Holy Land Cruise - Haifa

Our first day in Haifa was very different to the normal cruise passenger's day. We had a late breakfast. Normally people have to leave the ship early. Our friend Lynn from Target Tours, picked us up at 10am. Lynn does wonderful work arranging tour groups around Israel and in other countries. She is also Ingrid's friend since nursery school!

Lynn brought her father with her, who is visiting from South Africa. What a nice surprise. Lynn also brought, her partner Rafi, whom we met in February (in Israel), a friend Raymond and a friend and tour guide Irma. We went to the German Colony where we walked around briefly. Irma gave us a lot of very interesting information about the buildings, the architecture and the history of the area. We walked over to the lower gates of the Bahai Gardens. Again Irma gave us some interesting information.

We drove up to the top of the Bahai Gardens where we visited the Shrine. The interesting aspect was the belief of the Bahai that all the prophets contribute to humanity and that the various religions should live together in harmony.

We then drove to Nazareth, where we visited the Church of the Annunciation and the Synagogue Church. We also walked through the market to a unique small hotel with frescos on the ceilings.

We eventually drove back to Haifa where we met up with Irma's husband, Mike. He has his office directly across from the dock where our ship was berthed. He took us to his favorite local restaurant where we thoroughly enjoyed a selection of the Mediterranean dishes. We also sampled some local beers and Arak, the Israeli version of Ouzo.

We returned to the ship for drinks in the Sky Lounge, after which we went to the show in the theatre. It was not good. We left early and went for a late sushi and salad dinner at the buffet. We did not like the selection on offer in the dining room.

A full day in Haifa.

The second day in Haifa was very relaxed. We had breakfast on our balcony. I went to the Michael's Club to watch the Wales France rugby world cup semi-final. After the game, we went for a walk through the Wadi Nasri Arab quarter close to the docks. We walked over to the German Colony and back to the docks where we boarded a Haifa Tourist Agency bus. It took us up to the Stella Maris observation area, Church and Monastery. After enjoying the view over haifa, the bus took us to the Carmel Centre. We walked down the 1,000 steps through various area of Haifa, through the Arab Quarter all the way back to the ship.

It was now after 3pm. We sat on the stern of the ship, again outdoors, having a cool, healthy salad. After a short rest, I went to the fitness centre for a light workout. After a quick shower we went to the dining room for a delicious dinner. The seared tuna was perfect!

The show after dinner was a variety show featuring four of the artists we had seen plus a short aerial act. It was really good.

Time to relax on our balcony while the ship sails out of Haifa towards Ashdod, our gateway to Jerusalem......

Holy Land Cruise - First Sea Days

After Palermo, we enjoyed two consecutive sea days. We establish a relaxing, healthy routine for sea days.

We typically sleep late, getting to the breakfast buffet around 09h30. We enjoy being able to sit outdoors on the ship's stern while we eat our breakfast. After breakfast we find somewhere to sit and relax while we take the opportunity to read a novel. We eventually wander back to the outdoor cafe for a salad for lunch. I relented and had an ice-cream each day. More relaxing is the order of the day after lunch. There is a wonderful spot above the outdoor buffet cafe where the ship has couches, it is wind protected and shady. This is a great place to read a book. If we need something to drink or snack, the buffet is only a short staircase away.

We managed to get to the fitness center both sea days. The brand new fitness centre is well equipped. The aerobic machines have built-in TV sets.

After working out, we return to our cabin, where canapes are delivered to our room. In anticipation, we took tea down from the cafe to drink with the canapes.

After a shower, we go up the the Sky Lounge on the 14th deck for a nightly Captain's Club Elite event. There are snacks and free drinks. Yippee! On the first night I had a whisky on the rocks and then a glass of wine to have with dinner. On the second night, I had a gin and tonic with the usual glass of wine. Nice.

After dinner we attended the entertainment events in the theatre. The first sea night was a formal night. The entertainment was a Broadway evening with the Celebrity singers and dancers. I am not normally a fan of these shows, but this one was superb. The second night had a comedian who did some balancing acts. he was very funny. We enjoyed both of these shows tremendously.

Sea days are fun!

Holy Land Cruise - Palermo, Sicily

We sailed into Palermo after 8am. We sat on the balcony while the ship entered the port. We had ordered a light room service of coffee, fresh juice and a smoothy to enjoy at this time. The large cliffs were pretty while the sun was rising. As the ship docked, we went to the special breakfast for Celebrity Elite Captain's Club members. We had a cappuccino and an expresso with fresh squeezed orange juice. The fruit was good, but we would have liked to see a few hot food available with some smoked salmon.

After breakfast, we wandered off the ship. The port of Palermo if right next to the city. We walked into the city, intending to get a train to Cefalu. The train station was a longish thirty minute walk, or it would have been if we did not stop at a few fresh fruit markets and other street markets up a few side alleys off the main streets. When we got to the station, we decided that the return train would be too close to the ship's departure time. we did not want to chance missing the shp before two consecutive sea days. we decided instead to walk around the city, eventually relaxing at a coffee shop, where we could get our e-mails, enjoy and expresso and a cannoli.

We re-boarded the ship, heading up to the outdoors stern buffet for lunch. The ship was quiet, the weather was good and the healthy food choices were excellent. After our light lunch we returned to our cabin for a quick power nap, after which we spent an hour-and-a-half in the new ship's gym.

Canapes were delivered to our cabin to enjoy with tea. After cleaning up after gym, we went to the Sky Lounge on the fourteenth deck for Elite Club cocktails. We sat on a chaise lounge for two while the ship sailed out of Palermo. Beautiful!!

After a drink, we went to the dining room for dinner. We had seats adjacent to the window, which allowed us to enjoy the sunset while we had a delicious dinner. After dinner we went to the ship's theatre to listen to Katrina Jones entertain the passengers with her piano and singing skills. This was an excellent show. We enjoyed it thoroughly.

A good first day of the Holyland Cruise!

Holy Land Cruise - Getting to Rome/Civitaveccio

Eleven of our last fourteen flights on Continental had been delayed. This was not a good omen for our flight to Rome via Newark, especially considering that we only had fifty-five minutes to change planes in New York. Houston was finally getting a good soaking rain, good? Not really. We could not afford for our plane to be delayed. When it left the gate only a few minutes late we were relieved. When the pilot told us that there were engine troubles while on the runway we were concerned. "Luckily, they were able to resolve the problem without returning to the gate. Phew! We eventually took off half an hour late. Because of a decent tailwind, we landed in Newark on time. Good? Yes, but there was another plane at our gate, so we had to wait ten minutes extra. Ok, so we would only have forty-five minutes to get to our next plane at gate C74, almost adjacent to the gate at which we would arrive. Good? Yes, but the tow truck which arrived to tow our plane to the gate had the wrong hitch. It had to wait for the correct one, taking another 20 minutes off our change time; so now we only had 25 minutes. Yow!

We got off our plane knowing that it was only a short walk to the next plane. Good? Yes, but when we got there the gate had been changed to another the opposite end of the terminal. We RAN all the way, getting to the new gate only ten minutes before the flight was due to leave. We hastily told the Continental, now United, gate agent that we had run all the way fro our previous flight. She had the cheek to tell us that we were lying and that we had been in the lounge. We were MAD!!!! We got into our seats steaming with anger !

The plane left the gate a few minutes late and then sat on the runway for over an hour before taking off. Good job United!!

So now we were sitting in our upgraded seats in business/first class. We had requested a miles upgrade when we reserved the seats months ago. These were not the new fully flat seats that are now in use, but the older 60 degree seats. There was no video-on-demand, but seventeen channels of preselected video content, of which around four or five were movies. On our flight from Houston to Newark, we had wanted to watch a movie on channel three, but it did not work, so we ended up watching some other poor apology for a movie. Now that we had another opportunity we thought we would watch our desired movie, but alas, it didn't work on this plane either. Wonderful!

I must say, however that the service and food were both excellent. The ex-Continental crew (ex-cons) were terrific.

We landed in Rome an hour late, but this was not really an issue, as we were in no hurry to get to our ship. Boarding time was noon. This was still only 9am.

We were offered cruise transfers from Rome airport to the Civitaveccia port for $95 each. (Total $190). We decided to take the train instead. Cost $23 for both of us. We boarded the train at Rome airport with no problem. It was reasonably comfortable. We did not have to wait for other cruise passengers. The train took approximately 25 minutes to Testeverde, we we change to another train to Civitaveccia. The wait was bout 20 minutes for the next train arrived. We arrived in Civitaveccia with plenty time to get to the ship. The weather was glorious, cool and sunny. We decided to walk the four blocks to the Port Entrance before taking the port shuttle to the ship; the new Celebrity Silhouette.

Checking in and boarding was no problem. So here we are, ready for a pleasant relaxing vacation.