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Hope Of the Seas 13-18 April Holy Land cruise (sort of)


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Hello everyone . 

At this  time we were supposed to be on a 11 days cruise on the Jewel of the seas enjoining 10 different Europe locations , for some reason RCL canceled the cruise  ( still waiting to hear why) so I had to cancel our flight to Rome ,  some hotels and change it to some quarantine days (actually,  even from that I am not allow to enjoy as I found myself going to work everyday). 
Lucky for us I was offered  to join an alternative cruise on the new secret ship - Hope Of the seas. as it is an unofficial secret ship please do not share this information (or do not share it with other cruise lines). 
What is Hope of the Seas you ask ? well its part of the new project to create the next next next generation ship of RCL , it is using hydrogen  engine which means no smoke or any pollution  from the engine as the leftover is actually water. The other important feature of the ship is the ability to hover over the water and partially on land which allows it to go to many small ports although its size is larger than the Oasis class. For very small ports its using floating bridges which spread out of the ship and are supported and balanced  by small but strong drones. There are many other new features but some of them I will only find once I will board it. 

For sure once it was offered I said why not , specially when they told me that the cruise will be to the holy land and maybe I will also join a cruise to Peru later.

So here is the information.

13 April - Boarding Hope of the seas  in Afssos Greece  ( a very small port to hide the ship)
14 April - Haifa , Israel - planning trip to north of Israel and a view over the sea of Galilee
15 April - Tel Aviv - Enjoying the Med seas and Old Jaffa , over night in Tel Aviv 
16 April - Tel Aviv in the morning , trip to Jerusalem  
17 April - Dead sea trip (from Ashdod port) 
18 April - cruising   back to Greece.  

As always in such first time cruses things might change , who knows maybe we will have time to visit the red sea or other places 

For this cruise we got the internet package (new generation satellite which should provide sustained 100 Mb)  , next generation  Ultimate Drinking package  (you pay it only if you consume at a certain day more than the package cost) and we are staying in a new Junior two room suite.

Well , I should run to pack, need to catch a flight soon.
  

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20 minutes ago, Traveler said:

Hello everyone . 

At this  time we were supposed to be on a 11 days cruise on the Jewel of the seas enjoining 10 different Europe locations , for some reason RCL canceled the cruise  ( still waiting to hear why) so I had to cancel our flight to Rome ,  some hotels and change it to some quarantine days (actually,  even from that I am not allow to enjoy as I found myself going to work everyday). 
Lucky for us I was offered  to join an alternative cruise on the new secret ship - Hope Of the seas. as it is an unofficial secret ship please do not share this information (or do not share it with other cruise lines). 
What is Hope of the Seas you ask ? well its part of the new project to create the next next next generation ship of RCL , it is using hydrogen  engine which means no smoke or any pollution  from the engine as the leftover is actually water. The other important feature of the ship is the ability to hover over the water and partially on land which allows it to go to many small ports although its size is larger than the Oasis class. For very small ports its using floating bridges which spread out of the ship and are supported and balanced  by small but strong drones. There are many other new features but some of them I will only find once I will board it. 

For sure once it was offered I said why not , specially when they told me that the cruise will be to the holy land and maybe I will also join a cruise to Peru later.

So here is the information.

13 April - Boarding Hope of the seas  in Afssos Greece  ( a very small port to hide the ship)
14 April - Haifa , Israel - planning trip to north of Israel and a view over the sea of Galilee
15 April - Tel Aviv - Enjoying the Med seas and Old Jaffa , over night in Tel Aviv 
16 April - Tel Aviv in the morning , trip to Jerusalem  
17 April - Dead sea trip (from Ashdod port) 
18 April - cruising   back to Greece.  

As always in such first time cruses things might change , who knows maybe we will have time to visit the red sea or other places 

For this cruise we got the internet package (new generation satellite which should provide sustained 100 Mb)  , next generation  Ultimate Drinking package  (you pay it only if you consume at a certain day more than the package cost) and we are staying in a new Junior two room suite.

Well , I should run to pack, need to catch a flight soon.
  

I sure hope you are doing a live blog.  We need the distraction !  I especially want to hear about the Greece to Peru leg.  That sounds awesome !!!

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12 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I sure hope you are doing a live blog.  We need the distraction !  I especially want to hear about the Greece to Peru leg.  That sounds awesome !!!

Yes its going to be a live blog although I can not promises too many photos of the ship as they made me sign an NDA (well at least for pictures) ? 
Not sure about the leg to Peru maybe I will just take a flight and catch the ship there (I have been told they have a way to send it fast somehow ) but I hope to take the cruise there as they promised possibility to  visit beside Lima also Matsu Pitsu and even the Nazca line). 

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4 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Yes, I've heard that this new ship has teleport capability.  You need to try that out for us and see how it works.

?

Yes , finally -  Quantum teleportation, hopefully without harming any cats in the process , anyway , wait when you will hear about he casino on this ship , I heard its something different. 

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21 minutes ago, Traveler said:

I hope to take the cruise there as they promised possibility to  visit beside Lima also Matsu Pitsu and even the Nazca line). 

Just make sure they have a strong, hot cup of tea connected to the Improbability Drive. You don't want to land in a Vogon construction zone. ? 

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3 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Just make sure they have a strong, hot cup of tea connected to the Improbability Drive. You don't want to land in a Vogon construction zone. ? 

Ohh , have you ever tried to drive to Lima Airport on Friday evening ? not sure its better than a Vogon Zone , anyway , I like petunia plants so I should be OK with the  Improbability Drive

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Day  --1  as you know -- = + so we are OK,   Afissos Greece.

Flight to Athens was not that bad after all its quite a short one , at Athens airport we picked the rental car . Why rental car you ask ? why not to take taxi or something like that well one thing I forgot to tell you is that whoever stays at a JS an up get also to take the car on the ship (deck -2 if you ask)  for extra 30 $ per day , since space is limit I felt very lucky to find it in the cruise planner and book it. its only 4 hours drive from Athens to Afissos but the roads are wide and new (at least until the last 40 miles were the roads becomes very very narrow) . Finally we arrived to the village were we took a small villa near the sea , very quite , 7 minutes from many local  restaurants .

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After we got the room and rest for few minute we went to tour around and eat some local food,
The villa is 2 minutes from the beach , were you can use the beach bad for free as long as you order something to drink or something like an ice cream (beer cost around  2 $ for example).

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The water are very clear and without any waves , although its a real sea its feel more like a lake. very enjoyable .
Although we planned to eat something the water were so good so we stayed in much more time than we planned. after a quick shower we went back to our plane to eat something , we found a local restaurant and order some salads , Moussaka and chicken kabab .

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Salad with figs inside bread.

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fresh Moussaka 

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Fried cheese 

As usual we order too much but it was all very fresh and good .

We took the car and went up to the mountains to enjoy the view , I started to navigate using google maps , for some reason it kept directing me into the sea , not sure why , at the end I decided to go back to the low tec system and to navigate with the map , it was worse it , the view is amazing .

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Its started to become dark so we have done our way back to villa , just came back on time to take some sunset pictures :

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It was time to catch some rest as tomorrow we are boarding (with the car yes !) on the Hope of the Seas and start our cruise. 

 

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Day 1 - its cruise day ! Yaaaa

As always I was already up  on early  5 Am , I need to work on this (sure , who I am kidding) , I understood quite fast that I will not be able to go back to sleep so I went out and started to walk near the beach watching the sunrise from  the mountains side. Went back to prepare a quick breakfast (eggs , salad  and some  fresh local  cheese   if you ask) and we organized our stuff packed it back to the car. As its a new ship the  RCL application already supporting it so all we had to do is just to check in. After you check in you are getting a time slot (09:45 for us )  and all you  need to do is to come to the port at that exact time , in case you missed the time the application is assigning you another slot which is 15 minute later. We arrive to port on time , the nice thing is that you do need to go out of the car . They scan your face and a 3rd imaging machine check the car and its content for  something you should not bring on the ship. Once the scan was done we rolled in the car into the ship and parked it on our designated parking space.We took out the luggage  assigned it the smart tags we got and left it on the nearest belt. We took the elevator up to our deck (deck 12) and went directly to the room which was already ready. Our luggage arrived  near our door 10 minutes later , the application beep us whne it arrived  so we started to unpack. The room is very nice (sorry no picture allowed yet) two rooms , huge walking in closet and a very nice balcony. The balcony has some nice new gadget which allow you to control if you want to cover it (glass cover) and if you can control its transparency you can  also choose what to screen over the cover , it can be the current view or any many other options which you can choose from your application) It was a very nice weather so we decided to keep it open. One other option you can choose is to cover the balcony but to allow the sun inside while the other side is sealed so you can enjoy the sun in a very private way and have the air condition continue to work. We organized our stuff and went to the traditional lunch in the WJ. The WJ on this ship is bigger so no issue to find a place and all you need is to ask the application to guide you to an open table , once you got to the table its starts a timer and a small screen show your picture and indicates its occupied. If you are not back to table in 10 minutes it will become a free table again. It was very nice to know you do not need to leave anyone to watch the table.  One nice feature is the washing  station  which  shows you a countdown timer of 20 seconds  so you will know when you are ready. Once you complete to wash your hands you go directly to the buffet but you pass via a scanner that will send you back if your hands are  not clean enough. They are testing the system now and they consider to move the scanners near the washing station as some people already complained and called it the walk of shame but I think , just wash your hand as you should and no one will shame you. 
The food in the WJ really improved , they can even sever the filet from day one of the CK: 

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After lunch we went to tour the ship , we used the application which gives you a guided tour and explain all the new things while you pass them .When you want to get some more details about something you see you just press the button on the application , scan the station and an hologram of an officer pop out and starts to explain what you see and what you can do. After the tour we went back to the room to plan our cruise , all you need to do is to link you account answer few questions on your preference and the virtual genie show your scheduled for the cruise including shows ,activities , games , tours and dinner plans, no need to worry about anything.  Soon it become the time for the muster drill and no , you do not have anyone knocking on your door and kick you out , you are doing it from your own cabin using the virtual glasses which were waited for us on the bed. Once you wear the VR glasses they starts the drill you see were you need to assemble , you see who are the station leads and the other people in your station ans most important you do not watch the "James Bond" movie. It was so nice to do the drill while laying on the bed in the air condition.  

More to come 

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Day 1 continue.

We went to rest a while before preparing for dinner , we had plans to go to  the MDR although it was the first day which can be a problematic one  .
On the cruise compass it said dress as you feel and decide in which  mood you want to dine. Did not understood it at the beginning but after watching the guide on the TV  that explained you should take your VR light glasses for dinner, at the application you can choose between  :formal night , casual , Caribbean, white and some more options. Once you set it and wear the transparent VR glasses you see everyone wear outfits  per what you choose. For sure I played with it for a while just to see how people are in tuxedos and after few minutes in shorts for very casual day. As I was explained it was working the same  for the official cruise photos . I think its a grate new  change and will make  most of the people happy   without forcing anyone for a certain style,  I think some forums will not like it as it will end the endless discussion about MDR during official night  , oh well I guess you can not please everyone. Oh and no you do not have "natural" mode, not in this kind of cruise anyway.

The food was good , we got some salad for starters  and a a small rib portion for main, we ask and got some fruits to share .

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Post dinner we got a reminder from the application we have reservations  for the Broadway play -  Hamilton , with the new app you just need to come 15 minutes before and it will guide you to your seats which were pre booked during  the time we booked  it on the cruise planner. If you are not arriving on time your seats become available for whoever signed for the standby. We arrive on time and it was fabulous, RCL really done a wonderful job with every aspect of this play and most important the have chosen a very talented cast. Unfortunately due to copy right issues they are not allowing to take any  pictures. 
After the musical ended (around two hours) we went to visit the Casino to see what is new there. First of all its huge comparing to any other ship I visited before  , just to let you know how big it  is ,  its has 4 crap tables and around 14  three card poker tables. The most important feature is the smoke isolation system, if someone seats down and start to smoke a set of air streams goes from the ceiling  and isolate the smoker and its smoke is sucked leaving anyone that seats near him without the smell nor the health hazard. we stayed and played for a while , we decided to call it for tonight it was quite a long day and tomorrow finally we arriving  to our first port  . Once we went back to the room we were very happy to find this gift waiting for us , for sure it will serve us well.

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Day 2 - Tel Aviv , Israel 

7 am at night we woke up to start and organize for our first port day we had allot of plans so we did the effort ? Breakfast was at the WJ , there was a nice option in the application were you can choose a breakfast tray (that you can customize) and after 5 minutes you can arrive the WJ give your key and they give you the tray with some fresh squeeze juice and a coffee  . I found it to be very nice option as I do not like to wait for room service at the morning nor the queues at the WJ . We took our tray and went to eat on our balcony. around 7:30 the captain announce that we arrive to the port 
Tel Aviv , although is locate on the sea dose not really have a port , well it has a port in the north  but it so small and not really active the other port of Tel Aviv is Jaffa port but its being use only for small tourist boats and fisherman (what can you expect from a 7000 years old port).
So the nearest port and the biggest port in Israel  is Ashdod port which locate around 25 miles from Tel Aviv. This is industrial port so there are shuttles from the ship to some bus station, Nothing really to do in Ashdod beside maybe some good fish restaurants but its a good access  point to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. To go from Ashdod to Tel Aviv you can take a bus (you will need to buy a travel card and load it with some money before) or better option take a Taxi , Taxi can cost around 50 $ one way, although Taxis drivers might get Dollars you better use Shequels . Uber is not  allowed yet in Israel but if you wish to use a credit card and call a taxi you can use the Gett application. There is also a train station but it is quite far from the port. driving time  can be between 30 to 60 minutes depends on the traffic and the hour. As your might remember we had our car on the ship so we just went out of the ship and the car was of loaded by the automatic system they have on the ship . all the process took around 10 minutes the only issue was that the pot authority do not want people to drive the car inside the port so they provide one shuttle for the people and one shuttle for the cars. After five minutes ride we  went out the shuttle and collect our car , I used Waze to navigate and it took me via the highway to Tel Aviv , I read somewhere that there is a free parking near the old part of Tel Aviv just by Jaffa port so I navigated over there. after 40 minutes we arrived to our first destination , from this point we wanted mainly to walk as Tel Aviv is not an easy city to drive in. we went on the hill of old Jaffa to tour around the old buildings and enjoy the view , It was excellent weather :

Tel Aviv from Jaffa hill 

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Jaffa old city 

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Up on Jaffa old city you can see some old remains around 3000 years ago , a small museums and some coffee shops , down from the hill on the other side you can find tons of restaurants and  coffee places . 

We spent few hours around and it was time for lunch , we went to one of the fish restaurants in the old port by the name "The old man and the sea" its a huge restaurants but always busy. They have a very simple concept , you order a main dish and you are getting tons of salads for starters , lemonade and coffee . As always in such place the most problematic thing is not to get full before the main course as the salad includes things like Falafel and Humos  . Everything was very fresh and tasty 

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Yes , this is for two people and you can as for refills as much as you want 

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Well after all that food  I must rest , more to come 

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Day 2 - Tel Aviv   , Continue.

So after all the food it was time to try and burn some of it.
We did our way from the Jaffa port north to Tel Aviv we tried to stay near the sea and enjoy the nice breeze 

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After 0.5 Mile (more and less) we decided to go in and tour the small street of old Tel Aviv , while Old Jaffa is around 3000 years  old ," old"  Tel Aviv is only around 100 +/- years . this area contains lots of nice small  buildings , narrow streets and many small coffee shops/stores. From this area we went to visit Tel Aviv biggest market -  the Carmel market. This market became on the last 10 years one of the tourist point of Tel Aviv moving from just selling fresh food to a location of many street food , bars and restaurants. Maybe its a good option to talk about Israel street food : You can find many kinds of street food in Israel which most of it is a fusion food between middle eastern food  , European food and many other influences from around the world. There is the Humus (Arabic orientation) which serve on plates with some Pita bread and vegetables,   (cost around 8 $) , The Falafel  which serve fresh in a Pita bread with salads (4-6 $),  Sabich  - based on fried eggplant mixed with egg , salad and Thachini ( 5-6$) , shawarma (I Guess I Do not need to add anything here) ,fresh  salads, Shaksuka - egg cooked with tomatoes and bell paperers ,  adding to that you can find  tons of Hamburgers places Kabab places and Asian food joints .
The market works every day from early morning to around 7 PM (restaurants much later) its closed on Saturdays and very very very busy on Fridays.
Its a good place if you want to catch a fresh fruit/vegetable drink , guess what we had to drink ?

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If you wish to eat Asian food , you can also do it here (but also in many other places) this small Vietnamese stand  has the best Papaya salad in the whole middle east and you can take it to go 

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They guys here are preparing another street food call "Burik or Burika" this is a fresh flat dough filed with fresh egg and potato fried on the spot and some spices.

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One of the places I really like and visit it every time I am in Tel Aviv is a small stand by the name of Pita Panda , they have three options and everything is served in a Pita bread , you can have the Sabich which they do in a different way  as they do not fry the eggplant  but steam it until it become sweet  , there is an option of sloppy Joe and the most interesting and tasty fresh ceviche in a Pita ... 

If you want some sweet you can always try some of the local stuff 

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For sure you can just buy regular fruits or vegetables but  be careful this one is watching you are not doing anything wrong (and as I understand he is there for the last few years)

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From the market we went back to the  west to enjoy the Tel Aviv  sea  , here you can see Jaffa from the Tel Aviv side : 

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Tel Aviv has very sandy beaches , no need for sea  shoes , you can rent a chair and umbrella for the day , you will need to bring towels with you from the ship . The access to the beach is free but food and drinks can be expensive so the best will be to bring some with you. Do not forget sunscreen 
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We spent few hours in one of the beaches relaxing for the rest of the day  ,We had plans to go to the center of Tel Aviv and visit the Unesco tel aviv bauhaus (white city) area but it was already too much for one day and tomorrow we are planning visiting  Jerusalem  

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Day/night 2 continue.

We went  back to were we parked the car , drove all the way back to port and gave the car back on the port gate. All in all it was a very nice day, The shuttle bus drive was short and so the boarding back to the ship process. First thing we done was to put all our stuff back to our cabin and went to one of the bars to relax with a fresh fruity drink :

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As we did not decide yet what to do with dinner we decided to try the new Sorento options , they have change the Sorento pizza to be much better now , you can still ask for whatever is ready or you can just order pizza as you like , we went with make your own pizza .we got it after 10 minutes and it was very very good , I think it will end all the argue about  Sorento for the next few years  , RCL good work.
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And yes , there is also the NY option with tin pizza base , we will try it next time . For our Canadian friends Sorento also offers Poutine , Sorry I need much more booze before I will try it but it looks a good option for late night snack (just check your heath care insouciance before)  :

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Our next place was something I was really looking forward to , this is the new attraction only on  this ship , somehow RCL got the license for it although its own by Disney, do not now how they have done it but I am not complaining, not at all   , its the Star Wars experience.
You start the experience by wearing a special suit, they enter the group (10 years each time) to get a brief on the experience , the guide for the brief is an hologram   of  Obi-Wan Kenobi That takes around 5 minutes , next you enter to  Mos Eisley cantina (yes with the music and all the decoration) were you seat near a table across from Greedo , when you hear the buzzer you need to shoot him before he shoot you , now do not ask me if he shoots first or not , I am not going to go to this dark hole , better you ask me if official night yes/no . You get three tries and a score. After we finish this part we moved to another area were we each board onto an X wing Simulator . The Simulation ride starts and you can feel the turns and even the G force , you need to shoot down some TIE fighter , all the Xwing are connected to each other so you can and better try to  work with the team , if your Xwing is hit you do feel it. Score is being tracked . At the end of the ride you see the Death start and you need to blow it away with pointing your torpedo to the opening "using" the force. This is so fun that I did not want it to end, for sure it is very helpful if you have good team. After this rides end you get to the next and last part of the experience , you are getting a "lightSaber" and you need to fight and defeat blasters that are shoot at you , once you finish defending yourself an hologram of Darth Vader is entering and you start to fight with him , its not that easy but the operators promised me they have a way to control the fight per the person so if a kid is entering they make it much easier and the hologram is tuned to the size of the kid. I must say this is a very interactive ride and a combination of attraction and a gym ?  for sure I am going to try  and do it again .

After the attraction we had to go and rest a while , we also had to decide if we are staying and eat on the ship or to go out and catch something to eat in Tel Aviv.  What an intensive day.

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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. 

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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 

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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 : 

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After we walk for around 10 minutes we came to see the Dormition Abby ,
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We continued our tour on the wall until we finally saw the golden dome on the temple mount

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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.

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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. 
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Inside the church there is another structure which you can go inside and see the tomb of Jesus . 

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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.

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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.

 

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Day 3  or 4 I do not remember by now- part 2 .

Have you might know or not  45 minutes from Jerusalem you can find the dead sea . This is something which we did not wanted to miss , I think its in many lists of things you must do before you die (or something like that) so we started to drive to the dead sea.
There are two different ways to go to the dead sea one via Jerusalem and one going from the port to the south part of Israel and from the city of Arad to go to to the dead sea.
Our plan was to go directly to one of the public beaches and float for a while and maybe use some of the famous mud.
At the end we decide to go to one of the hotel beaches near by. its amazing how the green landscape change very quickly  to desert brown. 

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After you drive about 40 minutes you start to sea the dead sea , there are few location were you can park the car and have a view on the sea and in some part on the salt pool which created to process some of the sea products 

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The road takes you down from +800 M to -350 M , its a good road to test your drive skills ... 
We arrived to the hotels area , you can find several public beaches with basic facilities or to pay to one of the hotels / solarium and get better facilities. as always its a good idea to brig the towels from the ship.
We went in swim (or float) a while and yes even covered each other with  the local special full of minerals black mud. 
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There also an option to use fresh water pools but I am not sure you come to the dead sea for that.

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If you do not have time limitation and you have a full day in this area I would recommend to visit Masada which is near by , the view from the mountain is amazing and the remains are very impressive. We did not had the time so we had to skip it.   

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After the long day we came back to the ship , it was already dinner time so we went to take quick shower and get ready for dinner .

We have booked the new stakeout restaurant , its like the other steakhouse on some of the ships but with better service (you are not waiting too much to enter , nor for the food) ?

We started with interesting drink  , its called "the real lava flow" , its almost the same as lava flow but it comes with internal spiral  glass tube in the middle of the glass which is filed with some kind of alcohol, around it the rest of the drink in a frozen state , once they bring it to the table they ignite the alcohol in the tube that burns and melt the frozen  drink , once the fire is out you are getting your drink ready. I did took a video of the process but some how it was deleted , do not ask me how.  The drink was very good, so good that we asked for another one but they said they are only allow it once per table since they are low with one of the ingredients , instead they offered us another drink 

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We ordered a salad for starter 

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And a meat wrap 

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Next was the small stake (we did not want to get too full )

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It was excellent , cooked perfectly.

For dessert they offered us a local sweet cake with ice cream , this cake by the name of Knafe is a combination of hot cheese and a very delicate dough which cooked to a vert tin hair like strings. 

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After dinner we went to main theater to watch the "choose your plot" musical , at this musical  this one the audience choose what happens next . the musical starts and after the main plot is discovered  you get to choose from 4 different options  what will happen next, the majority vote determine it and the musical continue. The process repeat itself every few seance scene . Its  actually very  funny  and we decided we must see it again as with different audience  we might see a different musical ...  if you think about it there are so many different options which mean you do not really care if you sail the same ship and you have the same musical as its going to surprise you every time. 

It was a very nice day but we really needed some rest , that is the problem with heavy ports cruises 

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Day 5 - Haifa.

So we left the port of Ashdod after two intensive days (and nights) and came to the port of Hifa.
Hifa is a city that build on the side of the Cramel mountains and has nice view from its hills, Also its the home of the Bahai gardens - https://www.ganbahai.org.il/en/ which are built on the corner of the mountains and very impressive. Haifa is the gate to the sea of Galilee ,  Nazareth  and many other places in north of Israel, 

We started the morning by eating in the newts  breakfast place on the ship , its called Bistrot le  Paris Gardin , I think its the only place you need to reserve seats for breakfast as space is limited . The concept is simple , once you book the seats your order what you would like to get and they prepare it 15-20 minute before you come , everything is fresh. Once you enter you get a picnic basket with your order and you are seated on a rag located on a green grass area , located outside, We ordered eggs benedict , blini with caviar combo , baguette with butter and cream cheese on the side and  chocolate croissant the other two are baked on the spot and were very fresh , we also got fresh coffee and squeeze juice. All was very good and different,we liked the concept and for sure will try it again. 
It was time to go to the port , the first thing we have done was to go up the mountain to have a view of the city   

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AS we had enough from cities we decided to enjoy the nature and try some short track on one of the north mountain , we decide to go to the Miron mountain which has a nice circle full of view track. On the way to the mountain we went near a filed of red Anemones flowers , we had stop and take some pictures :

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I guess it was just that time of the year which they are blooming so we were very lucky .

We finally got to the mountain and parked the car on top of it , the view from the mountain is very nice 

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You can also sea the sea of Galilee 

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Its take around 1 hour to finish the circle track and we were back to the our car, we drove back to the Med sea area , this time we wanted to go to a less cultivate beach  which you can find near Hifa city , we parked our car and after 10 minutes walk we arrived to this wonderful beach:

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We went into the water for a while and later we just stop to rest and enjoy the view and our last few hours in the holly land .

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1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

You called the red flower anemone.  Is it the same as a poppy ?

The official name as I understand is poppy anemone poppy for the red one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemone , they are from the buttercup family . there is another red flower that call just poppy which has darker center and it's  petals looks less organized. 

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Day 6 - cruising back.

The visit to Israel ended and we started our last day of the cruise  , on one hand very  sad that it was ending  on the other hand it was  a sea day which will allow us to check some of the new cool things on the ship.  
Finally we could sleep longer , once we were ready we just went to eat breakfast at  the MDR , I liked the free mimosas they kept filling up, the crepe  stands and the breakfast salads which they mixed to order. After we finished breakfast and the mimosas we went to the upper deck to check the new water slides , there are  three  regular slides and two which I think are world record for the longest slides at sea . After you take a tube from  deck 20  it goes all the way down  , around the ship and then the transparent tube is entering  inside the ship and you pass through casino , the theater and above the aqua theater. At the end the slides turns and push up back to deck 20 were you can choose if to navigate while in the tube to a queue for a another round or you can get out to the pool. With the tube you get also a  water prof personal headphones  which use 3rd generation Bluetooth so you can choose to play songs from your mobile device (that you can leave in the cabin) , soundtrack that is sync with your location of the slides or @Matt Royal Caribbean podcasts of . I loved it , I have done the slides something like 6  times before I remembered we have other things we need to check.
Our next station was just ready on time , The ship actually stops in the middle of the sea and they are sending out a floating platform which creates a huge sea water pool  . it is also has some decks were you can seat . We tried it as I like to swim but I do not like how the ship pool are too small and busy most of the times. Here you have a huge pool and you can swim as much as you want . They also lower down a floating bar which you can enjoy and the best , you do not need to think when was the last time someone changed the water ? .
We used the pool for few hours and came back inside the ship , overall the temporary pool was there for 6 hours. We went up to deck 18 to check the regular pools and to get some vitamin D  , the nice thing  here is that they use the same WJ system , the app locates you empty chairs (if no empty chairs it enters you to a queue and let you know once its becomes available ) once you use the chair they have a timer were again as in the WJ you need to reset every 20 minutes so no seat huggers  option! , once your time pass the crew collects your stuff and store it in one of the stations (the application can tell you exactly were they put it). We enjoyed the sun and ordered to the seat a fresh made Guacamole, they are actually doing  it in front of your eyes the way they used to do it in Sabor , excellent . We also order some burgers that were very fresh and juicy. To wash it out we took some Margaritas.
We rest a while in the cabin and went to try our luck in the casino , lets just say , you remember that everyone asks the casino dealers if anyone won the top bonus  game in the 3rd card Poker ? well I can tell you that the answer is 100% yes, what a day.
Our dinner was in the tapas chef table , which is like the chef table but it based on tapas (and wines , lots of wine) , the chef prepare it in front your eyes, everything tasted so good. We finished just in time to sea the new aqua show , the main twist here are the seats , no more the uncomfortable seats of the qua theater but a very nice seat which are like the one in the 4D Cinema , they move aligned with the show and add some other interesting effects ,I can not reveal everything but lets just say I understood why they have seat belts there ... not to be missed . for people who do not like such experience , there are also regular seats.

We wanted to conclude the night on the most important party , the silent/blinded disco party ! , you get your head phones and you use your VR light glasses , not just you can choose your music but you can choose the theme and the location of the party. You can dance on top of the Eiffel tower , Time square ,  Niagara falls , the Chinese wall , the moon , you name it , you can also have a party in the white hours, Wow it was something else. 
Sadly , we were already coming too close to the end of the cruise so we decided to catch something to eat and have few hours of sleep.

Well that was the end of this cruise on Hope of the seas , hope you had fun and enjoy the ride , see you next time , hopefully soon when cruises will be real not just virtual.

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