Just Cruises Plus

We cruisers have been tortured by snail paced internet connections aboard cruise ships.  Add this to the fact that we are paying top dollar per minute to connect.

This is set to change next June, at least on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.  The Oasis will be the first cruise ship to be linked to a new satellite network that is expected to deliver fiber-optic bandwidth to the ship, which, in turn will be able to deliver maximum-speed WiFi to passengers.

Royal Caribbean is doing their best to attract younger passengers.  The Oasis class ships have a zip-line, rock-climbing walls,  FlowRider surf simulators, mini golf course, ice-skating and even a carousel.

What’s all that worth if you can’t connect on facebook and twitter with the folks back home?  This is pure genius on the part of Royal Caribbean.  Their passengers will supply the advertising for them when they put  pictures of themselves zip lining across the ship on Facebook.

Vist Cuba Legally in 2012

We are pleased that Tauck Tours has selected Just Cruises Plus to be one of their preferred agencies to begin offering trips to Cuba.  These trips will begin in mid-September and go through the end of the year.  There are none scheduled for 2013 and beyond. 

There will be three departures per week from Miami.  Each group will be small.  The goal will be to foster meaningful cultural connections with Cuban artists, musicians, educators, farmers and community leaders.

Tauck Tours is arguably the best tour operator in the world.  The Cuba trip that they are offering is all inclusive with one night in Miami and 6 nights in Havana.   Rates start at $4990 per person.

FYI:  The U.S. treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has granted Tauck a license to provide People-to-People educational exchange travel to Cuba through 2012.

The Breakers - Newport, Rhode Island

Last week’s photo contest must have been a hard one, since we had only 9 responses.  But all were correct!

Congratulations to Ed & Nancy O’Hara of Warminster, PA who were randomly selected to receive a $25 gift card.

Our contest photo was of the Breakers, a magnificent Newport, Rhode Island summer home built by Cornelius Vanderbilt.  We took the photo while cruising on the Enchantment of the Seas.

Our Experience on the Enchantment

We (Rachelle and Wayne) boarded the Enchantment of the Seas in Baltimore on May 31^st.  Since the Enchantment is due for a refurbishment in December, we were afraid that she would be in less than pristine condition.  If you are a “glass is half empty” person, you could find things that were less than perfect, such as dings in doors and rails that needs refinishing.  However, we were pleased with the overall appearance and condition of the ship.

Enchantment’s Centrum, looking up

The crew was magnificent.  They were both efficient and friendly.  We were especially impressed when a waiter from another table (not getting tipped by us) came over to our table to show us some tricks.  In our view, the crew makes or breaks a cruise so we rate this cruise as a rousing success even though as we will see, there were some shortcomings.

A major issue was the lido buffet area for breakfast and lunch.  It is way too small for the number of passengers.  Every day, we found ourselves wandering through the room looking for an empty table.  We think that when Royal Caribbean stretched the ship and added rooms for an additional 300 passengers, they forgot to enlarge the lido area.  Our advice:  Go very early or late to the buffet.  One positive in the buffet was the Asian station which frequently had Indian food.

Overall, the food was good but not great.  Except for the extra cost “Chops”, the beef was fairly tasteless.  Chops, on the other hand offered a very good and well-prepared piece of beef.  We found that the soups and appetizers were very tasty.

Entertainment was typical “cruise ship” with competent dancers and singers.  We had two comedians who had some hilarious moments.  There was also a comic-juggler who we had seen an a prior Celebrity cruise so we assume that a major part of his career is aboard ships.

Approaching our dock in Bermuda, located across from the clocktowers.

The ports included Bermuda, Boston and Newport, Rhode Island.  Bermuda is one of our favorite islands.  However, we were there on a weekend.  With Queen Elizabeth’s diamond Jubilee being celebrated, there was lots happening on Saturday.  However, they take their Sabbath seriously, so most businesses in the main towns were closed on Sunday (although many in the Dockyard were open).  If you are there on a weekend, make Sunday your beach day and Saturday your sightseeing/shopping day.

The Enchantment spent most of a day in Boston.  She docks at a commercial dock about two miles for the main historic area so you will likely take a cab or shuttle from the ship.  The ship offer excursions to Boston’s most famous sites including a terrific trip to Fenway Park.  Our friends went to the “No-Name restaurant at the Boston waterfront and enjoyed Scrod for lunch.  Because we had been to Boston before, we took a walk in South Boston which is becoming regentrified.

We had never been to our final port so we called it Newport.  Alas, we discovered that it is quite old, in fact, it was settled only 20 years after the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower.  Newport was the summer home to the rich and famous in the “gilded age”. Their magnificent mansions still exist and some can be visited (for a fee).  If you want a “cheap” tour of the mansions, take the local #67 city bus.  You can get on an off as much as you want for 6 bucks (need exact change).  If you have a nice, clear day take the “Cliff Walk”.  The scenery is breathtaking..  Don’t worry, you won’t be in danger of falling off the cliff.

Approaching Newport Harbor

The Enchantment sails from Baltimore on 6 night cruises to Bermuda (until October 26th) and 8 night cruises like the one described until August 23^rd.   She will then have some fall cruises to New England.

Next year, the Grandeur of the Seas will replace the Enchantment in Baltimore.   She is just completing a major makeover which includes new restaurants, an outdoor movie screen, aerial entertainment in the Centrum, flat screen TVs and an ipad in every stateroom.

During the early part of 2013, the Grandeur will be doing a Bahamas-Florida itinerary.  She will be doing 6 and 7 night cruises to Bermuda from May to November 1^st.  She will have some more interesting sailings in November and December with 10 night sailings to the Eastern Caribbean.

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We must have a lot of Royal Caribbean experts since 27 people got the correct answer to our trivia question, “Which ship will replace the Enchantment of the Seas out of Baltimore in 2013?”  The correct answer:  The Grandeur will replace the Enchantment out of Baltimore.  We randomly selected Will Mardis, of Holland, PA, to receive a $25 shipboard credit on his next Royal Caribbean cruise.

The recently upgraded Grandeur of the Seas will begin sailing from Baltimore on April 7th, 2013.  She replaces the Enchantment of the Seas whose last sailing from “charm city” will be a 12 night Southern Caribbean repositioning cruise on April 13, 2013.  This sailing will end in Port Canaveral, her new home port.

The Grandeur is slightly smaller than the Enchantment.   Although originally built in the same class, the Enchantment was lengthened in 2005 and carries an additional 300 passengers.

Most of the Grandeur’s sailings will be 6 or 7 night cruises to Bermuda and 7 night Bahamas cruises.  However, there will be a few 10 night cruises in late 2013 and early 2014, including a special holiday sailing on December 24th to the Eastern Caribbean.

We had 23 responses to our May 18 trivia contest.  The contest question read as follows:

There are several cruiseships that sail between Mexico and Hawaii or between Canada and Hawaii, but there is just one cruiseship, the Pride of America, whose itinerary begins and ends in the Hawaiian Islands.  Which unique attributes enable the Pride of America to do this itinerary?

The Pride of America can sail this Hawaiian itnerary because it is registered in the United States (i.e., US-flagged).  To obtain this status, the ship needed to be built in the United States and crewed by US citizens/permanent residents.   The Pride of America didn’t quite meet these requirements, because only the hull was built in the United States and therefore it needed a special government exemption in order to gain US registry.

It is the Jones Act, a section of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, which essentially requires that foreign flag ships carrying US citizens make a stop at a foreign port when sailing between two US ports.  Because The Pride of America is US-flagged, it does not have to stop in a foreign port.

Congratulations to Linda Knowles of West Deptford, NJ, whose name was randomly selected from those who responded correctly.

Nassau Horse & Carriage Ride - 5/4/12 Photo Contest

We had 54 responses to our May 4th photo contest but very few correct answers!  This was a tricky one.  We asked you to guess the name of the city in which the horse and carriage photo (shown here) was taken.  We hinted that the city is located on the Atlantic Ocean and is a popular cruise port.  “Nassau” was the correct answer.  The other responses we received were understandable given the hints we provided.  These responses included:  Hamilton, Bermuda; Charleston, SC; Key West, FL and Saint Jean de Luz, France.  

Congratulations to Norm Remer of Southampton, PA whose name was name was randomly drawn from the correct respondents. 

Bay Street

Nassau, a usual stop on a Bahamas cruise itinerary (especially on shorter cruises), is both the largest city and the capital of the Bahamas.  Bay Street,  the main street that runs parallel to the waters edge through Nassau, is filled with a mixture of high end jewelry shops and souvenir shops. 

The entrance to the colorful Straw Market is also located along Bay street.  Stop here if you don’t mind crowds and you like to haggle for island nick nacks.  Our appreciation of the brightly painted shops and government buildings and the view of the looming cruiseships docked along the waterfont is unfortunately trumped by our first-hand experience with occaissional rudeness and, on one trip, a “crooked” taxi driver.

Entrance to Straw Market

Cockeyed stop sign with ship in the background

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Local craftsman at work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s estimated that more than one-billion people will tune in for this year’s Olympic Games in the host city of London, and Celebrity Cruises has arranged the opportunity for guests sailing on its modern luxury fleet to be among them.

From the eagerly anticipated Opening Ceremony July 27 to the celebratory Closing Ceremony August 12, Celebrity will broadcast ‘live’ via satellite the swimming, diving, gymnastics, rowing, cycling, athletics, and basketball events, in addition to airing daily compilations of highlights from all 26 sports featured in the Games of the XXX Olympiad. On Celebrity ships sailing in North America, the events initially airing live also will be re-broadcast during more convenient times of day for guests to enjoy.

Whether sailing on Celebrity Constellation in Scandinavia and Russia; in Iceland and the Fjords on Celebrity Eclipse; in the Eastern Mediterranean on Celebrity Equinox; in the Adriatic on Celebrity Silhouette; in the Mediterranean from Venice on Celebrity Solstice; in Bermuda on Celebrity Summit; or in Alaska on Celebrity Millennium, Celebrity Infinity and Celebrity Century, Celebrity’s guests can stay on top of the Games while vacationing.

Only 4 people correctly named the structure (shown below) featured in our April 22nd photo contest.  It is the Koutoubia.  Congratulations to Mark Shapiro of Mission Viejo, CA, whose name was randomly selected from those who responded correctly.  

Koutoubia Mosque, 4/22/12 Photo Contest

The Koutoubia is the dominating structure in Marrakesh’s Medina (old city) and is the largest mosque in Marrakesh.  Rising 221 feet in the air, the 5 times per day call to prayer can be heard throughout the city.  The Koutoubia’s minaret was completed nearly a thousand years ago in the 12th century.

The best tomato salad in the world is in Quarzazate, a Moroccan town at the edge of the Sahara dessert.  At least, that was our opinion on a visit to Morocco.  An order to get to this amazing salad, we had a hair raising bus ride over the Atlas mountains on a twisting, narrow road sans guard rails. 

Atlas Mountains en route to Quarzazate

Example of Quarzazate Architecture

Our “home base” was Marrakesh, one of the most exotic cities that we’ve visited, particularly the Medina where much haggling goes on in the Djemaa el Fna (Place of the Dead).  The photo of the square was taken from the café where 14 people died in a terrorist attack in 2011. 

View of the outside of the wall of the Medina

Djemaa el Fna viewed from a cafe balcony

In the new part of Marrakesh, we saw well dressed school children plucking oranges from trees as the made their way home.  This contrasted with the Berber markets outside of the city where locals bought and bartered the goods.  The Berbers used donkeys to bring their goods to market.  The only camels we saw were “tourist camels” used to give rides to visitors.

Gathering at the Berber Market

Fruit and vegetables at the Berber Market

Tourist Camels

We can’t say if it’s still there but we had a wonderful dinner cooked in tangines at Mr. Driess’ restaurant in Marrakesh.  Despite Rick’s Café, we think that Marrakesh is a far more interesting Moroccan city than Casablanca.

We had a record response to our trivia question, “What was the name of the man who canceled his sailing on the Titanic, was a railroad tycoon, had controlling interest in the White Star Line and whose name is associated with a major investment bank?”  We did not fool very many of you.  Of 38 responses to our Titanic trivia question,  31 were correct.   Congratulations to Lisa Torre of Roslyn, PA, our gift card winner, whose name was randomly drawn from those who responded correctly. 

The correct answer is JP Morgan, who had his own private suite and promenade deck on the Titanic.  It is said that he was supposed to join her for her maiden voyage, but canceled passage. 

Some folks thought that the owner was J. Bruce Ismay.  However, he was the managing director of White Star Line and survived the sinking.  He has been severely criticized for his behavior during the sinking.  It has been said that he ordered Captain Smith to run the ship fast despite warnings of ice.  He was also alleged to have dressed up as a woman in order to get into a lifeboat.  There is no evidence to support these charges but just the fact that he survived made him unpopular with the press.

There were also a couple of  “Alfred Vanderbilt” responses.  That response is fascinating because Alfred died in the sinking of the Lusitania which was torpedoed during WWI.  Ironically, he had been scheduled to cruise on Titanic’s disastrous maiden voyage 3 years earlier but cancelled at the last minute.

Exactly 100 years ago at 11:40 PM on Saturday night, the Titanic struck an iceberg.  Less than 3 hours later on Sunday morning, she was gone along with more than 1500 people.

Congratulations to Alan Heller, of Pikesville, MD, whose name was randomly selected from the 14 who responded
correctly to last week’s Trivia contest question:  What is the link between  between Celebrity’s Millennium and the RMS Titanic?

The link is that Millennium’s specialty restaurant, the Olympic, is named for the Titanic’s sister ship, the RMS Olympic.

In addition, the restaurant’s authentic paneling was obtained from the premier dining room of the RMS Olympic.  Celebrity Cruise Line found the paneling in a private English residence, and purchased it through Sotheby’s.

Painting of RMS Olympic located in the room adjecent to the Olympic's dining area.

View of the magnificent, authentic paneling in Millennium's Olympic Restaurant.

View through the Archway