May Peace Be With You...

May Peace Be With You...

4^th May 2011

Yep, today was the Holy Tour! Mariner of the Seas is in Haifa on the north west coast of Isreal. Here’s a bit of information on the city: Haifa is the third largest city and is situated along the Bay of Haifa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. The city has a population of approximately 240,000 inhabitants and spread over three levels of the northern slopes of Mount Carmel. At the top of the summit are the finest properties and hotels. It is often referred to as the “San Francisco of the Middle East”.

The information guide Royal Caribbean published says the city is “a pleasant, sophisticated modern city with two universities, numerous museums, parks, gardens and theatres.” It is also the centre of international trade “commerce and heavy industry”. Haifa’s port is the largest in Israel. The main industries are steel foundaries, food processing, the production of chemicals, textiles and cement. From what I’ve been told there are a few good beaches and large number of religious historical sites throughout the region.

Now for some history. This information was taken from the information guide provided by Royal Caribbean.

“Haifa is first mentioned in the Talmud around the 1^st to 4^th Century A.D. when it was referred to as Sykaminos, Elijah. The Hebrew prophet fled to this city to escape the wrath of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, hiding in a cave near the waterfront. In 1100 the town was conquered by the Crusaders who then called it Caiphas. The Crusaders built the first of several monasteries above Elijah’s cave.

Napoleonic forces took over the city in 1799 and in 1893 Ibrahim Pasha, the great Egyptian general and viceroy captured the Haifa. In 1840 the city surrendered to Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. Close to the end of World War I, in 1918, the British forces occupied the city. This is also the time of the legendary Lawrence of Arabia. In the 1930’s the massive immigration of Jews seeking refuge from Nazism in Europe bought many to Haifa where they became the majority in a formerly Arab dominated city. In 1933 the deep water port was developed under British mandate while in 1939 Haifa’s petroleum refineries were constructed. During the Palestine War of 1948-49 Haifa, which its key port and industries became important to both Arab and Jewish defence forces who fought to control the city. The Arabs surrendered in April 1949 and Haifa was the first territory secured after the Israeli declaration of independence and it became the early industrial centre of the young country Israel.”

This is probably one of the most religious tours we have, after all we are working on the Holy Cruises. The tour Nazareth and Galilee – Jesus Ministry would take approximately 9.5 hours. We’d stop off at Galilee, the region where Jesus spent his youth, River Jordan, Mount of Beatitude, Tabgha, Capernaum and Nazareth.

We all had to obey the following instructions: “Guests should dress conservatively when visiting sacred sites. Clothing should cover the shoulders and knees.”

The bus drove us to a tourist site located next to the River Jordan. The site contained everything religious possible: holy water, sand from the holy land, thorn crowns (with certificates of authenticity – how, I’ll never know) key rings, magnets, jewellery, bibles etc. In the River Jordan people were baptizing themselves. It’s US$50 to baptize yourself and you receive a certificate too. How authentic the certificate is, I’ll never know. There were two tour buses with Koran guests. According to Fede about 50% of the Koran guests were baptised!! Everything was incredibly expensive so many people were steering clear, especially crew. The brave hearted ones were racking up enormous bills. Everywhere you looked there were numerous signs, leaflets, billboards etc. featuring the same phrase: MAY PEACE BE WITH YOU.

Taking photos was quite challenging at times. We were at locations from anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes.

The tour guide was always on the go walking to the next segment of the tour or back to the bus. People thought if they stopped for a photo they’d lose sight of their group. It did happen on a couple of occasions.

I’ve got a few photos which I’ll upload. Next time I go on this tour I’ll be more prepared as to where to take photos, know my way around better and more information on each site. Luci gave me some good tips on how to get people to have their photo taken when they are on the go. I’ll have to remember it for next time.

By the time we all got back, around 18.00h we were all completely shattered. At 23.30 we had retail training (they know how to choose their times!) Although some of it was useful, I knew most of it from working for an estate agency. Having said that, selling properties is very different from cameras. The tactics are different. Plus, I need to study the pros and cons, features and benefits of each of the cameras we have on sale. Not only that, we need to memorize as many of the PLU codes as possible. When the training ended at 02.00 hardly anyone could keep their eyes open.

Tomorrow we are in Ashdod, Israel which is roughly an hour away from Haifa. All the guys who went on tour will be on gangway and gallery tomorrow. The others will be escorting tours in Ashdod.