Greece and Turkey – Family Cruise on the NCL Jade

NCL Jade: Greece and Turkey Cruise - June 5-12, 2022

Embarkation:

New muster drill is SO much better -- watch video at check in and again before going to the port, go to your assigned muster station for scanning/learn where it is as soon as boarding. Then when onboard, they demonstrated the warning horns and played a long/detailed safety announcement over the speaker and into rooms.

I covered embarkation fully in post.

Food:

The kids and I really like O'Sheehan's, the 24 hour Irish Pub. I never got to try any of the burgers. The kids had them, and they looked very good. I had the wings once; they are always very good -- and the fish and chips. We shared appetizers -- pretzel bread with beer cheese dip and spinach and artichoke dip. The kids loved the nachos. Travis prefers the buffet with its Indian options. I'm not a big fan of the buffet. It was well arranged with stations. It has lost the hard/normal ice cream (as opposed to soft serve); I like the normal ice cream much better. The rest of the family enjoys the soft serve. I did start liking soft serve with the 3-5 pm Great Outdoors snack buffet cookies, especially the chocolate chip, though there are not chocolate chip many days. Normal ice cream is available for dessert in the main dining room. I feel like the buffet normal ice cream station lost its spot to covid hand washing sink stations. Also, no more crepes made to order in the evenings that Travis and the kids love.

We always enjoyed sitting in the Great Outdoors buffet with aft and wake views.

The first night at the main dining room (MDR) we had an awesome waiter, Yasin Nadair, who said that we can request him next time, and he would have puzzle solving games for us. We have not requested a particular waiter before. We did and got toothpick challenges puzzles. The maître d' noted the request or remembered and looked for him each time we came in. Both impressive. Travis had very good paleta with mussels in MDR.

I was surprised that the main dining did not have baguettes anymore; they had similar rolls but not the same. The buffet still had the traditional NCL baguettes.

Travis and I had Moderno/Brazilian Steakhouse and had to request the Brazilian rolls; they did not bring them by default. So, be sure to request them.

Food pictures at the bottom.

Covid protocols:

NCL provided tests to reenter the USA, using the same Eurofins QR code and results were emailed to our Eurofins registration email. This was provided at no cost to those who needed it on the last morning of the last full day; 1 day before the flight. It was very easy and convenient. We scanned our ship card, gave our room number, were handled the test vial, given a test booth, quick test (though this one was more painful for me than the one that I had to board), and out for breakfast and to head to Santorini. Arriving at the airport, the USA changed this requirement at midnight before our flight, so it was not needed -- doh!

We had to wear masks on the ship the full time unless eating (so we did a lot of this!), drinking, or in one's stateroom, siting a Greek port requirement. However, on the flight when landing, they passed out masks to those that needed one. Then when the plane doors were opened; they announced that Greece changed the rule two days ago, so not required. Due to the masks, we did not go to as many events/activities. However, we stayed healthy and tested negative to get on to cruise and fly home.

We did see the covid hallway on deck 4 when we got on and off the ship at ports. We only knew that it was because crew was in protective gear (white coats, masks, and plastic face shields) delivering food containers. One time back from port, I noted that walked too far down the hall versus jumping on an elevator or stairs out of the area. I do not know who had to quarantine -- close contacts, those that tested positive when boarding, or those that tested positive later. They did not burden us with quarantining details, which is good for us since it is a vacation, but not as good for those that had to do it.

Room:

Not a single towel animal; though I heard that NCL is not doing them anymore and know that the room stewards work very, very hard. However, it is always sad to have a nicety, something special about cruising, go away. Our room was also a lot of work with the nightly bed setup for the kids -- a pull out sofa and pull down bed. Travis put them up each day, so she did not have to do them in the morning.

Our room steward keep us in enough towels -- I like a hair towel. However, she never brought the requested ice bucket with morning and evening ice, so more trips to the buffet for ice water with required washy-washy. She kept the room clean.

The balcony upgrade was very nice, gave us more space, and provide a great view and seating outside. We all enjoyed it.

Entertainment:

Like mentioned above, we did not do as many activities due to mask requirements and also had a port heavy itinerary. We did make to two trivias, which we enjoyed. The first host from the cruise director's staff was more fun the second person. The second person seemed eager to finish up and get out of there. We wore our masks, but others really did not in this bar area, even without a drink. (Walking around the ship, I did hear staff asking some people to put them on.) Though there were not too many people at the trivia, and they were generous with prizes. We got a phone holder where you can turn it sideways to watch a movie and a mug that said NCL.

We only went to one show (masks required); it was the illusionist show, Lord Nil, and very good with a nail biting escape at the end. I also would have enjoyed the aerobatic show, but I was not sure if the kids would and had an early morning port. Other shows did not sound too exciting with a band playing or someone singing.

I never saw the cruise director; Travis noted that she was at the show. On the announcements, she was very soft spoken and hard to hear. We also never heard a noon Captain announcement, even when being on the ship at noon, though that was not many days. I wonder if they still do them post-covid cruising?

The kids found some good movies to watch on the room TV.

We all enjoy the clean show from a comedian onboard, but there was not a comedian on this sailing.

We took our youngest to the pool and hot tub twice.

We like the crosswords and trivia on the library; the kids decided that they liked the sudoku. There were a few days of repeats, but we enjoyed when they were new.

Latitudes program and free at sea:

I was disappointed that the Platinum events (behind the scenes tour and wine tasting) were cancelled citing covid-19; it feels more like an excuse to save money. In place of the parties, they noted to come CruiseNext for a special gift. It was the pin, so not exciting, which we had to get at Guest Services. CruiseNext was never open when we were on, so no ad in our room to buy CruiseNext or upcoming cruise options. We guess that the CruiseNext person had covid -- eek. We also booked before they removed the 30 minutes of free wi-fi per Platinum member, so we got to keep this perk for this cruise. We also had the 250 minutes of wi-fi with the free at sea. We did not get the free at sea dining because we have the 2 Platinum meals, which we really enjoyed, but not to leave the kids to eat alone any more nights. Without the kids, we would have. We also did not get the beverage package--we do not drink enough to justify the cost. We love the tender any time without a tender ticket perk but did not get the most out of it this time. We used the laundry perk (1 free bag; can get up to 1 free bag per Platinum member) and had great service. Did not see priority embarkation or disembarkation (however, maybe just because we did self-walk off). It is still funny that they list the perk of a Concierge since I never heard or seen of this beyond listed in the Latitudes program. Others have noted trying to get a number to a Concierge from Guest Services with little luck getting a number or an answer.

Disembarkation:

We were booked on what seems like an early flight by the cruise line -- 10:30 am, when the cruise line tells people to not book a flight before noon, and the Athens' airport was on the other side of Athens. Our noted docking time was 6 am. With our luggage and self walk-off, we were allowed off at 7am. Disembarkation was fast, and we made it in plenty of time for our flight.

Food pictures: