Live From the Jade, Nov 13 to Dec 21, from Athens to Cape Town

[Ken the cruiser]

7 hours ago, frogandtoad said:

 

Thanks - I must be blind as I didn't notice the rightmost column.

From what I could tell by the time our excursion was called to assemble in the theater, all guests that didn’t have a ship excursion booked had already been called. So plan on getting up earlier than you normally would. But at the same time you can then comeback to the ship after clearing Customs to have breakfast.

Edited November 17, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[phabric]

Did you use any money while in Israel? 
 

What did you use - $US, credit card or Israel money?

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, phabric said:

Did you use any money while in Israel? 
 

What did you use - $US, credit card or Israel money?

We did not spend any $$ in Israel. But some folks on our tour paid in US $$ and got US $$ back. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Had a great time on our 8-hour tour of Jerusalem today.
 

 
The drive from Ashdod to Jerusalem was about an hour, and the bus was about 90% full today. We didn’t see any more banana plants, but we did see a variety wine vineyards along the way this time.

 

 

 

I thought there road signs were interesting as directions were in 3 languages, Hebrew, Arabic and English.

 

Jerusalem was pretty interesting. We pretty much headed to the old city where the wailing wall is. 

 

 

There were a few churches outside the walls.

 

 

where we got to go into this one.

 

 

 
There were also plenty of grave sites dating back 2,000 years!

 

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the wailing wall from different angles. BTW men were only allowed in on the left hand side while the women were only allowed to pray on the far right hand side of the wall.

 

 

 
Of course, had to take a few wildlife shots along the way. 😁

 

 

  
A few pictures from a vista point across from the old city.

 

 

 

If you look close, you can see the separation wall with Palestine on the other side.

 

 
Then as we got back to the port, the sun was setting ending another great day!

 

 

[Busybeeva]

On 11/15/2022 at 6:32 PM, lovetravel63-65 said:

Can you tell me if mini suites have coffee makers and what brand 

I don’t know about mini suites, but we are in a balcony cabin. No coffee pot was set up in the room. But we asked and quickly received a complete set up with daily refresh. It is the type with the small single filter packets. 

[Busybeeva]

On 11/15/2022 at 9:57 PM, frogandtoad said:

I'll be on the cruise going the other way in February so I was wondering if you knew how people that are not on an NCL shorex in the first port in Israel get assigned a group for immigration inspection.  Thanks much for doing this "live from", it helps to answer some of my questions.

We had a non NCL excursion. Our group met up on the ship and went off together easily very early. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 6 - Nov 18 - Ashdod, Israel (Jerusalem)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a tidbit just in case you’re one of the few like me that use an iPad which doesn’t have a “cellular” capability. In other words, you need a Wi-Fi connection to communicate with other applicable end user devices on the Internet.

 

For example, my BIL uses an Android cellphone and I use an iPhone with “cellular” capabilities when I’m at home to send/receive text messages to each other. However, we can’t exchange text messages when I’m using my iPad because it doesn’t have a “cellular” capability. OTOH I can send and receive text messages with our son who uses an iPhone. Why is that?
 

Simply put, “texting” is made possible on all cellular-enabled devices because of a standardized “Talk and Text” protocol being implemented across all cellphone applications (AT&T, Verizon, etc.). However, when we’re on a cruise and Airplane Mode is turned on that “cellular” function is disabled.

 

However, in the case of Apple devices (which also has a common access to the Apple ID information registered in the iCloud), Apple has added a special protocol that allows an iPhone and/or another IPad to send and receive “text” information via a Wi-Fi connection. You can even send a text using an email address as long as it’s one associated with an Apple user registered in the iCloud.

 

But don’t get me wrong, you can still communicate between any combination of WiFi-enabled devices over the internet when using other internet-based applications such as Facebook Instant Messaging, Google Chat, or any other WiFi-dependent social media voice or messaging service.

[lovetravel63-65]

13 hours ago, Busybeeva said:

I don’t know about mini suites, but we are in a balcony cabin. No coffee pot was set up in the room. But we asked and quickly received a complete set up with daily refresh. It is the type with the small single filter packets. 

Thanks 

[Ken the cruiser]

And we’re off! Next stop is around 11 pm for a technical stop at Port Said, Egypt before we venture into the Suez Canal!

 

 
This afternoon in preparation for our next stop at Safaga, Egypt on Sunday at 7 am, we’re having to temporarily turn in our passports for them to subsequently get stamped by the Egypt Customs folks before we arrive at Safaga. Our assumption is that’s part of the reason for the “technical stop” prior to entering the Suez Canal.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s another tidbit. My DW can only eat food that is gluten free and diary free so she doesn’t have a lot of food choices available to her when going to restaurants.  Today we found out that she can preorder her dinner meals every day for the next day.  At dinner she notifies the restaurant that she needs to preorder for the next day and they call a crew member that handles food allergies to come by and meet with her.  That crew member shows her the menu of the restaurant that we reserved to eat at the next day and my DW picks the items she wants and they prepare it gluten and dairy free for her dinner the following day.  My DW is thrilled that NCL offers this service. Just something she wanted me to pass along to those interested.

[Alanr204]

8 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

For example, my BIL uses an Android cellphone and I use an iPhone with “cellular” capabilities when I’m at home to send/receive text messages to each other. However, we can’t exchange text messages when I’m using my iPad because it doesn’t have a “cellular” capability. 

You can receive text messages from an Android phone on your iPad if you turn on “text message forwarding” option. This is done on your iPhone, not on your iPad in the Messages settings.

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, Alanr204 said:

You can receive text messages from an Android phone on your iPad if you turn on “text message forwarding” option. This is done on your iPhone, not on your iPad in the Messages settings.

Good to know. Thanks! Would I be able to reply to the forwarded Android message from my iPad, where it would be routed back through my iPhone where the cellular connection exists, or more likely would it simply be a “read only” message that I would be unable to send a reply to? My guess is the later.
 

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to test the “iPad reply” option until we disembark from the cruise as my iPhone will remain in Airplane mode until then.

 

But in thinking about it, I get a lot of text spam on my iPhone. I’m not sure I would want all of that to be automatically forwarded to my iPad as well, but definitely an option to consider. 🤔

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived at Port Said, Egypt. Well, we’ve stopped and probably waiting for a pilot boat to come along side to offload a Custom agent or two to stamp the passports. Once that’s done in a few hours, they’ll leave the ship in the same manner as they arrived and we’ll be on our way.
 

Right now we’re scheduled to enter the Suez Canal around 3:30 am and finish around 12:30 pm. And for those that are curious like I was, there are no locks like there are in the Panama Canal.

 

[Alanr204]

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Good to know. Thanks! Would I be able to reply to the forwarded Android message from my iPad, where it would be routed back through my iPhone where the cellular connection exists, or more likely would it simply be a “read only” message that I would be unable to send a reply to? My guess is the later.

Yes you can reply to the forwarded android message from your iPad.  Your assumption that it would be routed back through your iPhone is correct. Of course this only works when your iPhone is in close proximity to your iPad. 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, Alanr204 said:

Yes you can reply to the forwarded android message from your iPad.  Your assumption that it would be routed back through your iPhone is correct. Of course this only works when your iPhone is in close proximity to your iPad. 

Cool! Why does the iPhone have to be near the iPad? Is it using Bluetooth to communicate between each other rather than their Wi-Fi connections?

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in the Egyptian Suez Canal! 
 

This picture was taken at 4 am, shortly after we entered.

  

 
Here is our location at 7:30 am.

 

 
Then I took pictures for the next 30 minutes or so.

 

 
If you look closely, you’ll see two ferries crossing and going in the opposite direction.

 

 

 
Then came the sand!

 
Then while I was creating this post, I looked up and saw this!

 

 

Then the fog mysteriously appeared again! 😂😂

 

 

 
This is so cool!! 😁

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

In case any one is interested, I did an internet speed test a few minutes ago. I have to say so far we’ve had very acceptable speeds this entire cruise. Hope it continues! 😁

 

 

and then there was more sand and interesting green things on the shore line! 
 

 

 
There are even trains running along the shoreline! Who knew!!

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 7 - Nov 19 - Cruising the Suez Canal

 

 

 

 

 
and more sand !! 😂

 

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Club Balcony laundry update. My DW wanted confirmation that we did indeed get 2 free bags of laundry each, so we visited CruiseNext again last night. This time we talked with a more senior person and he said we got 2 bags each if we were Platinum. If not, Club Balcony suite guests get 1 free bag each (for the first 2 guests).
 

We found out the person who we had talked with earlier, who BTW was standing right next to the guy, was new and got confused. No big deal as we have plenty of nonrefundable OBC to use. But it would have been nice to at least had a flyer when we arrived describing what amenities we get for being in a Club Balcony. We ate last night at the Teppanyaki specialty restaurant and met a couple with 1 child who are also in a Club Balcony suite that were washing their clothes in the sink because they didn’t know about the free bags of laundry available for Club Balcony guests.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

More sand and apartments!
 

 
We also now have a better view of the ships following us through the canal.

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

It’s 10 am and we’re about half the way through and just passing Al Ismailiya, Egypt.

 

 

 

 

There is a large settlement off in the distance I wasn’t able to identify, probably part of Al Ismailiya. 

 

 

 
Trees!! Who knew! 😂

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

OK, this just keeps getting more fascinating! We just realized we’re cruising down a divided waterway, one for northbound traffic and one for southbound traffic.

 

 
If you look closely at the map you can see where in some spots there are two blue lines which depict the divided waterway. 
 

 

 
Here’s a link to the Cruise Mapper page associated with the Jade’s location if you want to check out where the divided lanes merge into one. 

 https://www.cruisemapper.com/?imo=9304057

 

We have just entered the lake which is a little past the midway point. It’s function, in part, looks like a queuing area for ships going northbound through the canal, much like Gatun Lake in is used as a staging area midway through the Panama Canal.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

By the way, anyone have an idea what the purpose is for these green container-like platform looking things? We don’t even have a guess as to what they are used for. 😂

 

[DLSHS_Mom]

Ken,

Thanks for posting your link on the Princess page.  We were on the Panama Canal cruise with you and are enjoying all your posts for this wonderful cruise.  Have a great cruise!