Traveler

Sure , It drop you off two blocks from the old port , you will be across from a mall with big supermarket and a museum , all you need to do is go down two blocks and you will be in the old port

As always, I was enjoying reading your book , thank you.

I just hope that if they will go to pay per disembark customers, cruise lines will not limit the on board activities so people will leave the ship.

That is not a real issue as they have ways to mark spaces for people on a table .

That can work in the Caribbean but what about cruises like @twangster is on now , 13 nights , when most of the days is around 40 and less with the winds , it will be too cold for you to smoke outside. I think it can work only if all the major cruise line will have the same policy on the same time

Well the solution might be a smoking lounge which is not located in the middle of ship and have a very good ventilation system . Regarding all hell break loose , I might remind you that 25 years ago they said the same for banning smoking during flights , 15 years ago about banning smoking in restaurants and 10-12 years ago about smoking in bars. Yes I know that its not the same as people in bars can get outside and smoke , but I remember everyone were sure the bars revenues will dropped and bars will be forced to be closed ... I know for Casinos its a different story, there is a claim the smoking regulation in Atlantic city which started around 8-10 years ago were one of the triggers to the bankrupt many of them suffered . Revel , for example , which was a new very impressive non smoking Casino , shutdown after two years as it did not brought enough revenue and was not full most of the time while The Borgata was full (which still had designated smoking areas) . So yes its not that simple

Main problem is during the evening were the Casino turns into smoking lounge , During my last cruise there were many times you can see group of people grabbing chairs and seat for a long time smoking and chatting. I heard people saying it was too cold to smoke on deck 15 so that is why everyone there. So , or band smoking also in the casino or add somewhere a small smoking lounge like they have in some of the airports. If I were RC , I would take one of the big ships and do a revenue test , with smoking allow for few weeks and than with smoking not allow for few weeks (publishing ahead of time) , if the revenue will be the almost the same or better when smoking is not allow they can rollout it on the entire fleet. Also if more and more people will complain about the smoking in the survey it might help.

On my cruise on the Symphony it also indicated in the cruise compass that its for SKY/Star class (saw it on day 3) but we did not had any issues to reserve dinner at the CK (we eat there 3 times). Will check again on the Allure in two month from now.

Do not forget earplugs ?

Welcome to the message board and blog @slgibbs1 If you already paid also the gratuity (which is 14.5 per day per person) you can leave the cruise with 0 balance no issues at all. You have many things to do for free : Zip line, Spa tour (its free at day 1), flow rider, climbing wall , mini golf , trivia, port lectures, shows, ice skating, games and much more. The ship tour cost around 150 $ but you can skip it , no escape room yet on the Oasis (You can find them in the Symphony , Harmony , and two more). also no dry slides in the Oasis (only on Harmony and Symphony) and yes they are free.

Did this exact routes 4 times now, 3 of them on Oasis class . Most of the times no crowds at all as there are so many options and the crowd control is very good , the only time it was crowded in the WJ was during the morning when everyone wanted to eat before we are getting to port. even that time we were waiting 3 minutes to get a table. It might be that one morning we were eating on the counters and not on the table. Regarding the pool , only one sea day so no issues with the pools , I do recommend to try and stay on the ship for half of the day during one of the ports and have the ship just for yourself (and few other that thought about this idea) Enjoy your cruise

If I am not mistaken , Cuba wants to have passport that has at least 6 month when you enter the country , Anyway , to be on the safe side its always better to extend your passport . Another items which might be more complicate is that per US regulation I am not sure you can go to Cuba from the US with non US passport , you should check it.

Since there is only one show in the aqua theater during the night (the rest of the night they might show a movie or something like that) if they will cancel the show on one day they will add another show on the other days. Your best chance is to book it for the first night and if it will canceled you can catch one of the other days , most of the times you do no have 7 nights with rough seas.

Have a wonderful cruise, looks like a very nice vacation.

I think there are more options here , The problem of the small ships revenue I believe is only in the Caribbean where you can compare them to the bigger class and therefore the cost is much lower. When you check Europe cruises you can see the prices are much higher and the difference between the big ships and the small ships are not that big ,most of the times the ships are fully books and average cabin cost for interior cabin is around 1200 - 1300 $ per person. So what are the options to keep serving the smaller ports ? : 1. Create a better tendering system to allow bigger ships arrive to the small ports , it can be more tender ships , more tender embarkation ports , longer hours on port and divide tendering time. 2. invest in new smaller ships that can offer more activities , I am sure if someone would been asked to design new smaller ship you will see more of the new attractions even 1 or 2 water slides and some special activities , that way , they will be attractive also in the Caribbean 3. Find more attractive routes during the winter time - It might be South America or even middle east/north Africa , there is a big market for people (many from the UK and Russia) who are looking for warmer places during the winter (Cyprus for example is packed with people from the UK during many month of the winter) , routes can go to Cyprus, Israel (Jerusalem , Tel Aviv etc ) , South Jordan , Eilat (Israel) and maybe Egypt,. North Africa , can be Tunis, Marco with some stops in south Spain.

I leave a card (old sea pass card or the pre cruise hotel (if I forget to give it back). For saving energy we just make sure to turn off the lights when we are going out.

From the alignment of the cannons I understand they still afraid all those big cruise ships might be a camouflage for American army troops that will storm the city and will force them to speak English ?.

First congratulations. We were on the Symphony two weeks ago , we also used the application and got expedite embarkation our time was 1:30 PM ... we got to the port around 11 -11:15 am , went to the expedite line and after 5-10 minutes we boarded. The ship usually ready to board at 11 AM. I do not know which transport you booked from the airport , I can tell you a taxi to the port will cost around 40 Euros.

Finally the big riddle solved . Since I did not got the prime indication on the card on my last cruise I went to the casino host which he told me that he could not see my status , I have asked him to check using my C&A number and he gave me a sticker for the card. I asked him why he could not see my past activities , he told me that someone change my C&A number associate to my account to the club royal number (which if you will ask they will tell you dose not exist anymore). So the number of points which were shown in my accounts were , I guess my casino points ... now after few C&A calls and emails they finally fixed my account so it shows the right CA number and the right number of points . Yet another amazing RC IT ...

I found out lately that the they give you around 1000 to 1500$ discount , the discount is based on your last cruise Casino activity and good for one sail ... Once you book a travel the next discount will drop to 5 % until you take another cruise . this is what I understood so far.

Hope you know French or better , Quebecois , the guys there pretend they do not speak English ? Have a wonderful cruise.

Day 7-8 - Sea day and Back to Barcelona . I must Admit I am too lazy with finishing this blog this time , I guess a combination of work, Blog fatigue ( @Matt every "live blog" I am adding I am admiring you more and more , where do you find the strength to update the blog every day ?!), But I can not leave it open like that , so here is the last days on the Symphony. We started the only sea day we had with some coffee over the balcony before heading to the WJ (the only thing that was still open) for a breakfast. I went outside to look what is going on around the pool to learn there is no lack of empty chairs which is nice (and yes it was sunny most of the times). I guess the ship is just big enough to handle pool chairs issue , the upper deck was even emptier. we walked around the ship to see if we want to participate in any activities (and to make sure we are doing enough steps even when its a sea day) we went to check the solarium pool , which reminds me to bring the picture of the sky bridge (you can access it only from the solarium later we decided to split , I went to rest and my spouse went to catch some sun (our balcony was not on the right side for it). we regrouped later and went to eat lunch at the boardwalk hot dog stand , I liked it. across , we found a chocolate fountain which you can deep in fruits or marshmallows, tasty but very messy (at least it gave my spouse opportunity to lough at me seeing my face ? ). Post lunch I went to visit the Casino while trying to be very careful not to harm too much what I gain, it was OK , went to ask the Casino host when they are handing the certificate he told me not to worry and it will be handled later on, it was strange as most of the times they already handle it on the six night of the cruise but I did not argue although when ever someone tells not to worry its a good sign for me to start and worry (mainly at work) . We both went to see the sexiest man competition, it was fun , mainly for my spouse . As we missed our reservations for SKY show (due to dinner in the CK) I went to the reservation desk to reserve it again , no issues we got our reservation for 5 PM. We went to the theater around 4:40 PM and got a seat at the second row in the middle (first row was reserve for start class customers) and order some frozen PC to get into the mode. The show started on time and was very impressive although I am sure they will work to make it even better. Dinner was at the WJ , it was nice to see they finally brought out the decorations Post lunch we went down to the Casino to use the points we collect so we will not loose them , asked again the Casino host about the certificate and I have been told "not to worry" , you can guess, I never got them (although I had enough points) , later I had to call the RC number to get the certificate number but yet did not got the list of cruises that we can use it.Next we catch the I skate 2.0 show, it was fun to watch although we had to stand most of the show.As a lesson learned from previous cruises we decided to go to sleep early , it makes the disembarkation day more bearable. We woke up to see Barcelona sunrise , At 8:15 am after two bagels from park cafe (we hate WJ on embarkation day), we went out of the room directly to the gangway , it took us overall 10 minutes until we were on the taxi to the hotel (including collecting our luggage) comparing to last time it was very fast as usually there is a 15-30 minutes waiting line for a taxi. 15 minutes (and 15 Euros) later we already checked into our hotel (our flight was only on the next day) , lucky for us , they had the room ready, it was the Holiday inn express hotel , it had exactly what you expect from such hotel and enough for a post cruise. we slept a while went out to walk in a very nice avenue which was full with local restaurants. We stopped in one of the restaurants for a branch with beer, it was very tasty. we continue few minutes more until we got the coastline, from that point we walked for 45 minutes more near the sea just to get to the Barcelona Aquarium and to the only mall which is open on Sundays. few hours later we return back to the hotel just to catch dinner , we went again to Tapa Tapa (which I started to call it the MacDonald of the tapas bars ? ). Our flight back was at 9 am ,we left the hotel around 6:45 , we had a 9 hours connection at Vienna so we bought a combine tickets for the airport train and the subway and did our way to Vienna center (17 minutes). Vienna center (or the old Vienna) is beautiful and many interesting building are very close by . We spent few hours at the center (including lunch, Vienna schnitzels ) and took the subway to visit the Schönbrunn palace (Which I bought tickets online once we landed), they are not allowing to take pictures inside the place so I have excuse for not sharing any. The visit took around 1.5 hours as we took the limited tour , you can spend there easily half a day (the gardens are very big). Once we finished the tour we took the subway back to the train station, we had some extra time before the airport train departure so we went to the supermarket which is located inside the train station to buy some Austrian chocolates. At the airport we spent and hour in the star alliance lounge and we finally took our flight home. Some General observations: 1. Symphony - a wonderful ship , always something happens, 22/7 activities (although during the night time less) , it was never crowded (beside the WJ but even than it was not too bad). can wait to board it again. 2. MDR - food was as always, with some ups and downs , service was very prompt , we had the MTD and got the same table during the two times we were eating there. 3.WJ - comparing to last time I felt the food quality and verity were less but still we found some good options for a quick meal. 3. Coastal Kitchen - Very good , we were eating there 3 times , service is excellent and the food was very good , we had no issue to enter (although we were at a JS) or to reserve for next visit (first reservation I just call them from the room the rest we done with the host). The host was very very friendly. 4. Cabin - we were at a JS deck 9 , it was excellent , so much room to put everything and really enjoyable - downside the room is so comfortable that you want to stay in. 5. Entertainment - Hiro , SKY , Ice skating shows all were wonderful , live music was good and the different events were fun , the house singers could be better. 6. CD/AD - We had BB as the cruise director and some temp AD from Brazil , the chemistry between them was not the best but maybe because the AD came for a short time. Bobby Brown was Bobby Brown , it was not a disaster or something I can not enjoy because he was organizing it but I saw better. For us it did not took anything out from our experience. 7. Casino - Machines were OK like last time , I will say until now Symphony treat us well (both of the times we were cruising), Table games had the endless shuffle shoe which I do not like so did not play too much , when I played it was not that good. Casino host - he was doing some Knowledge transfer during this cruise and I got the feeling that he really needs a vacation, but again its a big ship. 8. Pools and slides - Always we could find were to seat , the lines to the slide were not that horrible. 9. General service - Everyone were very nice and did allot of effort to help. 10. Passengers - The captain did not gave the exact numbers of each country , just that we have passengers from 90 different countries . I think we had many from UK, US, Spain and allot from Israel as it was a vacation week at Israel and I guess many took advantage of it. The captain even force the only Hebrew spoken officer (and apparently the only Israeli crew member on the ship) to say some words in the captain reception, that was the first time I ever saw the security officer being presented. 11. RC application - It was working most of the times , we did the online check in via the application that worked perfectly (expedite boarding) and we could see the updated cruise activities , still the folio was never updated and from time to time I had to restart the application.Hope the will fix it soon. 12. Embarkation/Disembarkation - both very quick around 10 minutes - good job RC. 13. Drinks - we did not took the drink package as it is a very port intensive cruise , we bought some drinks, used the two bottles of wine we brought with us (dinner time) and use the Casino prime privilege that I had , I took almost every evening two drinks (one for each) no issues at all (I just had to show the card) and usually left 5 to 7 $ tip each time. All in all I think we spent around 120$ over drinks. Until the next time, thanks for following and for all the comments.

Well , I am envy with all the people that can get to the car any time at the year and catch a cruise or in the worse case scenario 4 hours flight ? (and not 12) lucky for me Symphony and Harmony were around here first. If you are planning to fly the day before here are few things you should take into consideration : 1. Change money to Euros in the US , the change in the airport and in the city will give you bad rate/commission. 2. you will need around 40 Euros for the taxi from airport to the city , not sure that Ubber will work from the airport. 3. If you are landing on Sunday, take into consideration that most of the big supermarkets are closed on Sunday only small one are open , if it is regular day , opening hours are 9am to 9- 10 PM , I will recommend to buy your wine there. 4. There is a shop post security before you board the ship , they sell boxes of water and wine , for sure no issue to take the water you buy there to the ship. 5. Symphony is boarding from two different terminals (B and C) make sure you know which terminal you should use. 6.Expedite embarkation works perfectly in Barcelona. 7. Boarding time is around 11 AM (10 minutes +/-)

Well , its not that high , I can promise you in the way down you will already feel ok to take photos since you will know what to anticipate.

Thanks, Yes , the chairlift has a bar that you lower once you are in the seat and take it up before leaving the seat , the operator has a stop and a slow button which they can press if they see someone need extra time to catch the seat or to get out of it.