egypt.

 

 

Though they had to cut it down to be able to transport it!

 

 

It was a truly stunning day weather wise!

 

 

Istanbul is also well known for the tulips as this time of year and there were some great floral displays around the city which seemed very clean.

[kikki21]

 

Our next stop was the Hagia Sophia which was once a church and then a mosque and now is a museum.

 

There are Christian, Muslim and Pagan markings in the building which makes it truly remarkable, even more so as this is the 3rd Hagia Sophia standing.

 

 

Part of the building was under restoration when we visited.

 

 

 

There were many different symbols used in the building and lots of different legends which our guide told us about.

 

 

Up on the 1st floor.

 

That concluded our guided tour and now we were free to go round Istanbul on our own!

 

The first stop before lunch was the Basilica Cistern seeing as we had plenty of time and it was on our way to our lunch date, we decided to go in!

 

 

It was very large inside and very atmospheric!

 

Inside the cistern, there are boardwalks over the water which drips off the ceiling and in the water, there are lots of fish!

 

 

It's been used in quite a few Bond films.

[kikki21]

 

It was certainly a very different tourist attraction!

 

The Cistern is also known for the Heads of Medusa at the bottom of 2 columns, one on the side and one upside down.

 

 

We left the Cistern to get to our lunch date further down the road.

 

Whilst we were walking, we saw a sight in a tree which gathered quite a crowd!

 

 

Yes those crazy cats in Istanbul were having a fight, up a tree!

 

Our lunch destination was Imbat on the top floor of the Orient Express Hotel which is on the main road in Sultanahmet (the one with the tram on it)

Imbat is the top rated restaurant in Istanbul on Trip Advisor. It was perfect for us as we were in the area and also as we wanted good food in a place with a view so we could see the Jade and it fitted all of that and more!

 

 

The front of the menu.

 

We made a reservation on line which is strongly advised and sat on the terrace and had some beautiful food.

 

 

This was our view!

[kikki21]

We both had a lamb dish which were outstanding in taste and also beautifully presented.

 

 

The staff were really friendly too and we had great service.

 

Our mixed dessert dish.

 

 

There were some unusual flavours but we ate it all as it just came together so well.... the orange stuff was carrot which has been roasted in honey and then combining it with the orange sauce brought it alive!

 

Just go and try it!

 

After our amazing lunch, we decided to try and find the Spice Market which we eventually did!

 

 

There were a lot of spices, we bought some more Turkish nuts and I got some jewellery there too.

 

Next we crossed the Galata Bridge and braved the bottom row for our 1st part and every restaurant owner trying to get us in to eat!

 

[meltingmoments]

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst we were walking, we saw a sight in a tree which gathered quite a crowd!

 

 

Yes those crazy cats in Istanbul were having a fight, up a tree!

 

How funny!! And THAT'S the kind of photo I would stop and take too! :)

Loving your review and pics......thanks for sharing! :)

[kikki21]

Thank you for all the lovely comments! :)

My internet was all over the place last night otherwise I would have uploaded more pics and tried to get nearer to finishing this epic! :p

 

 

It's non stop boat traffic on the Bosphorus and Golden Horn.

 

Our next stop was the Galata Tower and we tried and failed to find the funicular that should have taken us up there after the Bridge but we ended up walking.

We went past some interesting areas though of every day Istanbul life, there were streets for car parts, plastic bits, bathroom bits etc.... at least that would make shopping easy! :)

 

 

Finally made it! That hill was a killer about a 1 in 4! Then we had to wait about half an hour to get up the Tower.

 

 

The views were worth it but we nearly had a diplomatic incident up there! None of our group and other groups in the lift could see the sign that says TURN RIGHT when you go round the Tower so as there was a gap to the left, everyone went left and created a bottleneck..... we had serious visions of being stranded up there as NO ONE WOULD MOVE!!!

 

Eventually we had to play go up to the person next to you and tell them to turn right! Seriously, it was bad up there and there was no room to move at all and people could easily have had a panic attack. The Mr had no hesitation in telling a few people working there what he thought and that it ought to be controlled better so just remember don't leave it till the last minute in getting up there and TURN RIGHT! :cool:

 

We eventually managed to get out of there and walked up the main street towards Taksim Square but we were quite tired by now so we turned off a side street and managed to flag down a taxi driver who was French and he dropped us off at the Galata Bridge so we got a tram back to the Jade.

I was seriously running out of memory card space and was glad to get back to the ship to grab it for sailaway pics.

[kikki21]

Pics from the top of the Galata Tower.

 

 

 

[kikki21]

It was sad to sail away from Istanbul as we had both loved the city from the start and even the Galata Tower incident didn't put us off....!

 

We both said we would come back there for a city break one day. :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Think we probably had dinner in the MDR again and then a welcome lie in the morning!

[kikki21]

Yet again we had some rough weather, force 7 and 8 wind speeds.... the boat was a bit rocky at times but it never bothered us.

Most of the time, the sea was quite calm apart from this!

By midday, things had evened out and the weather turned good again!

 

 

 

We had cleared the Dardenelles and were well in the Aegean Sea at this point.

 

 

 

We decided we would have a treat this afternoon and we both did the Martini tasting... there are 3 on this cruise, I think the first one is sour martinis, then this one was the fruit martinis and then the 3rd (which would be my preference) creamy martinis but this was not advertised.

 

We had 6 martinis in total each.... we were happy that afternoon! :o

 

 

 

 

It got that nice although a bit windy that we had some time at the top front deck of the Jade!

 

One disappointment today was that the Jade Brunch at Le Bistro was cancelled as out of a full ship sailing only 5 people, including us, were interested!

[kikki21]

We did have dinner at Le Bistro to look forward to tonight as part of our Romance package and enjoy it we did as we were offered a complimentary bottle of wine and as we were celebrating our engagement, we had the sparkling Beringer! :D

 

 

As it was a special dinner, we dressed up tonight!

 

 

We had a complimentary offering of salmon mousse and bread as nibbles.

It was very nice.

 

 

I had the 4 different savoury cornets as my starter which were very enjoyable.

 

 

The Mr had the scallops.... it was definitely a cut above the MDR food but not massively so.

[sayaguru]

WOW!! Thank you for taking the time to do this review and post your photos.

We got on Jade the day you got off. First time with NCL. We loved it. Great service, food. We were on deck 11 also. Our first time with a balcony (well mini-suite).

Don't know why you didn't have coffee. We had coffee each night.

 

I see you love food (like me). Unfortunately I didn't take photos of the food but wish I had.

Did you have the Chocolate brownie sundae in the Blue Lagoon? That was to die for.

 

Loved seeing your photos of Ephesus and Istanbul. I absolutely love Turkey. I want to return to Istanbul. It was my favourite city for many years. Now it's a tie with Prague. Oh- Barcelona. Just discovered it this trip. A definite return city too.

I should stop now. LOL

Thanks again. Will stay tuned.

 

I see you're from Leicestershire. We did a canalboat trip from Market Harborough the trip too. Loved that. Very relaxing (except for some of the huge locks). Good excercise though.

Edited May 15, 2013 by sayaguru

[AquamarineBreeze]

Well I am soooooo trying to get this review finished one day very soon! :p

 

I wish I had another cruise booked this year, working on that but I see you have succeeded and the Jade's lured you in again!!!! Yay! :D

 

And I see you have your honeymoon cruise all set!

How beautiful :):):)

[kikki21]

WOW!! Thank you for taking the time to do this review and post your photos.

We got on Jade the day you got off. First time with NCL. We loved it. Great service, food. We were on deck 11 also. Our first time with a balcony (well mini-suite).

Don't know why you didn't have coffee. We had coffee each night.

 

I see you love food (like me). Unfortunately I didn't take photos of the food but wish I had.

Did you have the Chocolate brownie sundae in the Blue Lagoon? That was to die for.

 

Loved seeing your photos of Ephesus and Istanbul. I absolutely love Turkey. I want to return to Istanbul. It was my favourite city for many years. Now it's a tie with Prague. Oh- Barcelona. Just discovered it this trip. A definite return city too.

I should stop now. LOL

Thanks again. Will stay tuned.

 

I see you're from Leicestershire. We did a canalboat trip from Market Harborough the trip too. Loved that. Very relaxing (except for some of the huge locks). Good excercise though.

 

Thank you!

There's more coming.... eek I heard about the famous Choc Fudge Brownie in the Blue Lagoon.... did you have to ask for it? It wasn't on our menus! :eek:

 

I haven't been to Prague or Barcelona but they are both on my list! :)

I live in Leicestershire now but I am a Notts girl born and bred!

[kikki21]

And I see you have your honeymoon cruise all set!

How beautiful :):):)

 

He he, of course!! It was always going to be a cruise and we will be visiting Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos and Santorini on that cruise. Can't wait! :D

 

I so want to go on the Jade again from Venice, which itinerary are you doing? Keep looking at the prices! ;)

[kikki21]

 

Another view of my starter.

 

 

I had the duck for my main course and it was very good.

 

 

The Mr had the grilled swordfish on a bed of lentils which he said was also tasty.

 

 

For dessert, I had the creme brulee which was great, could have eaten more than one but I was full!

 

 

The Mr had the chocolate dessert which he also enjoyed.

 

All in all, it was a very enjoyable meal, service was nice, nothing special though although the Guest Relations staff lady was lovely when she came over and gave us a complimentary bottle of wine!

[AquamarineBreeze]

He he, of course!! It was always going to be a cruise and we will be visiting Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos and Santorini on that cruise. Can't wait! :D

 

I so want to go on the Jade again from Venice, which itinerary are you doing? Keep looking at the prices! ;)

 

A match made in heaven! Or should I say at sea :)

 

It's Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Katakolon (third time now.... But I'll be heading to a great little shop I found this time with handmade jewelry).

[kikki21]

The cruise was swiftly coming to an end, where had the time gone to!?

It was great to have the days at sea as they provided a welcome break after all the sightseeing so it was good to rest, eat and drink and enjoy being on a ship!

 

We didn't too much activity today apart from the wine tasting on board and we had dinner in Alizar tonight instead of the Grand Pacific for a change. It would have been good to try the food in the other speciality restaurants but we thought the food was so good in the MDR and the buffet that there was no need.

 

 

The wine tasting.... we had a rose, 2 reds and 2 whites.

 

We had a lovely sunset tonight sailing past Sicily and Mount Etna.

 

 

The colours were great, aided a little bit by a filter on the next shot.

 

 

We had dinner at Alizar tonight..... my starter caused us some hilarity, it was a porcini mushroom parfait which tasted fine but didn't look the best!

 

 

Thankfully my dinner looked better.... really tender BBQ pork ribs. I think the pork on the Jade was great and I don't like pork as such, much prefer beef and lamb!