Musings on Mariner - A slow boat from China

[bigeck]

Looks like its working ok this morning

[John&LaLa]

Had to go to Trivia and lunch. Laura's in the casino now. She did well by herself a couple of days ago. So back to the photos.

 

Leaving ship and the drive to Jerusalem.

 

We left about an hour late due to security/immigration. They had 12 booths in service, it really wasn't that bad. The big issue was ships tours went first.

 

Concierge took off his people early, but if you had non gold card folks in your excursion, you just waited 2 hours outside.

 

 

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[John&LaLa]

More driving to Jerusalem

 

The bridge is a train from Tel Aviv. Not finished yet. Seems to me it's only going to make it more crowded.

 

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[John&LaLa]

The old city

 

We came in through the dung gate.

 

Gate of garbage. Fitting.

 

Disregard Mens and Womens entrance entering the plaza, but not at the actual Wall

 

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[John&LaLa]

The Western Wall.

 

Like I said earlier make sure men go to left and women to the right. Very moving place. Probably the part I will remember the most.

 

The plaza while large was not crowded and nobody trying to sell trinkets

 

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[John&LaLa]

Into the old city, probably the Muslim Quarter

 

Now, 10 of us (25%) got separated from the tour leader at #7 of the Stations of the Cross. We wasted about 30 minutes, so I didn't get a chance to eat, drink, or shop. Very dissapointed.

 

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[internetwhiz]

Into the old city, probably the Muslim Quarter

 

Now, 10 of us (25%) got separated from the tour leader at #7 of the Stations of the Cross. We wasted about 30 minutes, so I didn't get a chance to eat, drink, or shop. Very dissapointed.

 

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Did you have that “running through the Market” feeling? It was the only time we were lost from our group. Unnerving. That was in 2012 when Mariner did Holy Land Cruises from Rome.

[maryann2]

Interesting to see that you had a delay in debarking in Ashod.

I was on the Costa neoRiviera in March and in fact the Israeli border control came on board in the Seychelles and we were processed on board. We docked in Eilat so that might have been the difference. Then were able to walk straight off in Eilat.

 

I did a ship tour to Masada and the Dead Sea as had been to Jerusalem on a previous cruise and had 2 days there.

[ReneeFLL]

Ok, now that I've got some attention, let me fill you in on some of the details.

 

We booked this cruise about a year ago when it was marketed as a Singapore to Miami 3 leg reposition. We were on the Rhapsody TA and jumped on it the day it was released. Secured the same deck 9 JS for all three legs.

 

Leg 1 was Singapore to Dubai via Phuket, India, and Oman. Leg 2 was Dubai to Barcelona via Jordan, Suez Canal, Isreal, and Crete. Leg 3 was....well it got cancelled so who cares. Should have gone from Barcelona to Miami, but now it's going to Cadiz for drydock.

 

Anyway, Royal refunded our Leg 3 fare, gave us $1,000 pp airfare credit, reduced fare on legs 1 & 2 by 50%, and gave us a 25% FCC based on the cost of leg 3. So our 41 day Odyssey got shortened to 28 days and the fare went from around $9,000 to $2,250. Oh, and we also had $450 OBC from booking onboard Rhapsody.

 

To top it off, sometime after final payment we got a free upgrade from our JS to a GS.

 

Next up...the flight from hell

 

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Scored!(y)

 

Ok, it's just past midnight, and Laura's in the casino, so let's carry on. I'm only including our trip to Singapore because many of you were following along on the lounge overflow thread.

 

We left Cocoa Beach in a mini van instead of a Town Car like I thought. I had booked Delta Comfort+ for the trip. FWIW, Delta price was cheaper than Air2Sea. Our flight was supposed to take 28 hours total and get us to Singapore around 11pm Saturday night.

 

I had the Marina Bay Sands booked for two nights so we could enjoy the infinity pool 600' in the air on Sunday.

 

It wasn't meant to be.

That view is just amazing. Wished you would have made. Have you stayed there before?

[bigeck]

Great photo's John.

My bucket list is getting bigger. Thanks for that

[John&LaLa]

Did you have that “running through the Market” feeling? It was the only time we were lost from our group. Unnerving. That was in 2012 when Mariner did Holy Land Cruises from Rome.

Pretty much. They pushed us to hard.

 

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[John&LaLa]

Interesting to see that you had a delay in debarking in Ashod.

I was on the Costa neoRiviera in March and in fact the Israeli border control came on board in the Seychelles and we were processed on board. We docked in Eilat so that might have been the difference. Then were able to walk straight off in Eilat.

 

I did a ship tour to Masada and the Dead Sea as had been to Jerusalem on a previous cruise and had 2 days there.

We had Indian immigration onboard.

 

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[icsys]

We had Indian immigration onboard.

 

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But did they really have to make us go through immigration TWICE ??

[John&LaLa]

The plaza where the group waited while we were lost. I think we had about 10 minutes here.

 

Next stop, the Holy Sepulchre, and Christ's Tomb

 

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[John&LaLa]

Now this was one crowded place. Endless sea of humanity. A Muslim family owns the keys. They lock it up at sundown and open it at sunrise. Same family for generations. Talk about a sweet job

 

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[John&LaLa]

Posting pics is going much smoother now. Maybe everyone is off the ship. We're in Crete, time is around 1:30 pm.

 

Lots of complaints about the internet

 

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[John&LaLa]

The tomb of Christ. Long lines, but you can see inside, kind of.

 

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[John&LaLa]

Leaving the SP, headed toward Jaffa Gate

 

BTW, the tour brochure said we would experience about 100 steps. They lied.

 

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[John&LaLa]

At the Overlook, then headed home

 

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[John&LaLa]

Who recognizes this? [emoji848]

 

 

I should have bought it. [emoji6]

 

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[John&LaLa]

And now back to the ship. Lovely countryside.

 

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[grapau27]

And now back to the ship. Lovely countryside.

 

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Brilliant photos,it feels like we are there too.

 

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[John&LaLa]

How about some food porn.

 

Room service

WJ roast beef

Lobster from last night

Laura's custom veggie pizza

Bread cart in Jerusalem

 

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[John&LaLa]

Shutting down helipad this afternoon for a suite party during sailaway from Crete.

 

Forgot to mention that we had a 4th formal night. Wasn't expecting that. I think there was a mistake a few days ago and formal got out in compass by mistake.

 

Casino after dinner and music trivia. Ended up at the disco in Lotus

 

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[bobmacliberty]

Who recognizes this? [emoji848]

 

 

I should have bought it. [emoji6]

 

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Raiders of the Lost Ark??