Traveler

One of the main different between western Europe and Greek Island cruise is the proximity of the attractions to port. While you need 1.5 hours drive to Rome , 2 hours to Florence and 1 hour boat ride to Capri most of the Greek ports/other ports in that itinerary are quite close (15 minutes tender to Kotor , 10 minutes tender to Mykonos and around 15-20 to Santorini. So its less intensive. Its quite easy to take the tender to Mykonos and just wonder for an hour or so in the village and go back. Adding two links for a live blogs we done in Greece cruise , let me know if you have questions . https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/15034-rhapsody-of-the-seas-24-31-august-2019-greek-island-take-2/#comment-150164 https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9042-rhapsody-of-the-seas-greek-islands-25-aug-1-sep-semi-live-blog/

Its official now "All air passengers 2 years or older with a flight departing to the US from a foreign country at or after 12:01am EST (5:01am GMT) on December 6, 2021, are required show a negative COVID-19 viral test result taken no more than 1 day before travel, or documentation of having recovered from COVID-19 in the past 90 days, before they board their flight." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/travelers/testing-international-air-travelers.html

It should not be an issue , You can put the page twice take half of it for the front and the other half for the back. the set sail card will be printed anyway. Even if it will not be verify you should not have any issue to check in. the only change will be that they will need to take a picture of your vaccination card, half minute more to the check in process ...

For me , with a different kind of vaccination card (a printed a4 page as I am not a US resident) it took about three weeks. I took a photo of the half page and than as the back I took a photo of the second half. Its now verified without any issue.

WHO organization just announced the new C-19 variant which currently spread very fast in South Africa . This variant is highly suspected to be more contagions than the delta variant (which is 4 times more contagious from the pervious one). Still not clear the vaccine efficiency against this variant. Currently RCL and other cruise line stock are trade 10% to 13% down . Lets hope it will be another false alarm. we will know in about 10 to 14 days.

For now all I can see that the prices only went down to what they were a week ago for preparation for this "sell" some even up in 2 $ . Let's hope it's just the beginning , I will be patient but for now it doesn't look promising.

You still need to in the regular station but on the deck 17 sun deck you can get towels without registration it.

Our Royal bid to an ATS went a 5 days before the cruise while we were on our first B2B part. No one were contacting us so I went to the ask the concierge , which promised to check . Still no one contact us so after few days I went to the second concierge to ask again and that time it worked and Sunil called us to meet him in the SL. Not sure if it was any different if we weren't already on board. I guess you want to at least contract them before arriving the port to schedule boarding time.

Crown loft suite are wonderful , lots of space and not just the proximity to the CK/SL but also very close to other places using the elevators.

Wonder was created for the Chinese market. This market requires on one hand less suites and on the other hand who ever go to suites require much more exclusive services. You can see it in Spectrum were they came with the gold/silver dining room with areas which are only accessible to suite guest. Also the solarium was with suite guest access only. If the 6th Oasis class will go to the same market I guess it will be more and less the same but if it will go to the US/Europe I think it will be more like the other Oasis.

Nay for anything you need to take with the tongs or any other tools . For everything else I do not see a reason why it will not be a self service.

It will take some time until they will publish some tours, I think they have not signed with the local companies yet. Until this week Israel would not allow tourists to enter due to C19 situation, but now they start to open the country. Regarding the excursions , how many days you have there , one or two. If one and if you never been there before I would recommend to go to Jerusalem , it's around 45 to one hour drive from the port of Ashdod. The tour would take you to the old city most of te tours would be around the holy places and the markets. Try to take a tour that also will take you to a view point on the hold city. If it's your first time I wouldn't recommend to do it by yourself (although possible) but to take a ship tour or other organized tour. Some tours will offer you a combination of Jerusalem and the dead sea but it might be too rushed for one day. If you have another day it's really depends what you are looking for , sea day ?, holy places , archeology , food tours ,arts ? There many things to do.

Is there any difference between the fjords pprts between Jewel and Anthem ? The first might go to ports the bigger ship couldn't.

Heaving the CFO replacing the CEO usually not a good sign for us , many time it means short term revenue increase with less long term loyalty view. I hope I am wrong. Only time will tell.

Seems that your TA got the message and also got the new invoice for you which you should get. I would be very unhappy if it would happen to me but since you already have the flight and since it's a very port intensive itinerary (only one sea day) with less time to spend at the cabin I would consider the following: Take the upgrade with the new payment (once you know it from Costco) , second room as balcony and ask to get suite perks for the second balcony also ( access to CK , internet , suite lounge etc ...) Not the best for sure but maybe better than cancel. Only my opinion.

I am also a planner (I think many of the people in this site are planners as they got here searching information for planning their RCL cruise ). Its not easy to plan for a group , its even harder to do so for newbies, we want them to experience all the things we love in cruse , the first time in Disneyland/other team park or first time in any new famous place. I love to experience it as if it was my first time there. I love it so much that sometime I forget that every one can experience things differently and not all the things I love other also love. I learn to ease the expectation and try to plan with much more flexibility (I said tried , its not working all the time , ask my spouse ). I do hate when others effect my plans due to being late , for example setting time for dinner in a restaurant , what I do is to set an earlier time and if people are coming on time we can just go to the bar and drink something while waiting for the table.

No one can understand the logic behind club royal, you are likely to get the Coca-Cola formula before getting answers for the club royal logic of doing things , but you can check how many points are register to you by simple going to https://www.clubroyaleoffers.com/ enter your last name and C&A number. Beside points it will show you if you have any offers. As I understands (from other post here) if your email is being used for other people reservations you might not get any offers anymore ...

Keep checking it , they will bring it back I guess. We did it around September and it was allot of fun. You get a safety and orientation for 15 minutes and then you get on the jet ski for 30 to 45 minutes , riding in a line after the instructor.

Thanks, In that case its very good , has both Taj Mahal and Machu Picchu are at least 2500 $ worth per person (if not more). I have done Machu Picchu from Lima , using local TA and most booking by myself , it was around 450 $ PP (including the flight and two days of not expensive hotel).

Here is the list of the wonders during this cruise . If RCL will give to choose which of the wonders to use the free excursions It will be good to choose the one that might cost more (combination of entrée fees and complexity to go there). Chichen Itza - port Cozumel - to go there you need to take a boat and a bus , in regular cruise it cost between 100 to 150 Chirst The Redeemer - Rio De Janeiro , should cost 50 to 100 $ , I would not recommend to do it by yourself Iguazu falls , port Buenos Aires - this one going to be one of the expensive as Buenos Aires is vey far from the falls (actually Rio is closer , Sao Paulo even more), It will require flight (its 15 hours drive) so if RCL will give it for free , go for it. Machu Picchu , port Lima (Callo) , Peru - Again one of the expensive one , it will require a flight from Lima airport (which is in the same City as the port) to Cusco , from there , or one hour buss to the train station or a direct train to Aqua Cliente (3 hours) then a bus to Machu Picchu (30 minutes). You should know there is a quota of number of people that can enter the city so its better to get this tour from RCL. Great Barrier Reef , Cairns , Australia - not sure but I guess there are many options here to take different tours. Great wall of China , port Beijing , China - Private tours can be organized , its a few hours drive , it can cost between 50 to 150 $ and around 250 $ from Royal Caribbean. The Taj Mahal , Cochin , India - This dose not make any sense at all , Chochin is in south India and the Taj is at the north , it will require a 3 hours flight to New Delhi and 2 to 3 hours drive to Agra , Mumbai port is closer (and you can take direct flights to Agra). its going to be expensive (but less then Machu Picchu). Petra , I guess port of Aquba - It is two hours drive from Aquba , tours are between 70 to 200 $ . Great Pyramid of Giza , port of Alexandria , this is around two hours bus drive . tour should cost around 150 $ (rough estimate) Temple of Artemis , Ephesus , Turkey - tours from RCL cost 80 $ (before sells). The Colosseum , Rome , Italia - 1.5 hours drive from port , bus to Rome around 40 $ , entry to the Colosseum around 18 $ . Tour from RCL around 120$. I guess I am missing here some wonders as there should be 17 and I found only 11

You will get to choose your check in time after you will complete your online check in.

Yes , you can ignore the check in time of the second cruise. We done B2B with Symphony several weeks ago. We got invited to do the test few days to the first part of the cruise. The test itself was on the last cruise day. On embarkation day we were requested to meet at one of the bars were we got our new card keys after a while we were escorted out of the ship , done quick face recognition at immigration and went to the sect floor to wait until escorted back to the ship.

First not all the 150 stops are really ports , some of them is just going near something (I do not really think you are going to a port in Elephant island for example". Second , there are many ports which is easy and even recommended to tour by yourself , for example Singapore , I would buy a prepaid subway card (or a day path for tourist) and go to the Gardens by the bay (free entry) , check the botanical gardens and maybe check the Marina bay sands , all without fee. Mykonos , the ship will tender you to the old port were you can just walk and tour the very nice village. Palma - you pay 8Euro PP for return trip to the city and you can easily tour it without missing anything. For sure there are places which I would prefer to take tours from the ship.

For logistic perspective I wish RCL would organize a way to allow cruise on the world cruise to send things to RCL ports were it will be delivered to the ship. That way , people can shop online or just have family/friends send them what they miss.

For sure a "you got talent" contest can be done for few nights.