Traveler

Last vacation day , we had our breakfast in the hotel and took the shuttle  (10 PP) to the airport. Few hours flight and back home to start and unpack.

To sumerise :

Boarding in Rome and not Barcelona:

Almost no issues beside three things , need to manually ask to get you free play. Your points vanish after Barcelona and it takes some time to see them back. Next can not be booked from the application and you need to do it manually like the old days. Beside that its wuite nice abd even feels longer cruise for some reason.

The ship:

First , we love Alure because of the service and entertainment.  The amplification is not that obvious.  Yes it got the new slides but we less use it in a Europe itinerary,  specially in April ... the ship itself did not felt too updated , maybe because of missing destination elevators or small things like not replacing the public restrooms sensors. Don't get me wrong we stil enjoyed the ship. Seems that in the middle of the amplification Royal decided they eun out of budget .

Anyway , another enjoyable cruise,  hope to see many of you at about 7 weeks  the group cruise. 

Yuliya & Assaf

16 hours ago, PPPJJ-GCVAB said:

How would someone “come as a local”?

We were lucky to come with our work college who is a local ... 

Day 8

We woked up early and finish the last few things we needed to pack , I booked a private transfer https://www.civitavecchiaport.org/transfer/

We used them before and they are very comfortable.  They also one of the few companies with access to terminal so no shuttle bus needed. Door to door service. Cost is 180 E up to 4 people with two big suitcase a d two small one. They also have bigger cars. We booked and hotel which is somewhere between the airport and the city. The room price in central Rome are crazy for and decent hotel ... they it start with 650 $  for a very standard hotel. Other options would be the Airb&b but we were planning to come early and needed hotel were we can store our luggage. So we choose Holiday Inn Eur Parco. It's in a business park , very quite with very mice pool a d yard. We arrived around 9 am and they gave us a room that wad nice. The train station to Rome and to the airport is a 10 minutes walk on a flat road. Mind, this is one of the stations which you can not buy tickets so you need to do it online , cost is 1 E PP ...

We took the train to one  of Rome train stations were we met my spouse work college a d his wife who picked us with their car. It was 1 May. The official labor day in Italy which mean many things are closed and less traffic. We parked near the Vatican after 10 minutes of searching for a parking spot. We started to tour together, 

unfortunately my phone was eating the battery  wet fast (Roaming is killing the battery) and my power bank died on me so I had to turn off the phone to save some battery so not many pictures.

A must shop before a cruise 

After we walked a while it was time to eat. The colleague call his friend for recommendation and he sent him to one of the resturant near Trevi fountain. Now if it was only us I wouldn't even think to eat there as it looked like a tourist trap but we came with locals and we dropped the friend name which I guess made allot of different.  We got excellent pasta and it was huge portion. We asked for the bill and it came with some dessert liqures ( Grapa, Almond cream ,Lemon cream and lemon lemoncello.

They were very tasty and self served :-). As "locals" our bill did not contain the famous Coperto charges and a 25% discounts.  Always come as a local . We took also Gelato in another spot , you can not be Italy and skip Gelato. They dropped us near the trai. Station and we have done our way back to tge hotel to get so e required rest.

57 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Wow !  That looks like real pepperoni on that pizza.  First time I’ve ever seen it on a European pizza.  When you ask for pepperoni in Italy, first you get a blank stare…then, eventually you get peperoccini (sp ?) peppers.  Yuk !

That's actually Diavola with spicy salami. If you want real reaction from Italian pizzeria you need to ask pineapple on the pizza:-)

⁸We took the train to Monterosso, this is the biggest village of the fives that's has nice beaches (public a land privates) and many  restaurants. Actually,  if you plan to eat in Cinque Terre this is the place since it has more good resturants with much better price . 

We decided to tour mostly Monterosso as we did not visit it much during our last Cinque Terre tours.  I will let the picture do tge talking. 

Here I took a picture of Nessi cousin :

⁸Good morning from LA Spezia 

Rhe ship dock in the industrial port were you take a free shuttle to the port gate which is a walking distance from the city. As almost always we decided to go to Cinque terre and bought daily pass to train which allow you to use it as much as you want for 27 E PP . The question was how to ge to the train station as it 27 minutes walk , public bus or taxi (must agree on rate first) eventually we decided to take the little train that cost 10 E PP for all day use (if anyone likes to ise the small traon for full day ...) and brings you near the train station. 

Verenza

Here is breakfast in Vernaza :

Some night snacks:-)

We continued to tour the city until it was time to restock some France  wine bottles to bring back and eat something.  We decide to try a local crepes place which we saw that got good review , after all we are I. France. We took two salty one  (Norwegian and France) and one sweet one (Pistachio) . That was a big mistake as we should order two of tge sweet one also.  They were very good.

We strated our way back you tge shuttle stop. Passing some more interesting structures 

I notice my return tickets were gone but it did nor matter to anyone so we continued our way back to the port.

In the port we saw Brilliance Of the seas on her buity treatment. She should be ready again on 15-May.

Good morning from Marseille . We docked around 8:30 so gangway was open around 9. The ships docks 2 Miles from town. There three ways to to the city:

1. Take a taxi.

2. Take the ship shuttle bus

3. Take from the port gate (7-10 minutes walk) the free shuttle bus. 

If you read my previous cruise blogs you already guess I am pro walking and using public transportation.  You see more like that and we'll yes it can also save you some money to be used later for more important things like one more drink or a nice resturant. In that case I will tell you to avoid the free shuttle. It used to be a secret service , so not many people used it , waiting time were short. Now , many people are aware of this service so if you try to use it in the morning you might find your waiting more than one hour if not more (depends on the lines) for me it's contradicting the meaning of vacation...  So we took the cruise shuttle,  20 $ PP for return ticket. It's bringing you across from the big Cathedral and it's 10 minutes walk from there to the old port . It's frequent and when one shuttle get filled another one comes. 

The Cathedral from the cruise bus stop

In the way to the port

The old port view

Sewage smell issue resolved! 

Palma !

We arrive Palma today . We thought we will stay in ship as heaving some meetings and we have been to Palma many times by now. Due to the excellent smell around and due to the very nice weather we decided to to go to the city. There is a shuttle bus (15 E return ticket PP)  to the old city but the lines were huge so we decided to walk . After 10 - 15 minutes we saw a public arriving , bus #1 . We jump over it , it cost 3 E PP and brings you much further than the shuttle bus. We decided to pass the tourist stop and went down in the middle of the city. So happy we did it as the area looks very nice and nice building architecture.

Here is the local Ramblas:

We continue to walk until the Cathedral and further on until taken bus back.

Very nice trip  , recommended for good weather.

On the way back you can see why cruise boats got such a bad name ...

Ok , time to complain:-)

On the last few day we started to smell some strange odor . First we thought it's something coming from the outside but today we smelled it also in the corridor and it was  clear sewage smell.  We called house keeping and they told that they aware to it and trying to find were it's coming from ...  went to guest service to fill a complaint at the morning but still nothing , not even crew members trying to find were it's coming from.  Just got call from house keeping after complaining again to the cabin attended. They saying it's in few decks , something wrong with the ventilation system. Actually not expected that on a just updated ship.

Internet speed:

Unfortunately I have to do some work during this cruise which include accessing the company cloud , editing some heavy files , access AI tools and some meetings. Most of done from the cabin. I glad to say that until now did not encounter major issues including accessing the VPN with decent speed and some voice calls. We did one shutdown for 15 minutes.

Aqua 80 : we liked it , music is excellent,  good vibes.  Although it dose not have any air acrobats still good.

First day CK menue,  never disappointing 

Now with the correct picture:-)

Here is some annoying things for casino players who embark in Rome , today all the points were reset for everyone.  Now instead of dealing with it during the morning we all need to wait inline for the host to fix it ...

Going back to the ship was very easy. We just entered from the side of the main entrance showing our card. We were directed post the security to check in bypass trail.

One thing about Barcelona, post security and check in there is a duty free shop that sell wine , liquor and many other things ... 

Barcelona;

I read in few places that if you board in Rome you have some issues to visit Barcelona. We'll I am glad to say it's not an issue at all.

We used our card to leave the ship around 10 am without any problem. We could have done it even earlier as 7 AM. You pass the check in lines and get outside from the entrance. We want to go to Barcelona so we catched the buss between terminal C and B  ( we were docking between B and A). It called Cruise bus and cost (cache only) 4 5 E PP. The bus takes you to a station across from Columbus monument which is the beginning of the famous Ramblas avenue we're you can find public transportation or walk to the Latine quarter.

The buss has also place for luggage if needed.

If you are looking for some shopping or dining it's also walking distance from MareMagnom mall which is almost the only one that is open on Subday. 

Tge bus is returning back from the same exact location.

Another advantage to Med cruise : The balloons are more colrfull:-)

Good morning from Barcelona!

It's our first time in Barcelona where we are not embarking ore disembarking,  feel strange.

We went to eat at the suite lounge around 8:30 , just few minutes before they took the food. Did not want to go to the madhouse which also call WJ during disembarking day. We also took some time to tour the empty ship follow by some work related calls (apparently not everyone got the message that I am OOO.  Maybe because I forgot  to put one , the things I do to squeeze another cruise.

Wonderful weather today.

The Maison Jar looks great

The crown lounge very small (I counted 35 seats) and only accessible from the out side.

So happy it's nothing to do  with us , B2B feeling:-) 

Interesting feature when boarding from Rome , you don't need to reserve any show , just arrive and they let you in.

They put an orange sticker on your card which serve as a free pass :-).

I think they are doing it since some people had issues in the past to book the show in the planner but that already been fixed (for is there were no issues to book the shows)

21 minutes ago, JohnK6404 said:

Hey, "some" people have been known, on occasion, to have a coffee with either Bailey's or Irish whiskey early in the AM... 

I am voting for that

Today is a sea day , I booked during one of the sells the sushi and Sake experience,  it was a good price and we said we will give it a try.

It's was at 11 am , which is early for alcohol,  but we are on cruise and its five PM somewhere. 

You are getting to experience two Sake , Choia and the famous she's geisha. 

We started with yellow tail sashimi following with two different rols following with fried rice tenderloin and the famous dessert at the end (Mochi)

Not big portions but just enough to enjoy.

You can get refills for the Alcohol so overall it's like mini Izumi Chef table experience. 

I liked the sashimi the most as it was very special. 

Good morning from the best spot at CK