Greece and Turkey – Family Cruise on the NCL Jade – June 2022

Volos, Greece - June 8, 2022

Back in Greece for the remainder of the cruise, we were in port from 12pm to 9pm, so we tried to consider the morning a sea day and went to breakfast in the MDR. The MDR did not win for best hot chocolate; I'm afraid that I don't like the real milk in it. It sort of cloats or curdles, maybe instead. O'Sheehan's wins for best hot chocolate. We enjoyed several breakfasts in O'Sheehan's -- fairly speedy, not crowded, and good choices. 

Since this was a month before our 20th anniversary, I called it our 20th anniversary cruise. Here is picture to mark the occasion that we had our youngest take, with the wake.    

Approaching Volos

We did a nice walk that followed the coastline; the marina.

Travis with the ship in the background.

I loved this church's square clock. It did not seem like it would work perfectly, but maybe it does not have to since the hands still turn in a circle and they could make the hour areas different sizes. Or, maybe I have that all wrong. 

From a beach, we climbed out of the rock pier; they climbed out to the end. 

Interesting railroad switch. 

This church was more in town/inland from the coast. We went back this way. This was where our youngest spent his 5 Euro. He got a crab toy and an ice from himself and his brother. When "crabby" cost a Euro more than expected, we had to cover the brother's ice cream. 

Tonight, Travis and I had our Le Bistro, the specialty dining French restaurant onboard. With an NCL status perk, we get a dinner for two at either Le Bistro with a bottle of wine or Cagney's (steakhouse) and another at Moderno (the Brazilian steakhouse) or La Cucina (Italian). I had the filet mignon, and Travis had the Dover sole. They were both great. Our dessert pictures; they were good, though Travis misses the chocolate Napoleon greatly. Service was great, and it was not full or crowded. We were able to reserve this online beforehand since it has a la carte pricing now. We could not reserve the Moderno online before beside it has a set price. 

Another newish thing that they do is have photographers take picture at the specialty dining, which is good, but then they bring it back during your meal and try to sell a bi-fold cardboard display with your picture as an 8x10 and the ship on the other side, which is probably expensive. It looks nice, but I would not have room for these at our house and not sure how one would display one or more around their house. This also interrupts your meal for a guilt-sales pitch. I noted that we did not have room and asked if we could buy it at the photo gallery later. He said yes, and we did buy it it as a 5x7 with an Istanbul border, which I know was not were it was taken, just where we really wanted to go in the trip. A crewmember walked by and noted that we could not buy it as Istanbul since it was from the restaurant, gave up and said that we could try it, we ordered it with our platinum photo discount, and it said it would be delivered to our room the next day. I believe that it came two days later instead, but came just as we ordered it. 

We thought the kids would go for the buffet or O'Sheehan's, but they went for the less formal MDR -- Alizar. I was not sure if they would seat and serve them without an adult, but they did not have any trouble. Joel had the tostados. Owen did not order an appetizer, but they brought him the same. Joel had the potato gnocchi, and Owen the fried chicken. Joel liked his, but Owen did not really. Though his stomach was a little upset from too much good food, so that impacted his verdict. 

Next up Mykonos...