PRebecca

I use just one, it’s the little one next to blue one. However the wife uses a lot!

This post did not age well... ?

My Key on Explorer is $16.99.

^^  Wall of text...my eyes are bleeding.

Okay, I can (generally) understand and agree with the concept, that a flow of food/courses takes place.  Scenario:  It's a table of 6.  The 6 persons are 3 couples (3 couples that, do not know one another prior to sailing).  One of the persons is an especially slow eater.  Maybe he takes 27 minutes to eat his soup?  The other persons are more EAGER to "move it along".  So, you're saying that entrees will not come, until the previous items are consumed?  Just asking. 
Sorry if my follow-up is a bit too wordy.  Another thing is.. myself, I often will eat half my salad, and put it aside & enjoy the remainder of it with my entrée. 
I guess I just want to fit in ... and be "fairly" normal.

WATCH YOUR MOUTH!!!  J/K NOT J/K :)

So unforutenately,  we had to cancel at the last minute for this cruise because my husband had to have an emergency appendectomy today!  :(.  We are bummed.  I would have attempted to meet the ship in Boston or portland this weekend, but there were many restrictions for that because of the Jones Act (We would have had to get off in Halifax).  
I have pretty good travel insurance on my premium Chase sapphire reserve card so I will update you all on how things go with the submission.  I have already gotten my port charges and excursions credited back.
We are booked on the 2020 New Year's RCL blog group cruise so we still have that to look forward to in a few months!   My sister and her husband are still going on the cruise, and we are bummed that we can't be with them!
 
 
 

? Only ten days 'til I go on the cruise, only ten days 'til I go! ?
Definitely getting excited. It's almost time for single-digit dancing!

The thought of being dry-docked for another 564 days until Symphony in APR 2021 was way too much for us to bear especially after our awesome experience on Allure this past May! We can't stop talking about that cruise! @Lovetocruise2002... yeah, we're hooked on Oasis class! 
As you all say... YOLO booked it! ☺️
We had to take advantage of an awesome deal especially while she is here in NY in our backyard! Yay, no airfare or hotel! Can't wait to sail through the harbor again and go under the Verrazano this time on Oasis!
Oasis... May 31, 2020!

thank you for this blog! You're spectacular at sharing your experience.

Day 8 - every good thing must come to its end .
We planned for 5 PM flight (that was the cheapest time slot when I booked it) since we had to kill few hours I booked a shore excursion to take us to Shanghai to some panoramic tour with drop at the airport. a day before I got a call telling me that due of lack of participate the tour was canceled.
We had a disembarkation time of 8:30 am , so I set a clock for 7 , this time the alarm was working well , we start to get organized and I went down to 270 to bring something to eat , I saw the lines of the self disembarkation it was very very long and went all the way from one end of the ship to the other , I guess many choose to do self disembarkation and I was glad we chosen not to do so this time. Came back to the room and got a call from the photo gallery to come and pick our pictures , I forgot to do it yesterday so it was quite nice of them to give me the chance to collect them on the last day.
we finish our last packing and went to our meeting point which was the music hall. Apparently it was the meeting point of all the international guest , at 8:35 they took us out and let us disembark. It was quite quick , we  pass the immigration , pick our suitcases and pass the custom , took something like 15 minutes. I must say everything was well organized. We went out from the terminal to find a taxi , there was one guy who tried to convince us to come with him as he like Chinese Uber, we refused and continued to the taxi stand which is quite a walk from the terminal. after short line we were on a taxi that took us to the airport. it was almost one hour ride and cost something like 35 $. We had to wait for the counters to be opened , once they were I asked them if its possible to catch the earlier flight  and what do you know they had open seat. We paid 50$ for the change and even got the emergency exit which was better seat from our original flight. We went to the China  Air lounge which serves all the star alliance , we eat lunch and went to catch our 5 hours Singapore airline flight. Flight went fast , they have very good service (full alcohol option, private screens and not bad food , although we were full from the food at the lounge). The good think was that although its just day 8 for us its still the middle of vacation , we landed , got our suitcases and after 20 minutes ride we got to our new home for the next 3 days . Here are some pictures from our room on the 37 floor and yes its has a balcony , crazy.


I will add some summary about the ship in the coming few days , for now going to the pool. 


 And a day view
Oh , this one was waiting for us in the room , just to let us feel we still on a cruise

Let me know if you want me to share more information and pictures from Singapore although it's not a cruise already

Day 7 - sea day and see day.
We all know the problem on a 7 day cruise is the 7 day, I think they should always do it X +1 until we say enough is enough or we will become super Mario.  We again woke up up early and eat breakfast at 270 , the buffet breakfast is an experience I can leave without. We went to the Captain correner which always includes interesting information again it was done in English follow by Mandarin translation . The Captain explain about the Typhoon and why he decided to go passing near it . It was only category 1 and no were to hide from it , the port also not allowing to have the ship staying at port so nothing really could have been done. We also got explanation about how the Chinese environment  lows are very strict , for example the ship is not allowed to dump any treated water while entering the Shanghai channel or in port so they need to store it. Many questions were asked and the 270 was quite full during this event. 


We went to check the Seaplex for the bumping cars but lines were big so we just relaxed at the Solarium for a while On the way back we notice the mobile piano, the ship has almost everything the same as other ships but still different.

For lunch we went to the Silver dining room which offered sea food buffet, it had chilled lobster salads , some ceviche and fried shrimps which were very good. 



Even the red velvet cake is back

Past through the Casino which was packed so we did not stayed too long and went to Schooner bar to listen to some melodies. As we did not sleep that good we took some nap , hey that's what you have sea days for, not ? It was time to try the Fencing again so we went to the SeaPlex , no lines we just join few people. First they give you some protect gear and you suit up. They start by teaching you the basic move (ready, stop , move forward , move backwards and attack ) then we practice them first without the swords and then with swords against electronic board.



The last step is to practice against each other. I was against my spouse , now the suites dose not contain sensors so it's hard to track score but I am quite sure I won and lost at the same time. You see I was blamed for taking it too seriously. Oh well after years of practicing by watching movies like "The three musketeers",  Star wars and game of thrones (maybe not the last one as I did not try to decapitated her ? ) what you can expect ? I must say it was very intensive practice. Post the fencing lession we finally got to the bumping cars as everyone was eating dinner.

Some night time view of the ship


My spouse had to rest as she felt weak , so we went to the room to enjoy the balcony. As we already mentioned missed dinner we ordered in , must say it was not bad at all. Believe it or not at our 12 cruise it was our first time for using room service.

We went to see for the last time the let it be AC/DC , here you can see two new fans 

Back at the room , what you see here is not lights are on the shore but lines of ships waiting to get to Shanghai port.

Very busy route. Well , it's the last day so we packed and called it off early . 
 

Yes , you are right , also from our previous experience we always wait at the meeting point for at least 15 minutes. I guess due to the fact it's the first point of entrance to Japan and the fact that everyone need to do it (until everyone is not processed no one allow back to the ship) they want to rush everyone out ASAP. 
Anyway the tour is in smiling English , they start in English and when they forget a word they just smile, worked for us. 

Day 1 - Continue while I have connection .
After checking the silver dining room  we went to check the other side of the ship  to see if we were missing anything in the WJ  . 
We passed the Solarium , in this ship you have two , one for the suites/diamonds , it can be access  by using the sea pass card and one for everyone , its a big cover pool and lounge chairs around it , well like a solarium..



The "pool"


 

The second covered pool area :


The open pool : 



 
 
After the second cover pool area you have an open pool area and finally the most hectic place in the ship the WJ, it was packed as expected but RC trying to control it by adding assigned lane for each busy station , for example you have a lane to form a queue for the carving station , I did not notice a real issues , everyone were queuing , the only issue was that although the WJ is huge I did not saw too many empty seats , well first day after all. could not take too many picture but here is a very nice cake for the 70 China celebrations :

Sorento pizza is located adjust to the WJ , its the only place open later (until 3 am everyday) , believe me I check it (Only fro the research) , the Pizza are from the new better kind (the one that use cheese) 

We went to enjoy our new UDP at the pool bar , we were the only people there beside the bartender that was happy to talk to someone , so we started with the first lava flow.

The rooms were ready by now so we went back and collect our suitcases from the corridor , they arrived very fast , the muster drill was in the 270 which I love , it was quick and contained the "James Bond" movie , please RC , even airline companies update their safety movie from time to time ...

Anyway it seem the Spy lady learn to speak Mandarin. post the muster drill we went to drink some coffee and tea in the tea house just to wait few minutes until elevators will still be available. We went up again and enjoyed the Chinese parade which was showed on the big screen pool.

Our dinner was at the Silver dining room , they offer buffet style for the starters / dessert  and a fix menu for the main dish , this menu is not changing for the full week , remind you something ? yes , this is actually the solarium bistro on other ship ...

"Diamond Lounge" small plates.


I also found the menu of the Golden dinning room , this menu is changing every day and its without buffet , yap , this is the CK on other ships.

 

 
I think that what will happen when such ship will be outside Asia is very simple , the Silver dining room will become solarium  bistro , the silver lounge will become the diamond lounge (already now diamond are welcome to this lounge and happy hour is served there) and the Golden dining room will be the Coastal kitchen .
We went back to the room , at that time we already were very near Miatag , the mighty Typhoon -" it was very rough - The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli." , Finally I can use this quote ?
Lets said its the first cruise I actually took a sea sick pill just to be on the safe side. 
I went to check the balcony , got a free quick shower and we are on deck 13 ... 

It was quite hard to stand or to walk , but I can tell you that when we went down to deck 3 , it was much more stable.
Anyway we are after the storm . 
 
 
 
The most important bar

Day -1 , Shanghai.
Today we foght to get up early to enjoy the breakfast which I heard it's very good at this hotel, the rummers were true. There are two main Islands , one western food and one eastern. The western includes fresh egg station , salads station and many fresh worm options.


The eastern contains many kind of dumplings, soups, fried vegetables and other good things.


I took one plate from each island 


Now that can be useful for busy days at the WJ buffet , just think oh simple life would be if we had this option

After the big breakfast we went to check the big  shopping street of Nanjin, my spouse wanted to buy some pearls  for her mother, we went to a pearls mall, found something we thought is nice and started to negotiate. I must it's easier for me to negotiate with our clients than the sellers there but we got a good price for two chains which per our request combined to one. The street itself very impressive.



We also passed this Royal Caribbean Blog caffe

We walked all the way to the famous  Bund street which as a perfect view on the Pearl tower and the other to towers.

This area includes also some monuments and nice small gardens




We wanted to cross to the other side of the river so we took the new small under the river train were we bought combo tickets for the Bund tunnel and Shanghai tower observation. The small tunnel trains take you into a tunnel full with light effects , nice but not a must:



We got out from the tunnel and haded to the tower (around 20 minutes walk) passing near the impressive pearls tower, near buy you also have the aquarium and many other tourist attractions which we decide to pass 

We finally got to the second biggest building in the world , the Shanghai tower , it's around 650 meters high with 128 floors. The amazing thing that in one year from now it's going to be only number 5 or 6 in the world.



At the ground floor you have some exhebition of how the build it plus the future and the past of skyscrapers. From there we took the super fast elevator (10 M per second) to the observation platform (118 floor) to watch the very nice view .






After the Shanghai tower visit we went back using the Bund tunnel to the other side and walking to the hotel , lots of steps . It was already evening so we went to the lounge to eat something , lots of options, I do recommend to book a room with access to the executive lounge.  

I must say we found Shanghai to be very beautiful

I agree! Both you,  @twangster and @Traveler do such a great job, I'd enjoy both of you blogging from the grocery.

Oh , almost forgot ,to whoever celebrating - Happy New year , "Shana Tova" , a year of as many cruises you wish for  yourselfs  to ever you want with who ever you want ?

Home is Tel Aviv , Israel

Ok , lets talk about the elephant in the room.
When we just thought on taking a cruise from China we started to read around, well lets say , you can find better reviews for Nassau  ? 
I think many people expects such cruise will be just exactly the same as any other RCL cruise without taking into consideration that different places has different culture and different  customs. 
Some of the things I have read :
1. Food , not enough western food - Well I Think its a good time to try other things , western food I have everywhere
2. The Chinese food is not that good - I think when most of us think about Chinese food  we think about restaurants as PF Changs or fast food like Panda express (which I admit I like) but that is western Chinese food not really Chinese food ... I also like authentic Chinese food  which I experience mainly in Singapore Chinese street food.
3. The messages are always first in Chinese - Well what do you expect when at least 90% are people from China , I do not mind as long as the important announcement will also be in English .
4. People are pushing in queues and into elevators - Oh you mean like most of the cruises I have been in the Caribbean during rush time ? 
5. People do not respect people personal space - For this one I do not have any answer .
6, Not enough Trivia - Not a showstopper for us.
7. Shows story lines is not clear - The Gift anyone ? 
8. Shows are boring  - mm , Cats anyone ?  
Let me tell you story ,  17 years ago (when I was young and handsome) I worked on a prove of concept that we had to present to a Japanese company , we worked like crazy to meet the time line , 20 + hours per day. Few days before we had to go to Tokyo someone arranged us culture differences lecture  to prepare  for the travel . We have been told we must come with a suite to the meetings, we must bow when presenting ourselves , never to show our shoe sole , never cross our legs when seating  and many other things. AS I did not had a normal suit with me I had to find time to go and buy one at the last minute and find someone that will do the require  alters  on the spot. The flight day arrived (the good thing no WIFI during the flight so I could sleep few hours), we landed checked that everything still working (it was not , we had to spend another sleepless night to fix it) and run to the hotel to get prepare. We all came to the meeting location  with our best suits, ties and shoes just to see our customer coming without suits , some with sandals and jeans. Yes we all bow and exchange business cards holding it with our two hands but later I notice people were seating almost the opposite from what we have been told.
After few days when we already had some off the record small talks I asked one of the people for the difference ,first he told me that what we have been told is true mainly for older generation and second , that they also got a lecture on the  culture difference before our meeting .... 
So I hope for the  good , we will come  with opened mind ,  I am going to participate in many activities as I can and to have fun.

Today I went to collect our passports from the Chines visa agents  , finally we found few days were we are both at home and can leave the passport for few days (it takes up to four days to get the visa if you are not paying for expedite process) so I guess it’s a good opportunity to start this “I do not know how live it will be” blog.
It’s a different cruise for sure , many first times for us , first time going to China , first time on Quantum class , first time cruise to Japan and firs time on a cruise that English is not the first language. I am sure we will have much more first times , but that’s what make us so excited.
Why we choose this cruise  ?  well , apparently it was a childhood dream of my spouse to visit Japan and it will be her first time there , for me it will be the second time but the other  time was quite a long time ago and was a business trip, also it’s a new ship , and a new class , do we really need other reasons ?
So what is the plan :
Two days in Shanghai – Some tour in the city , still did not choose one  although I so a nice bicycle day trip which we might take.
I already booked a nice hotel near one of the main square , the location is important as we wanted to be at the center to reduce traveling , as we are landing very early in the morning I guess we will store our suitcase in the hotel and start to tour the area. I thought to book the hotel a day earlier so we will get the room once we will arrive but as I know both of us , we will get to the room and go to sleep and miss important hours in the city ?.
On 1-October we will do our way to the port .
 
Our itinerary :
 
01 OCT - SHANGHAI (BAOSHAN), CHINA
02 OCT - Cruising
03 OCT – OSAKA, Japan  
04 OCT-  OSAKA , Japan
04 OCT – Kobe Japan
05 OCT – Tokyo (Yokohama) , Japan
06 OCT – Cruising
07 OCT – Cruising
08 OCT - SHANGHAI (BAOSHAN), CHINA
 
After we booked the tour I found out that 1-October is also what they call in China  the Golden week , this is a mandatory vacation week in all China so we expecting to have many local families and not many foreigners on board.  We might experience some traffic as many are traveling this week but I do not think its going to be showstopper. We choose this period as we also have some holidays and many bridge days between.
 
Post the cruise we will go to the airport and fly to Singapore , we considered to stay some extra days in Chania but was not sure if we will have multi entrance visa or a single entry which mean that we will have to use transfer visa on the way back, at the end we got the multi until as long as the passport is not expired.
We will be in Singapore for three nights at our favorite hotel in the world (or should I say our favorite swimming pool in the world), it will be good for some rest time although I might need to have a face to face meeting with one of our customers for few hours.
From Singapore we will fly to Thailand to chill out , currently only Bangkok but we might fly to one of the islands , depends what the weather will be.
So almost three week vacation before going back home.
 
There are many difference is cruise out of China  :
1.       Activities cost money (north star ,Ifly , skypad, laser tag) I will give the prices later.
2.       Food in the MDR is different – the menu is a picture menu with many Chinese flavor.
3.       Instead of sea class , sky class and start class there is golden class and silver class.
4.       In the golden glass there are not just suites but also balconies cabins with suite services.
5.       No coastal kitchen but golden dinning room and maybe silver dining room (not sure yet).
6.       The solarium is only for Golden and Silver class.
7.       Golden class have access to some other dedicated places (again not sure about silver) , there are also elevators just for suites class.
8.       Wonderland with Chinese menu.
9.       Dining package is not offer before the cruise.
10.   No Diamond lounge – only the 3 free drinks during happy hour.
11.   Many first timer.
12.   MDR late seating is 7 PM.
 
I  am sure I will find more differences , but difference are many time a good thing , it will push us from the comfort zone to experience new things.
 
More to come.
 

See that little band of grey extending just below the horizon hiding the two ships?  That's a curtain of approaching rain.  Winds have really kicked up.  Folks still on the beach and at the pool.  This should be fun to watch.

And voilà, suddenly no problem getting a chair.

Fluffy clouds on the horizon are starting to do their towering-q strut.

Getting off the ship and through customs was a breeze this morning.  I always do the self-hauling departure.  At 7:30AM, I and my luggages lugged ourselves down to deck 5.  It took about 20 minutes to complete the 3/4 lap of the jogging track to card-out and head down the gangway to CBP.  Port Everglades has the fancy biometric face scanners.  I was through Customs in all of 15 seconds.
Grabbed a cab to the W.  About halfway through the ride, I noticed the driver hadn’t started the meter.  Hrm.  I don’t think they flat-rate anything here, do they?  Trip from W to the ship was $13.  Unmetered trip from the ship back to the W was $20.  Whatever.
Weather here is great.  I know, I need to invest in more adjectives.  82F with little broken clouds aspiring to turn into cumulous.  Out by the pool, they give a nice shady break about every 5 minutes.  Maybe some rain starting at 5PM.
Scored an excellent room upgrade.  Ocean facing 12th floor corner room with a wrap-around balcony.  Very much liking it.  Checked rates — the room I got is priced 2x higher than the room I booked.  W00t!  After baking at the pool for 4 hours, I’m watching other people bake while I enjoy the shade and the breeze up here.
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?

Maybe the Captain has a really hot date......kinda of early, not a "nooner" but and "early bird special"?

The Old and New San Juan tour was a bit of a bust.
This started and ran smoothly.  I especially like the way they handle tours out of the port here.  Instead of lining up by station number, you just turn right at the end of the pier and they immediately start putting a van-load of passengers together.  When they hit capacity (15 in this case), off you go and they just start collecting people for the next van.  I was out there a bit early, along with more than 15 others who booked the same tour.  They launched us ahead of the scheduled time.
The tour was a little over 2 hours.  Our first stop was a short distance from the port, and we had 15 minutes to poke our heads into the Capitol building.  Good for a rotunda dome photo, a peek at the PR constitution, and a few historical displays.  Granted, the 10-bizillion-tiled dome is very pretty.

Next stop (um, drive-by) was the castle/fort Castillo de San Cristobal.  We drove up the mock entrance, and then straight back out.  No stop and absolutely no vantage from the van to photograph anything but a close-up of a limestone wall.  I’ll spare you.  As we were admiring the wall, I thought to myself, “Self — that might have been interesting to go inside and look around.”
Next stop was the Cementerio Santa Maria.  We stopped there for 10 minutes to admire the cemetery and ocean from afar, and to get a distant view of the rump-end of Castillo San Filipe del Moro, that we would also not be visiting.


Next we were let off at Plaza Colon. Mostly souvenir shops and restaurants.  Some people decided to tour the Marshall’s store.  I had a $16 Margarita and bought a colorful carved stone turtle to keep my towel animals company.
 
Having concluded our whirlwind tour of historic Old San Juan, we skedaddled across the bridge to explore New San Juan.  15 minutes later we arrived at a tiny park the size of two basketball courts, within a short walk to the beach behind the Hotel Coronado.  The main attraction here was the Ben & Jerry’s.  We had 25 minutes to admire the grass, the ocean view, and Ben & Jerry’s air conditioning while eating Coconut Seven Layer Bar ice cream.

Ocean view was pretty.

And, that was a wrap.  Back to the ship.
The one thing I really did like was our driver/guide Diego.  During our drive time, he did give us a lot of relevant history of all the interesting stuff we wouldn’t be experiencing.  I think I’m just cranky because Mr. & Mrs. Talksloud-Alot in the seats behind me were compelled to babble on continuously, loudly, and over Diego’s narration the entire time.  I wish I’d brought a couple of extra socks. I’m happy to report their good for nothing son will at least be helping install new window screens while they’re gone  
Departure was right on time.  Lucky for the 2 pier runners (had ‘em today!) who did the 100 yard dash at 12:58 to just squeak in under the 1PM all-aboard time.  Not so lucky for the other 3 of 5 people they’d been calling on the PA for since 12:50.  Oops.
Tip: get your spot on the starboard side rail early (like at least 15 minutes before departure) if you want to snap some great pics on the way out to sea.  The railing is really packed for this departure.

 

On our cruise in November it went down to $16.99! That's the lowest price I've seen.