Traveler

Yes, I have End of August cruise plans from NJ , I booked it when I already new about the C-19 (end of Feb) I took a risk but have the cruise with confidence, I will pay for it with the FCC from the April 8 cruise , if it will be canceled I will pay with the FCC I will get to the cruise I have at 2021 (group cruise). Flight I have also a way to change without cost so I might use them for a future travel. This plan will work if RCI nor United will declare default ...

I can only tell you what happened to my cruise : My cruise (starting 8-April) was changed from Rome to Athens at 8-March , on 14 of March it was canceled. No one really know what will happen in 3 month , we can only guess , in Europe several countries already open the schools and return 90% to work. Here we have all the shops which are not located in malls opened and restaurants renew the take away (until now it was only devilries) and schools going to be partially opened from next week after we so decrease in new cases. It might be that in two weeks from now we will see again increase in the C19 cases (hopefully not) or we will see that everything is fine due to many reason (weather is one). If Greece will open the borders for tourism it will be a game changer , I guess we will know more in few weeks .

2021 maybe ?

I have not seen any official note from Italy regarding outside travelers (I am have many meetings in Italy so I am watching it) although it makes sense. I do not think any country will already declare anything so far , expect one to two month. Regarding the cruise , there is a good chance they will change it to go from Greece as Greece already talking about opening its gates for tourists in few weeks ... We had a planned cruise from Rome at April and the first thing RCI done was to move it to Athens. Anyway , RCI will cancel / not cancel the cruise once they will have official information from Italy

I guess an automatic system can be deployed , The sewage system in a ship is continuously being treated , since the system is being build using hubs and clusters the sewage can be tested few times a day in the main sewage hub and only if something is found to start and check the main floor hubs and the room hubs to isolated the cluster of rooms were the outbreak is. Its much better than testing daily everyone on the ship ...

Another option to check for any outbreak on the ship is to check the sewage systems . There is a research showing that you can find the virus in the sewage and using it to monitor areas . In ships the way the sewage system is built you can monitor groups of rooms for any outbreak.

The good thing that non of the mutations had change the mechanism which 99% of the vaccines are going to attack (the way the virus is entering the cell) so we are still OK .

Here we have such application , its working in a way that the phone gets updates were C-19 were detected and the phone compares its location and location history using this data. It was done like that so people will not need to expose their locations to anyone/any database. Its working quite well although I got some falls alarms just by driving near a building were someone was dedicated with the virus. I agree its important tool .

As we are all wishing we can start to cruise soon here is some of my thoughts (as non expert) what need to happen before ? 1. Vaccine - For sure the best solution but per all the indications until it will ready for the general public it will be too late for the cruise industries as any solution needs time to : a. Find the vaccine. b. Test the vaccine is useful. c. Test the vaccine is harmful for humans. d. Check the vaccine impact time. e. Manufacture the vaccine – the current methods takes several month to half a year. f. Convince enough people to use it. 2. Testing – This is the major game changer , such test needs : a. Test people on the spot – this exist already today , the testing is quite quick b. Get prompt results – today it takes around 2- 4 days to get the results , in some places like hospitals they can get it in few hours but still its not good for what is require to allow cruises. c. Easy testing – the tests should be quick and as less Invasive as possible so nothing like blood test. d. Ability to repeat it on daily basis – One test will not be enough it will need to be done every day to dedicate people who become ill during the cruise. There is some research going on to see if a test like the alcohol test (breathalyzer ) can work to detect the Corona – if a device like that will prove itself it will be a game changer as it will give prompt results. 3. Ability quarantine people – If a someone will be tested positive to corona during the cruise its is necessary to be able and safely quarantine him in a way that the cruise can continue , that’s should work for passengers and crew. The key here is to allow the cruise to continue without the need to quarantine the full ship 4. Fast evacuation of infected people – Ability to evacuate people that were tested for Corona in few hours to reduce the risk to everyone else and to give them the right treatment. a. Evacuate in the next ports – have facilities of the cruise lines on different ports to allow quarantine and treatment. b. Using helicopters to evacuate people. c. Having few hospital ships one in each area were people can be evacuate into – such ships can be converted cruise ships and maybe even be shared by the major cruise lines … 5. Mandatory insurance - Every cruiser will need to have an insurance which will cover him for treatments , evacuation and anything around the Corona, this can be provided by the cruise lines or a 3rd party. 6. No self-service Buffet – At least for the first few month it will be very important not to allow people to touch food that other going to consume, I guess heaving crew people handling the food as we see after any norovirus outbreak will become the standard.

Day 6 - cruising back. The visit to Israel ended and we started our last day of the cruise , on one hand very sad that it was ending on the other hand it was a sea day which will allow us to check some of the new cool things on the ship. Finally we could sleep longer , once we were ready we just went to eat breakfast at the MDR , I liked the free mimosas they kept filling up, the crepe stands and the breakfast salads which they mixed to order. After we finished breakfast and the mimosas we went to the upper deck to check the new water slides , there are three regular slides and two which I think are world record for the longest slides at sea . After you take a tube from deck 20 it goes all the way down , around the ship and then the transparent tube is entering inside the ship and you pass through casino , the theater and above the aqua theater. At the end the slides turns and push up back to deck 20 were you can choose if to navigate while in the tube to a queue for a another round or you can get out to the pool. With the tube you get also a water prof personal headphones which use 3rd generation Bluetooth so you can choose to play songs from your mobile device (that you can leave in the cabin) , soundtrack that is sync with your location of the slides or @Matt Royal Caribbean podcasts of . I loved it , I have done the slides something like 6 times before I remembered we have other things we need to check. Our next station was just ready on time , The ship actually stops in the middle of the sea and they are sending out a floating platform which creates a huge sea water pool . it is also has some decks were you can seat . We tried it as I like to swim but I do not like how the ship pool are too small and busy most of the times. Here you have a huge pool and you can swim as much as you want . They also lower down a floating bar which you can enjoy and the best , you do not need to think when was the last time someone changed the water ? . We used the pool for few hours and came back inside the ship , overall the temporary pool was there for 6 hours. We went up to deck 18 to check the regular pools and to get some vitamin D , the nice thing here is that they use the same WJ system , the app locates you empty chairs (if no empty chairs it enters you to a queue and let you know once its becomes available ) once you use the chair they have a timer were again as in the WJ you need to reset every 20 minutes so no seat huggers option! , once your time pass the crew collects your stuff and store it in one of the stations (the application can tell you exactly were they put it). We enjoyed the sun and ordered to the seat a fresh made Guacamole, they are actually doing it in front of your eyes the way they used to do it in Sabor , excellent . We also order some burgers that were very fresh and juicy. To wash it out we took some Margaritas. We rest a while in the cabin and went to try our luck in the casino , lets just say , you remember that everyone asks the casino dealers if anyone won the top bonus game in the 3rd card Poker ? well I can tell you that the answer is 100% yes, what a day. Our dinner was in the tapas chef table , which is like the chef table but it based on tapas (and wines , lots of wine) , the chef prepare it in front your eyes, everything tasted so good. We finished just in time to sea the new aqua show , the main twist here are the seats , no more the uncomfortable seats of the qua theater but a very nice seat which are like the one in the 4D Cinema , they move aligned with the show and add some other interesting effects ,I can not reveal everything but lets just say I understood why they have seat belts there ... not to be missed . for people who do not like such experience , there are also regular seats. We wanted to conclude the night on the most important party , the silent/blinded disco party ! , you get your head phones and you use your VR light glasses , not just you can choose your music but you can choose the theme and the location of the party. You can dance on top of the Eiffel tower , Time square , Niagara falls , the Chinese wall , the moon , you name it , you can also have a party in the white hours, Wow it was something else. Sadly , we were already coming too close to the end of the cruise so we decided to catch something to eat and have few hours of sleep. Well that was the end of this cruise on Hope of the seas , hope you had fun and enjoy the ride , see you next time , hopefully soon when cruises will be real not just virtual.

The official name as I understand is poppy anemone poppy for the red one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemone , they are from the buttercup family . there is another red flower that call just poppy which has darker center and it's petals looks less organized.

Day 5 - Haifa. So we left the port of Ashdod after two intensive days (and nights) and came to the port of Hifa. Hifa is a city that build on the side of the Cramel mountains and has nice view from its hills, Also its the home of the Bahai gardens - https://www.ganbahai.org.il/en/ which are built on the corner of the mountains and very impressive. Haifa is the gate to the sea of Galilee , Nazareth and many other places in north of Israel, We started the morning by eating in the newts breakfast place on the ship , its called Bistrot le Paris Gardin , I think its the only place you need to reserve seats for breakfast as space is limited . The concept is simple , once you book the seats your order what you would like to get and they prepare it 15-20 minute before you come , everything is fresh. Once you enter you get a picnic basket with your order and you are seated on a rag located on a green grass area , located outside, We ordered eggs benedict , blini with caviar combo , baguette with butter and cream cheese on the side and chocolate croissant the other two are baked on the spot and were very fresh , we also got fresh coffee and squeeze juice. All was very good and different,we liked the concept and for sure will try it again. It was time to go to the port , the first thing we have done was to go up the mountain to have a view of the city AS we had enough from cities we decided to enjoy the nature and try some short track on one of the north mountain , we decide to go to the Miron mountain which has a nice circle full of view track. On the way to the mountain we went near a filed of red Anemones flowers , we had stop and take some pictures : I guess it was just that time of the year which they are blooming so we were very lucky . We finally got to the mountain and parked the car on top of it , the view from the mountain is very nice You can also sea the sea of Galilee Its take around 1 hour to finish the circle track and we were back to the our car, we drove back to the Med sea area , this time we wanted to go to a less cultivate beach which you can find near Hifa city , we parked our car and after 10 minutes walk we arrived to this wonderful beach: We went into the water for a while and later we just stop to rest and enjoy the view and our last few hours in the holly land .

After the long day we came back to the ship , it was already dinner time so we went to take quick shower and get ready for dinner . We have booked the new stakeout restaurant , its like the other steakhouse on some of the ships but with better service (you are not waiting too much to enter , nor for the food) ? We started with interesting drink , its called "the real lava flow" , its almost the same as lava flow but it comes with internal spiral glass tube in the middle of the glass which is filed with some kind of alcohol, around it the rest of the drink in a frozen state , once they bring it to the table they ignite the alcohol in the tube that burns and melt the frozen drink , once the fire is out you are getting your drink ready. I did took a video of the process but some how it was deleted , do not ask me how. The drink was very good, so good that we asked for another one but they said they are only allow it once per table since they are low with one of the ingredients , instead they offered us another drink We ordered a salad for starter And a meat wrap Next was the small stake (we did not want to get too full ) It was excellent , cooked perfectly. For dessert they offered us a local sweet cake with ice cream , this cake by the name of Knafe is a combination of hot cheese and a very delicate dough which cooked to a vert tin hair like strings. After dinner we went to main theater to watch the "choose your plot" musical , at this musical this one the audience choose what happens next . the musical starts and after the main plot is discovered you get to choose from 4 different options what will happen next, the majority vote determine it and the musical continue. The process repeat itself every few seance scene . Its actually very funny and we decided we must see it again as with different audience we might see a different musical ... if you think about it there are so many different options which mean you do not really care if you sail the same ship and you have the same musical as its going to surprise you every time. It was a very nice day but we really needed some rest , that is the problem with heavy ports cruises

Day 3 or 4 I do not remember by now- part 2 . Have you might know or not 45 minutes from Jerusalem you can find the dead sea . This is something which we did not wanted to miss , I think its in many lists of things you must do before you die (or something like that) so we started to drive to the dead sea. There are two different ways to go to the dead sea one via Jerusalem and one going from the port to the south part of Israel and from the city of Arad to go to to the dead sea. Our plan was to go directly to one of the public beaches and float for a while and maybe use some of the famous mud. At the end we decide to go to one of the hotel beaches near by. its amazing how the green landscape change very quickly to desert brown. After you drive about 40 minutes you start to sea the dead sea , there are few location were you can park the car and have a view on the sea and in some part on the salt pool which created to process some of the sea products The road takes you down from +800 M to -350 M , its a good road to test your drive skills ... We arrived to the hotels area , you can find several public beaches with basic facilities or to pay to one of the hotels / solarium and get better facilities. as always its a good idea to brig the towels from the ship. We went in swim (or float) a while and yes even covered each other with the local special full of minerals black mud. There also an option to use fresh water pools but I am not sure you come to the dead sea for that. If you do not have time limitation and you have a full day in this area I would recommend to visit Masada which is near by , the view from the mountain is amazing and the remains are very impressive. We did not had the time so we had to skip it.

Day 3 - Jerusalem . So Day 2 passed after we passed away from all the activities and excitement. Again we woke up early for another busy day, grab another tray in the WJ, what do you know they finally decided to bring some vegetables and salads for breakfast , it was a refreshing change , I took some veg salads and some sides. After starting the day with a light breakfast we were ready to go disembark from the ship with the same process as we have done before. Jerusalem is around 1 hour drive from the port (again depends on the traffic) you can try and catch a bus but I think its better if its your first time to take a guided tour , it can be not that easy to get into the old city of Jerusalem and not that easy to find your way once you are inside. We took the car and used the navigating system to go to a parking lot near the old city (its call Mamila or Carta parking lot) we parked the car and went up to some open mall were you just cross the road and find yourself near one of the main gates to the old city - the Jaffa gate . that is a very good spot to start any tour in the old city . its easy to find by looking for the tower of David : This is actually a museum today which contains many exhibitions about the history of Jerusalem and many old structures some are from 3000 years ago , you have a very nice view from the tower itself. If you go to the right side of the gate and pass the museum you will find an entrance (for a small fee) to the walls that surrounding Jerusalem , I recommend to start the tour here as you will have a panoramic view over the old and some of the new parts of the city. So we went up and started to walk , the walls are quite wide and mostly its an easy walk but the steps can be slippery. Here are some pictures from the wall : After we walk for around 10 minutes we came to see the Dormition Abby , We continued our tour on the wall until we finally saw the golden dome on the temple mount Under the dome you can see the western wall/ Wailing Wall , at this point we went down from the wall and started to walk to the western wall , we pass some security (same as in the ship you go via metal detectors gates and they screen your bags) . As you can see many people writes notes/request and push them between the massive rocks of the wall , that is the local traditions and many are doing it (from all kind of religions) , the western wall is the remain supporting wall of the Jewish temple which was once on the mountain before destroyed around 2000 years ago. On the left side you can see many notes that people left between the stones. since the place is very religious you are being asked to cover you head , but there some stands were you can borrow it without any issues. From the western wall we took the other gate on the opposite side , this gate will bring you to the famous old city market, this market is very colorful and a good place to buy local gifts , you can find here everything including dead sea products, shirts , religions memorabilia and many more , in this market you should negotiate the prices. In the middle of the market there is a right turn that you need to take if you want to visit the The Church of the Holy Sepulchre its quite easy to find and around 7 minutes walk from the market. The entrance to the church is free of charge but there might be some queue to get in. If you want you can buy some candles in one of the shops around and light them inside. Inside the church there is another structure which you can go inside and see the tomb of Jesus . From the church we continue via another market (this time is more about religious memorabilia) we got into the area of Jaffa gate From this point we went back to the car and drove to have a panoramic view over the city from Mount Scopus It a nice sport to start or end a visit in Jerusalem and you can have a nice view on the city on one end and on the desert on the other end. Although there is tons of other things to do in the city it was already too much , Jerusalem has a way to get into you no matter what is your religious believes. I sure think that one day is not enough for visiting this city as we could not visit the art museum nor to check the dead sea scrolls museum and other many locations.

Day/night 2 continue. We went back to were we parked the car , drove all the way back to port and gave the car back on the port gate. All in all it was a very nice day, The shuttle bus drive was short and so the boarding back to the ship process. First thing we done was to put all our stuff back to our cabin and went to one of the bars to relax with a fresh fruity drink : As we did not decide yet what to do with dinner we decided to try the new Sorento options , they have change the Sorento pizza to be much better now , you can still ask for whatever is ready or you can just order pizza as you like , we went with make your own pizza .we got it after 10 minutes and it was very very good , I think it will end all the argue about Sorento for the next few years , RCL good work. And yes , there is also the NY option with tin pizza base , we will try it next time . For our Canadian friends Sorento also offers Poutine , Sorry I need much more booze before I will try it but it looks a good option for late night snack (just check your heath care insouciance before) : Our next place was something I was really looking forward to , this is the new attraction only on this ship , somehow RCL got the license for it although its own by Disney, do not now how they have done it but I am not complaining, not at all , its the Star Wars experience. You start the experience by wearing a special suit, they enter the group (10 years each time) to get a brief on the experience , the guide for the brief is an hologram of Obi-Wan Kenobi , That takes around 5 minutes , next you enter to Mos Eisley cantina (yes with the music and all the decoration) were you seat near a table across from Greedo , when you hear the buzzer you need to shoot him before he shoot you , now do not ask me if he shoots first or not , I am not going to go to this dark hole , better you ask me if official night yes/no . You get three tries and a score. After we finish this part we moved to another area were we each board onto an X wing Simulator . The Simulation ride starts and you can feel the turns and even the G force , you need to shoot down some TIE fighter , all the Xwing are connected to each other so you can and better try to work with the team , if your Xwing is hit you do feel it. Score is being tracked . At the end of the ride you see the Death start and you need to blow it away with pointing your torpedo to the opening "using" the force. This is so fun that I did not want it to end, for sure it is very helpful if you have good team. After this rides end you get to the next and last part of the experience , you are getting a "lightSaber" and you need to fight and defeat blasters that are shoot at you , once you finish defending yourself an hologram of Darth Vader is entering and you start to fight with him , its not that easy but the operators promised me they have a way to control the fight per the person so if a kid is entering they make it much easier and the hologram is tuned to the size of the kid. I must say this is a very interactive ride and a combination of attraction and a gym ? for sure I am going to try and do it again . After the attraction we had to go and rest a while , we also had to decide if we are staying and eat on the ship or to go out and catch something to eat in Tel Aviv. What an intensive day.

Day 2 - Tel Aviv , Continue. So after all the food it was time to try and burn some of it. We did our way from the Jaffa port north to Tel Aviv we tried to stay near the sea and enjoy the nice breeze After 0.5 Mile (more and less) we decided to go in and tour the small street of old Tel Aviv , while Old Jaffa is around 3000 years old ," old" Tel Aviv is only around 100 +/- years . this area contains lots of nice small buildings , narrow streets and many small coffee shops/stores. From this area we went to visit Tel Aviv biggest market - the Carmel market. This market became on the last 10 years one of the tourist point of Tel Aviv moving from just selling fresh food to a location of many street food , bars and restaurants. Maybe its a good option to talk about Israel street food : You can find many kinds of street food in Israel which most of it is a fusion food between middle eastern food , European food and many other influences from around the world. There is the Humus (Arabic orientation) which serve on plates with some Pita bread and vegetables, (cost around 8 $) , The Falafel which serve fresh in a Pita bread with salads (4-6 $), Sabich - based on fried eggplant mixed with egg , salad and Thachini ( 5-6$) , shawarma (I Guess I Do not need to add anything here) ,fresh salads, Shaksuka - egg cooked with tomatoes and bell paperers , adding to that you can find tons of Hamburgers places Kabab places and Asian food joints . The market works every day from early morning to around 7 PM (restaurants much later) its closed on Saturdays and very very very busy on Fridays. Its a good place if you want to catch a fresh fruit/vegetable drink , guess what we had to drink ? If you wish to eat Asian food , you can also do it here (but also in many other places) this small Vietnamese stand has the best Papaya salad in the whole middle east and you can take it to go They guys here are preparing another street food call "Burik or Burika" this is a fresh flat dough filed with fresh egg and potato fried on the spot and some spices. One of the places I really like and visit it every time I am in Tel Aviv is a small stand by the name of Pita Panda , they have three options and everything is served in a Pita bread , you can have the Sabich which they do in a different way as they do not fry the eggplant but steam it until it become sweet , there is an option of sloppy Joe and the most interesting and tasty fresh ceviche in a Pita ... If you want some sweet you can always try some of the local stuff For sure you can just buy regular fruits or vegetables but be careful this one is watching you are not doing anything wrong (and as I understand he is there for the last few years) From the market we went back to the west to enjoy the Tel Aviv sea , here you can see Jaffa from the Tel Aviv side : Tel Aviv has very sandy beaches , no need for sea shoes , you can rent a chair and umbrella for the day , you will need to bring towels with you from the ship . The access to the beach is free but food and drinks can be expensive so the best will be to bring some with you. Do not forget sunscreen We spent few hours in one of the beaches relaxing for the rest of the day ,We had plans to go to the center of Tel Aviv and visit the Unesco tel aviv bauhaus (white city) area but it was already too much for one day and tomorrow we are planning visiting Jerusalem

Day 2 - Tel Aviv , Israel 7 am at night we woke up to start and organize for our first port day we had allot of plans so we did the effort ? Breakfast was at the WJ , there was a nice option in the application were you can choose a breakfast tray (that you can customize) and after 5 minutes you can arrive the WJ give your key and they give you the tray with some fresh squeeze juice and a coffee . I found it to be very nice option as I do not like to wait for room service at the morning nor the queues at the WJ . We took our tray and went to eat on our balcony. around 7:30 the captain announce that we arrive to the port Tel Aviv , although is locate on the sea dose not really have a port , well it has a port in the north but it so small and not really active the other port of Tel Aviv is Jaffa port but its being use only for small tourist boats and fisherman (what can you expect from a 7000 years old port). So the nearest port and the biggest port in Israel is Ashdod port which locate around 25 miles from Tel Aviv. This is industrial port so there are shuttles from the ship to some bus station, Nothing really to do in Ashdod beside maybe some good fish restaurants but its a good access point to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. To go from Ashdod to Tel Aviv you can take a bus (you will need to buy a travel card and load it with some money before) or better option take a Taxi , Taxi can cost around 50 $ one way, although Taxis drivers might get Dollars you better use Shequels . Uber is not allowed yet in Israel but if you wish to use a credit card and call a taxi you can use the Gett application. There is also a train station but it is quite far from the port. driving time can be between 30 to 60 minutes depends on the traffic and the hour. As your might remember we had our car on the ship so we just went out of the ship and the car was of loaded by the automatic system they have on the ship . all the process took around 10 minutes the only issue was that the pot authority do not want people to drive the car inside the port so they provide one shuttle for the people and one shuttle for the cars. After five minutes ride we went out the shuttle and collect our car , I used Waze to navigate and it took me via the highway to Tel Aviv , I read somewhere that there is a free parking near the old part of Tel Aviv just by Jaffa port so I navigated over there. after 40 minutes we arrived to our first destination , from this point we wanted mainly to walk as Tel Aviv is not an easy city to drive in. we went on the hill of old Jaffa to tour around the old buildings and enjoy the view , It was excellent weather : Tel Aviv from Jaffa hill Jaffa Jaffa old city Up on Jaffa old city you can see some old remains around 3000 years ago , a small museums and some coffee shops , down from the hill on the other side you can find tons of restaurants and coffee places . We spent few hours around and it was time for lunch , we went to one of the fish restaurants in the old port by the name "The old man and the sea" its a huge restaurants but always busy. They have a very simple concept , you order a main dish and you are getting tons of salads for starters , lemonade and coffee . As always in such place the most problematic thing is not to get full before the main course as the salad includes things like Falafel and Humos . Everything was very fresh and tasty Yes , this is for two people and you can as for refills as much as you want Well after all that food I must rest , more to come

Day 1 continue. We went to rest a while before preparing for dinner , we had plans to go to the MDR although it was the first day which can be a problematic one . On the cruise compass it said dress as you feel and decide in which mood you want to dine. Did not understood it at the beginning but after watching the guide on the TV that explained you should take your VR light glasses for dinner, at the application you can choose between :formal night , casual , Caribbean, white and some more options. Once you set it and wear the transparent VR glasses you see everyone wear outfits per what you choose. For sure I played with it for a while just to see how people are in tuxedos and after few minutes in shorts for very casual day. As I was explained it was working the same for the official cruise photos . I think its a grate new change and will make most of the people happy without forcing anyone for a certain style, I think some forums will not like it as it will end the endless discussion about MDR during official night , oh well I guess you can not please everyone. Oh and no you do not have "natural" mode, not in this kind of cruise anyway. The food was good , we got some salad for starters and a a small rib portion for main, we ask and got some fruits to share . Post dinner we got a reminder from the application we have reservations for the Broadway play - Hamilton , with the new app you just need to come 15 minutes before and it will guide you to your seats which were pre booked during the time we booked it on the cruise planner. If you are not arriving on time your seats become available for whoever signed for the standby. We arrive on time and it was fabulous, RCL really done a wonderful job with every aspect of this play and most important the have chosen a very talented cast. Unfortunately due to copy right issues they are not allowing to take any pictures. After the musical ended (around two hours) we went to visit the Casino to see what is new there. First of all its huge comparing to any other ship I visited before , just to let you know how big it is , its has 4 crap tables and around 14 three card poker tables. The most important feature is the smoke isolation system, if someone seats down and start to smoke a set of air streams goes from the ceiling and isolate the smoker and its smoke is sucked leaving anyone that seats near him without the smell nor the health hazard. we stayed and played for a while , we decided to call it for tonight it was quite a long day and tomorrow finally we arriving to our first port . Once we went back to the room we were very happy to find this gift waiting for us , for sure it will serve us well.

If the FCC I'd bigger than what you need to pay RCL will issue you a new FCC with the difference which you can use by DEC 2021.

Yes something we all waited for , finally no more fight who is going first to bring food from the buffet ?

Day 1 - its cruise day ! Yaaaa As always I was already up on early 5 Am , I need to work on this (sure , who I am kidding) , I understood quite fast that I will not be able to go back to sleep so I went out and started to walk near the beach watching the sunrise from the mountains side. Went back to prepare a quick breakfast (eggs , salad and some fresh local cheese if you ask) and we organized our stuff packed it back to the car. As its a new ship the RCL application already supporting it so all we had to do is just to check in. After you check in you are getting a time slot (09:45 for us ) and all you need to do is to come to the port at that exact time , in case you missed the time the application is assigning you another slot which is 15 minute later. We arrive to port on time , the nice thing is that you do need to go out of the car . They scan your face and a 3rd imaging machine check the car and its content for something you should not bring on the ship. Once the scan was done we rolled in the car into the ship and parked it on our designated parking space.We took out the luggage assigned it the smart tags we got and left it on the nearest belt. We took the elevator up to our deck (deck 12) and went directly to the room which was already ready. Our luggage arrived near our door 10 minutes later , the application beep us whne it arrived so we started to unpack. The room is very nice (sorry no picture allowed yet) two rooms , huge walking in closet and a very nice balcony. The balcony has some nice new gadget which allow you to control if you want to cover it (glass cover) and if you can control its transparency you can also choose what to screen over the cover , it can be the current view or any many other options which you can choose from your application) It was a very nice weather so we decided to keep it open. One other option you can choose is to cover the balcony but to allow the sun inside while the other side is sealed so you can enjoy the sun in a very private way and have the air condition continue to work. We organized our stuff and went to the traditional lunch in the WJ. The WJ on this ship is bigger so no issue to find a place and all you need is to ask the application to guide you to an open table , once you got to the table its starts a timer and a small screen show your picture and indicates its occupied. If you are not back to table in 10 minutes it will become a free table again. It was very nice to know you do not need to leave anyone to watch the table. One nice feature is the washing station which shows you a countdown timer of 20 seconds so you will know when you are ready. Once you complete to wash your hands you go directly to the buffet but you pass via a scanner that will send you back if your hands are not clean enough. They are testing the system now and they consider to move the scanners near the washing station as some people already complained and called it the walk of shame but I think , just wash your hand as you should and no one will shame you. The food in the WJ really improved , they can even sever the filet from day one of the CK: After lunch we went to tour the ship , we used the application which gives you a guided tour and explain all the new things while you pass them .When you want to get some more details about something you see you just press the button on the application , scan the station and an hologram of an officer pop out and starts to explain what you see and what you can do. After the tour we went back to the room to plan our cruise , all you need to do is to link you account answer few questions on your preference and the virtual genie show your scheduled for the cruise including shows ,activities , games , tours and dinner plans, no need to worry about anything. Soon it become the time for the muster drill and no , you do not have anyone knocking on your door and kick you out , you are doing it from your own cabin using the virtual glasses which were waited for us on the bed. Once you wear the VR glasses they starts the drill you see were you need to assemble , you see who are the station leads and the other people in your station ans most important you do not watch the "James Bond" movie. It was so nice to do the drill while laying on the bed in the air condition. More to come

Day --1 as you know -- = + so we are OK, Afissos Greece. Flight to Athens was not that bad after all its quite a short one , at Athens airport we picked the rental car . Why rental car you ask ? why not to take taxi or something like that well one thing I forgot to tell you is that whoever stays at a JS an up get also to take the car on the ship (deck -2 if you ask) for extra 30 $ per day , since space is limit I felt very lucky to find it in the cruise planner and book it. its only 4 hours drive from Athens to Afissos but the roads are wide and new (at least until the last 40 miles were the roads becomes very very narrow) . Finally we arrived to the village were we took a small villa near the sea , very quite , 7 minutes from many local restaurants . After we got the room and rest for few minute we went to tour around and eat some local food, The villa is 2 minutes from the beach , were you can use the beach bad for free as long as you order something to drink or something like an ice cream (beer cost around 2 $ for example). The water are very clear and without any waves , although its a real sea its feel more like a lake. very enjoyable . Although we planned to eat something the water were so good so we stayed in much more time than we planned. after a quick shower we went back to our plane to eat something , we found a local restaurant and order some salads , Moussaka and chicken kabab . Salad with figs inside bread. fresh Moussaka f Fried cheese As usual we order too much but it was all very fresh and good . We took the car and went up to the mountains to enjoy the view , I started to navigate using google maps , for some reason it kept directing me into the sea , not sure why , at the end I decided to go back to the low tec system and to navigate with the map , it was worse it , the view is amazing . Its started to become dark so we have done our way back to villa , just came back on time to take some sunset pictures : It was time to catch some rest as tomorrow we are boarding (with the car yes !) on the Hope of the Seas and start our cruise.

Ohh , have you ever tried to drive to Lima Airport on Friday evening ? not sure its better than a Vogon Zone , anyway , I like petunia plants so I should be OK with the Improbability Drive

Yes , finally - Quantum teleportation, hopefully without harming any cats in the process , anyway , wait when you will hear about he casino on this ship , I heard its something different.