JessyCruises

Not to be nit picky, but it is Saint John, not St. John 🙂 There is lots to see and do within a short walking distance uptown. There are also lots of taxis if you want to travel further. I know because on cruise days I can hardly get out of my parking garage because of the traffic 🙂

Yes, I drove by one today as the Caribbean Princess is in town

We took a walk through the container village last night after a concert had ended. We had the graffiti alley to ourselves

Sorry for just seeing this. You will already be in the Bay of Fundy - you are in the Bay when you are docked. What specific are are you trying to get to? We do not have rideshares here so taxis, a rental car, or an excursion are really the only options for getting around.

Wow - not sure how I missed this post! Yes I think it is where the tents used to be. Before I moved uptown I had not been near the port when there was a ship in so I am not 100% sure. I am a horrible Canadian/Maratimer - I hate lobster AND hockey 🙂

They have bags on all of the stair cases, even though we are docked and have no rocking issues. Someone is at the elevator banks and staircases cleaning constantly. All of the salt/pepper etc are off the tables in the Windjammer. Paul just saw a guy use his hand to take a roll out of the breadbasket. An officer immediately swooped in and took the basket away and threw the entire thing out. They are taking this very seriously. I expect boarding will be delayed on Sunday for a deep clean.

Sorry I missed your question about the cost. From the airport is was $90usd return. I think se paid an extra $20 do go from Tronchetto

Currently in the Windjammer for breakfast. Looks like the noro outbreak is so bad that they are reverting to the COVID serving protocols. All tongs are now on the inside and everything is being served by employees including food and freestyle machines.

As we were sailing away from Mykonos today and the captain came over to make his announcements, he acknowledged the noro outbreak. He said it was a “small number” of cases which anecdotedly is just not true. It is all anyone is talking about. When we got back to our cabin just now to get something, there was a card in our key slot to take a survey, and a letter and another survey on the bed. The letter also said a “small number of guests”. I have been on a lot of cruises, a few of which had had noro outbreaks, and never been asked to take a survey to say whether or not I have been sick. There has definitely been an uptick in the number of crew walking around wiping things down, they are coming behind people wiping down slot machines after someone is done playing them like they did at the height of COVID, and they were changing tongs every few minutes in the Windjammer at dinner. They also started making announcements in the casino to make sure to hand sanitize, although it does not help with noro, it certainly cannot hurt. I am glad to see they are taking things seriously.

I would not do the local bus again to Tronchetto and would take a taxi. That is what we are going to be doing when we return on the 18th (take a taxi from Tronchetto to hotel and then if we want to go back into Venice we we’ll take the bus over to visit the city once we drop off our bags). The cruise had been beautiful, but getting to Ravenna and back has definitely been a pain.

I seem to have misplaced my seapass card sometime between leaving my cabin and lunch. I just went down to guest services to get a new card and took the opportunity to grad some photos of the promenade while its quiet. R Bar Guest services Explorer has a motorcycle & side car The Crown & Kettle Cafe Promenade Cafe Promenade menu. You can use your drink packages and Diamond drinks here.

We just did a hop on/hop off in Athens yesterday. I posted about it here: https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2941765-live-from-jessycruises-european-vacation-amsterdam-london-venice-explorer-of-seas/?do=findComment&comment=65553040

According to the Facebook group for this sailing, it sounds like Norovirus has decided to make an appearance and a lot of families are all out of commission for a day or two. There are many posts about it on Facebook and the replies are stacking up with lots of people saying they and and friends and family are sick with vomiting and diarrhea. I have not seen it personally, but multiple people have said they have seen people being physically sick in the Windjammer and it is does not appear to be alcohol related. There has been discussion about who ate what, where and when and there does not appear to be a rhyme or reason to it, which means it is likely noro. Apparently the medical phone line is so busy, people can rarely get through. Folks are being offered Imodium and pedialyte or Gatorade and are being confined to their cabins for 24 hours. We got hit with Noro on the Disney Wonder back in 2012 and I would not wish it on my worst enemy. Hopefully everyone recovers quickly and they can curb the spread. On another cruise related illness note, my sister and mother were on the June 1st cruise on the Liberty which sailed to Bermuda and the Caribbean. They disembarked on June 10 and drove home to Canada that day. My sister works at a hospital so tested herself for COVID as soon as she got home and sure enough she had it. My mother tested as well as she was feeling under the weather and she has it as well. We have gotten COVID on a ship before, but it was back in January 2022 when omnicron was rampaging. I live blogged that cruise - you might remember our saga of getting “stuck” in Florida for many days until Canada let us come home. Royal Caribbean treated us very well and it was almost like another vacation. The threat of COVID has never stopped us from travelling. We started cruising soon after the restart in August 2021 and have been on about 30 cruises since and only gotten COVID tgat one time. Technically I did not even get it on the cruise, I got it toward the end of our stay in Florida and only tested positive at the airport on the way home which was 9 or so nights after getting off the ship. I would honestly rather get COVID than noro, but of course I can say that that because I am in a low risk group to have a serious case. Not everyone is so lucky.

Today we are in Mykonos today but we decided to give our feet a much needed rest and spend the day enjoying the quiet solarium. There are two good size hot tubs in here and a nice pool. I do miss the bridge on the freedom class that had the deep pool behind in and the bar/seating directly under it eh oh offered a little shade if you wanted to be in the pool but not in the direct sun. There is no cover over the pool here at all.

I do have one but I have only ever posted once. I usually just Post to my Instagram and Facebook - both are @jessycruises. I really need to start using TikTok too to keep up with the times! 😂 this is my account in case I ever do start: www.tiktok.com/@jessycruises

The ones we were on were.

Yes they do. They give you a new set of earbuds and there are headphone jacks at all of the seats. They have channels with lots of different languages.

When we got back onboard it was just turning 6pm and we headed to the Windjammer for dinner. I found it interesting that they now have black napkins. As recently as lunch today they were still the old beige. You could tell these napkins were brand spanking new. Will be interesting to see if they have them tomorrow at lunch.

Today was Athens (Piraeus), Greece. Originally, we had nothing planned or booked and had planned on using public transportation, but yesterday after we got back onboard, we decided to book one of the hop on/hop off tours as we had such a good experience with it in London. I have a small Viator discount through Perkopolis. This is the one we chose: https://www.viator.com/en-CA/tours/Athens/City-Sightseeing-Athens-Piraeus-Beach-Riviera-Hop-On-Hop-Off-Tour/d496-2916ATHENS We purchased the 24hr Athens & Piraeus route which said it had a pick up at the cruise terminal. After the discount it came to $72.35 CAD. I received a link to the tickets via email which were a QR code I had to have scanned when we checked in at the first bus. We were scheduled to be able disembark at 12pm. We headed to lunch in the morning Windjammer at 11:45. As we were heading there the Captain announced we were free to leave. We headed down to deck 1 at 12:10 and walked right off the ship. The terminal was super close - literally directly in front of the ship. We turned left as we exited the terminal and the different hop on/off buses were all right there ready to go. We were still within a stones throw of the ship. There was someone outside the bus with a scanner that scanned our QR code and printed our tickets. They provided us a map and a pair of headphones in a sealed package (we got those on the London one too but I was not sure if I mentioned it). This is the route of the bus we had: The Piraeus route is the green line and runs between the cruise terminals and the acropolis with a couple of stops in between and lovely views along the way. The ride to the acropolis was about an hour. We did not purchase tickets to enter the acropolis but walked up as far as we could without them then headed left where there was a set of stairs leading to a rocky outcrop with amazing views of the Parthenon and the city below. We then headed down the other slope and passed by some other ruins. We ended up on a street with several shops and vendors. Of course we had to stop for a chicken gyro. We then decided I do the entire circle on the red line. The full loop was about an hour and a half and included the audio tour. Hadrian’s Arch Temple of Zeus After getting off by Hadrian’s Arch, we strolled through what I think was park of Plaka and did some shopping. It was very lovely. We then headed by foot back to the Acropolis to catch the green line back to Piraeus. The return trip was about 45 minutes. This terminal/port was much smoother than Corfu. Paul says this was his favourite port so far.

Today was Corfu, Greece. The time zone jumped ahead by an hour here. The plan today was to go to Old Town and one of the fortresses but we slept in and did not get off the ship until 12:15 and aboard was at 2:30 so we skipped the fortress. We contemplated not walking to Old Town, but we decided to do it anyway as we did not want to miss it. It would be stupid to be all the way here and not see it!! Be warned that the pier walk is about 1 KM and about 1.5 if you included getting to the exit. The total walk from getting off the ship to Old Town is 35 minutes. That may change depending on where on the pier you are docked. We were docked with 3 other ships, the Viking Sea, the Marella Explorer 2 and the Sea Dream 2. Of course, we were the furthest away from the terminal 😄 They did have busses that ran from a few bus stops on the piers to the terminal, but we did not pass a bus on either the way from the ship or the way back. To get to Old Town, you basically just take a left when you exit the port and keep walking. You can’t miss it. The area you walk through is not the cleanest or most attractive place I have ever walked through, but it felt safe and there were no vendors calling you to come into their shops. Because we were short on time, when we got to Old Town we just strolled through the street and allies. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and was built by the Venetians, so it was definitely giving me Venice vibes, just with no canals and bridges. It was very pretty and quaint. I really wish we had not slept in so we would have had more time. When we got back to the port, we were directed to the Explorer of the Seas line up. It was a long one. This is in front of us: And behind: After about 10 minutes, we made it into the terminal to go through security, which took another 10 minutes or so. All told, it took about 35 minutes to get through the security line and back onto the ship. We got back on just in time @ 2:15. It was definitely the closest we have ever boarded to all aboard!

Corfu, not Corduroy 😂

thank you! To be honest we are a bit exhausted too, but in a good way 😂. It definitely would have been nice to have another day or two in London so we were not as rushed but we are glad we got to as much as we did. I am bummed I missed out on the Globe theatre. We were going to go back over that way but never got the chance.

Hey Vera!!! We are having an amazing time. We hope to sail with you again too!

Bathroom with a view… This is the ladies room by Chops & the Windjammer. Paul says the men’s is the same. That is Corduroy, Greece is the background.

I think we all left pretty much at the same time