Norwegian Jade Review
Rating by category
Additional details
Our cruise departed from Civitavecchia (Rome). We stayed in Rome for 3 nights / 2 days prior to the cruise, and it worked out great - gave us time to get acclimatized and get over the jetlag. Plus being in Rome is always a great treat! We stayed in an Airbnb apartment in Trastevere and it was a great location for us, as it was easy to get there from Fiumicino airport [using public transportation] and then from Trastevere to Civitavecchia train station (which is close to the port).
A little side note: If you are into using public transportation/trains, it's very easy to reach the port from Rome by train (takes about an hour). When we got off the train at Civitavecchia train station, we jumped into a shared taxi, a minivan, which was only 5 euros per person. The taxi delivered us right to the ship. Nice and easy; and the cost of the whole trip from our Trastevere apartment to the cruise ship was around 10 euros per person!
EMBARKATION - Very efficient and quick. All and all, it took us no more than 10 minutes.
Cabin Review
Family Oceanview Picture Window
I am not really sure how to rate our cabin. From one hand, it was great (as far as its layout, size, cleanness, etc.) BUT we did have an issue that put a damper on our experience. Every once in a while, we heard some loud noise that was coming from the outside, and it made it very uncomfortable for us to rest or sleep in our stateroom. The noise was not constant, but when it was on, it was quite disturbing. We reported this issue on a second day of our cruise and, to our knowledge, things were being done to investigate where the noise was coming from. However, the issue was not resolved. So in the end we just got used to living with the noise and used earplugs when we went to bed. And at one point we were offered to move to an inside stateroom, but we didn’t want to do it, as it would have been a hassle to move and a downgrade from our Oceanview stateroom as well.
Port Reviews
Rome (Civitavecchia)
How can you not love beautiful, majestic Rome! This was our 3 time in the Eternal City and we are falling in love with it even more every time we visit.. the list of things to see and experience is just endless!
Athens (Piraeus)
We love Athens and all the incredible historical places that one can see when visiting Athens! We booked a semi-private all-day Athens tour with PK Travels. Very good and informative tour. Just wish we had more time to "soak in" all the Athens experiences.
Mykonos
We did our own thing. Walked around a bit and then went to Ornos Beach. Caught a public bus that goes from the main bus station to Ornos beach every 30 minutes. Nice and easy. Same bus back from the beach. You can buy the tickets from a kiosk at the bus station, or on the bus from a driver. Very nice (if slightly crowded) beach where you have to pay 30 euros to rent two sun beds and an umbrella. Kinda expensive by our standards, but I guess it's to be expected when you are on a highly popular touristic island!
Rhodes
We did a half-day kayak tour with a company called "Trekking Hellas". Excellent company and a great activity to do on the island! After kayaking we had some free time to walk around the old city. Such a great place to explore and learn the history of! Wish we had had more time in Rhodes!
Taormina (Messina)
So much to see and do in Messina! And all kinds of day trips to choose from! We did a tour with a company "Discover Messina Travel" to Taormina and Castelmola. A very pleasant experience. There is also a lovely beach in Taormina that we visited when we had 2 hours of free time there.
Malta (Valletta)
Valetta is great! It was one of the ports where we wished we had had more time. There is a ton of things to see! We booked a semi-private tour with Amy Pace, a private guide. It was a very good tour, but because our time in Valetta was quite limited, we felt a bit rushed (and this is not our guide's fault, of course).
Naples
We did a shared tour for Rick Steves with Mondo Guides. Excellent system - you sign up for a tour on-line and if your group gets the minimum required number of people, you get an email with confirmation of the tour. We did a tour "Sorrento, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast". Good experience, however, it felt rather rushed. We visited three places - Sorrento, Positano and Pompeii. We only managed to have roughly one hour in each of these places (alghtough the original itinerary for Pompeii indicated we'd have two hours there). Both my husband and I felt that we'd rather have had 2 stops, but that they'd be longer. One hour for Pompeii is just not enough! The Pompeii stop was so short because we lost time while visiting first two stops (people on our tour were late to show up at the meeting place) and got into a traffic jam.
Florence (Livorno)
Our ship did not go to Livorno because we had mechanical issues of some sort. We docked in Rome instead for an overnight stop there.