REVIEW - Jade, 12 day Western Med

[CruisinEurope]

We paid for both of our moms to go with us on our cruise and in exchange they are willing to help with the kids (and even stay with them if we need to leave them). Egypt is the only place I might consider this though, but we will probably end up bringing them anyway.

 

That is great! Lucky kids to have both grandma's with them! My kids would have killed for that! ENJOY!

 

About the kids club, did it only cost money at night, or during certain hours?

 

Kids club was open from 9am - 10:30 on sea days. On port days it was open from 9am - port arrival (some ports we didn't pull in until 11am, so it was free from 9 - 11). Then it was free again once "all aboard" was called (usually 1/2 hour before sail time).

 

What days could you do laundry, because I think you said it was only two certain days?

 

Can't remember off hand, but think it was like 4 days in and then 8 days in. I can get out my dailies and see if it's in there. HOWEVER, you could do laundry ANY day if you needed to at the "a la cart" prices (no idea what they were). The "fill the bag" specials were just offered the two nights though.

 

Did you have to pay for the pools?

 

Nope. Pools and hot tub and waterslide were all included in the price of the cruise. No extra fee amenities for the kids at all on the Jade (ie- no rock climbing, bowling,etc.)

 

Was room service free?

 

They had a "free" menu and a "extras" menu. The free menu was quite extensive (IMHO) and we used it daily for breakfast. DO tip the room service guy $1 or so for delivery, as this is not your cabin steward)

 

I've never done this cruise thing before and I like to have all details panned out ahead of time as much as possible. Especially this trip because it's our most expensive one and I really want it to go well.

 

Thank you for all the good advice!

 

 

Your trip will go JUST FINE!

 

Relax and enjoy!

[Seago2]

Thanks so much for your excellent review!!

[Poconolady]

Loved the review. We were on the same sailing, and have the same feelings about Egypt, been there-done that, mark it off the list and move on! We did a deCastro tour on a bus, two day with return to ship. SOOOO glad we went back 'home" to our own bed and meals on the ship. The second day, in Alexandria was better, but still culture shock. Our guides were very good, but much too detailed for our taste. We would have enjoyed the museum much more if we had split off and gone to the second floor to see the King Tutt items. As it was, we had maybe ten minutes total to see what we really wanted to see. Also, I would have preferred to arrange the tour without the lunch stop, we spent about 90 minutes at lunch, and another 30 munutes fighting traffic to get there. As it was ,we arrived at Giza with hardly any time, and they were blowing the whistles to get everyone cleared out of the grounds at 4:30, we had five minutes at the Sphynx, just enough time for a few pictures and thats it. When we got back to the ship (after a very prolonged two hour stop for shopping at a store and papyrus shop, and then the 3 hour bus ride back to the ship. Must have slept, I don't remember anything about that!) it felt so good to get a shower and wash the dust off and then head to the Blue Lagoon for a little "comfort food".

[ukbecky]

Our guides were very good, but much too detailed for our taste. We would have enjoyed the museum much more if we had split off and gone to the second floor to see the King Tutt items. As it was, we had maybe ten minutes total to see what we really wanted to see. QUOTE]

 

That reminds me -

We took the NCL tour. When we got to the museum in Cairo, we immediately split from the group (after finding out the meeting time and place:rolleyes:). We've been to many museums with extensive Egyptian collections and were only interested in the King Tut rooms on the second floor.

I had brought a good guide book and we spent all of the time up there(almost two hours, I think).

Splitting up wasn't really a problem, and probably would've happened anyway since the place was so mobbed: there's no way a large group could've stuck together on that day.

[Kenai Kids]

wonderful! thanks!

 

You should have better weather than we did, but still "off season"

 

Enjoy your trip!!!

 

Hi blueeyedkids2,

 

We couldn't find a different way to contact you.

 

We will be in Denmark, staying down at a resort in

Vejby for several days and from there try and see things.

 

What is the best way to get there from the airport?

 

We will be ther Sept 5th, 2009

 

kenai dot alaska at yahoo dot com

 

Thanks

 

Kenai kids

[US-EuroMomof2]

We are travelling this same itinerary on Mar. 8th. I really appreciate the review you have written and have even taken notes as we prep for our trip. We are Americans living in Germany and will be travelliing with another family. Between the 2 families, we have 4 kids ages 1,2,3, and 4 at the time of the cruise. We have already booked a private day tour for Egypt. We are in the process of booking a private tour for Ephesus and are planning to use Meandor Travel. They quoted a good price and are willing to work with our schedule. They want us to pay online up front. Did you have any issues doing this? Was it secure? Thanks again for the time you have put into your review. It has been so very helpful and really got me excited for our trip.

[quatro1]

Thanks for that great review.We, a family of 4 are booked to go on the jade this August and cannot wait!

Could i ask,woulld tou say there were plenty of water fountains around the ship for use during the day?Also what about tea and coffee, could you get that free of charge during the day?

[US-EuroMomof2]

Thanks for that great review.We, a family of 4 are booked to go on the jade this August and cannot wait!

Could i ask,woulld tou say there were plenty of water fountains around the ship for use during the day?Also what about tea and coffee, could you get that free of charge during the day?

 

 

We just got back from this trip on the Jade, and it was great with a family. I didn't see any water fountains on the ship. However, water, tea and coffee (my husband brought a travel mug) were available free 24 hours a day in the buffet. As well as soft serve ice cream ;). At breakfast time there were juices available and at lunch and dinner iced tea. You could find juices at all meals in the kids area of the buffet. I'm assuming you could also get water from the various bars whenever you wanted, but I never asked. I also brought a 32 oz bottle for milk for my toddler. They happily filled this or his bottle for me whenever I asked. We also just got 3 or 4 of the boxes of milk in the am when it was available on the buffet and a few times, we ordered milks with room service and put it in the fridge. In other words, there was no shortage of included beverages.:D

[petesweet]

What I wound up doing was putting out a week’s clothes at a time, and then leaving the rest in suitcases under our bed. As clothes got dirty, they went into the “dirty” suitcase under the bed, and more clean clothes came out. What a great idea!

 

In hindsight, I would have ONLY packed for a week and used the laundry service ($24 per good size bag to be washed, dried, and folded). Question: Do they offer this only on certain days? or can you choose which day you need it?

 

DO BRING EXTRA hangers! Stock up those cheap dry cleaning ones and bring those. You can save a little packing space by forgetting the hangers and requesting extras from your room stewards. We had no problem getting extra ones.

 

 

Next to this is a “desk” area that contains the coffee pot, mugs, ice bucket and cups. In hindsight, I would have asked to have ALLLLLLL of this removed – as we didn’t use it once and would have preferred to have the space available. I’ll do that next time! Although we don't have them clear out the fridge, we do get rid of the ice buckets, etc. We also pack up all the paperwork they provide and put that in the most inaccessible storage spot to give us more usable room in the cabin.

Here's a tip you might want to try (especially with four people in one cabin). I pack a flimsy little 6-pocket shoe holder from the Dollar Store to hang inside the bathroom for toothpaste, shaving stuff, deodorant, air freshener -- all the stuff you need in the bathroom. Then I pack a large (24-pocket) shoe holder to hang on the OUTSIDE of the bathroom door. This holds so much stuff--umbrellas, cameras, books/magazines, binoculars, suntan lotion, gloves/scarves for cold weather cruises, water bottles, etc. You get the idea. It will even hold shoes!:D I could not cruise without the big one, and I learned that the little one is nice to keep stuff off the sink.

 

Thanks for this very specific review. It's very helpful.

[petesweet]

. Note – the slide is NOT designed for adults. There isn’t enough water pressure to make it any fun… most people had to “scoot” themselves down the slide if they were over the age of 12 (it WAS very fun to watch adults try to go down though… they need to put that on the cruise memories DVD! LOL).

 

For adults like me who are kids at heart and MUST have the water slide, bring a little plastic "donut" to use. It does the trick.

[Health Inspector]

We are cruising on Jade in January 2011. What type of clothes did you pack?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Patty

[Turtles06]

We are cruising on Jade in January 2011. What type of clothes did you pack?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Patty

 

We were on the Jade this past January. Given the range of ports and possible temperatures, packing was a little more challenging than it would have been for, say, a winter cruise in the Caribbean. We were expecting, and actually experienced, pretty much all sorts of weather, from warm and sunny (Egypt, Izmir), to chilly and rainy (Rome), to a very warm sea day (swimming in the pool!) the day before we returned to Barcelona.

 

For port days, layers worked best: short sleeve shirts, a thin polartec, a rain jacket or other outer layer. Also had some long sleeve polo shirts, a pair of black jeans (which I pretty much lived in), and a pair of blue jeans for knocking around while at sea. One pair of shorts (got to wear them on the ship; it was warm enough in Egypt but I would never have worn shorts there). One pair of dressy slacks, a couple of dressy tops. (I could have left the dressy tops at home, quite frankly.)

 

I thought the public spaces on the ship would be colder than they turned out to be, and I actually had more long sleeve shirts than I needed and was wishing I'd taken a few more short sleeve shirts instead. (It was pretty cold, though, in the Stardust Theatre. Always good to have some outer layer to put on, just in case.)

 

It was a wonderful cruise, I hope you have a great time!