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

[Travelexpert35]

Ken, you should mention the lack of lectures on your NCL survey when you leave. If there were crowds there in the theatre, there is certainly a demand for it. The cruise director sounds like he doesn’t care. I’ve been enjoying your posts and fabulous pictures. 

[Ken the cruiser]

16 minutes ago, Travelexpert35 said:

Ken, you should mention the lack of lectures on your NCL survey when you leave. If there were crowds there in the theatre, there is certainly a demand for it. The cruise director sounds like he doesn’t care. I’ve been enjoying your posts and fabulous pictures. 

Thanks! It definitely couldn’t hurt to mention it, especially when they know the average age of the guests of a cruise is going to be over 62 like ours have been. But obviously that’s their call as we knew beforehand lecturers usually weren’t a common occurrence on their longer cruises. 

Edited December 10, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

After another great dinner in Cagney’s, which we have determined to be our favorite restaurant with Le Bistro and Teppanyaki not far behind, we wound up going to the 9 pm show to see the encore performance of the juggler and comedian John Nations, who once again kept us laughing and thoroughly entertained the entire show! 😁

  

[Ken the cruiser]

Tomorrow once we anchor off of Nosy Be, Madagascar, we’re going to go see lemurs and be entertained by some local folks who live on a small nearby islet called Nosy Kamba. From the way the description sounds, a small tour boat will be taking us directly from the ship’s gangway to a “wet landing” on the islet! BTW this will also be the first port we’ve stopped at where we are required to bring proof we’ve received our COVID vaccination if going ashore.
 

It should be another great excursion, especially if out little tour boat takes us directly back to the ship rather that over to Nosy Be where we would have to get in line to tender back with everyone else who went to Nosy Be. 🤞

  

 

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

I have to admit, we sure have seen a lot of pretty sunsets and sunrises on this cruise! When we were in Cagney’s this evening, I saw this sunset from the window next to us, so I had to go outside and take a picture. 😁

  

 

[cruiseny4life]

13 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Anyway, sorry for the venting. Back to having a fun time on the cruise!!

You have a very kind way of venting! I'm pretty sure he would have heard a few words from me after that smile of his.

I'm still loving your review, photos, and hope you continue enjoying your experience!

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived at Nosy Be, Madagascar! It looks like we might have a little rain today, but only time will tell. Right now it’s a very pretty morning with only scattered clouds lingering around. 😁
 

 

 

 

 

 

[adonisr]

On 11/2/2022 at 1:58 PM, Ken the cruiser said:

Here are a few differences we've run into so far when comparing to recent Princess and/or Celebrity experiences since cruising started back up.

 

1. You cannot pay the Daily Service Charge (gratuities) with nonrefundable OBC issued from any source. You can either prepay for them online prior to your cruise (with a credit card) or with refundable OBC once onboard. We were originally planning to pay the daily $18.50 pp charge using the nonrefundable OBC our TA gave us for booking the cruise with them. However, when we heard this and contacted her, she was able to change their perk from nonrefundable OBC to issuing us a remate check about 30 days prior to each cruise. 

 

2. We had booked our roundtrip air through NCL, which was super cheap at around $1100 pp. We got the schedule for the flight to Athens about 30 days out and arrive at 2 pm, with 3-hour layovers at the two interim stops. We were quite pleased. However, on our return flight from Cape Town, we were booked in a Delta "Basic Economy" category where according to Delta you get the following:

 

- No seat(s) assigned until after check-in, not together 

- No changes allowed*

- Cancelable for partial eCredit (cancellation charge applies)**

- Last to board & not eligible for upgrades 

- No miles earned; no credit toward SkyMiles Medallion Status***

 

Mind you this is a 16+ hour flight from Cape Town to Atlanta. The main thing that annoyed us was you could not get seats assigned until after check-in. Later we heard you might be able to get seats assigned as early as 7 days prior, but that caveat has not been confirmed.

 

When we called NCL Air to try to get seat assignments, they said to call Delta. So we did and believe it or not, we were able to get our seats assigned and they are together. But we heard a few days later on the Roll Call that other folks on our NCL cruise weren't so lucky. When we told our daughter this a few days ago, she rationalized from her past experiences as a travel agent you can do certain things with an airline ticket within the first 24 hours of being ticketed (e.g., cancel a nonrefundable flight and get a full refund) before it's locked into the rules of the category you booked. She's guessing since we called as soon as we got the flight information, we were still in that 24-hour window. Needless to say, this will be the last time we book our flight reservations through NCL, regardless of the price. Just too much stress knowing we wouldn't be able to sit together on such a long flight.

 

3. You cannot use OBC issued by NCL, to include NCLH shareholder benefits, to pay for excursions booked online prior to the cruise. It's not a big deal, but it's something to be aware of. In our case since we're on B2B 19-day cruises and there are no self-service laundromats on an NCL ship, we'll be using most of our NCL OBC to pay for laundry service. Also learned if you're on a B2B with separate booking numbers, any excess nonrefundable OBC remaining in your account after the first leg will not be automatically transferred to the second leg's account. In other words, use it or lose it.

 

4. When we booked the cruise, one of the NCL perks was a "free" unlimited beverage package. Sounds like a pretty good deal until you realize you have to pay the full gratuities when you book the cruise, which works out to be just under $20 pp/day. Not a bad deal if both of you drink alcohol. However, since my DW only drinks water, which is not included in the unlimited beverage package, that would mean we would be paying almost $40 a day in beverage gratuities for my 1-2 glasses of wine at dinner and my triple Baileys to savor while watching the evening show. Needless to say, I won't be getting glassy-eyed on this cruise. 😂

 

That's some of the differences we've encountered so far in the pre-cruise phase!

Ken - Clarification, the daily gratuities for the drink package was charged at the time you booked the cruise?  Is that correct? 

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, adonisr said:

Ken - Clarification, the daily gratuities for the drink package was charged at the time you booked the cruise?  Is that correct? 

That is correct. However, you have the option of not paying the gratuities at that time which means no “free” drink package.

[Ken the cruiser]

Sorry folks. The internet has been slim to none since yesterday morning, so I won’t be able to send any pictures of our excursion to Nosy Komba. I know, who knew the internet would be so poor out in the middle of the Indian Ocean on our way to Mauritius! 😂 

  

 

[Ken the cruiser]

It looks like we’re out from under the “minimal internet dome” and are now able to upload some pictures of our excursion to Nosy Komba! 😁

 

These were some locals in their canoes at the back of the ship trying to sell us stuff like bananas and other things. However, not quite sure how they were going to complete the deal sense we were all tendering ashore. 🤔

 

 
As you can tell, not everyone was going on a ship excursion; otherwise the place would have been packed! But most of these folks, like us, we’re going on the small boat ride to Nosy Komba after first tendering ashore.

 

 
Regarding the tendering process, though, we were about an hour late before we actually made it shore. Then we waited for another 10 minutes or so with our group of 15 before we loaded up in our boat. 

 

 
And we’re off! 
 

 

 

 

 
This is the beach where we made our wet landing in about a foot of water. Not a big deal.

 

 

 
Then we headed out on our walk to the Black Lemur Sanctuary to see the lemurs, geckos, chameleons and turtles! But first we had to walk through the first gauntlet of out shops! 😂

 

This was their elementary school for the local children.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Then it was time to visit the sanctuary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Notice the baby lemur hanging out below the mother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then once we got back it took about another hour to finally get back onboard. Tendering has been such fun on this cruise! 😂

 

  

 
This was a vanilla plant originating from Mexico grown here in Nosy Komba.

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Last night after dinner in the Alizar MDR we headed over to the 7 pm show to watch the encore performance of Soul Satisfaction who gave another fantastic show!!

 

 
followed by the very funny Last Man Standing Game Show in the Bliss Lounge! I even won a deck of NCL playing cards! 😂
 

Then on top of a fun evening, we noticed in the Daily when we got back to the cabin there was going to be another lecture by Dave, only this time it was promoted as a Port Talk!! After seeing that, I had to immediately hunt down CD Richard to apologize for being so “me” the other evening and thanked him over and over for allowing Dave to give another lecture, with what appears to be more to come!! Richard reminded me that he was not a professional lecturer, but then I point out that’s what makes Dave’s lectures so much fun to go listen to! 😁

 

  
And apparently other folks thought the same thing this morning at 9 am in the theater who also came to listen to him! 😁

  

 

 

 

Edited December 12, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 30 - Dec 12 - Sea Day

 

 

 

 

 

[vegas4ever]

40 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

Then on top of a fun evening, we noticed in the Daily when we got back to the cabin there was going to be another lecture by Dave, only this time it was promoted as a Port Talk!! After seeing that, I had to immediately hunt down CD Richard to apologize for being so “me” the other evening and thanked him over and over for allowing Dave to give another lecture, with what appears to be more to come!! Richard reminded me that he was not a professional lecturer, but then I point out that’s what makes Dave’s lectures so much fun to go listen to! 😁

We talked to Dave a couple of days ago and he actually was a teacher back in the Philippines before joined NCL last November. We didn't attend any lectures yet but I'm sure they were both, fun and educational.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, vegas4ever said:

We talked to Dave a couple of days ago and he actually was a teacher back in the Philippines before joined NCL last November. We didn't attend any lectures yet but I'm sure they were both, fun and educational.

We’ve been to all 3 and they were all fun and informative and we actually learned some things which made our visits to those locations more enjoyable. One thing about Dave’s lectures or “port talks”, remembering that he works for the entertainment staff, is that you won’t get board! He even makes you laugh when there’s a misspelling or two or three! 😂

[PATRLR]

On 12/10/2022 at 11:29 AM, Travelexpert35 said:

Ken, you should mention the lack of lectures on your NCL survey when you leave. If there were crowds there in the theatre, there is certainly a demand for it. 

I agree.  As someone who hopes to soon be booking cruises like this one, to foreign locales that I know little about, I've taken note about the lack of port talks and enrichment.  It will be something I investigate with various lines before booking.  

[Ken the cruiser]

We’ve always had good luck with Princess and Celebrity (on 10 day or long itineraries) when it comes to lectures on sea days. In fact Celebrity usually offers 2-3 lectures on their 10+ day cruises. 
 

That’s why we were so happy when we heard yesterday that Dave from the Entertainment staff will be giving more talks on our upcoming ports. Funny thing, though, you would think the Excursion Dept folks would be giving the port talks to sell more excursions if nothing else. But CD Richard said they don’t do them. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Tonight after dinner in Le Bistro, we decided not to go to the production show Blazing Boots as we saw it on the last leg and for us it wasn’t worth going to see again. However, we did go to the 8 pm game show, The Perfect Couple, up in Spinnakers which is always fun to watch! 😂

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Tomorrow we are in Port Louis, Mauritius, and here’s the details of our excursion. However, it was cut short by a little over an hour due to an earlier than expected by a “bio security” requirement which is causing us to leave the port 4 hours earlier than expected. From what we heard we might not be going to the forest reserve or seeing the Black River Gorges. But on the bright side, we each got about $45 refunded from the total charge, about 30%, AND we finally get our passports back. Yay!!

 

  

 

 

 

[adonisr]

20 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

That is correct. However, you have the option of not paying the gratuities at that time which means no “free” drink package.

We've paid the full price - which actually was a pretty decent deal 😀

[Ken the cruiser]

3 hours ago, adonisr said:

We've paid the full price - which actually was a pretty decent deal 😀

Cool, especially if you both drink alcoholic beverages! For us it would have been $20 x 2 people x 38 days = $1,520. Now that may have been a good deal if both my DW and I each drink 3-4+ alcoholic beverages a day. But I might drink 2 glasses of wine at dinner and my DW only drinks water. And even that might have been acceptable if the water cartons were included in the deal. But they’re not. So for us it just did make economical sense. 

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 31 - Dec 13 - Port Louis, Mauritius 

  

 

 

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a little tidbit you may or may not be aware of if you book a cruise with NCL before or after final payment, and you subsequently want to transfer your booking to your travel agent. So I don’t mess up the 7 and 14 day time limitation, it’s best that you read the details below.

  

  
What caught us by surprise is that the CruiseNext people we booked our 4 future bookings onboard with said our travel agent’s information would be on all 4 of our bookings. However, when we contacted our TA yesterday, 12 days after we booked them, to see if she had received them, she said no. She contacted NCL and forwarded us the transfer form we had to fill out and email to NCL. 
 

We emailed the forms today, which is day 14 from when we booked the cruises, and luckily we’re 9 hours ahead of EST, so it’s still yesterday in the US. Not sure what’s going to happen with the Jan 2023 cruise we PIF. But you can bet we’re going to have a little chat with the CruiseNext folks when we get back from our excursion today. 😉

 

Edited December 13, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

We have arrived in Port Louis, Mauritius!

 

 

 

[cruiseny4life]

8 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

But you can bet we’re going to have a little chat with the CruiseNext folks when we get back from our excursion today. 😉

YESSS! This makes me so happy. I'm really, really glad you'll be able to actually show those snake oil salesmen their lies in person. I know you won't be karen'esque as you're far too polite for that, but deep inside, I'm a wee bit jealous you get to do this (not that it will do anything). Best of luck!