Traveler

As Far as I know this is the first time RC trying the Greek isle cruise so late , I think they are planning to do it until mid of Dec ! Weather wise it will not be a cruise to enjoy the beaches (on DEC) but this week its 80 in Athens , and 72 at Mykonos , not bad at all. Weather in this area can be quite hot , Its Nov and 87 here , I might go to the beach tomorrow

Very simple , today the vending machines coming with sensors that can check if the item delivered or not (for example I bought a cable from such machine in the airport , the box did not arrived and I was not charged in my CC). If the item dose not work , well lets say you bought something int he regular shop , you went and test it in your room and it did not work , I guess you will go back to the regular shop and ask to replace it , same here , I guess you will go tot he same shop talk to someone and it will be replaced. The vending machine is not coming to replace the shop its an add on.

I think its a good idea , After all its not coming instead the retail shop , they still offer many of the things in the regular shops , there are few advantages: 1. Ability to buy in the middle of the night (for example cold medicine , sunscreen before a shore excursion which you forgot to bring , buy before , run out of). 2. Ability to buy things which some people prefer to buy from a machine and not in person. 3. More variety , yes , its better to bring everything with you but it can happen that people forgets things. And its not coming to replace anything , it is not taking that much space , even if you want you can not push over there another restaurant or a shop

Well the @twangster is very elusive and you will need to work harder to catch a rare picture opportunity of him , here is how : First, go to all the bars on the ship and order Kraken rum until the barman will tell you he don not have anymore. Be sure to buy one bottle for later , you will need it. Second collect some diet coke from the vending machine. Wait until 4 am a, leave the bottle of rum and the diet coke on the pool deck were it is visible from an excellent photo ops location, it might help if you will hang near the bottle a sign saying "the best Voom reception point on the ship" . Now all you need to do is to wait and cross you fingers, with some luck you might catch a glance of his shadow. Good luck.

We went to Hooked on our April cruise (the third Symphony cruise) and when the came to ask us what we thought we said the same , it was very tasty but way too much. I guess many other people said the opposite ... One of the issue/good thing is that usually you never come hungry to a dinner on a cruise ? By the way , excellent blog and pictures.

The good thing is when you are going back its much easier to adjust. I have less issues going to NA ans SA , but going to far east killing me and every time I am coming back from the US or one of the SA countries I do not have problem to wake up but around 4 PM I find myself fighting not to fall asleep.

The Ice shoe is very impressive, we saw it twice and I think the second time was even better, each time I saw more things. lovely pictures as always.

You can always read the updates on the other board ?

Allure - 12/9/2018 - 12/16/2018

Have fun in your cruise , If you want to try the laser tag , try it today , most of the chances you will have less lines than in any other times. Same for many of the other activities.

Cruise day ! , I gues you already in the cruise port , hope it will be quick embarkation (They are very quick there in Barcelona terminal) , enjoy your cruise.

If they will let RC about only two people in the room after boarding will they still get the tax and ports fee back (+ gratitude) ?

I tried the Wow bands on Symphony , it was working well for the doors (which is very good if you want to go to the pool) less well in other places like the Casino and bars.

I would take option A unless you really want to see the Greece Islands. I love Nice , Kutor is very nice and in Venice many things to see

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