Last night blues

Well tonight is the last night of this cruise 😞 we've had a ball with a great group of old and some new cruise friends.
Sheila and I are staying on for another week, but everyone else in our group are flying home tomorrow. ✈ 😖
No doubt we will meet some new people next week or even see some that we already know.
That's the beauty of cruising regularly with one cruise line, you get to make friends that you see on future cruises. 😀😀😀

Some people are just naturally stupid.

I'll explain this as best I can, but you really needed to be there.
Sheila and I went to the consecutive cruisers meeting, so we could find out the ship's procedure for ending this cruise and starting the next.
Along with getting your new sea pass cards, and what to do if you are going ashore in Dubai to see the sights etc.
It's explained to us that we would receive our new sea passes the night before the end of the cruise.
So on the final day of this cruise, which after 8.30am becomes the first day of the next cruise.
If you want to leave the ship BEFORE 8.30am you just go to the gangway and check off the ship with your old sea pass, and when you return you check back in with your new sea pass.
But if you want to leave the ship anytime AFTER 8.30am you must go to the Schooner Bar AT 8.30AM and have your old sea pass cancelled and your new pass validated.
Then you can leave the ship anytime you want.
Now that might sound a bit complicated but believe me it isn't.
The officer asks are there any questions?
One guy who had to be American, pipes up, what if I want to leave the ship at say 8.27am or 8.44am?
Well sir as one time is before 8.30am and one time after 8.30am, just follow the previously explained procedure.
SOME PEOPLE!

No news is good news, I suppose?

Since we came out of the Suez Canal all the news channels have mysteriously disappeared from the TV.
This could be due to the loss of the satellite signal, but, the more cynical amongst us, me included reckon that the ship has blocked them, due to all the bad terrorism news we've had recently.
This part of the trip, from the end of the Red Sea, into the Gulf of Aden is where the possibility of pirate attacks is, so the ship has armed security, a night time blackout and an open deck lockdown, where passengers are not allowed on the open decks during the hours of darkness.
This is the norm on Suez Canal trips, so those of us who have done it before are not overly worried.
But there are a few passengers who are quite scared, and a bit worried.
So I suppose seeing news about terrorists etc would not help.
Ergo the lack of news channels.
That's my theory anyway.

Meal with an officer 👮

Yesterday we had the usual invitation to have a meal with an officer.
This usually means that you sit on a table for six or so people, and have a set menu meal with wine.
This is just another of the little perks for being diamond plus.
This time we were told that it was going to be a buffet style meal, same sort of no arrangement, but no set menu.
To be honest I didn't really fancy going, what with it just being a buffet which I didn't think would be much good.
But Sheila wanted to go so we did.
How wrong was I, it was brilliant, in fact it was probably the best meal with an officer I've ever been to.
The food was fantastic, the wine flowed, and the two young officers we had on our table where great company.
It turned out that they were the casino manager and his assistant, and at the end of the meal they made a note of all of our cabin numbers and loaded $5 on each of our sea passes to play the casino slots.
Now he cynics among us will say that they only did that to entice us to spend money in the casino.
But I personally think that it was a nice thing to do, and at the same time great PR for the company.
Btw only our table got that, no one else did.  😉

Beatles Celebration

Went to the theatre last night for the first time this cruise.
The Beatles Celebration where on, and as per usual they were brilliant, the place was rocking.
Karl wasn't with them this trip, but the guy who did Paul McCartney in his place was very good.
We found out from the hotel director that they are one of the highest paid acts on Royal Caribbean.
I'm not surprised as they are brilliant.

More terrorists attacks 😱😱

After hearing about the terrible machete attack at the Leytonstone tube station, where a guy apparently attacked three innocent people with a machete because of the Syrian bombings.
We now have heard about the governor of Aden being blown up by so called Islamic terrorists.
If this was being done in the name of the Islamic religion, why are they killing other Muslims?
IMHO, It's got nothing at all to do with religion, they are just political nut cases.
The big problem is that as the attacks increase, people will believe more and more the anti- Muslim propaganda, driving a wedge deeper and deeper between our respective communities.
Omg, that's a rather deep subject for a cruise blog!
So I'll stop.

Industrial ports 😫

Why do these cruise lines insist on docking at industrial ports?
It's a rhetorical question really because I already know the answer.
It's cost, I understand that it costs less to dock in industrial ports ; that's fair enough, I get the fact that the company needs to save money.
But when you are in an industrial port, you are not allowed to walk around the port or even walk to the port gate.
Fine I get that too, it's all to do with safety, but why do the cruise company insist on charging $12 or $15 for the shuttle? It was their choice to dock there, but if we want to visit the town we do not have the option of making our own way. Take Ashdod in Israel as an example, the cruise compass leaflet tells you how nice the town is, but if you want to get out of the port to visit it, it will cost you $15, if you had the option of either walking or getting the shuttle that's fine, but you don't have the option.
The cruise line as usual has you by the balls.
Rant over! Lol