Traveler

Its near the Solarium and also works more and less like the solarium bistro  , small dishes are buffet style (when buffet was not consider a bad word 🙂 ) and you can choose the main dish , menu  of the main dish was not changed during the 7 days cruise.     

Not sure it is the same in Quantum of the Seas , but in Spectrum you have two CK , one is the sliver for JS and one is for the Gold for the rest of the suites and also rooms that are defined as gold (they can be regular balcony one but with the benefits of gold)  

@Traveler  Thanks for your travel blog, it was interesting. Me and my wife has a Japan cruise booked next April in a Junior Suite on Quantum of the Seas. It will be a 10 day cruise concentrating mostly on ports in Japan.
I have one question for you. Normally Junior Suite guest can go to the Coastal Kitchen if there is room enough for them but you said that only gold guests were allowed there. Is this correct? How is guests dividend between silver and gold status? Are Junior Suite silver and the real suites are gold?

I think they do not really wants answers they just use it as a way to show people why they have the no cruise order , it's just a "positive" way to explain their act

I think they do not really wants answers they just use it as a way to show people why they have the no cruise order , it's just a "positive" way to explain their act

I think they do not really wants answers they just use it as a way to show people why they have the no cruise order , it's just a "positive" way to explain their act

Dipping their nautical toes into the water:
https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/23286-1-200-passengers-are-back-on-a-cruise-ship.html?fbclid=IwAR2uQk9ljA-NCqUVcy6OyLZ_b4m1n5hDkI8EVwETKPYQK9lpFCZqXCT0vXI

I did a L&S to our cruise around May , did not got the CP refunds  , 
Called them today and they told me it was added to my cruise payment !  After 10 minutes they got back to me and told me it will be refund and I can expect 30 to 45 days from today ... so I guess its quite common "glitch"

Sovereign will always hold a special place in my heart. This is sad. 
Growing up, my grandpa had the bow of a boat as his bar in the basement.  I always thought it was the coolest dang thing ever.  He also had a tap, always on a keg of Busch and we would sneak some sips of it out of the clean ashtrays while looking at his Playboys...lol. But thats another story......

Here in Australia we have the prime example of how easy things get out of control. We went into a fairly strict lockdown and it worked. Cases under control quickly and just a few weeks ago we were down to only cases from international sources who were confined to mandatory quarantine. However the system broke and there was a mishandling of people by the security firm in charge of quarantine and 1 person got through. Melbourne is just 2 weeks later in full lockdown again with 400+ new cases a day. People escapes the city and have spread it to Sydney. This all from just 1 person starting it off again.

On a side note those saying that th elockdowns harm the economy, while true, it has been proven before those that lock down hard early see their economy rebound the quickest. These gradual small measures have ongoing cost and effects that will last for many years to come. Look at China, their economy is already taking off in recovery mode.

I never got any notification , just checking my CC statement online ...

Hi , 
Here you can see 3 live blogs on the same routes , feel free to ask any questions , in Capri  there the top of the mountain location were you take a cable car , they have a nice coffee shops and wonderful view , it is most of the time more quire from the other places in Capri .: 
The first one you can find a tour to Rome using the bus and coming back with a train 
Here you can find travel to Capri , I do suggest to take the tour from the ship , you can do it cheaper by yourself but the lines will kill you 
 
 

Hi , 
Here you can see 3 live blogs on the same routes , feel free to ask any questions , in Capri  there the top of the mountain location were you take a cable car , they have a nice coffee shops and wonderful view , it is most of the time more quire from the other places in Capri .: 
The first one you can find a tour to Rome using the bus and coming back with a train 
Here you can find travel to Capri , I do suggest to take the tour from the ship , you can do it cheaper by yourself but the lines will kill you 
 
 

Hmm I don't think anyone has posted this but on the RCCI website they have 3D views of rooms. I think this might be one of the updates that had the site down. So far it is only on a few ships like Indy and Nav but I was still shocked to see the videos there. Now there is no reason to look up a room on YouTube. These 3D tours show you not just the layout but an actual tour around the room. This will definitely help people who can't decide between the different types.

Yes, I was very fortunate to get a casino CS rep that gave me one of those deals from the "good ol' days".....back when casino comp upgrades were really GREAT deals.

I think this is the most impressing thing ... on Symphony to upgrade inside to JS for this cost its amazing 

From what I heard last, there are several vaccines in development and testing phases and they are very promising. Also because of the current promising results, the manufactures are making 10's of millions of their vaccines now in the hopes of once given the green light (perhaps early fall) they can be distributed right away instead of waiting till the green light, then making them, and us having to wait longer to get them.

I wanted to report on my success with moving a casino comp cruise that was cancelled in this latest round of cancellations. 
We had a Symphony Eastern Caribbean booked for 1 August using a casino comp offer.  Of course, this cruise was a victim of the latest round of cancellations. I held out little hope of being able to move this cruise to a later date (I had heard of scarcely a few successful attempts at getting a casino comp moved) but much to my surprise, I was successful in moving this cruise to Feb 13, 2021 with full price protection on the original casino booking. I had upgraded this inside room comp to a JS for $258 PP so I was delighted that the original upgrade price was honored.
This is not a Lift & Shift, in that I could not book further out than 2-28-21 but I also was not required to maintain the same itinerary....in other words, I wasn’t required to book another Eastern Caribbean.  I booked a companion cruise to my already-booked 6 Feb cruise, turning my 6 Feb into a B2B.  Apparently they are allowing cancelled casino comp cruises to be moved to a qualifying cruise between 1 Oct 2020 and 28 Feb 2021.  I know the next question will be, what constitutes a qualifying cruise ?  I cannot answer that question as I was moving a 7 night Symphony cruise to another 7 night Symphony Cruise, but I CAN tell you that they didn’t care that I was changing from an Eastern Caribbean to a Western Caribbean, so it’s not a tradition L & S.
Maybe I just got very lucky and got a good casino CS Rep but it was very easy and handled efficiently and quickly.  I was able to get my airfare moved over from the August to the Feb itin with no problem. There was a $4.20 difference in the cruise fare due to differences in taxes/port fees and a $60 difference in airfare. All of my Cruise Planner purchases were automatically cancelled, and will be refunded.  I will have to rebook for the replacement cruise.
All-in-all, a huge surprise at how easy it was.  I am lead to believe it is a new “policy” for cancelled casino comps.  A bit of good news in an otherwise sea of bad news.

I think the issue might be very simple : 
If you ask CDC as an health organization they will tell you that the best way to fight the C19 (or any other virus) is to close everything , everyone will stay at home and the army will bring the food and water. few weeks/month like that and everything will be OK. 
On the other hand you have the local business  and others organization  that are pushing to open everything so the economy can  recover. Theme parks = lots of local jobs and taxes at the parks/hotels/restaurants/laundries and many other business. They have someone to shout and push on their behalf. The cruise industry dose not have this  , they do not pay taxes in the US and the number of local jobs they provide are limited. 
That is why the CDC allowing other things to be open while keep the cruise shut, Its not because they hate cruising they just could not keep all  the other things close ...

I think the issue might be very simple : 
If you ask CDC as an health organization they will tell you that the best way to fight the C19 (or any other virus) is to close everything , everyone will stay at home and the army will bring the food and water. few weeks/month like that and everything will be OK. 
On the other hand you have the local business  and others organization  that are pushing to open everything so the economy can  recover. Theme parks = lots of local jobs and taxes at the parks/hotels/restaurants/laundries and many other business. They have someone to shout and push on their behalf. The cruise industry dose not have this  , they do not pay taxes in the US and the number of local jobs they provide are limited. 
That is why the CDC allowing other things to be open while keep the cruise shut, Its not because they hate cruising they just could not keep all  the other things close ...

Well, they do pay some taxes, just not the way people think they should pay.
https://cruiseradio.net/fact-check-do-cruise-lines-pay-us-taxes/

I think the issue might be very simple : 
If you ask CDC as an health organization they will tell you that the best way to fight the C19 (or any other virus) is to close everything , everyone will stay at home and the army will bring the food and water. few weeks/month like that and everything will be OK. 
On the other hand you have the local business  and others organization  that are pushing to open everything so the economy can  recover. Theme parks = lots of local jobs and taxes at the parks/hotels/restaurants/laundries and many other business. They have someone to shout and push on their behalf. The cruise industry dose not have this  , they do not pay taxes in the US and the number of local jobs they provide are limited. 
That is why the CDC allowing other things to be open while keep the cruise shut, Its not because they hate cruising they just could not keep all  the other things close ...

I think the issue might be very simple : 
If you ask CDC as an health organization they will tell you that the best way to fight the C19 (or any other virus) is to close everything , everyone will stay at home and the army will bring the food and water. few weeks/month like that and everything will be OK. 
On the other hand you have the local business  and others organization  that are pushing to open everything so the economy can  recover. Theme parks = lots of local jobs and taxes at the parks/hotels/restaurants/laundries and many other business. They have someone to shout and push on their behalf. The cruise industry dose not have this  , they do not pay taxes in the US and the number of local jobs they provide are limited. 
That is why the CDC allowing other things to be open while keep the cruise shut, Its not because they hate cruising they just could not keep all  the other things close ...

From technical  perspective only  its depends on the ship.
Ships that still use the code system I guess no issue but other ships which use the user system might be an issue.
You create a user and password which is per the stateroom than you when you login it will reduce 1 device from the 4 , next one will reduce another one until you get to 0.
Once you are using all the devices the next person that will log in without doing logout first will kick the first one that entered. 

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.