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HOLY
LAND
CRUISE
DISCOVER MY 12 DAY ITINERARY
In November 2019, I went to Italy, Greece, Israel, Cyprus, and Turkey on a Royal Carribean cruise with my family. Here's my itinerary with my recommendations:
Day 1 - Rome Embarkation Day
Train to Civitivecchia
My sister, Mom and Dad, and I caught the 10am train from Roma Termini to Civitivecchia—about an hour from Rome. Now… we made a mistake. We didn’t get
off the train quickly enough and we had to go another hour
on the train and then take a train back to Civitivecchia.
Haha. Don’t be like us. If you’re train is slowing down…
be ready. Stand by the door with your stuff. I’m ashamed
because it’s like a travel newbie to do what we did—but
hey, it can happen to anyone. The lesson is to leave with
plenty of time to get to the ship like we did, so there’s no
chance of missing it.
Recommendation: Go for it! It was
11 euro, which unless you have a large group, I believe is
the cheapest and fastest way to get there.
Check in at Royal Caribbean
Check-in was simple, there wasn’t much of a line. But we opted to keep our luggage with us because most of us brought carry-ons and didn’t want to wait to get our stuff.
Recommendation: Go for it. Packing in a carry on is always the best.
Jewel of the Seas
I’m not going to spend too much time talking about our daily itinerary on the ship, but I will highlight a few general things about the ship and give my thoughts and pictures about it. We’re not particularly “cruise people” but we had an enjoyable time and it’s a very easy way to see a lot of places. So enjoy!
Day 2 - Day at Sea
The first thing I’m going to review are the cabins. THEY WERE AWESOME. Seriously, about a million times better than we imagined. There is a ton of closet space and
lots of drawers and cabinets all over the place. Super easy for two
people to live in—we had lots of extra space for storage. Every
room comes with a vanity/desk and a couch with a coffee table.
Honestly this was a nicer set up than I have at home… tons of
mirrors and counter space for all of our curling irons, makeup,
and sunglasses. It was completely ideal for getting ready in the
morning. The bed was comfortable—a true queen (maybe even
a bit bigger), and we both got a bedside table and a lamp which
was great. The TV swung around so we could watch it in bed or
on the couch. And because we were on the ship for 12 nights, we
got to know our channels pretty well and fell in love with a couple
British game shows… haha. The bathroom is small but functional. The shower… was amazing. Not even kidding. It was circular which is actually perfect and the water pressure was unbelievable. The shower head is pretty tall above you, so it felt like a rain shower. I looked forward to my shower every night… seriously. It also came with a complimentary liquid soap which was convenient. The bathroom is small, but the counter space was still great and the mirrors doubled as cabinets which was nice. Overall, the cabins were absolutely the best thing about the ship—as it should be in my opinion. For a long cruise like we took, after you tour all day and you’re really tired, it was really nice to come back to our little oasis and chill out.
Rating: 5/5. I can’t think of anything that would make it better. Maybe outlets by the bed? But I really shouldn’t be sleeping next to my phone anyway…
Royal Caribbean: Cabins
Day 3 - Chania, Crete
Note: We were supposed to stop in Messina, Sicily on our cruise, but because of bad weather we couldn’t dock there. We landed on Crete instead. Luckily we didn’t have a tour booked in Sicily, but I had done a lot of research about where to go, eat, etc. Instead I was on a ship and had no internet, so we winged it! We got on a 2 euro bus from the port to the town of Chania.
Cappucinos at Boheme
Walking along the old city of Chania, we stopped for
cappuccinos at this adorable little place. They had fun
syrup flavors that had no sugar—I got cinnamon, my mom
got vanilla. The coffees came with darling slices of pound
cake, and it was all so delightful.
Recommendation: Go for it! This place was so cute. Definitely check it out.
Walking around Venetian Harbor
This is perhaps the most famous aspect of Chania—a harbor that looks like Arya could be running around selling oysters… (Game of Thrones reference). Haha. It was super cute, but our favorite part was probably stopping every five seconds to pet the cats. There were so many cats and kittens and my dad probably lost his mind because my mom, Caitlyn, and I wouldn’t stop petting them all. But this guy (pictured) is by far the best cat I’ve ever seen.
Recommendation: Go for it! If you’re into Maritime Museums apparently they have a good one. We were more into the cats…
Venetian Lighthouse
It’s a bit of a trek, but a lovely view out to the
Venetian Lighthouse that gives the harbor
its name.
Recommendation: Go for it!
Wine at Emprime
We continued to wander around the old city and stopped at this wine shop for the toilet and a glass of wine. Also there was a cat. =)
Recommendation: These kind of charming shops are a dime a dozen here, so nothing special with this place but nothing wrong with it either.
Shopping
I think my mom’s biggest regret on the trip was not buying some leather goods here. Crete (and the rest of Greece) is really cheap and they have nice leather. We shopped around a bit, but didn’t buy much.
Recommendation: Go for it!
Dinner at Tamam
We headed back to the harbor and stumbled upon a restaurant tucked away in a little side street. Tamam was delicious! My rule of thumb is to always find a restaurant slightly off the beaten path. They are always better, cheaper, and more authentic. We ordered so much stuff and it was all so good. Probably one of my favorite meals during the trip. Dreaming about that pastrami pie and the fried cheese (yes, fried cheese).
Recommendation: Go for it! If you’re in Chania, you absolutely have to eat here.
Day 4 - Day at Sea
Royal Caribbean: Food
One of the best money-saving perks of choosing a cruise as your mode of travel is the free food—and there’s a ton of it! There’s varying degrees of quality though. On our ship, the Jewel of the Seas, we had two main options: the buffet and the dining room. There is also a small pizza/snacks section but the timing is a bit weird. We generally ate at the buffet in the morning for breakfast, which had plenty of healthy and non-healthy options to start your day. And then for lunch we were usually out on an excursion, but during sea days we usually went to the buffet. And for dinner on all days, we went to the main dining room, where the service is unparalleled and the food was much higher quality. Now… I’m a bit of a foodie. So if you are too, I think cruises aren’t for you. Because even though the food was much better in the dining room, it still wasn’t always amazing. However, there are lots of tasty options every night and I ate the French onion soup every single night as my starter because it was that delicious.
Rating: 3/5. The dining room was acceptable and about half of the dishes I ordered were up to my snobby snuff. The buffet was classic and therefore brought my rating down.
Day 5 - Jerusalem & Dead Sea
Pick up in the Port of Haifa - Drive to Jerusalem (2.5 hours)
We had another change of plan in our schedule due to a bombing in Ashdod. We were supposed to dock in Ashdod, Israel which is only 45 minutes from Jerusalem, but because of the bombing we docked in Haifa for two nights. I used the tour Israel Guided Tours and they were very quick to accommodate our change and the tour ran as usual just with a longer commute. SO. This is a tough one. And maybe it’s because our tour guide this day was SO ROUGH. Like for real. It was a really difficult day because he was really inept at his job, and there were a lot of things he harped on that we were not interested in. But I’ll get to that later.
Recommendation: Skip it? If I could do it again, I would hire a car for a few hours and have them take us to the Dead Sea for a bit and then drop us off at Jerusalem where we could look around on our own.
Floating in the
Dead Sea
Our first stop on the tour was the lowest point on Earth, the Dead Sea. This was my mom’s highlight of the trip and it was very high up on mine. It was kind of like a picnic destination for locals—we stopped at one of the private beaches called Biankini. Floating in the Dead Sea was so cool… it’s amazing how hard it is to keep your limbs under the water in there. And it is incredibly relaxing. A lot of people give themselves a mud mask and your skin will come out glowing. Overall, this is the coolest experience, and as the sea rapidly depletes, I would do this sooner rather than later.
Recommendation: Go for it. Honestly, it was cooler than Jerusalem…
Lunch at Neve Midbar restaurant at Dead Sea
This was the only restaurant/store at the beach entrance we went to. It was buffet style home cooking—very good, just very expensive. Israel is an expensive country which I didn’t realize until I paid $24 USD for a plate for lunch. However, it was very good. There were a lot of families around with barbecues and shisha pipes cooking up lunch for themselves… so that could be a fun option too. Otherwise, hit up the buffet!
Recommendation: Go for it! Things are expensive in Israel, just gotta get used to it.
Mount of Olives
After taking quite a salty shower, we hopped back on our small bus and went to the city of Jerusalem, stopping first at the Mount of Olives. This is an incredible view of the city, and any guide or taxi driver will surely let you pop out take a few pics and stare and the ancient wonder that is Jerusalem.
Recommendation: Go for it! Can’t miss.
Gardens of Gethsemane/
Church of All Nations
Our next stop was right outside the Jerusalem walls at the Gardens of Gethsemane. If you’re familiar with the Bible, this was the place Jesus prayed with his disciples before being arrested and crucified. So kinda a big deal. Whether you’re Christian or not, this is such an incredible site in history. The olive trees grow outwards as they get older, and there were some fat olive trees there. Truly astounding.
Recommendation: Go for it! You can’t walk through the garden itself, but you can walk around it and go inside the church right next door.
Christian Quarter through the
Jaffa Gate
There are two main gates in Jerusalem: Jaffa and Dung. Most people enter from the Dung gate and start their tour at the Wailing Wall (which I would have preferred). Entering through the Jaffa is kind of like doing all the touristy things backwards (we went backwards through the via dolorosa—but more on that later).
Recommendation: Go through the Dung Gate first instead.
Church of the
Holy Supulchre
Okay. Wow. This moment was absolutely the worst part of our entire trip. We visited Israel in the down season (November) and the streets and this church were SO crowded, people were elbowing… it was quite miserable. Unless you’re super Catholic or Orthodox, this is not worth what it costs you. No, not money—just your faith in humanity’s goodness. Because after being pushed and elbowed around a church in the holiest city in the world… you just… can’t. Recommendation: Skip it. Unless you’re staying the night in Jerusalem, then I would suggest getting up crazy early and taking a peek. Otherwise, it’s just full of relics that just seem like speculation to me.
Via Dolorosa - Stations of the Cross
Like I mentioned before, we did these backwards because we entered the back gate. However, it was still pretty cool. No one can say for sure where exactly everything happened, but it’s been centuries and errbody’s like this is where Jesus fell for the first time… and that’s pretty cool. Whether you care about the exact spot, we know for sure Jesus carried a cross through the streets of Jerusalem and you can walk them in real life. Ancient history for you to touch. I love it!
Recommendation: Go for it!
Arab Souks
Our tour was so rushed, we only got to walk passed the Muslim quarter… but I so badly wanted to shop in the souks. Again, stay in Jerusalem longer than just half a day! It’s worth it for all the interesting nooks and corners. So much to explore!
Recommendation: Go for it!
Western Wall
We ended our Jerusalem tour at the Western Wall. It was passed sun down on a Friday so we visited during the Jewish sabbath. I was incredibly disappointed that I didn’t get to take a picture at the wall (during the Sabbath, no pics allowed). I only could take one very far away. However, it was really cool to see all the Jewish citizens of Jerusalem come pray for the sabbath. I just wish I could have done both! Recommendation: Go for it! You can’t come to Jerusalem and not visit the Western Wall.
Day 6 - Nazareth & Galilee
Baha'i Gardens
We started off today with a new tour guide—Mina! I absolutely loved her and I’m so glad I emailed the company to request a change of tour guide. They were going to give us the same one as Jerusalem… and it was just painful. Mina took us to the top of the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa to chat about what we were going to see today and do and a bit of Israeli/Palestinian history.
Recommendation: Go for it! It’s such a gorgeous view of the gardens and the sea. Can’t miss when you’re in Haifa.
Shopping and Bathroom in Nazareth
We stopped at a little shop in Nazareth to use the free restroom (not common) and shop a bit. I got a super cute piece of pottery and drank some pomegranate juice! Recommendation: Go for it! We didn’t have much time for shopping today either, so I’m glad we bought stuff when we did. Also, pro tip:
keep tissues on you when traveling
Israel… most bathrooms do not
have toilet paper.
