Traveler

Day -1.5  Honk Kong ,
 
Yesterday was a transfer day, although the flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong is only two and half hours the flight was at 2 PM which quite kill the all day.
We went out to the airport around 10 AM directly after breakfast , we wanted to play it safe due to possible traffic issues in the way to the airport but it took us no more than 30 minutes to get there.
10 minutes after we already passed the check in, security and passport control so we had more than 3 hours until the flight which we spend walking around the very nice Bangkok  airport gaining more steps for the fitbit counter. The rest of the time we spent at Thai airways lounge.
The flight was short by they still served a full meal which was nice:
 
hhh
 
We arrived around 5 PM to Hong Kong and stuck in traffic for more than one hour , we arrived to the hotel finally , it was already 7 PM so as you can see a wasted day, maybe I should have booked early or late flight so I could enjoy more time on  one of the places (Bangkok for sure)  lesson learn for next time.The hotel we are staying in Hong Kong is the Intercontinental in Kowloon its very near the harbor and has nice view, again I used reward points  to book this hotel (yes I travel too much, I agree).After settling down, we went out to try and catch the Symphony of light show which is a laser and lights show that performed over  many of the Hong Kong skyscrapers every day at 8 PM.

After the show we went to catch something to eat near the famous Nathan road.
Today we started the morning in a nice bakery we found near the hotel.

We were planning to go to an Optometrist shop that  I used its service before, both me and my spouse are using eyeglasses and doing a pair of glasses in Hong Kong is almost half of the price (for frame and lenses) than back home , I believe it is much cheaper also comparing the US. SO every time I am visiting HK I am trying to purchase new pair , the good thing is that usually they can prepare them on the same day.
After we both choose the frame and did a short vision check we rushed to a short Hong Kong free walking tour, this is one of those tours that you can book enjoy it and just pay the tip at the end to the guide.
The tour was nice with allot of stories of the different palaces around.
After the tour we took the subway to the ladies markets (and no , it’s not just for ladies so it was ok for me to join) , this market is full with stands of cheap cloths, fake  of fake bags  and watches (fake of fakes is like a fake but not really for example: they have bags of LU instead of LV ). Not sure I would spend too much time there unless you want to find fake Rolex watch , but that can be done in any of Hong Kong street.
Next to the market there is the computer center , a building full with shops that sells computers, computer accessories and computer parts , we went over there just for me to buy some more charges , I bought one with 4 USB ports so we will able to charge all the devices using one power outlet in ship.
Doing our way back we decided that it will be a good idea to walk back , well it was a bad idea because became very hot day and walking 1.8 miles in such weather was not the best thing we could done about , well at least we finished the day with over 20000 steps so at least the fitness applications where very happy.
Tomorrow finally we should board the Ship . 

Day -3 (or Maybe -2, I lost the count sorry) Bangkok
 
Today Was another full day in Bangkok , since we (silly us) believed  the forecast which indicate rain during the two and half day in Bangkok we really did not  planned something special.
We woke up around 9 AM (jet leg …) and went to grab something to eat at the breakfast buffet. The buffet was full with western dishes side by side to many oriental dishes, actually with the type of food served it could easily be also a lunch  buffet.
I mainly loved the fruit stand where they cut different fresh fruits in front of you, in general Thailand is a haven for fruit lovers, and at any corner of the street you will find a fruit stand serving fresh cut fruit inside nylon bags with small forks to eat it.

 
The food in Bangkok is so good and the verity is endless, from western to Thai food, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Indonesian and much more.
If you are looking just for western food (weird but ok) you will find many famous fast food restaurants like Macdonald’s, Burger King, Subway etc ..
There are also many coffee shops (reminder its Bangkok not Amsterdam so I am talking about places which serve real coffee) I also notice almost on every corner a  very special local coffee chain that seems many tourist as local likes to queue near it , If I am not mistaken it called something like Starbucks but I might be wrong .
The food cost is very cheap comparing to the US and Europe, for example you can get a nice Pad Thai for less than 3 $ and model soup for 1.5 $ in the food court, at the restaurant yesterday we paid 12 $ for two main course, one starter + drinks.
You can find also many food stands on the street selling almost everything, since we did not to take the risk we avoid it but since we still wanted to taste some of the street food we area inside a mall which has something like 30 stands serving different street food. The mall call terminal 21 and the stands are in its 5th floor. We bought a prepaid card for the food stands which we used to taste many dishes, in the end you can return the card and get refund for any amount which still left.
!Warning , the next paragraph should not  be read before planning to eat anything!
 
In Thailand there is one special fruit which famous for its lovely smell , its call Durian , now you cannot get confused between this fruit and other fruit as its smell is so strong that in Singapore they not allow to carry it inside the Subway. It’s hard to describe the smell but believe me I think it should be consider as anti-riot weapon.
Many consider the Durian to have a very good taste so I did the move and for the sake of this blog I decided to taste it (the thing I do so I will have something to report on …). I took a plate of sticky rice with Durian , what can I Tell you, the taste was so bad, something like Onion that was covered with sugar and left outside for a week or two , even while I am written this I feel sick.
Was I sorry that I tried? well if you don’t try new things you never know , would I do it again ? certainly not  I am here so you would not do the same mistakes J
 
 

!End of warning!.
 
The rest of the day between meals we spent in the huge malls the city can offer , one of the biggest malls (called MBK)  which contains hundreds of small shops that sell almost everything , one can spend hours over there trying to find the best deals. You have one floor that is dedicate just for electronic shops which again claim they have anything , for example they offered   us the new IPhone X , Which is nice consider that apple did not release it to the markets yet.
For dinner we went to a Korean restaurant which serve DAK Kalbi which is cooked   on your table , similar to  the hibachi concept but with a big pan on the middle of the table.We took a mix of chicken, sea food ,vegetables and rice, which was mixed with cheese. It was very tasty and remind me Spanish  Paella
 
The Before plate:

After cooking : sorry we started to eat before I remembered that I did not took the picture 
 
 
Tomorrow Hong  Kong
 

Day -4 Bangkok
 
As this city exist in some of the south Asia Royal Caribbean routes I think it fair to writeabout it.
 
As I wrote before this was my first visit to Bangkok, the reason for stopping two days  in Bangkok  was mainly due to the fact that I could not found a direct route to Hong Kong with the award miles but found out this route to work nicely for us as it also a good city to buy some cheap T shirts for the cruise J (One can identify me on board by the shirts with the elephants and I love Bangkok 2 $ T shirts)
We landed very early and I arrange that we will be greeted at the gate by the hotel representative who took us with a buggy car bypassing the immigration lines, I  took this idea from Episode 183 - Making a memorable Royal Caribbean cruise ,  while passing the long lines I could not avoid  quoting  in My head  Mel Brooks “It’s good to be the king”
For hotel we took the Grand Sheraton (using reward)  which is very nice located on Sukhumvit road and 2 minutes from the MRT (local subway).
The Funny about the Sheraton reward program is that much of my points did not came from the room staying but from the fact that they give you allot of points if you decide not to use the daily clean service (and not replacing towels), you can actually do it up to 3 nights every time. They call it the Ecological choice, since I practice all my childhood (and my spouse will claim  it continues also this days) not to make up my room I became very good at that and for sure I don’t mind to get some reward point for it. Now only if I knew then to explain my parents it was all Ecological choice ….
Here is a picture of the hotel very nice tropical swimming pool.
 
After settling down we started to walk around to the nearest mall for some shop browsing and eating early launch, we picked some local restaurant and order a Pad Thai and Green Papaya salad.
 


Since we are after all in Th ailand we went for a foot massage , which was very very good and cost around 10 $ for a full hour.
Regarding the Sukhumvit road, this is one of the famous tourist roads and many chain hotels are located very close to. Not sure I would take small kids to stroll around this street unless you want to practice your “bee and birds” talk and try also to explain them what are all those plastic replacement body parts which are presented on every second stand (and no , I ddont meant they  sell  prosthetic arms and legs).Every second other  stand on the street also sell many different famous prescriptions drugs which I can guess  are authentic  as three dollar bill.
You will need to forgive me for not uploading pictures from the street as it is a family prove site and also I had the feeling that if I would try to take picture over there I might find myself staring in one of the next episodes of National geographic,” Locked up abroad” describing the Thai jail daily routing and talking about my only friends  over there there,a rat name Pinchi and a trained cockroach.
 
Tomorrow we will catch a flight to Hong Kong.
 

Day -5 some general information.
 
We landed safely in Bangkok and got our hotel room , I have some time to  elaborate om the  background regarding the cruise and some answers  while waiting for my spouse to get ready for a stroll around the city.
 
So why this cruise? - this is going to be our fifth cruise  (finally becoming platinum)   , the other routes we done so far is two western Europe cruises, one east Caribbean and one west Caribbean all for 7 nights. We were looking to cruise somewhere new and found this cruise to take us  places we never visit before (Taiwan and Vietnam). For sure one important condition was that it should be a Royal Caribbean cruise
The cruise was not that expensive (for the room we took) and also the timing was perfect for us to take vacation .
My concern was of the ship itself, please try not to laugh at me but I really hope that I will find the Voyager of the seas big enough J you see our first cruise (and the one that made us addicted) was with Liberty of the seas following by Allure, Oasis and Harmony of the seas … (Hey, an idea for Royal Caribbean , special award for people that cruise in all of the ships of a certain classes)
Yes I know, the Voyager is a big ship and should have enough activities , but I am afraid the Oasis class (and mainly Harmony of the seas)  spoiled us  , its not that we can do all the activities/special restaurant on the Oasis , its just good to know we have the option if we want to (same answer which I give when people ask me why I love leaving in a big city and not in somewhere quite).
I sure hope I will find this concern not to be true, working on convincing myself to avoid and compare the ships while I am enjoying the cruise.
 
Stateroom :  Virtual Balcony – since we book the cruise very late  (not going to tell how late but lets just say we had to pay the all amount while booking it) the balcony rooms and even the sea view rooms where very expensive So we decided to take the VB room which will be first for us. For me, the room is for rest and taking a shower between the different activities so it should be ok (Wow , I almost convinced  myself).
 
Internet: Yes for sure , how else I will be able to update the live blog , whatsup pictures for friends and family  that will make them jealous  (very important part from any good vacation) and yes , do  some emergency work if needed (but only from the sundeck).
We took one device package which we will share between our devices (we done it in the past, its working quite well as long as you have one device connected at a time and as long as I make sure my spouse is slipping while I am trying to use the internet).
 
Drinking package – no, although we like to  drink from time to time we do not drink as much to make it financial worthwhile so we will pay per drink plus the two bottles of wine we can carry with us on board .
 
Special restaurant – Yes for sure, we order the first night done right (which I hope we can use as the set sail for the ship is 23:59), Chops girls for one of the sea days we also consider maybe the chef table and of course at least one visit to Johny Rocket. Unfortunately, No Sabor on the VOS so I will have to attend my crave for guacamole somewhere else.
 
Shore excursion – we actually booked 4 shore excursion, one for each port, all are organize by Royal Caribbean as it is new ports for me in countries which the number of words I know to speak are less than five (and none of them will help me find my way back to the ship) I decided to play it safe.
Thanks for this wonderful site I could have catch the 20% discount on many of the excursions (just canceled and rebooked them again with the discount when it became available).
For Thailand (not in the route), Singapore and Honk Kong we will do our own excursions as we already visit them more than once (well beside Thailand which I never been but  my spouse visit in the past).
 
Pre and pro cruise hotels where booked by me using reward points. Before the cruise we took two nights (just to be on safe side) same for the post cruise.
 
Visas – here we are touching a sensitive subject, the only country at this cruise, which we need visa to enter is Vietnam (same by the way for most of the passport holders beside some countries in Europe like UK). On the tickets documents we got for the  cruise it was state that Royal Caribbean will help the passengers to obtain visa on board which will cost around 6 $ PP. I was very happy to read about it  this info  also align with what I have read in other sites. Now the  plot thickens, few weeks ago RC send us email stating that all visas and other documents should be ready before we set sail and one that don’t have the requirements might be not allow to embark the ship. I tried to understand if this is like the standard email which RC sending before any cruise but it did not seemed like that.
I decided to try my luck and call RC to ask them about it, not sure if anyone here tried to ask RC Visa questions, let’s just say that trying to get clear answers from RC about visa is harder than to get honest answer from a politician. The words: “Maybe , better to check by yourself , we are not sure and better you ask the embassy” raised up  many times with different representative. I know they cannot tell me if I need visa or not (nor that I expected to) and this is not what I asked, all I wanted is to get is a strait answer if they are going to take care of the visas on board the  ship or not.
Mow, before Matt will jump and say “Hey this is another good reason why its always better  to book using TA , they could have answered this question” I must say I asked special TA that is dealing with RC and cruises , she got the same answers.
Although I was almost sure that based on the past cruises such a visa will be obtained on the ship I just did not want to take even the smaller risk that we will be denied to the cruise. After a quick check I found out that the Vietnamese Embassy is about 15-20 minutes’ walk from my home and they can do the visa on the spot for extra charge, I thought by doing that I will kill two birds using one stone , first I will be able to sleep better knowing that this issue is covered , second, 20 minutes  morning walk each way will help me do my steps quota and more important  prepare myself for the windjammer.
To make long story short , after quick walk and 10 minutes waiting I said bye bye to around 200$ (around 100$ for each passport) and came back with multiple entry visas for Vietnam. In few days I will now if that was the best thing I done for the cruise or I just spent (in cruise money language) two chef tables or two nice shore excoriations , ok ,  and half drinking package.
 
Tomorrow still  in  Bangkok, will share more Bangkok updates  , for now  here is some taster, this picture is not of an sea urchins that walked in the sun too much  while forting  their sun screen at home  but of a crazy relative of Lychee (in taste anyway)  called  Rambutan :

And the inside of this sweet fruit :
 
 

Day -4 Bangkok
 
As this city exist in some of the south Asia Royal Caribbean routes I think it fair to writeabout it.
 
As I wrote before this was my first visit to Bangkok, the reason for stopping two days  in Bangkok  was mainly due to the fact that I could not found a direct route to Hong Kong with the award miles but found out this route to work nicely for us as it also a good city to buy some cheap T shirts for the cruise J (One can identify me on board by the shirts with the elephants and I love Bangkok 2 $ T shirts)
We landed very early and I arrange that we will be greeted at the gate by the hotel representative who took us with a buggy car bypassing the immigration lines, I  took this idea from Episode 183 - Making a memorable Royal Caribbean cruise ,  while passing the long lines I could not avoid  quoting  in My head  Mel Brooks “It’s good to be the king”
For hotel we took the Grand Sheraton (using reward)  which is very nice located on Sukhumvit road and 2 minutes from the MRT (local subway).
The Funny about the Sheraton reward program is that much of my points did not came from the room staying but from the fact that they give you allot of points if you decide not to use the daily clean service (and not replacing towels), you can actually do it up to 3 nights every time. They call it the Ecological choice, since I practice all my childhood (and my spouse will claim  it continues also this days) not to make up my room I became very good at that and for sure I don’t mind to get some reward point for it. Now only if I knew then to explain my parents it was all Ecological choice ….
Here is a picture of the hotel very nice tropical swimming pool.
 
After settling down we started to walk around to the nearest mall for some shop browsing and eating early launch, we picked some local restaurant and order a Pad Thai and Green Papaya salad.
 


Since we are after all in Th ailand we went for a foot massage , which was very very good and cost around 10 $ for a full hour.
Regarding the Sukhumvit road, this is one of the famous tourist roads and many chain hotels are located very close to. Not sure I would take small kids to stroll around this street unless you want to practice your “bee and birds” talk and try also to explain them what are all those plastic replacement body parts which are presented on every second stand (and no , I ddont meant they  sell  prosthetic arms and legs).Every second other  stand on the street also sell many different famous prescriptions drugs which I can guess  are authentic  as three dollar bill.
You will need to forgive me for not uploading pictures from the street as it is a family prove site and also I had the feeling that if I would try to take picture over there I might find myself staring in one of the next episodes of National geographic,” Locked up abroad” describing the Thai jail daily routing and talking about my only friends  over there there,a rat name Pinchi and a trained cockroach.
 
Tomorrow we will catch a flight to Hong Kong.
 

Day -5 some general information.
 
We landed safely in Bangkok and got our hotel room , I have some time to  elaborate om the  background regarding the cruise and some answers  while waiting for my spouse to get ready for a stroll around the city.
 
So why this cruise? - this is going to be our fifth cruise  (finally becoming platinum)   , the other routes we done so far is two western Europe cruises, one east Caribbean and one west Caribbean all for 7 nights. We were looking to cruise somewhere new and found this cruise to take us  places we never visit before (Taiwan and Vietnam). For sure one important condition was that it should be a Royal Caribbean cruise
The cruise was not that expensive (for the room we took) and also the timing was perfect for us to take vacation .
My concern was of the ship itself, please try not to laugh at me but I really hope that I will find the Voyager of the seas big enough J you see our first cruise (and the one that made us addicted) was with Liberty of the seas following by Allure, Oasis and Harmony of the seas … (Hey, an idea for Royal Caribbean , special award for people that cruise in all of the ships of a certain classes)
Yes I know, the Voyager is a big ship and should have enough activities , but I am afraid the Oasis class (and mainly Harmony of the seas)  spoiled us  , its not that we can do all the activities/special restaurant on the Oasis , its just good to know we have the option if we want to (same answer which I give when people ask me why I love leaving in a big city and not in somewhere quite).
I sure hope I will find this concern not to be true, working on convincing myself to avoid and compare the ships while I am enjoying the cruise.
 
Stateroom :  Virtual Balcony – since we book the cruise very late  (not going to tell how late but lets just say we had to pay the all amount while booking it) the balcony rooms and even the sea view rooms where very expensive So we decided to take the VB room which will be first for us. For me, the room is for rest and taking a shower between the different activities so it should be ok (Wow , I almost convinced  myself).
 
Internet: Yes for sure , how else I will be able to update the live blog , whatsup pictures for friends and family  that will make them jealous  (very important part from any good vacation) and yes , do  some emergency work if needed (but only from the sundeck).
We took one device package which we will share between our devices (we done it in the past, its working quite well as long as you have one device connected at a time and as long as I make sure my spouse is slipping while I am trying to use the internet).
 
Drinking package – no, although we like to  drink from time to time we do not drink as much to make it financial worthwhile so we will pay per drink plus the two bottles of wine we can carry with us on board .
 
Special restaurant – Yes for sure, we order the first night done right (which I hope we can use as the set sail for the ship is 23:59), Chops girls for one of the sea days we also consider maybe the chef table and of course at least one visit to Johny Rocket. Unfortunately, No Sabor on the VOS so I will have to attend my crave for guacamole somewhere else.
 
Shore excursion – we actually booked 4 shore excursion, one for each port, all are organize by Royal Caribbean as it is new ports for me in countries which the number of words I know to speak are less than five (and none of them will help me find my way back to the ship) I decided to play it safe.
Thanks for this wonderful site I could have catch the 20% discount on many of the excursions (just canceled and rebooked them again with the discount when it became available).
For Thailand (not in the route), Singapore and Honk Kong we will do our own excursions as we already visit them more than once (well beside Thailand which I never been but  my spouse visit in the past).
 
Pre and pro cruise hotels where booked by me using reward points. Before the cruise we took two nights (just to be on safe side) same for the post cruise.
 
Visas – here we are touching a sensitive subject, the only country at this cruise, which we need visa to enter is Vietnam (same by the way for most of the passport holders beside some countries in Europe like UK). On the tickets documents we got for the  cruise it was state that Royal Caribbean will help the passengers to obtain visa on board which will cost around 6 $ PP. I was very happy to read about it  this info  also align with what I have read in other sites. Now the  plot thickens, few weeks ago RC send us email stating that all visas and other documents should be ready before we set sail and one that don’t have the requirements might be not allow to embark the ship. I tried to understand if this is like the standard email which RC sending before any cruise but it did not seemed like that.
I decided to try my luck and call RC to ask them about it, not sure if anyone here tried to ask RC Visa questions, let’s just say that trying to get clear answers from RC about visa is harder than to get honest answer from a politician. The words: “Maybe , better to check by yourself , we are not sure and better you ask the embassy” raised up  many times with different representative. I know they cannot tell me if I need visa or not (nor that I expected to) and this is not what I asked, all I wanted is to get is a strait answer if they are going to take care of the visas on board the  ship or not.
Mow, before Matt will jump and say “Hey this is another good reason why its always better  to book using TA , they could have answered this question” I must say I asked special TA that is dealing with RC and cruises , she got the same answers.
Although I was almost sure that based on the past cruises such a visa will be obtained on the ship I just did not want to take even the smaller risk that we will be denied to the cruise. After a quick check I found out that the Vietnamese Embassy is about 15-20 minutes’ walk from my home and they can do the visa on the spot for extra charge, I thought by doing that I will kill two birds using one stone , first I will be able to sleep better knowing that this issue is covered , second, 20 minutes  morning walk each way will help me do my steps quota and more important  prepare myself for the windjammer.
To make long story short , after quick walk and 10 minutes waiting I said bye bye to around 200$ (around 100$ for each passport) and came back with multiple entry visas for Vietnam. In few days I will now if that was the best thing I done for the cruise or I just spent (in cruise money language) two chef tables or two nice shore excoriations , ok ,  and half drinking package.
 
Tomorrow still  in  Bangkok, will share more Bangkok updates  , for now  here is some taster, this picture is not of an sea urchins that walked in the sun too much  while forting  their sun screen at home  but of a crazy relative of Lychee (in taste anyway)  called  Rambutan :

And the inside of this sweet fruit :
 
 

Thanks , well there are some words that even the automatic spelling check will not help  :-) 

Thanks , well there are some words that even the automatic spelling check will not help  :-) 

Quick update , 
I successfully catch all the connections and even had time to go back to my apartment for a quick shower.
To avoid any delays I already packed a suitcase for the cruise before starting the business trip.
Currently again back at the airport waiting for the first vacation flight while trying to break the record of how many airline lounges I can visit in 72 hours.
Very sad to hear the news about Vegas. 
  

First I would like to apologize ahead of time  for some English spelling /grammar error  I might do during this blog (and I will, promise you) as English not my first language.
After the excuses, I can start, I am going to write this live blog  which will cover a south Asia cruise since first I did not found too many blogs over this area and second I want to give something back to this wonderful site which I found to be very helpful , entertaining  and most important very positive (comparing to many other site (which its  name would not be spoken)  that I found focusing on complains).
 
The cruise which we are going to attend is 10 (well almost 10 ,I will explain shortly) days cruise from Honk Kong to Singapore on the Voyager of the seas.
 
Here is the itinerary:
 
08 - October  Hong Kong    11:59 PM
09-October Cruising
10-October Kaohsiung, Taiwan
11-October Cruising
12-October Cruising
13-Octover Nah Trang , Vietnam
14-October Hue/Danang , Vietnam
15-October Cruising
16- October Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
17-October Cruising
   
 
 
 
 
As you can see the embarkation is to 23:59 as the ship will arrive (without passenger) from mainland China.
Now I hope that we will really set sail at the designated time and the 11:59 PM is not just so RLC will  not need to change the name of the cruise to 9 days Hong Kong to Singapore …
One can ask himself why I am starting this live blog a week before the start date ?   well I have two good answers:
1.       For me starting this blog now it also a commitment that I will need to update it and planning is almost 50% of the fun in cruises (quoting better than me)
2.       We are actually starting the vacation few days before by flying first to Thailand and to be able and catch this flight I first need to come back from a business trip.
For some reasons like the fact that my work colleges ask nicely, the customer insist and the most important somehow I need to pay for the cruises I found myself in this business trip which will finish few hours before my vacation starts.
There is just a small problem, while the vacation starts in Thailand the business trip is to one of the south American countries which its name will not be reveled but let’s just say they have very good ceviche’s, they really like Llamas/Alpacas and if you will tell them that the original Pisco sour was invited in Chile they can get very offended.
The plan itself is very simple (at least that is  what I tried to convince myself with)  , I finish what I need to finish , start to fly around the world with some connections, land at night at my home town just to take the vacation flight 5.5 hours later.
I do hide one card in my sleeve, the same aircraft which will I take for my last connection is exactly the one I am going to take for my vacation (yes another connection) so if the last connection will be delayed also the next flight will. So you see it is very solid plan (it’s not) which I covered any problem that may pop (I did not) but hey, it makes live more interesting and if I will make it on time a very good story to tell.
I have also created plan B if I will miss one of the connection and this is mainly  to cry to my travel agent and beg her to find me an alternative route (One must love plan B)
Now, you might ask why not to save some time and  instead of flying to my home town and back to the connection point just stay at the connection airport and go from there (after meeting my belter half)  ? Well apparently the gods of the airlines will not let you do something which actually make sense, you see I booked my vacation flights using award miles and while I could find the flights starting from my hometown going via the connection airport I could not find the same flight going directly from the connection airport plus if I would find it would cost more miles.
I gave up on trying and understand the way the airlines works, so here we are.
The good news is while I am written this I am already started my trip back , so currently I am in the airline lounge waiting for my next connection which appear to be on time.
I promise to continue and update.
For now , just so it will not be too boring I am adding pictures for one of the main reason I agreed to take the business trip:
 
 
 
 

 

First I would like to apologize ahead of time  for some English spelling /grammar error  I might do during this blog (and I will, promise you) as English not my first language.
After the excuses, I can start, I am going to write this live blog  which will cover a south Asia cruise since first I did not found too many blogs over this area and second I want to give something back to this wonderful site which I found to be very helpful , entertaining  and most important very positive (comparing to many other site (which its  name would not be spoken)  that I found focusing on complains).
 
The cruise which we are going to attend is 10 (well almost 10 ,I will explain shortly) days cruise from Honk Kong to Singapore on the Voyager of the seas.
 
Here is the itinerary:
 
08 - October  Hong Kong    11:59 PM
09-October Cruising
10-October Kaohsiung, Taiwan
11-October Cruising
12-October Cruising
13-Octover Nah Trang , Vietnam
14-October Hue/Danang , Vietnam
15-October Cruising
16- October Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
17-October Cruising
   
 
 
 
 
As you can see the embarkation is to 23:59 as the ship will arrive (without passenger) from mainland China.
Now I hope that we will really set sail at the designated time and the 11:59 PM is not just so RLC will  not need to change the name of the cruise to 9 days Hong Kong to Singapore …
One can ask himself why I am starting this live blog a week before the start date ?   well I have two good answers:
1.       For me starting this blog now it also a commitment that I will need to update it and planning is almost 50% of the fun in cruises (quoting better than me)
2.       We are actually starting the vacation few days before by flying first to Thailand and to be able and catch this flight I first need to come back from a business trip.
For some reasons like the fact that my work colleges ask nicely, the customer insist and the most important somehow I need to pay for the cruises I found myself in this business trip which will finish few hours before my vacation starts.
There is just a small problem, while the vacation starts in Thailand the business trip is to one of the south American countries which its name will not be reveled but let’s just say they have very good ceviche’s, they really like Llamas/Alpacas and if you will tell them that the original Pisco sour was invited in Chile they can get very offended.
The plan itself is very simple (at least that is  what I tried to convince myself with)  , I finish what I need to finish , start to fly around the world with some connections, land at night at my home town just to take the vacation flight 5.5 hours later.
I do hide one card in my sleeve, the same aircraft which will I take for my last connection is exactly the one I am going to take for my vacation (yes another connection) so if the last connection will be delayed also the next flight will. So you see it is very solid plan (it’s not) which I covered any problem that may pop (I did not) but hey, it makes live more interesting and if I will make it on time a very good story to tell.
I have also created plan B if I will miss one of the connection and this is mainly  to cry to my travel agent and beg her to find me an alternative route (One must love plan B)
Now, you might ask why not to save some time and  instead of flying to my home town and back to the connection point just stay at the connection airport and go from there (after meeting my belter half)  ? Well apparently the gods of the airlines will not let you do something which actually make sense, you see I booked my vacation flights using award miles and while I could find the flights starting from my hometown going via the connection airport I could not find the same flight going directly from the connection airport plus if I would find it would cost more miles.
I gave up on trying and understand the way the airlines works, so here we are.
The good news is while I am written this I am already started my trip back , so currently I am in the airline lounge waiting for my next connection which appear to be on time.
I promise to continue and update.
For now , just so it will not be too boring I am adding pictures for one of the main reason I agreed to take the business trip:
 
 
 
 

 

First I would like to apologize ahead of time  for some English spelling /grammar error  I might do during this blog (and I will, promise you) as English not my first language.
After the excuses, I can start, I am going to write this live blog  which will cover a south Asia cruise since first I did not found too many blogs over this area and second I want to give something back to this wonderful site which I found to be very helpful , entertaining  and most important very positive (comparing to many other site (which its  name would not be spoken)  that I found focusing on complains).
 
The cruise which we are going to attend is 10 (well almost 10 ,I will explain shortly) days cruise from Honk Kong to Singapore on the Voyager of the seas.
 
Here is the itinerary:
 
08 - October  Hong Kong    11:59 PM
09-October Cruising
10-October Kaohsiung, Taiwan
11-October Cruising
12-October Cruising
13-Octover Nah Trang , Vietnam
14-October Hue/Danang , Vietnam
15-October Cruising
16- October Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
17-October Cruising
   
 
 
 
 
As you can see the embarkation is to 23:59 as the ship will arrive (without passenger) from mainland China.
Now I hope that we will really set sail at the designated time and the 11:59 PM is not just so RLC will  not need to change the name of the cruise to 9 days Hong Kong to Singapore …
One can ask himself why I am starting this live blog a week before the start date ?   well I have two good answers:
1.       For me starting this blog now it also a commitment that I will need to update it and planning is almost 50% of the fun in cruises (quoting better than me)
2.       We are actually starting the vacation few days before by flying first to Thailand and to be able and catch this flight I first need to come back from a business trip.
For some reasons like the fact that my work colleges ask nicely, the customer insist and the most important somehow I need to pay for the cruises I found myself in this business trip which will finish few hours before my vacation starts.
There is just a small problem, while the vacation starts in Thailand the business trip is to one of the south American countries which its name will not be reveled but let’s just say they have very good ceviche’s, they really like Llamas/Alpacas and if you will tell them that the original Pisco sour was invited in Chile they can get very offended.
The plan itself is very simple (at least that is  what I tried to convince myself with)  , I finish what I need to finish , start to fly around the world with some connections, land at night at my home town just to take the vacation flight 5.5 hours later.
I do hide one card in my sleeve, the same aircraft which will I take for my last connection is exactly the one I am going to take for my vacation (yes another connection) so if the last connection will be delayed also the next flight will. So you see it is very solid plan (it’s not) which I covered any problem that may pop (I did not) but hey, it makes live more interesting and if I will make it on time a very good story to tell.
I have also created plan B if I will miss one of the connection and this is mainly  to cry to my travel agent and beg her to find me an alternative route (One must love plan B)
Now, you might ask why not to save some time and  instead of flying to my home town and back to the connection point just stay at the connection airport and go from there (after meeting my belter half)  ? Well apparently the gods of the airlines will not let you do something which actually make sense, you see I booked my vacation flights using award miles and while I could find the flights starting from my hometown going via the connection airport I could not find the same flight going directly from the connection airport plus if I would find it would cost more miles.
I gave up on trying and understand the way the airlines works, so here we are.
The good news is while I am written this I am already started my trip back , so currently I am in the airline lounge waiting for my next connection which appear to be on time.
I promise to continue and update.
For now , just so it will not be too boring I am adding pictures for one of the main reason I agreed to take the business trip:
 
 
 
 

 

First I would like to apologize ahead of time  for some English spelling /grammar error  I might do during this blog (and I will, promise you) as English not my first language.
After the excuses, I can start, I am going to write this live blog  which will cover a south Asia cruise since first I did not found too many blogs over this area and second I want to give something back to this wonderful site which I found to be very helpful , entertaining  and most important very positive (comparing to many other site (which its  name would not be spoken)  that I found focusing on complains).
 
The cruise which we are going to attend is 10 (well almost 10 ,I will explain shortly) days cruise from Honk Kong to Singapore on the Voyager of the seas.
 
Here is the itinerary:
 
08 - October  Hong Kong    11:59 PM
09-October Cruising
10-October Kaohsiung, Taiwan
11-October Cruising
12-October Cruising
13-Octover Nah Trang , Vietnam
14-October Hue/Danang , Vietnam
15-October Cruising
16- October Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
17-October Cruising
   
 
 
 
 
As you can see the embarkation is to 23:59 as the ship will arrive (without passenger) from mainland China.
Now I hope that we will really set sail at the designated time and the 11:59 PM is not just so RLC will  not need to change the name of the cruise to 9 days Hong Kong to Singapore …
One can ask himself why I am starting this live blog a week before the start date ?   well I have two good answers:
1.       For me starting this blog now it also a commitment that I will need to update it and planning is almost 50% of the fun in cruises (quoting better than me)
2.       We are actually starting the vacation few days before by flying first to Thailand and to be able and catch this flight I first need to come back from a business trip.
For some reasons like the fact that my work colleges ask nicely, the customer insist and the most important somehow I need to pay for the cruises I found myself in this business trip which will finish few hours before my vacation starts.
There is just a small problem, while the vacation starts in Thailand the business trip is to one of the south American countries which its name will not be reveled but let’s just say they have very good ceviche’s, they really like Llamas/Alpacas and if you will tell them that the original Pisco sour was invited in Chile they can get very offended.
The plan itself is very simple (at least that is  what I tried to convince myself with)  , I finish what I need to finish , start to fly around the world with some connections, land at night at my home town just to take the vacation flight 5.5 hours later.
I do hide one card in my sleeve, the same aircraft which will I take for my last connection is exactly the one I am going to take for my vacation (yes another connection) so if the last connection will be delayed also the next flight will. So you see it is very solid plan (it’s not) which I covered any problem that may pop (I did not) but hey, it makes live more interesting and if I will make it on time a very good story to tell.
I have also created plan B if I will miss one of the connection and this is mainly  to cry to my travel agent and beg her to find me an alternative route (One must love plan B)
Now, you might ask why not to save some time and  instead of flying to my home town and back to the connection point just stay at the connection airport and go from there (after meeting my belter half)  ? Well apparently the gods of the airlines will not let you do something which actually make sense, you see I booked my vacation flights using award miles and while I could find the flights starting from my hometown going via the connection airport I could not find the same flight going directly from the connection airport plus if I would find it would cost more miles.
I gave up on trying and understand the way the airlines works, so here we are.
The good news is while I am written this I am already started my trip back , so currently I am in the airline lounge waiting for my next connection which appear to be on time.
I promise to continue and update.
For now , just so it will not be too boring I am adding pictures for one of the main reason I agreed to take the business trip:
 
 
 
 

 

Regarding the program and tracking the players:
Yes , it is easier to be tracked playing the slot machines as it is automatically being done while in the table you are in the mercy of the pit boss and the dealer.
Also Casinos loves slots players since well the odds is much better for the casino.
Regrading the benefits , well, its not how much you play lost it all about the average , you can play with 100$ all the cruise and as long you will continue to win and loose the same original 100$ it can still count as allot of action as long as it last ...
So what can be done, first ask to be rated ,say hello to the pit boss when you going to seat in a table, make sure the dealer take your card , I agree in RC ships the attentions of the pit bosses is much less than in land casinos , 
If you increase your bet , make sure it is notice, remember it is better  to play longer with less amount then play with high amount for 5 minutes (recycle the money).
Another important tip , if you are going to play with minimum 50 or 100 $ try to seat in a table which thous are  the minimum  bet. that way even if the boos dose not  looking at your direction  at least your average will calculated as the minimum table. if you will seat in a 10 $ table and play 100 $ per hand you might be still tracked at 10$ average.
But the most important tip I can share with anyone is do not play for the benefits, play for the fun. most of the times the free cruise you get cost much much more if you would have just went and book it with your credit card.