harryfat1

Onward with the trip report as we approach what I consider to be my favorite picture area for the entire cruise: +++++++++++++ I think it's a pretty sight to have both ships lid up along the cruise terminal The Odyssey is more colorful with its different color lights but the AIDA has the old school strand of lights from the Bow to the back that is absent in the Odyssey

As Mark mentioned, check your VZ calling plan to see what perks are included. Depending on when your plan started and what tier plan you have, you may or may not have a travel pass as a perk. As for the VZ credit card, here’s an overall summary of the card perks: https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/credit-cards/verizon-credit-card I like it as it’s got no annual fees and the points you accumulate monthly can be offset against your VZ monthly phone bill. You get 4% back on gas and grocery purchases and 3% in the restaurants. We run all our gas and grocery bills through this card due to the high % perks as for every $100 you spend on gas or grocery, you get $4 back to offset against your monthly VZ bill. This was the card that was lost at Hollywood Beach’s Taco Joint as I was using the card to get 3% back from the lunch. Yes, you have access to the VZ travel pass as soon as you are in port. If you just want a Travel Pass once in a blue moon when you cruise, you can just buy it for $10 for any 24 hours while traveling. So if you activate it at 11 AM on day 3, it’s good until 11 AM on day 4 even if on another country island. For example, if we had activated the pass at 11 AM on Curacao, it would be good until the next day at 11 AM even if in Aruba so in theory you can time the usage to overlap the 2 islands and only use 1 travel pass within a 24 hour period. As for "needing" a new credit card, that's a whole new discussion as some people make it an art/science to churn out new credit cards to get perks. Many web pages and YouTube videos on this subject. I'm not as aggressive as those people but I keep my eyes out for any new credit card sign-up perks and will periodically get new cards if it suits my travel needs. For example, I got a new JetBlue credit card last summer to use for FLL for the Odyssey cruise flying back home and got 75,000 miles plus 6X points in booking the flights. Now I have 90K points that I will use to pay for 2 round-trip tickets to/from NYC in the summer so effectively I cut the flight cost in half. I didn't "need" a new credit card but if you plan it well, you can get credit cards that fit your future traveling needs. Once our European trip is more of a reality by next year or the year after that, I will get another new credit card to offset the high cost of flying there. There's a website that shows the various perks you can get if you get a new card and spend the money (say to make a final payment on a cruise) required. https://www.uscreditcardguide.com/best-credit-card-sign-up-bonus/ Just don't go crazy about getting too many cards in any given year as it will destroy your credit score but if done right, there are many perks for the new credit card to offset the high cost of travel.

Yeah, it depends on what type of plans you have and what type of perks you get with the plan. I believe the free Travel Pass (VZ International calling plan) is no longer offered in their current promotional plans. My wife and my younger son upgraded their phones in 2023 and as part of the requirement to get the discounted new phones, they had to give up their old plans and switch to the 2023 promotions at the time. I believe their older plans were better value. VZ changes their calling plans/perks regularly, so whenever you upgrade your phones, you may have to give up these old plans as they force you to switch to their current plans to get the steep discount on the phones.

Good info. The doors have an automatic hinge closing mechanism so you can’t control the closing speed once it’s opened and it makes a very loud banging sound when the door slams shut. That’s why I suggest any TA’s reading this not to book their clients at the last few cabins near the end as that will likely wake up people at 7 AM when dummies like yours truly go to café 270 for the morning coffee. It will also be likely where the Guarantee cabins could be once the word is out not to book your cabins there and those cabins would be assigned to the GTY categories.

They had this tunnel walkway where they lined up many Christmas trees along the pathway

Heading back to the ship

I really like the pretty lights on the bridge

As it got darker, the pictures looked better with a contrast of the night sky and the lights on the bridge. If we had another 30 minutes, the sky would be even darker to provide more of a contrast but we ran out of time and had to start heading back toward the ship. The Curaaco night area felt clean and safe with lots of people walking around and eating/drinking at the restaurants. At no time did we have to worry about our safety. Unlike some Caribbean island stops such as Falmouth where I wouldn’t feel safe to walk outside of the cruise terminal compound at night. Y'all can tell from the pictures and videos many families and couples are walking around in a very safe feeling environment.

My wife wanted to cross the bridge to go back to the Punda side but I didn’t want to push my luck as it was 6:40 PM by then and we had to be back on the ship by 7:30’s All Aboard time. If we cross the bridge and a few boats come through and they close the bridge and run the ferry system, it would be a tight window to rush back to the ship on time. Too old and too out of shape to be a pier runner. 🤪 If we stayed on this side of the bridge, I could control when we could get back to the ship as the walk back to the cruise terminal is less than 15 minutes. Once I cross the bridge, I lose control on the timing of the walk back. With that restriction in mind, we never made it past the mid-way point of the bridge before we started heading back

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OK. Bridge lights. That's why we are out here to see To infinity and beyond...

Speaking of lights, we had to wait for a while but they finally turned on the lights for the bridge. My wife loves the panoramic shots

Holiday music in the background as people come out to see the lights even though it's the day after Christmas: 20231226_182645.mp4

The plaza area earlier in the day wasn’t very interesting in the blazing sun but now with the sun setting and the Holiday lights up, it’s attracting a lot more visitors.

Looking back at the Rif Fort as that's where the Walking tour started this morning Some vendors along the waterfront are still open after 6 PM trying to get a little nighttime business

Yeah, if you end up on deck 6 in the Aft section, pay attention whether you are on Starboard or Port side elevators if you are coming down from the pool deck or else you will be walking in a big circle...

Before I go on with the trip report, I forgot to mention we had Internet access for 2 days while in Curaaco and Aruba as we have Verizon cell phones and VZ credit cards, and as a benefit of the credit card, we receive 2 days of International phone plans for free. And my younger son’s phone plans have hot spot data included, the rest of us just hop on his hot spot to access the internet for the 2 days while in port. Even if we had to pay, it would have been $10/day for all of us to be tethered to one phone. Good enough to check the email and send off a few pictures to people back home while in town. CFKACD is not paying for ship-based Internet prices. Anyway, Time to leave Rif Fort and continue to walk toward the bridge

Thanks for reading along. I noticed you have been with CC for almost 6 years and this is your first post in the forum – you must be a very quiet reader in the background. I’m honored to have you come out and pose a question here. I don’t think I took a picture of the door from the other side – shocking, huh? Y’all must think I take pictures of everything…🤪 But it’s the same door from the other side except you open it from the side of 270 where you have to PUSH from the handle on the other side (see red arrow). Both doors swing away from 270 and into the hallway of deck 6. They are VERY heavy so be careful If you have food or drink in your hand, you could be spilling it as you put your whole body into opening the door. The door is located next to the library on deck 6 (white arrow)

Oh, well, too bad on not being able to see the Statue of Liberty from high above. Guess the view of the NYC skyline from the NorthStar is the best you can do on boarding day.

Yeah, these guys are great. They play modern music on cellos so it’s not just boring classical music whenever you think of cello players. Whenever I watch their videos I wonder if they need a chiropractor afterwards from the way they swing their necks and body to the movement of the songs, they must be sore after every video shoot.

In case I haven’t mentioned it, the Rif Fort was an original fort built to defend the city in the old Pirate days. They re-purposed the fort to be a shopping/dining area for the tourists but they still kept part of the fort structure. A lot of people go up on the top floor to take pictures of the area This just reminds me of the Disneyland ride – Pirates of the Caribbean where you have the pirate boat attacking the castle during the ride. Time to queue up the classic song from the movie with the famous 2Cellos guys. 92 million views and counting:

Jet ski guys going up and down the waterways

If you are here for a land-based vacation, this corner table would be a super cool place to have dinner

Back to the shops and restaurants area of the Rif Fort. I Saw Del Sol workers closing shop at 6 PM so many of the shops were done by 6 PM but the restaurants and and bars were still open.