First-Timer's Guide to Taking a Mano Cruise

 

Having just returned from a Mano Cruise, I want to share my impressions and offer some tips I wish we had known in advance.

If the name Mano Cruise is not familiar to you, you probably live outside of Israel. Mano Cruise is Israel's (only?) cruise line with a total fleet of one cruise ship and a maximum capacity of 2000 passengers.

The Boarding Process

During the war, the Mano ship (the Crown Iris) leaves from Ashdod rather than from Haifa. The train stops in Ashdod and a Mano rep will guide you to the port. Convenient private parking is available for 40 NIS/day.

Once you get to the port area, you'll be asked to show your passport. From there, walk 3-4 minutes to the free shuttle buses that take you to the terminal. Luggage is stored under the bus.

Once at the terminal, you queue up to check your luggage and get your all-important Mano card which is also your room key. Your luggage will be tagged with your room number and, by the time you board the ship, your luggage should be at your door.

Items you didn't check are scanned and then you go through Passport Control. There's a duty free shop in the terminal and also a Passport Card representative in case you haven't already bought travel insurance.

Once you step outside the terminal, the ship is right there. Just before you board, you will need to surrender your passport. You can pick it up at the end of your cruise by going to the Reception desk with your Mano card.

In all, the boarding process was very efficient. It took us less than 30 minutes from start to finish. Everyone boards on Deck 2. Your Mano card will be scanned each time you enter and exit the ship.

Things We Eventually Figured Out

Your room and three meals a day are included. Everything else costs extra. 

Literally everything else.

There are seven bars on the ship and they all offer the same basic menu.

To purchase hot or cold drinks, snacks, alcohol, popcorn, cotton candy, etc., you need to add money to your Mano card. If you have a balance at the end of the cruise, you can get a refund from Reception desk the morning you disembark.

The only place on the ship to refill a water bottle with something other than tap water is near the bar on the 10th floor.

The cold water station

Late at night, you will get a schedule of events for the next day slipped under your door. It will be in Hebrew unless you go to Reception and ask that an English version be delivered to your room. Kiosks throughout the 5th floor have the daily schedule and other information in English.

Walk around each deck (there are 11 in the ship and nine are accessible to passengers) to get oriented. To get to some function rooms, you have to walk through a corridor of cabins.

If you have a bigger than average, ahem... caboose, some of the cup seats will be a little tight. But there are plenty of other seating options all over the ship, including cushioned window seats.

These seats can be a tight squeeze for some.

The Food

For kosher consumers, the big draw of a Mano Cruise is that all the food served is kosher. There is plenty of variety, although many options appear over and over at every meal. Breakfast was virtually identical each day, as were the salad selections at every meal.

We ate in the largest dining hall called The Seven Seas. Other guests were assigned to smaller dining halls where I was told that the same food was served. 

There are no numbers on the tables even though your Mano card will have a table number on it. Guests are free to sit anywhere and table sizes ranged from 2-8.

OPINION: The prepared foods are tasty, but there were many dishes that were served lukewarm or even cold. This is a common problem with buffet style dining where hundreds of portions are prepared in advance and not unique to Mano.

IKEA, I'm looking at you.

There is a fresh preparation station that served omelettes at breakfast and grilled meats for lunch and dinner.

Some packaged foods in the Duty Free shop did not appear to have a hechsher.

You can get coffee and black tea at breakfast. Any other time of day, you have to buy hot drinks at one of the bars. There are also carafes of orange drink (not juice) at breakfast.

Only cold water is served at lunch and dinner. For other drinks, such as soda or juice, you have to buy a drink package or pay for them individually with the balance on your Mano card.

You can order sugar-free and/or gluten-free desserts from the wait staff.

There is no place to wash for bread in the Seven Seas dining hall. You have to leave the dining hall and wash in a nearby bathroom. A washing cup is provided.

There are five specialty restaurants serving other cuisines. The cost for a full meal at the restaurants we saw was 25€ (about 100 NIS) not including a tip. Since we had already paid for our meals, we did not eat in any of these restaurants.

The Classic Room

We booked a Classic Room, the smallest and cheapest kind. Ours had a window, which we were not expecting, and that was a nice surprise. 

The two beds in the Classic Room can be pushed together or separated. The advantage of separating the beds is that it is easier to get in and out of bed. Floor space in a Classic Room is at a premium.

Once you've unpacked, you have to store your luggage in your room, so you might want to consider bringing soft luggage that can be reduced to a smaller size when empty.

We found the beds decently comfortable, although only flat sheets are used, so if you toss and turn, the linens will come completely undone.

The water in the shower was hot HOT HOT and the water pressure was surprisingly good.

Classic Rooms have a USB port and plugs for Israeli connections near each bed. Other plug types can be accommodated in other parts of the cabin.

Classic Rooms do not have a safe in the room, but the higher end rooms do.

The bathroom in our room was raised and required taking a big step to enter and leave the bathroom. For those who are mobility challenged, that could be a hassle, especially in the middle of the night,

What Some People Told Us They Brought

Immersion heater and a thermos to have hot beverages throughout the day without having to pay 3-5€ each time.

Triple plug extenders to be able to plug in more than once device at a time.

Non-slip bathmat.

Power banks to charge phones.

Filter pitcher to filter drinking water.

Sugar-free sweetener of their choice.

The Ship

The ship is clean and in good repair. We had some loose tiles in our shower and they were regrouted before we even reported the issue.

There are over 600 crew members, mostly from the Philippines and India. You can hardly walk 2 meters on the ship without seeing a crew member. They were uniformly friendly and accommodating and everyone we interacted with spoke English. The young woman checking our Mano cards before each meal picked up a few words of Hebrew and said, "L'hit'ra'ot Mami," unironically every time I left the dining hall.

The ship was constantly being cleaned. Our room was refreshed twice a day.

There is a small synagogue on the 5th floor. The men's section had about 20 seats and the women's section had about six seats.

The ship's synagogue. Photo credit: Tatyana Yassenov

There are three pools and a jacuzzi. All are outdoors on Deck 10. The pools are small and access to the main pool is with a ladder, as opposed to steps. The other pool is accessed by climbing up to the 11th floor deck and shooting yourself through a twisted yellow water slide.

Yeah, we didn't do that. In fact, since our cruise was in November, we didn't use the pools at all. The jacuzzi, when it was in use, was packed. I can only imagine that, during a summer cruise, the small pools would be hopelessly overcrowded.

The main pool which I think was filled with ocean water.

The jacuzzi, emptied at night.

There are three sets of elevators - one in the front, one in the middle and one in the back of the ship. They are small, slow and often packed. Leave extra time if you need to be somewhere else on the ship at a particular time.

During luggage loading and unloading, the middle set of elevators cannot be used by guests.

OPINION: We found navigating around the ship confusing at times. When exiting the elevators, we were never sure which direction to turn to get back to our room. There is signage, but it's limited.

OPINION: If you don't drink, gamble or speak fluent Hebrew, the activities on the ship are limited. Unless you appreciate a good towel-folding workshop.

OPINION: The evening entertainment is cheesy and often not tzanua.

The gym, located inside the Wellness Center, is small and the free weights only go up to 10 pounds. On the other hand, I regularly clocked 6-7000 steps a day just moving around the ship.

There are a couple of rooms where games can be played and games are available from the Reception desk.

If you misplace something on the ship, there's a lost and found at Reception, We were easily able to retrieve my husband's hat which got waylaid somewhere along the way.

We definitely felt the movement of the boat more than on a larger cruise ship, but it wasn't hard to manage. Our room was on a low deck and in the middle of the ship which is ideal for avoiding seasickness. Movement is said to be most pronounced in rooms at the front of the ship and on higher floors.

RUMOR: Returning passengers get a 10% discount on future cruises.

WiFi Access

Hold your nose and pay for WiFi access if you can't be completely unreachable. It's not cheap.

Here's my best tip:
Put your phone on airplane mode when not in use. You can download email and WhatsApp messages while online and read them offline. You can also respond while offline and your response will be sent the next time you log in.

To log in, you will need to create an account using the number on your Mano card number and a password. Every time you log in, you will get an update on how many MB of data you have left.

We didn't stream any video and only logged in to check messages and respond to what was most urgent.

Kids Programming and Wellness Center

These things exist on the ship. We have no personal experience with either of them. 

Disembarking Process

Expect to tip 5€ (about 20 NIS) per person per night for housekeeping and the same for wait staff in the dining hall. For our four-night trip, we paid a total of 80€ (about 315 NIS) in tips. You'll be given an envelope in your room the night before disembarking and one on the table in the dining hall at your last dinner. Rumor has it that tips are split among all crew members.

Your luggage will be collected the night before disembarking and brought to the terminal for you. This is optional but very helpful so you don't have to schlep your luggage while disembarking. Keep a small bag or backpack for the things you need the last night (i.e. toothbrush, pajamas, etc.) and your valuables. You will retrieve your luggage at the terminal after passport control.

Remember to pick up your passport from Reception the night before disembarking and also getting reimbursed for the balance on your Mano card.

After you collect your luggage, a shuttle bus will take you to the parking lot which is a short walk to the front entrance where you can get a taxi to your final destination.

For more information, there's a Facebook group called Sailing with Mano Cruises - English Speakers Q&A (https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1GyoHkAKeX/) which I just found.

If you've been on a Mano Cruise and have more to add or want to offer a correction, please comment below.

The Paradox of Redemption

  

The Paradox of Redemption

Just as the seventh plague rained down
Hailstones and fire – an unnatural mix -

Light and darkness
Are holding hands now.
Knit together in some Divine, inscrutable pattern.

Grief and relief.
Misery and miracle.
Anguish and exhilaration.

How am I meant to contain this paradox?

Breathe into my ear, “It’s Redemption.”
Help me hold onto the fiercely shaking rope
just a little longer.

 

 

© Rivkah Lambert Adler, 2024

 

Winter in Jerusalem

Winter in Jerusalem

 

The rains will return soon. This
year I will notice the wet stones
of Jerusalem
and call them art.

I will cherish the sweet, fat flesh
of February’s yellow peppers
the same way I admire
the sunlight that
illuminates the arcs of water
my arms draw in the air
when I backstroke my way
through July.

Soon, I will burrow into my warm boots and grey sweatshirt,
thin and soft with age.

I will inhale the strawberry scent that perfumes
Israel’s winter.
I will fill my husband’s belly with soup.
I will kindle the lights of Chanukah
with visitors I love and
cry when they
leave.

And I will bless You,
Master of All, for inviting me to witness
another season.

 

© Rivkah Lambert Adler, 2024

 

But I’m Old Now

 

 

 But I'm Old Now

But I’m old now. Not
walker with green-yellow tennis balls old, not
yet.

But those who were young mothers alongside me are
grey (or white-haired) now.

Our faces, lined with lives more lived than not yet lived.
Our jowls, softened with years.

Each summer, I float in blue pool water on my back,
face tipped to the sun.
The joy of it makes me weep. I
take less for granted.

A good day is when I can
read for six hours and not trouble
to work. I work

sometimes, but my career is more past
tense than future.

I found myself
long ago.
My soul
dominates mostly these days,
except
about pizza, the body
still holds sway.

Just as I failed
to learn the stories of my own grandparents (I should have forced them to tell me
their secrets),
my grandchildren
won’t know me. Not really.

Afternoon naps are more frequent and
sweeter. And

even so, I have work yet to do. I’m making plans

Still.  

 

Ninety-Seven Days

 

 Ninety-Seven Days

Ninety-seven walk through glue days.
In a row.
Soul rubbed raw.

For better or worse, the inside of everything is showing now.

My eyes are dust. The harshest images
defy tears.
I cry only from that which is tender.

Too much of this. Not
Enough of that.

Half my heart is severed.
And half soars towards redemption.

Finally.

Bearing Witness... While We Still Can (A Photoblog)

 

This is a map of Gaza and what Israelis call Otef Aza, the Gaza envelope. These are the Jewish communities that wrap around the border of Gaza and are within 7 Km (4 miles) of the rocket launchers in Gaza.

Today, along with dozens of other English-speaking Jews from the Greater Jerusalem area, we visited five of the sites connected with the massacre of October 7.

Our first stop was Kibbutz Be'eri, one of the communities that was the hardest hit. While waiting for kibbutz member Yardi Tzemach to show us some of the devastation of his community, I noticed on the sign that Kibbutz Be'eri was established in October 1946. That's nearly two years before the founding of the State of Israel.

The pastoral Kibbutz Be'eri had 1200 members prior to the morning of October 7, 2023. Twenty-seven hours later, approximately one in 12 kibbutz members were dead.

By the time our group arrived in early January, the bodies and blood had long ago been cleared away. This sign, as well as the Hebrew spray painted on the house announces that ZAKA, Israel's leading non-governmental rescue and recovery organization, certified the house as free of human remains.

What remained were the devastating signs of total destruction. Aside from the live artillery fire from the nearby war in Gaza, the first sound that impacted me was the jangling of nearly 50 pairs of human feet walking over shattered roof tiles. If you have ever been to Israel, you will likely recognize these as the mangled remnants of the distinctive orange roof tiles common to Jewish communities throughout the Land.

I bent over and took possession of a small piece of one of the tile fragments from one of the worst-hit homes, a somber souvenir.

Amidst the utter rubble, it is still possible to pick out what was once the family's oven and dishwasher, with dishes still inside.

Over and over, I was struck by the artifacts of normal life that somehow survived - spots of color amidst so much charred grey.

We heard the story of Yardi's brother Shachar who was one of a small number of men who fought against the terrorist invasion until 2:30 in the afternoon. Shachar was killed at the site of the kibbutz clinic just 30 minutes before the IDF arrived.

Our second stop was Shokeda, a religious moshav very close to Be'eri that was saved by an open miracle. On the morning of October 7, which was Shabbat as well as Simchat Torah, an IDF helicopter was downed, hit by Hamas fire, and landed in the fields of Shokeda. Fifty IDF soldiers emerged from the downed chopper and killed dozens of terrorists before they made it into the entrance of the moshav.

There's a lot of empty land in this part of Israel. Our next stop was a huge tract of land where thousands of cars that were shot or burned on October 7 were brought. At this site, mounds and mounds of burned out automotive carcasses were visible.

And in the middle of all of them, someone climbed up the pile of automotive rubble and planted an Israeli flag.

About six weeks ago, an unprecedented decision was made to bury the cars still believed to contain human remains.

From the car yard, we went to Re'im, the site of the Nova music festival. All across the site are small memorials to the nearly 400 festival goers who were murdered there.

This memorial marked the spot where the dead body of one of the bartenders, Yaron Efraim, was found.

Throughout the field are poles with pictures of the victims.

Some of the poles are further decorated with small remembrances, such as stones and candles.

On this sign bearing the names of the 394 victims, three additional names are handwritten on the bottom left.

Our last stop was just outside of the religious moshav called Shuva, not far from Netivot. In the early days of the war, one family of brothers started feeding soldiers coming directly from the battlefront in northern Gaza. Their early efforts have blossomed and now the site feeds thousands of soldiers each and every day.

After a very hard day, bearing witness to bitter barbarism, being pounded again and again by the price our fellow citizens - the maimed and murdered, the burned, the injured, the captives and the displaced are paying - Shuva was a carnival.

We dropped off the bags and bags of purchases we brought to donate to the Shuva store, where soldiers can come and take anything they need - from tea bags to toiletries to thermals.

Joyful music played. Volunteers cooked and served burgers to the soldiers. We heard from one of the brothers about how their humble project has grown and grown and how the people of Israel just want to help.

This sign reads: v'ahavta l'reacha kamocha - Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Rabbi Akiva says: "'You should love your fellow as yourself' is a basic principle of the Torah.”

It was, finally, at Shuva, enveloped in so much kindness, that I was overcome with tears. Click here to donate to the inspiring Shuva Brothers project.

Today, I witnessed the consequences of some of the most debased actions of humanity.

And I ended the day so fiercely proud of the inherent goodness of my people who, though battered and bleeding, want nothing more than to help.

NOTE: The government announced today that they will start allowing displaced citizens to return to their homes in certain parts of Otef Aza as early as mid-February. These trips will only be available for a short time. To join a trip scheduled for late January, contact Rabbi Moshe Rothschild at rabbimoshe@israelalliance.org.