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Yes, it is an official requirement for entry - although from what I hear it is rarely if ever actually verified.

I'm not sure what you mean by "cruise insurance". If you got a travel insurance policy, no matter from whom, just make sure it that its text specifies it covering COVID-19 related medical charges, and is valid in Israel.

Massada / Dead Sea - dress however you like. A hat is highly recommended, not becauase of modesty, but because the sun is intense there.

For Jerusalem, either pants or skirt, below the knee, will be fine. Cover your shoulders and that should be modest enough for any place you are likely to visit. Head covering is not needed for Women. Jewish religious sites (e.g Western Wall) require them for Men, but disposable paper head coverings are typically offered (and if not, no stress - a tourist group is obvious)

In most markets Sprite Zero is just a rebrand of Diet Sprite, to get it inline with the Coke Zero brand. Anyway it is available.

On Rhapsody (a vision class ship), there were no milkshakes or smoothies available. If not having coffee or juice, the things you can get over what's included in the soda package are speciality teas, mocktails and bottled / canned still and sparkling water.

Ashdod is a pleasant enough beach side city; there is a cute promenade, some parks, a small archeological museum dedicated to the Philistine culture which might be interesting... that kind of thing. But mostly quiet residential and commercial areas. You could spend a few slow hours there if you want, but not exactly a destination you'd travel to.

Taking the bus or the train to Tel Aviv is easy. The next big city over from Ashdod (Rishon Let'zion) also have various attractions which might be of interest. The nearby country side has some sites worth visiting - Beit Guvrin national park in particular is very interesting - but it would be very hard to explore them by public transit, you'd optimally need to rent a car. If you have particular interests I may come up with more specific suggestions.

Have you considered staying in Jersualem overnight in a hotel? That will give you much more time there, and spending the evening and night adds a lot in my opinion.

23 hours ago, Chelled123 said:

Thanks everyone! We’ll be in Haifa on Thurs. If we do Tel Aviv on our own by train, can I get some recs on how to spend our day there. Never been to Tel Aviv. 

Tel Aviv is more about the soaking the "atmosphere" - the beaches, the cuisine, the architecture, nightlife, those kind of things.

But from the top of my mind, a few pointers on places that I think are interesting to see/do (roughly south to north):

* Old Jaffa and Jaffa Port - nice and very historic. One of the world's most ancient ports. Quieter and more relaxed vibe than e.g Jerusalem's old city. However it is hilly and hard to navigate if you have mobility issues.

* Neve Tzedek - Jaffa's the first Jewish suburb, and the basis for Tel Aviv. Nowadays it is a quaint and pleasent neigbourhood, if somewhat gentrified. Plenty of nice caffes, art galleries and botiques to explore. The Nahum Gutman art museum is here.

* The Independance Trail - a short and flat marked trail in Tel Aviv's oldest parts and visiting several landmarks important to the city's and contry's history. It passes through Rotschild Boulevard, which is always nice to stroll in. The trail's visitor center has audio guides to rent for a self tour of the trail.

* The Carmel Market ("shouk"). Tel Aviv's market are a pretty unique twist on your typical middle-eastern souk. Several vendors offer a "bite card", a pre-paid punch card that gives you a chance to try out various local snacks and foods - that's pretty fun.

* Beach Promenade. November is off season and bathing is not recomended. But the pomanade is still pretty cool and lively. See if catching the sunset here works for you in terms of the time you need to be back in Haifa.

There's more of course. If you have any questions or specific intetests I'll be happy to suggest.

The situation at TLV airport actually improved a bit, and the recomendation is now back to being at the airport three hours prior to the departure time.

But even with that, it is too close for comfort in my opinion. Consider that the net travel time from Haifa port to Tel Aviv airport is 1.5 hours by road, and a little less than that by train - and traffic at these hours will be heavy.

Maybe if you self carry (and I absolutely DO NOT recomend doing that in Haifa) and pre-book a private transfer... Even so, I'd go for an afternoon flight if possible.

Final Thoughts

In hindsight - would I have taken this cruise again? Yes - definitely. I enjoyed it, and it was a great way to take a little break from it all.

Was it good value for money? That depends on the frame of reference. If I’d compare it to an alternative vacation in Israel proper (given that there are no flights involved) - absolutely. While this cruise was definitely on the expensive side of things, it was cheaper than any resort hotel in the country, and of course the service was infinitely better. If comparing it with other East/West Mediterranean cruising opportunities, or a land vacation in Greece, or the like - it is more of a stretch.

Would I book it again in the future? That’s a more difficult question. I’m definitely not discarding the option, but as things are - probably not in the next year.

Frankly, I don’t see which exact market slice Royal is targeting with these sailings, and how they hope to build a stable client base that will come back. If they are going for families, the Rhapsody is woefully insufficient. It really lacks amenities like a sports court, more pools, a splash park for babies, etc. If they are going for young couples without children and older families, then they would really do well to widen the variety of destinations; while Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes are definitely the more popular of Greek Islands, given the summer/fall sailings they are also the busiest. There are a lot more islands in Greece than just these three, and a ship as small as the Rhapsody has the advantage of being able to visit more of them.

Many thanks to everyone who read and commented on this review! I hope it wasn’t too boring. If there are any questions left, I’ll be happy to try and answer them.

Debarkation

The ship had arrived back in Haifa before dawn and I woke up as it was being tied to the Quay, at around 05:00. The MSC Lirica was already tied up next to us as we arrived.

The debarkation was handled in phases - first the ship would be cleared to debark foreign passport holders. Only after they would all go through passport control, the ship was cleared to debark Israeli nationals. It was possible to self-carry at the beginning of each phase, although it is really not recommended to do so. Cruisers who will debark in Cyprus had their own immigration process on board the ship.

My luggage tag number was 22, estimated to depart at 08:55. After clearing out the cabin, I went up to Windjammer for a leisurely breakfast. By the time I finished, it was still not time, so I went down to the Centrum to wait. Surprisingly, cafe Latte-tudes was open and serving. Even more surprisingly, my drink package was still valid and I could get one final Latte.

Thanks?

I was called to depart around 08:00, ahead of the estimated time. It was mostly like the embarkation process, but in reverse. First walk from the ship to the temporary terminal, then through passport control, and around the duty free shop (to pick up any purchases made during embarkation that were left for keeping). Then out and up the ramp to collect the bags and go through the customs tent. And finally carry the bags out over the bridge into the city. It was much hotter than embarkation day, and despite the early hour it was already sweltering. This made this whole trek pretty unpleasant, but otherwise the process was efficient. However the port again had golf carts standing by to assist those of limited mobility.

After exiting the port, I went straight to the adjacent train station and traveled home. There were plenty of Taxis waiting at the exit for those who needed them.

Night 6 MDR Dinner - Non Kosher MTD

Menu -

Appetizer #1 - Crispy Spring Rolls (very good):

Appetizer #2 - Salmon Gravlax (excellent!):

Main course - Braised Lamb Shank (also very good):

Dessert ended up a bit funny. I didn't fancy anything on the menu, but was hoping for some Ice Cream. Unfortunately for me, no desserts on the menu had ice cream as a component. I asked if maybe I could get some from deck 4, but it turned out that as part of the Kosher scheme, the waiters are strictly prohibited from mixing food between the MDR sections. The matter was inadvertently escalated, and a manager approached and told me that I can have a dessert from 4, if I carried it out and ate it outside the MDR, which was just fine with me. They then brought me a paper cup full of really nice vanilla ice cream, which I had on the promenade deck.

Day 6 - At Sea

Today was originally scheduled to be the only sea day of the cruise, but since Rhodes turned into one as well this was my second one and I spent the time in a similar way. Mostly relaxing and reading, and some activities and trivia. For me it was an uneventful day.

During the morning service, debarkation information and luggage tags were delivered to my stateroom. In the afternoon I went through the unhappy ceremony of repacking my suitcase, which I put out to the hallway after dinner.

Since I didn’t get towel animals all week, I decided to fold one myself - with questionable success. During evening turndown service, I think the cabin attendant took pity on me and folded a proper one. Not hard to guess which is which:

Went to the final dinner of the cruise, where I had to endure the survey spiel a few times, but it wasn’t too bad. The farewell showtime was another production show - “Ballroom Fever”. I actually liked the show - the dancers were definitely talented and well rehearsed. But still - I think I’d like it more if it had some sort of connecting plot line rather than a sequence of numbers. Maybe they could have framed it like a Dancing with the Stars type of “contest”? The audience was pretty rowdy though - going in and out, standing up in the middle, and there was a stage invader kid (which is of course not proper at all, but was kind of funny I guess?)

Again, I listened to the piano player (again, he was so awesome) right until the end at 1:00, and finished the last night off with a slice of pizza from Park Cafe.

Night 5 MDR Dinner - Non Kosher MTD

Menu:

Appetizer - Panzanella Salad:

It was good. The dressing was perhaps a little too acidic for my taste.

Main - Veal Osso Buco:

The star of the meal, and one of the better plates of food I had all week.

Dessert - Berry Shortcake:

I'm sorry, but it was disgusting. I believe it is actually a Kosher desert, the horrible by-flavor and unpleasant greasiness of non-dairy cream could not be overlooked. I had to send it back.

Instead - got the Pineapple sunshine cake, which was significantly better:

Day 5 - Santorini, Greece

I was rather excited about Santorini, since I’ve never been there before and it is very famous. But I also knew it is one of the most popular Greek islands, and is therefore going to be busy. So in this port I ended up booking a shore excursion - “Village of Oia on your Own”, which cost $55.

The meeting time was 7:15 at the Broadway Melodies theater. I thought it to be surprisingly early (especially as the expected first tender time in the Cruise Compass was stated to be after 9:00), so I even double checked with the shore excursions desk. It was indeed the correct time, completely intentional, and turned out to be a very good idea.

So I woke up early, and grabbed a quick breakfast at Cafe Latte-tudes - a smoked salmon croissant (yummy!) and a raspberry danish.

With coffee at hand, I watched our sail-in into the Santorini Caldera from the outside promenade, with a dramatic sunrise as the background:

At around 7:00 the ship dropped its anchor - the Rhapsody was the only ship in the caldera at that time. I went to the excursion meeting place. It took a while for the ship to be cleared, and my tour was on the second tender boat out, so we left the theater towards the hatch shortly after 8:00 for the 15 minutes-ish boat ride.

The tender took us not to the old port but to the ferry dock further south, which has road access. There we boarded the bus, and met our tour guide. During the drive to Oia, she shared a lot of details and interesting history of the Island. I was surprised to hear that there was no electricity in Santorini until the 70s and that it has no ground water and there is no water system in place to this very day - rather, water is distributed by trucks. It was also very interesting to glimpse at the unique way grapes are cultivated.

We arrived at Oia around 9:00, which is important, since at that time it wasn’t very busy yet - and as soon as I left the main square I was pretty much by myself and could explore the alleyways and take pictures with ease. We were given 1 and a half hours free time to spend in Oia, which I spent taking a good look around and then had an overpriced (but good) iced coffee in a terrace restaurant overlooking the caldera.

Oia is quite beautiful, but also a little strange. At the edges, there are some eerie places, like this abandoned pumice stone mine (which apparently used to be a big export of Santorini before its decay and switch to tourism as the main part of the economy).

After rejoining the bus, we drove to Fira. During the drive the guide provided some more information, and handed out vouchers for the cable car down to the old port, from which we would take the tender boat back to the ship. The bus dropped us at the outskirts of Fira, and from there the guide led us to the center. We were given orientation and tips on how to spend the rest of the day and were free to go.
 

I stayed in Fira and explored it for a while. It is also nice, but much grubbier than Oia; I suggest occensionaly looking at the floor. The sidewalks are in a bad shape and broken in places, and I tripped down once. I visited the two main churches (the Greek-Orthodox and the Catholic) - both beautiful. I also wandered into the Megaro Gizi museum, which has an interesting collection of historic letters, decrees and documents and gives glimpses of the daily life and state matters of Santorini over the years. They have a binder with English translations of all the documents.

There were plenty of restaurants in Fira, but many of them looked to me like obvious tourist traps, and getting scammed wasn’t on my menu. So instead I opted for a street food place that looked good, and got a Gyro sandwich. It was cheap and really delicious:

I got a few souvenirs. It was a bit after 14:00, and in the meanwhile three more ships had arrived in the Caldera. First the MV Gemini and the Blue Sapphire and around noon also Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas. It has now become VERY crowded in Fira, and very much unpleasant. So I decided to call it a day, and went to the cable car station to go down to the tender pier. There was no queue to go down yet, but in the bottom station there was already a lengthy queue to go up.

The Rhapsody and the Odyssey from the cable car:

Got on the tender, and made the quick trip back to the ship. I probably didn’t do the Island much justice in this visit, but I’m not sure I liked it all that much.

I’ve had early dinner in the MDR, and afterwards watched the sail-away, which coincided with the sunset:

Tonight’s showtime was a guest performer - an “iMagician”, who combines magic and technology. I didn’t like it much - in my opinion video art is not art, and it is definitely not magic. I had a lot of fun in the Piano bar again though.

Izumi Sushi

No point in posting the menu, it is the usual one.

Small Place - Miso Soup:

Pretty good. The tofu in there was super tender.

Small Plate - Chicken kara-age with sweet chili dipping sauce:

It was so-so. The chicken was kind of dry. I hoped it would be more tender.

Large plate - the Champagne Lobster Roll:

It was fairly good.

Dessert - Mochi Ice Cream balls:

This was the highlight of the meal for me. The mochi wrapping was thin and smooth and the ice cream inside super creamy. It was much better than the Mochi Ice Cream that you can typically get in stores around here. I asked, and was told that in Europe they can't get them provisioned, so they make them from scratch on the ship.

With dessert, a pot of Japanese green tea:

So overall it was not an amazing meal, but still completely satisfying. Izumi is an a-la-carte restaurant, and the bill ended up being $32 (+18% gratuity)

Day 4 - Athens, Greece

We were docked at Piraeus Cruise Terminal B (the most distant one) from 8:00 to 18:30. When I booked, my intention was to have a bout of shopping - Athens is known for having a large selection of stores and relatively low prices. However, it turned out that today is a holiday in Greece, and all stores would be closed.

So I opted again for some slow paced sightseeing. Going out of the terminal, there was a public transportation ticket booth just outside, and I got the day pass for EUR 4.10. The express bus to the center of Athens was already waiting, but as it was still early and it wasn’t too hot, I chose to do the ~35 minutes walk to the Metro station.

I like the Athens metro (well, maybe the green line less-so), and the major stations look pretty good and I like how they incorporate archaeological findings, like here in Syntagma station:

Masks are still mandatory in Athens public transit, so I made sure to wear mine.

My destination was the Acropolis museum. I’ve been to the acropolis itself before, but didn’t yet have the chance to visit the new(-ish) museum. I read that because of the holiday Athens would be quieter than usual, so I didn’t bother with pre-booking tickets. That was a mistake - as I arrived, there was a big queue outside, although it moved relatively fast and I was in after a little more than 10 minutes of waiting, and paid the EUR 10 entrance fee.

The museum itself is absolutely stunning, and I enjoyed it a lot. There is good signage and explanations in English. The Parthenon gallery on the top floor in particular was interesting, with great vistas to the acropolis and the Attica basin. But the most attractive exhibit for me was the underground excavation beneath the museum, showcasing a residential area uncovered by the museum’s construction. I am a sucker for covered archaeological excavations, and this was a good one.

For some reason, the sanitary practices of the ancients never fail to fascinate.

After that, I took the metro to Omonia square and just started to wander around the center. Indeed the stores were all closed, and many of the restaurants were also closed and showed signs notifying about them being out on vacation. But plenty of cafes and restaurants were open, and it was fairly lively and busy in the streets, especially closer to Syntagma and Monastiraki squares. 

I had a quick lunch of meat skewers in a fast food place along one of the larger streets. This cost around 10 EUR if I remember correctly:

After walking for a little more, I ended up in the pleasant park right next to the Parliament. It was nice and shaded, with several small ponds - so it was nice to relax there for a while and take a break from the heat. I had some fun by simply going to a nearby kiosk and buying a bunch of cold beverages I didn’t recognize, and trying them out.

After that I decided to call it a day and traveled back to the port. For that night, I decided to treat myself to a specialty restaurant and I made reservations for Izumi Sushi. It is located at the top most area of the ship, in the back side of the Viking Crown. I asked to be seated by the window and enjoyed dining while watching the sail away from Piraeus and then the wake views as the sun was setting.

It was the night off for most of the entertainers. I just watched the movie in the pool deck for a while (it was Black Panther), and retired to my room early since it would be an early start in Santorini the next day.

A few assorted food & beverage observations.

Bars and Beverages

I found service in the bars to be really good, and the availability of drink waiters was also good. There was hardly a time when I sat down in a lounge when its bar was open and was not asked whether I wanted a drink almost immediately. They did all the regular stuff, and in addition there also had a few basic local Kosher beers - Goldstar (dark lager), Maccabi (pale lager) and my personal favorite - Nesher Malt non-alcoholic beer:

I was particularly fond of Cafe Latte-tudes, located in Deck 6 in the Centrum. Went there about three times a day - the baristas working there were truly awesome, and made excellent coffee. After a day or two, they would guess (correctly!) which kind of coffee I would like. They make the usual specialty espresso-based drinks, and also had various Greek coffee specials: Turkish / Greek style hot coffee cooked in a pot, and various summer iced coffees - Freddo Espresso, Freddo Cappuccino, and Greek Frappes. I found this to be a nice touch - iced coffees are a popular summer treat in these areas.

They also carry small sandwiches, pastries, fruit etc which were free and pretty good, especially the breakfast sandwiches.

For this cruise I got the refreshments package. It is actually the first time I opted for a beverage package, and I liked having it a lot. I didn’t do the math to see if I broke even or not, but I guess I don’t really care - the feeling like I could get whatever whenever was worth it to me. I had LOTS of specialty coffee, water, mocktails, Nesher and what I feel like at least a fifth of the ship’s supply of San Pellegrino.

There are three freestyle soda machines installed in the ship - two in Windjammer, and one near Cafe Latte-tudes. I didn’t end up having any sweet soda, but kids seem to like the machines (there isn’t anything like this anywhere in Israel as far as I know). For those interested, the freestyle cups offered were the insulated classic ones. Also for those interested, mineral water was handed out in San Benedetto cans.

Windjammer Marketplace

Rhapsody’s Windjammer is the very forward of deck 9. Physically, I thought it was very nice. It feels airy, with lots of windows. Above the main buffet line, arranged as a double circle in the middle of the hall, there was a gorgeous skylight. However the crew wouldn’t let diners spread out; they would routinely block off large sections of sitting, making guests concentrate in one area. Only once that area got full, would they open up another section. This made it feel more crowded than necessary, and I assume this was due to lingering staffing issues.

I didn’t eat there a lot, but the food tasted OK. I did like the desserts though, they both looked good and tasted good. What I didn’t really like was the lack of variety - in lunch and dinner, there would be just one dish of each kind (e.g. one carved roasted meat dish, one grilled meat dish, one fish dish, one meat and one vegetarian curry dish, one vegetable dish etc). In particular they’d only make two kinds of prepared salad, and bread pudding was not available with every meal (as far as I could tell, it alternated each day between lunch and dinner). On the other hand, dishes seemed to change almost completely everyday; the only daily offering was the salad bar and burgers and hot dogs with incredibly dry buns. Food was non-Kosher, and there were pork dishes sometimes, but no seafood as far as I could tell.

I only noticed an active cooking station with lunch, it seemed to alternate between Shawarma and Mongolian Wok. There was no active station at breakfast - so no made to order omelets anywhere. They had pre-made rolled omelets (plain and with vegetables) in the buffet, which tasted good, but still I’d prefer a freshly cooked one.

Late night snacks were served 22:30 to 00:30 every night, and it was always the same - cookies, cold french fries and burgers and hot dogs with dry buns.

I don’t know if that is usual on the Rhapsody, or is due to reduced galley space because of the Kosher dining plan. After looking through some Youtube videos from earlier after the Rhapsody was returned to service, I tend to believe it is the latter.

Park Cafe

Park Cafe is in the Solarium, and serves Kosher snack items. Lunch service (which lasted from late morning to the opening of the MDR for dinner) consisted of meat items, and Late Night service (from 21:30 to 02:00) had dairy items. On offer were fruit, sandwiches, pita bread and spreads, roasted vegetables, soup and pretty good pizza in the evenings.

Avocado wrap (daytime):

Eggplant and egg sandwich (evening):

"Pita-weck" - the Beef from the Kummelweck in a pita (the regular caraway seed bun) also available. Had it twice, once the beef was good, the other time very chewy and dry:

On 8/21/2022 at 12:29 AM, LXA350 said:

Would be nice to see RCL offering a mini season out of Haifa going forward every year. Now they just need to get rid of SUNORAMA and find a capable agent.

Looks like it is the plan (the Rhapsody will return in 2023 and like in 2024), but after taking this cruise I'm not sure how they plan on building a strong base of repeating clients.

I'm not sure about Sunorama though - yeah, they suck; but there is no strict need to deal with them or have them manage your booking. It is possible to bypass them and book directly with Royal Caribbean or a foreign agent. Or is the overbooking fiasco their fault?

On 8/21/2022 at 12:29 AM, LXA350 said:

If I understood your comment correctly, there is a non kosher menu for the traditional dinning and for MTD they serve you the same dishes as on the kosher menu?

Yes, on the non-Kosher side of MTD the menu was kind of a hybrid, consisting of the Kosher dishes for that night but also additional dishes that are dairy (desserts, mostly) - and it is served on regular plates, you have butter on the table, etc. But never any pork, seafood or meat and dairy cooked together in the same dish. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to have a look at the traditional dining menus to see how similar or not they were to the MTD menus, and none were posted in the phone application.

Night 3 MDR Dinner - Non Kosher MTD

Menu -

Appetizer - Roasted Tomato Soup (OK, nothing special):

I also decided to treat myself to a glass of wine. This is a glass of Recanati Yasmin White Blend, from the Jezreel Valley, priced at $9 (+gratuity):

Whoever put together the wine list made good work I think. There was a relatively large selection, representing various styles and most of the wine regions of Israel, from various highly reputable wineries.

Another Appetizer - the Salmon Tartare (pretty good):

Main - Grilled Sirloin Steak (as good as a MDR steak can be, cooked to the requested temperature):

I didn't fancy of the desserts tonight. Got some bread pudding from Windjammer later.

Day 3 - Rhodes, Greece ^H^H^H At Sea

We were meant to arrive in Rhodes that day, but with the island already in sight the captain has announced that he will not make an attempt to dock. The reason given was high winds that were expected to further strengthen later that day. To be honest, it wasn’t a huge surprise since the sea had been quite choppy through the night, and the ship was very noticeably rocking and swaying. Instead we were going to have a day at sea, and the bridge had set course to the next port of call, Athens.

I wasn’t too disappointed, since I’ve been to Rhodes before. My plan was to take a taxi to the Butterfly Valley; I’ve read it is one of the few places in Greece that are actually considered to be at their best in August. But alas - I’ll just have to suffer through a sea day :D. The port taxes were automatically refunded the next day as OBC - for me it was a whopping $2.43.

To start off I went up for a long and late breakfast in the MDR. Apparently I wasn’t the only one with the idea, as there was a pretty large queue to be seated. I agreed to share, and was seated together with an Israeli and an American family; it wasn’t too awkward I think. 

During breakfast, the cruise director made an announcement about the various activities that were put together for this unexpected sea day - quite an extensive list, though definitely improvised sounding. I think this is a good opportunity to recognize the cruise director’s staff - they were all great, and worked hard to make up with activities for what the Rhapsody lacks in attractions. Trivia, dance classes, demonstrations, pool games, indoor sports, climbing competitions, parties etc.

As far as I remember, I didn’t partake much. After breakfast, I went to the Solarium and spent a couple hours swimming, dipping in the hot tub and lounging. Treated myself to a mocktail too - a Blueberry Nojito:

After that I’ve mostly spent the day in the Centrum - reading, sipping on iced latte and watching the myriad of the Dodecanese Islands passing by very very slowly.

Found this pretty amusing picture hanging (I think) in a deck 8 hallway:

Did I add one more level of recursion by posting it here?

One thing I want to note with regards to sea days on this ship and the passenger demographic - a sports deck of some kind was sorely missing. There is simply no place on the ship where kids can safely play ball games, run around and spend their energy. That doesn’t mean no one didn’t - they just did it in stair lobbies and hallways, which is far from ideal.

Dinner was uneventful. The main showtime was a Celine Dion tribute by Tracy Shield. Sounded too cliche to me, so I didn’t go - no idea if it was good or not. What I did go too was a 70s Disco Inferno party that was held in the Centrum, which morphed into an ABBA vs Queen party. I enjoyed it a lot, and also spent some time in the Schooner bar listening to the pianist.

Night 2 MDR Dinner - Non Kosher MTD

Menu:

Appetizer - Classic Mezze plate. Pretty good, although what they call Hummus here is anything but (but still tasty):

Main - the citrus-glazed chicken:

The chicken itself was good, but the sides were pretty dreadful. The braised cabbage nasty and the croquettes dry. 

Dessert - Carrot Cake. I liked it very much, and enjoyed the white chocolate carrot garnish:

Day 2 - Limassol, Cyprus

We were docked there from 8:30 to 16:30. In addition to various shore excursions, there was also a free shuttle from the port to a large shopping mall (My Mall) and then to the marina. There was also a paid shuttle to a store called Jumbo in the outskirts of Limassol. For reasons I can't fathom, this Jumbo thing is a massive attraction which is raved about by many Israelis who make it a point to visit anytime they are travelling to Greece or Cyprus.

Anyway - as I was more looking to relax rather than explore on this trip and as usual it was hot - I took the complimentary ship's shuttle to the Marina area. I walked a bit around there, on the nice seaside boardwalk, a bit in the old city near the castle, and had some coffee and ice cream. After a few hours I was already tired and exhausted from the heat, so took the shuttle back to the ship.

Had some lunch in the Windjammer (mashed potatoes and lamb), and then rested and read in my cabin until dinner.

This night was supposedly a formal night, but there weren't much difference than any other evening on the ship. The population isn't really formal, and while people definitely dressed up for dinner (in the Israeli sense, that is) I didn't notice many people going out of their way in particular for the formal night - myself included. There were very few suits and gowns around, and they really stood out I think.

After dinner I went to the Harry Potter trivia, and then to the main showtime at the theater. It was a production show called "Piano Man" - a typical cruise sing & dance kind of show. I didn't like it very much. I mean - the scenography was great and the singers and dancers were definitely talented. But the show itself felt off to me, as if it is part of 90s time capsule this ship is. Maybe I've simply outgrown the revue type shows - but I think even if a ship is too small to license a Broadway musical for it, Royal could at least make an excuse for a plot in their production shows?

That night's main entertainment was the Welcome Aboard Showtime, which was held in the Broadway Melodies theater. I found the theater to be really nice, very roomy and comfortable and with proper place for drinks etc. Theaters on the bigger ships tend to be quite tight in my experience. There was no need to reserve anything, just come 5 minutes before the start.

The show was presented by the cruise director Bill and his Israeli assistant Gal. It featured Rob Alton, who is a BMX acrobat. He did various tricks with his bicycle and juggling, and also picked a kid from the audience and taught him some basic tricks which was nice. The show worked well, since it was very visual and with little talking.

In addition, and throughout the week, there were a lot of live music going on around the ship. There was a Caribbean band, a show bad, a strings duo and a Greek band that performed each evening around the ship. In the Schooner Bar, there was a piano entertainer called Anselmo which played every night except one - he was really awesome.

1 hour ago, sandebeach said:

Thanks for the review. We are hoping to d the Holy Lands cruise next yar. Curious about the closed permanent terminal, do you have any idea when it will be fixed and re-opened?

Unfortunately I don't, but there should be a good chance that it will be open again for next season (the repair work was underway as I passed near it).  Anyway, if you are only docking in Haifa for a call you wouldn't need to pass through the temporary terminal anyway - when we debarked, those who remained for a B2B or were debarking in Cyprus had their Israeli immigration procedure done on the ship; and if you dock in Ashdod first - well, your'e be pre-cleared when reaching Haifa.

Night 1 MDR Dinner - Non Kosher MTD

Menu (it completely changes every day, except the Classic Mezze plate which is available every night):

Table setup - Bread basket and how can you go without sparkling water:

Appetizer - Gefilte Fish with Mediterranean-spiced horseradish. Was actually surprisingly good, but Gefilte needs a good dollop of horseradish, not a couple of drops on the side. 

Main - Slow braised beef brisket. Also delicious:

Dessert - Pear and Blueberry cobbler w/ Vanilla Ice Cream. Absolutely delicious. Couldn't stop myself from digging in before I remembered that I should take a picture:

A great meal to start the cruise with!

Dining

A big point of the sailings out of Haifa is the availability of freshly-cooked Kosher dining included in the cruise fare. A section of the MDR offered Kosher breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, and the Park Cafe offered Kosher snacks. Izumi also supposedly had Kosher bento boxes available for order, in addition to its usual menu. The Windjammer Marketplace and Cafe Latte-tudes, as well as the other specialty restaurants (Chops and Giovanni's Table) were non Kosher.

The situation with the MDR was particularly confusing for me. The original intent as far as I understood it, was for the MDR to be all-MTD, with no traditional sitting; deck 5 serving a special Kosher menu and deck 4 serving an approximation of Royal’s usual menus. Correspondingly, traditional dining was not an option at all when booking.

However, this is not what happened. At the end, deck 4 was doing traditional early/late sittings with a non-Kosher menu (early sitting at 18:15 and late sitting at 20:45). Deck 5 however was all My Time Dining, with half of it serving a Kosher menu and half serving yet-a-third non-Kosher menu which consisted of the Kosher dishes but on normal tableware and with dairy desserts. As I asked my server about it, he said it was a last minute decision by management, after demand for Kosher dining was less than expected. MTD dinner started at 18:00 every evening.

People were offered to change to traditional dining during the first day and evening. I was offered too, but chose to stick with non-Kosher MTD. I ate dinner at the MDR every evening except one where I went to Izumi. Deck 5 wasn’t busy when I usually arrived, and I got the same table and servers every time. I usually have little or no lunch and eat dinner earlier, but many Israelis (like other Mediterranean people) prefer to eat late and I was told the dining room got much busier towards 20:00.

Non-Kosher breakfast was available in the deck 4 MDR, as well as lunch on embarkation day and on the sea days. However those weren’t table service, except drinks. A buffet was arranged in the back of the MDR, and you served yourself out of it. I did not partake in lunch, but went there for breakfast several times. Selection was similar to but more limited than the Windjammer, and consisted of bread, morning pastries, fresh vegetables, spreads (Hummus, Baba-Ganush and others), cheeses, pancakes and waffles, hash browns, several types of egg dishes (including Shakshuka, but no made-to-order omelets), sausage, bacon and cereals.

The Kosher MDR section was arranged similarly for breakfast and lunch (every day), but I never tried it.