Getting to/from port
For our 7 day Mediterranean cruise on the Norwegian Jade, we landed in Venice at 9 am with enough time to make our way to the port for afternoon embarkation. You can either take a ferry to Stazione Marittima, 15Euro pp from the airport to the port but takes about 1.5 hours, or do what we did- take the ACTV bus from Marco Polo to Piazzale Roma (30min, 6 Euros) to the Peoplemover Tram (2 min, 1 Euro), then walk to the pier. While this was slightly more labor intensive on our end, the time and money saved was worth the 15 minutes walk to the ship.
How to get from the Piazzale Roma to the Peoplemover to the Port
We stayed in Venice for an additional 3 nights after the cruise, taking the Alilaguna Blu line ferry to San Marco (40 min, 8 Euros), where we would be staying.
The view from our Hotel Europa’s bar
Ship overview
Sailing out of Venice
The Jade is one of the smaller Norwegian ships, cruising the Med year-round, and therefore attracting a highly European clientele. While the Jade layout is virtually identical to other ships in its category, the vibe was significantly different. Show intros, ship announcements, and daily planners are in 5 different languages. Just try to find any deck chairs amidst the sun-worshipping Mediterranean crowd. Want to go dancing in the club at night? Prepare to saddle up next to 100 Euro-teens and their entire families. As some of the few passengers without children in tow, we were grateful for our private haven.
Tricks of the trade
Grand Canal from the top deck
This run visits some of the most amazing ancient civilizations in the world, hopping from Italy to Croatia, Greece, and Turkey. One of the most exciting things to witness as far as cruise travel goes is docking into and embarkation from said cities. Our cruise was one of the final voyages to cruise out of the Grand Canal, providing some amazing vantages of Venice as we sailed away. This, cruising under the Verazzano Bridge leaving NYC, through the Panama Canal, and through Glacier Bay, Alaska have to be some of my most awe-inspiring cruise ship moments. This Grand Canal departure now been banned due to an excess of ship traffic, and irresponsible practices of many cruise liners: the most recent uproar ensuing after a Carnival ship cruised 20 meters from Venetian shores.
2 Euros for a PET bottle of delicious wine?
As usual, we decided to bring our own wine and pay the standard corkage fee of $15 per bottle- hell, we were departing from Italy, where wine practically flows through their veins. Why not pick up some amazing bottles from where they were actually made and spend the same as you would on a mediocre bottle with 3x markup on board?
Penthouse balcony at the very front of the ship- ideal for sailaway vistas.
Our original room, an interior cabin, would have been fine, but we decided to gamble for the onboard upgrade. We spoke to the purser that first day, putting our names on a list for paid room upgrades in the event that someone didn’t show, or upgraded themselves. Luckily, a penthouse became available the morning of day two, and we decided to splurge for the luxury of the massive balcony it provided. More perks of the penthouse included a butler, an in-room espresso machine, free breakfast and lunch at the specialty steakhouse, and priority disembarkation.
Hear ye, Hear ye! Same sights, half the price!
NEVER buy shore excursions if you have an iota of travel experience. Feel free to use their recommendations to figure out the top sights in an area, but walk 5 feet off the ship and ask the hawker guaranteed to be waiting there for you to take you to that same place. For example: in Izmir, Turkey, we hired a taxi driver to take us on an all day a private tour – including, the House of the Virgin, Ephesus with the Temple of Artemis and Agora, and a return to downtown for 80 Euros. The same journey through the ship would have cost $99 pp, would have lumped us with a large group travelling at a slower pace than us, and would have deprived us of valuable exploring time in Izmir itself. Our driver even bought us the ripest, most beautiful peach I have ever eaten as we said goodbye.
Kebabs cut with a saber? Yes please!
Keep the ship’s entertainment in mind when planning your own. While NCL’s Freestyle cruising is significantly less formal than other lines, they do have more upscale dinners on certain nights, with some of the better shows to match. Why pay for that specialty dinner on the night that they are serving lobster in main dining?
When in Greece…..
And of course…..eat out whenever possible.
Specific trip reports to come in the following posts: stay tuned!
