Traveler

Yes, we already on the fourth day of the cruise so it's not really live blog but better late from never. I have good excuses for starting just now, the main one is the fact that both of us had to work on the first two/three days of the cruise in order to take it. I will try to add some information about the train to port and how is to work from the ship. This cruise we are going from Rome (Civitavecchia) and stopping at Santorini, Mykonos, Ephesus, Chaina . We were suppose to stop at Salerno but it was canceled due to port pier issues. Oh almost forgot, we are on Odyssey of the seas in one of the JS. This cruise was chosen after a short survey answered by this lovely community. Some facts about this cruise , the ship is almost 100% full, most of the cruiser are new cruisers (3600 out of 5000), although this cruise going out from Italy most of the cruisers are not from Italy and it seems its very multi national cruise. Only 3 pinnacles (no issues in CK , yay) , 37 DP, 128 diamonds. That's it for now , more to come. She missed the cruise also but being spoiled.

Last time we have been to Barcelona we have done the walking Tapas tour at the evening. It's a good way to taste food and wine at the Gothic quarter.

Pure politics , not really about cruises

7 am it's docking time it might take the ship 30 to 1 hour to clear so most likely 7:45 or 8 am is the time you will be able to disembark or even later. Yes you can book private transportation that will wait for you outside of the terminal bit if it's not Sundau I think it will be very hard for you to catch 11 am flight.

Correct , but he was asking about Oasis class that's why I added it.

This is something which really depends what is important to you. The JS will get you: 1. Dubble C&C points (so if you are missing 8 to 14 points for diamond it's something to take I to consideration , 4 X 2 free drinks X 7 X 14 = 784 $). 2. Bigger Balcony most likely with recliners) 3. Bigger room. 4. Walking in closet. 5. Option to eat dinner in Costal kitchen. 6. Bathtub. So it's depends what is important to you. Are you going to use the balcony allot ? Is bathtub important ? The fact you have a huge closet were you can easily stor your luggage ? On the other hand some people will say that they will use the 1600 $ to take extra cruise or use it to UDP.

Morning while we are out at ports.

Yes, you can use this link for the information: https://www.clubroyaleoffers.com/Ships.asp

Did this itinerary mant times , always the bought arrived around 5 am and cleared around 6. Travel time to airport is less than 20 minutes and it's Sunday so no traffic. My flight is usually around 10:30 am , never had a problem.

1. Two more food places open until late , one with healthier food one with comfort food. 2. Private Island in Greece. 3. Year around ships in the warmer part of Europe/Middle East/North Africa. 4. Develop more ports for Oasis/Icon ships. 5. Few adults only ships. 6. Renew the questions in Love and marriage , new missions at Quest. 7. Add a way to see the full cruise compas from the app ( I know its the most complicate request as it involves RC IT). 8. Add patisserie to the ship with fresh desserts.

Pre Covid Vietnam allowed RCL to process the visa on board for quite a low fee. I guess they changed it now. When I did this cruise it was easy , you have your passport at the first day and you got it back before the first port.

One option will be to take RC excursion,. Another will be to use this service which will take your luggage and drop it later in the airport https://bagsandgo.com/en/booking/luggage-transfer-spainbookers/ I never used this option before

One application for multi people ? For one person no issues for sure

Take into account two things. In Barcelona, the security check is in the terminal. Second, the taxi apps is very problematic, it will take you allot of time to get any taxi using one of the common apps. Better to catch a cab in one of the street corners or at an hotel.

Not sure how much time you have and which airline you are flying with , but if thus airline have early flights you might want to go to the airport, check inn and drop your luggage then go to Manhattan knowing you will need less time.e at the airport. Just check if the airline counter are opened and they don't have any restrictions. Luggage locations also available in Pen station so you can take a taxi from the port to Newark Airport, from there using the air train you can go to train station which will take you to NYC pen station or you can take a taxi directly to Manhattan which I think might cost more and you might struggle with traffic. If you are flying from Newark for surevi would first try to check-in, drop the luggage and take the train (20 minutes) to Manhattan

For the train you better buy paper tickets from the machine (using cache or CC) as everyone needs to use the bar code entering and existing. This is what we usually do. You can use one move it for up to 8 people you in the bus or light train. In the bus after you scan the barcode you can choose the number in the light train before you go to the train. Ram Kav you will need one for each passenger. You can buy one for 1.5 Dollar .

The train option is excellent (although crowded during Sundays and Thursdays) and the train station for the port is very close to the luggage drop off. Regarding Jerusalem it's all depends on what you want to see. A good option that I like is to start in Jaffa gate , enter the wall boardwalk on the right (don't enter the gate) walk on the wall (entrence fee is few dollars) and have nice view. You should go down almost at the end which will bring you to the Wailing wall , you can enter and go outside from the opposite direction doing your way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre . Post the church you can do your way to the market street and go all the way back to the Jaffa gate.

Maybe they are going to limit to one entree, they will say they done it to stop food waste. I do some logic to limit orders to several entrees and appetizers as we can all see the food that is being left in the corridors but 1 item per person it's just ridiculous.

Thanks ,I fixed it

They are not that common , I heard of them few times (also the host asked me if I got one) but only got one on our last cruise , its is quite limited offer and anyway , you can not use more then one certificate from the cruise as I understand it.

During the last few months there were many questions and new post around the casino “free cruises” system , how it is working and how to use it. Here is the information I gathered and the way I understand it , feel free to add to it /correct me. Club Royale which is the name of the Royal Caribbean casino loyalty plan offers three different kind of free cruise offers/certificates: Annual cruise – Any one that is qualify to one of the three tree upper loyalty tiers are entitled for Annual cruise: Prime (2500 to 24999 points) – Inside cabin. Signature -(25000 – 99999 points) – Balcony. Master – (100000+ points) – Grand suite. The Annual cruise can be booked from mid-April to end of March on the next casino year you got qualified for the tier. For example, if you got to be Prefer at December 2022 you will be entitle for the free cruise from April 2023 to March 2024. The current offer is good for any 7 nights (or less) cruise with some blackout dates (like holidays) and not available on the newest ships (like Icon). Instance certificate- During a cruise you can get two kind of certificates : 1 – instance certificate for people that cruised in the past and played in the casino , this certificate might be in your cabin at the first day of the current cruise and based on your pervious cruise level of playing in the casino. Many time people are not getting it and there is not any clear rule who gets it and who not. 2 – instance certificate at the end of the cruise which you will get based on your play at the current cruise and the points you accumulate. It can start from low as 1500 points up to 25000 points for a Grand suite and 2000 free play. The number of points that are required for getting discounts/free cruise can change from cruise to cruise so its better to verify it while you are on the cruise(you will have the information in the Casino host desk). On the night before the last night of the cruise or during the last day ,your casino host will send your room the certificate. If you continued to gamble during the last day you can ask the host later to re print you a new certificate incase you past some point threshold (for example you got certificate for 4000 points and you now have 5000) . Free play – The current on board certificates also can includes some free play for the cruise you will book with this offer , to be entitle to get it you must book the cruise using next cruise option. To make it simple, if you think you are entitled for a free cruise and a free play you can go to the next cruise location and book your specific cruise from the offer list or book a wildcard next cruise (which is good for booking any cruise) and use it later to book the cruise you choose .Such booking need to be done no later then 30 days after your cruise (please note it used to be 7 days so better to check it every time). If you failed to book it in 30 days , you can still use the next cruise open booking to book a cruise up to one year but you will not get the free play. To get the list of cruises you can choose from or ask of the host can print it or (And much better) wait a day or 2 and check for the offer in the club royal offers site - clubroyaleoffers.com enter your last name and C&A number to check for the offer name number , it will show you all the different itinerary you can choose from. Mail/club royale ite offers - From time to time Club Royal can send offers using snail mail , emails or just load it to the club offers site (clubroyaleoffers.com). The Logic / algorithm behind the system of who gets the offers is really not clear , mainly I guess its 10% based on player activity, 5 % last cruise points accumulation , 5% reviewing customer current booked cruises and 80% using voodoo . The number of offers and number of cabins available is based on current not sells cabins status and inventory , the speculation is that RCL using this kind of offers to fill up empty cabins. In other words , successful selling efforts = less comped casino offers. There are few things that might impact receiving offers such as wrong email (the usual excuse), two accounts which are using the same email (for example if you opened account for a family member and use your email), already heaving many offers booked and not being a us resident). Q&A (as per my understanding the program): · What do I need to pay ? – IF it is fully comped cruise you will need to pay only port fees and taxes. · Can I add people to the free cabin offer ? – Yes , usually offers are for two (although lately they came up with single person offer) you can add more people to the cabin but it will be most likely with full price. · Can I use the offer to use on a cruise which is not in the list ? – Some of the offers/certificate comes with dollar values, with this kind of offers/certificates you can ask to use the dollar value for another cruise (but usually without many discounts so not all the time it will be cheaper than just book a regular cruise). · Can I give the certificate to someone else ? – No the certificate is not transferable. · Can I upgrade an offer/certificate – Yes you can try to upgrade , most of the time the upgrade will cost the casino rate differences between the upgraded cabin and the cabin in the offer, sometimes the price might surprise you (for both directions). · Can my travel agent book the offer for me – Yes , but take into consideration , as far as I understand that most likely the commission the TA is getting for such booking is much less · Do I get C&A points for a casino comp cruise? – Yes, you are getting full C&A points including double points for being in suite. · Can I combined offers for a better offer – Yes, sometime , depends who you are asking but only if the offer is of the same kind (like two annual offers) . Its always good to try. · How I am getting the free play ? – During the first day of the cruise when the Casino is open go to the casino cashier and ask to use the free points , they will load it to your account. · Are free casino cruise entitle for royal up offers ? - Yes most of the time you will get the Royal Up offer. As always , play for fun not for the offers

Thursday is "Jerusalem day" and from the morning to 4 or 5 PM there will be many people marching around the old city but I guess it will be OK just might take you more time to arrive to the hotel due to traffic.

Good news cease fire just announced , still need to see how it goes tomorrow but look promising. Just be aware that on Thursday it will be very busy in Jerusalem so its not a good day to visit (but excellent one for the dead sea)

Sorry to hear your experience was not what you expected, Costa Maya and Rotan is all about the excursions , Rotan has wonderful clear water beaches and Costa Maya has some nice resorts to visit. One comment regarding Chef table , we done it 4 times , it always takes more then 2 hours.

I can't advice anyone here about what to do. I can just say that in the past usually such issue ended in less than a week, nothing guaranteed it will be the same but there is a good chance. Second , the situation now impacting only the south/mid part of Israel up to around 100 km from Haifa port. Just to give you indication, yesterday there was a 40000 people concert in Tel Aviv under the open sky's. It was approved. Third , actually such tension is like earthquake, sometimes heaving small earthquake making sure you will not have the bigger one in the near future. This weekend wil show to were we are goin. RCL will cancel the cruise if they will think any danger to the passengers or crews as they canceled Odyssey Israel ports this week. Wish that everything will work well for you and that you will be able to enjoy fabulous cruise.