ReedandPam

On the ship, but not ship-shape

Rather than try to plug in pictures and hope they are in order, I'll just give an update and then select random pictures and not worry about order.

It rained all night in Dubai so we stayed in. We had our morning meeting with about 75 other Jones advisors and as many spouses. We had to have our bags packed before the meeting and we hoped to see them on the ship. We piled into busses and in 20 minutes were checking in for the ship.

Our bags showed up at 5:30 just in time for our reception at 7. The good news is our rum-runners made it through. I took a picture of them by a mirror, so it looks like there are a lot more. My plan was to get the untimed soft drink package which showed machines like at Burger King where you pick your beverage via a touch screen. The special cups have chips in them and won't let you refill until a few minutes pass. The reality was you had to find a bar and the bartender hunted about for a 2-liter bottle and poured a drink. Oh well!

We met some good folks at the reception with finger food and I went to dinner (our seating was at 8:30) and Pam hit the rack. We changed to the 6:00 seating and were assigned a table for the rest of the cruise.

The first stop was Khasab-Oman where we took a shuttle to town and there was nothing there. I'm not sure why they stop there, unless there is just no other port available. We purchased a couple diet cokes, Advil, and Pam of course bought some scarves!

I could feel a cold coming on, probably from being in the rain, but we made it to dinner and found we were siting with a couple from London and that no one else showed up at their table the night before. They were worried they'd be alone. Shortly after two more British couples arrived and we had an enjoyable evening. The men were cousins and they had each married a Jackie so It made things easier.

That night I got my classic full blown cold. Up and down all night and could hardly talk in the morning. We had booked a tour of the Wadi (river) so we pushed on, found our guide among the 50 guys trying to hawk tours.

We had a private tour and it wasn't what we had hoped for, but had a good guide who answered Pam's 100's of questions. He took us to a different Wadi that was near by and much more interesting. We had seen enough so he drove us back to the ship and I tried to sleep in the back of the SUV.

I mustered up enough energy for dinner back with the Brits, but then bedtime.

Today, Day 4 of the cruise, we may venture into the Souks (old town shops) and explore. We are out to sea tonight and the next night and arrive in Abu Dhabi.