Traveler

There is a the jersey garden mall which is near by ,its indoor outlet mall. Going from the airport to the city will take you around 10 minutes for the air train and 20 minutes from the train . the cost will be 13 $ each way ...

I suggest to open now the DL to whoever have 115 points and above , well at least until end of April when I will get 11 more points so it can change to 126 points and above ?

Hi , You do not need a Visa for Mexico with British passport. As your cruise starts from the US do not forget to apply online ESTA the electronic form before you travel to the US (https://www.estavisaus.org/esta-for-uk-citizens)

Eat twice in Wonderland , one time on Harmony , we were accompany by my Father and his wife , they loved the experience . I enjoyed most of the food , there are some things which were very good (the short rib , the shrimp , the dessert and one or two others) some were not that good like the fish that I thought was very dry. Some were just OK , they have done allot of effort to present them differently but although they looked very interesting the taste was very normal . We went again on Symphony and although we knew about all the surprises we still enjoyed it , mind the second time was part of BOGO deal. You come there mainly for the experience. As part of the UDP for sure I would try it once .

Points are calculate between April to end of March . So at 31-March of each year all the points you earned expires , the status you get is for the period you got it and the year after. For example : if you got 2500 points on Jan 2019 you will be prime from Jan 2019 to end Of March 2021 . The points you got will keep accumulating until end of March 2020. During Jan 2019 to end of March 2021 you will get free drinks and other benefits. The only benefit you are not getting intimidate is the free cruise , you always get it on the next April, with this example you will be able to book your free cruise at April 2020 (only once)

This is one of the top secrets of RC , no one know how it works (some times I am not sure even the casino people know). All I can tell you is that since they do not track it automatically it is always better that the pit boss will know you, see how much time you spent and most important your average bet ... (they count the money you rolled on the table during the play not how much you lost). One tip which I am not sure how it is relevant to Roulette (as they have only one table) -always play on a table which has a minimum bet which equal to your minimum bet. If you are playing minimum 50 $ on a table with minimum of 5 $ and they have not updated your average play in the system you will be registered playing 5 $ average ...

Agree , that is why I did not understood why instead of denying access to the CL they have not completed the change in all the fleet .

Although I do understand why RC did it I do not understand why they done it like that . They already have a system to change the CL to suite lounge which automatically (As Matt explain) denying access to the D+ . Well lets just hope the next move will not be to convert the DL to DL+ and leave the D with the 3 drink voucher.

We have done Cinque Terre by our own last year , very simple to do if you plan it correctly ? You will go out with the bus to the gate of La Spezia , take the right and go next to the sea , you will be approached by many tour operators but keep going for another 0.3 miles , you will see a mid size boat and a ticket office were you can buy the tickets for around 65 Euros or less per person for full day boat service to the villages. You will get a time line , and if you plan correctly you can easily do 3-4 villages without risking missing the ship (the ship will be at port until 8 PM and you need to be there no later than 7 I think. What we have done was to choose which villages we want to see and were we want to take our lunch , best on that we took first the boat to the further village we want to see and from there we took the boat back to the next one until we took back the boat to the port . You have some information here : Have a look on Day 4 - La Spezia (it is in the middle of the page). Here is the time table of the boat service

Should been the same for Nassau, the ship is really near by and yet still many people are eating int he city

Well if we will look on Coco Cay as an example , there is not one service that was free and now you are paying for it , actually they added many things free which are being paid by the other activities

Have a lovely second week , will be interesting to read about the differences between the silver and the gold lounge /dining . We were at October on the Spectrum and as you, we found the silver dining room to have the same menu every night so we skipped it . I think the sliver dining room is more like the Solarium dining room on other ships while the gold dining room is more like Coastal kitchen ... If you will see the silk show , please tell me what its all about as we failed to understand ?. The 270 cafe was our place for quick breakfasts , its quite good . If you like to taste something different try the dragon fruit cheese tea at the tea place , we liked it allot and its covered in the drinking package. Enjoy the cruise , its fun to read you blog.

Used to carry a backpack full with bottle waters and hated the first day for it ? . Now I will only bring the two bottle of wines and 2 to 4 bottles to have them in the cabin , I will buy some more during, usually on shore or if needed , fill them up. We drink the water in the WJ /MDR/park Cafe etc ... they are quite good.

I guess its all about how much people willing to pay ... like any business they will try to find the balance were they can get the most before people will refuse to buy the tickets/pay for cabanas. is it makes sense for people to pay on this water park more than land premium water park ? maybe , I would not pay such price , but I guess many other willing to pay , if not the price will soon drop. After all the cost of running the park for 100 people is almost the same as running it for 1000 people so every ticket they sell after a certain number is pure profit.

I have done two years ago Voyager of The Seas Hong Kong to Singapore stopping in Vietnam, All the people got temp Visa that was done by RCL on board , you just had to bring a copy of the passport. I wanted to be on the safe side and done the Visa at the Embassy as the information from Royal was not that clear (and I am not a US citizen). I know that Vietnam is changing the requirements from time to time so if RCL asked you I think you should bring the Visa photos (in the worse case scenario you wasted few dollars. By the way , as part of the boarding process your passport will be collected by RCL and returned at the end of the cruise, you will get some temp document for visiting Vietnam.

There are two way for it. 1. Around two month before the cruise Royal Caribbean will send you a link to download your cruise document , in this document you will have the tags which you should print. 2. You should have in the online site option to print your tags

Just so it in my cruise planner for Jewel Of the Seas for 42 $ : Taste of Royal is a showcase of fleet favorites from our specialty restaurants during one exclusive, four-course meal you won’t want to miss. Plus add on an optional, expertly curated wine flight once onboard at an additional price. This lunch begins with Wonderland’s Citrus Seas Tuna Tartare. Next up is a fresh take on Tuscan cuisine from Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen, featuring mascarpone risotto with crabmeat. Then Chops Grille anchors the savory selections with a classic surf and turf of filet mignon and jumbo shrimp. Make sure you save room for dessert — indulgent fried cheesecake from 150 Central Park. You’ll receive a letter in your stateroom the day before your reservation confirming the time and location of your lunch. Space is limited, so book before you sail to secure your spot for this unforgettable experience. Taste of Royal is not included in any dining packages.*

When you will get out from the port gate you will be approach with tons of Taxi drivers and tour operators , they will offer you what ever you want but you should be careful and agree on a plan and a fare. going to pompeii is easy using a taxi or a tour buss , almafi its more complicate .

I brought two battery packs backups during all my previous cruises . was not an issue at all. Please mind its better to put it in the carry on .

Any Oasis class because of all the options. Liberty as it was our first ship and I still remember the wow effect boarding to the promenade.

Did not had the key while taking this cruise , did not had any issue , the only port which can be problematic is Sentorini , for that port we took a shore excursion which was much cheaper than the key. So if you consider the Keys for tendering , its not worse it , if you are going anyway also to buy internet package it might make sense.

The main differences between bars/Restaurants (who believed they allow smoking in Restaurants few years ago , amazing) is that the ban was done in all places at once , here each cruise line will be afraid to be the first one that will announce the ban and the competitors will get the 15% (and I guess much more in casino money). So to ban indoor in cruise line they will need to be coordinated. Think if only 70% of the bars would accept the ban , most of the smokers would go directly to the one that did not accept it ...

Smoking is Ban from the UK ports as far as I know , from Venice and Barcelona they were still allowing it (at least two month ago) the Casino was quite smoky on Rhapsody

Do not give up , there was the ultimate drinking package few month ago that at the end they houner . Maybe you will not get back your original price but some discount and on board credited , after all it's was their glitch

In the Casino business its all about statistics and math. From the time you step into the casino you are being tracked , they know exactly which machines/games you like , if you are smoking/no smoking , average time of playing and much more. Therefore you can be sure that if the data will show that making the casino no smoking will bring more money they will do it in seconds. Just to give some numbers , to get to prime status you need to gain 2500 points which is around 12500 $ if the machines are given back around 90% it means 1250 lost and much more , for Signature you need to have 25000 points which means 125000 $ or statistic lost of 12500 $ (minimum). So if they have many smoking signature/prime they will need to replace each one that will not cruise with RC at least 50 non smoking that spends 100$ to 300$ per cruise ... . And yes for sure there are many non smoking signature or prime. So people that saying they will come to gamble if the casino will become a non smoking casino , are they talking about 2500 $ per cruise or 50$-200$ ? I Guess RC think they know the answer for now. By the way , I tend to think that on a cruise , mainly the short ones the % of smokers are much bigger than the 15% as many are still social smokers and tend to smoke in vacation or with Alcohol . So how you can make the casino non smoking (which I think can be a good thing) and still not loose any business ? very simple . same as it was done in the bars and restaurants, making all the main cruise lines ban Smoking in the Casino ... Do you think non smoking in bars and restaurants would work if some would go non smoking and some will stay like that ?