End of the cruise - Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and the long trip home

The sea days after our unexpected stop at Jeddah were uneventful, although sailing through the "High Risk Area" did have visible effects on the cruise.  In particular, no-one was allowed on the Promenade Deck (deck 7 which goes all the way around the ship) after 10pm - basically to allow the security staff out there to maintain night vision.
Anyway, we eventually got through that area and also the Strait of Hormuz - which isn't exactly a peaceful area of the world either - and then on to Abu Dhabi as scheduled.

Abu Dhabi

Had a few issues here. 
I was originally going to do a shore excursion that goes to the Sheik Zayed Mosque and then on to the Emirates Palace Hotel where a coffee with gold flakes was part of the afternoon tea.  I knew that the dress code for the mosque was quite strict (particularly for women) and I thought I had sorted it out - including a head scarf which I bought for the purpose as I never wear them.  However, after a further number of mixed messages from the ship's shore excursions department I reached the conclusion that I didn't have clothes that both covered me adequately for the mosque (i.e. only part of the body that's allowed to show is the face and hands) but that was also suitable to wear in the fancy hotel.  So, I cancelled the excursion and Paul and I decided just to get a shuttle to the Marina Mall (which was the only shuttle on offer).  This may have been a mistake.
First, the shuttle driver dropped us off at a really unlikely looking spot - in the middle of a car park with no markings about it being a drop-off or pick-up point.  But, a few of us asked him and he insisted this was the pick-up spot.  We then started wandering towards the mall, and some guy who didn't introduce himself went running around to a few of the groups who still hadn't gone inside and said that the pick-up spot is "on the other side of the mall under the tower".  Now, this is one of the biggest malls in Abu Dhabi, certainly nowhere near the biggest in the world or anything (my research indicates that it would  only just come into the top 20 of Australian shopping malls) but still pretty big.  So, "the other side of the mall" wasn't all that helpful, and you can't see the tower from immediately outside so that wasn't any sort of help either.  Paul and I wandered off inside and started looking at the shops while also aiming to find all the exits to see if we could find the proper place for the shuttle.  And, eventually we did - still no signs or anything, but we were lucky enough to walk out that exit just as another shuttle arrived.  So, that was good, and we even managed to back-track and find another passenger from our shuttle and tell her where to go - we had seen her earlier and she was quite distressed about how she and her husband would get back to the ship.
During this time, we picked up a brochure about the mall so we could use the map, and in it discovered that the public decency laws in Abu Dhabi are more strict than I had understood.  In particular, they said that holding hands in public - which Paul and I do almost as a matter of course - is an unacceptable public display of affection.  I found it really troublesome to try to remember not to hold hands.  I've since done some more research and found that we probably wouldn't have been jailed if someone had taken offense - because we're married and so holding hands in public would be "tolerated".
They also make a deal about providing 'free Wifi' in the mall, but in fact you can only get free wifi if you have a UAE phone number, which means that it's useless for the vast majority of tourists.
On the bright side though, in amongst all the chain type stores in the mall (Zara, Marks & Spencer, Tim Hortons, Tony Romas and Starbucks just to name a few) we came across a gem of a cafe where we bought the best coffee we've had since leaving Australia! 

Dubai

Got to Dubai the next day and kicked off the ship as usual. 
By this stage the cough I'd had over the previous few days had developed to include full-blown laryngitis and I was feeling fairly miserable, which put a hole in some of our plans.  Dubai airport is NOT the sort of place that you want to spend 8 or 10 hours waiting for a plane, so we had booked a day room at a hotel in the city.  The idea was to get a place that had a shuttle to the Dubai Mall and to see if I/we could get a ticket up to the top of the Burj Khalifa.  But, in the end I didn't really feel up to this at all - so the closest we got was a view of the Burj Khalifa from the hotel room (they actually charge more for rooms with that view - I didn't book one of those rooms but we ended up in one anyway). We paid about $125 for the day room which was worth every cent as the bathroom unexpectedly included a lovely big bath!
We left the hotel a bit before 4pm as planned (they only have day bookings from 10am to 4pm) and went to the airport, still almost an hour too early to check in.  As usual at DXB there was nowhere to sit, although eventually we found a Costa coffee store with seats available and sat there while I drank the biggest latte I've ever been given - seriously it was a proper hot latte in a milkshake container!
No actual dramas with the flights apart from the fact that they're too long and I'm getting too old to tolerate economy class seats for long flights.  If we can't afford business class next year, we're not going.

20 November - sea day, but with an unexpected stop

Last night the captain announced that there had been another medical emergency and that we're about to have another diversion for a medical evacuation.  The idea was that it would be similar to the others; the ship would come in close to port - this time Jeddah in Saudi Arabia - and a small launch would be sent out to pick up the sick person and we would be on our way.  This was going to happen in the early hours of the morning, maybe 3 or 4 am.
I woke up around 4am and it looked like this was going to happen - we were sailing slowly quite close to a large city and clearly waiting (as we changed direction a few times).

Large city building complete with advertising:

However, we were then really surprised to see that the ship started sailing in to port and eventually we docked.  The captain said later that the port authorities had insisted on this.  There was an ambulance and a couple of official cars all with flashing lights, and we docked quite quickly - by around 7am.

Photos of the port and of the city:

Two people got off the ship, one in a wheelchair, but we were really surprised to see that she then got up and started walking around. I know that you can be quite sick and still able to walk, but it was a bit surprising, and she kept walking around and was obviously involved in discussions with various people for some time. Some luggage was also brought off the ship.  And then we waited, and waited.  An hour or so later the ambulance was still there and over time a whole bunch of different official looking persons had arrived in official looking cars, and then left. 

By around 9:30 the captain said we'd be leaving in about 5 or 10 minutes "as soon as the last bureaucratic things had been sorted" - it's possible that a third person was taken off the ship and put into the ambulance; we couldn't see and of course they don't share any information about these things.  Anyway, all of this took about 4 hours, but we did finally get underway and the captain said that we will still be able to make it to Abu Dhabi, which is a good thing; in our experience a delay this long would often cause us to miss the next port.

19 November - sea day with Pirate Drill

I went to an earlier security talk where they explained a lot about the way that pirates operate in this area.  Bottom line is that the pirates are still unlikely to be able to take on a cruise ship, but the crew still aren't taking any risks, so we had an all ship drill.  The security guys aren't going to share much detail of course, but it does sound like among other things they have high pressure hoses to try to stop anyone from boarding; that's a pretty standard approach.  Definitely no firearms though.
The drill started with the pretense that pirates had managed to get onboard on deck 4, and that there was a fire there and that they'd had to move the medical centre to its alternate location.  Of course the passengers aren't involved in that part of it, but we do get to hear all the PA announcements.  Our part of it was that when they identified the possible pirates, we had to go to our stateroom, pull the curtains shut, and stay there, preferably sitting somewhere safe as in the real situation part of the ship's defences would be high speed turns which would make the ship list, and they don't want people to be injured when this happens.
From the pirate drill they continued on to the standard evacuation drill you always have to attend at the start of the cruise.  The deal is that some of the passengers are soon to reach 30 days on board (for example the ones who boarded in Southampton and are continuing past Dubai) and those people are obliged to do another drill.  And, they didn't make the drill at Civitaveccia mandatory for those of us who had all been onboard - instead they made us all attend this one.  It's really painful; not quite as bad as the Ovation of the Seas one but appalling music and because it's all pre-recorded it's aimed at people who are just boarding.  One interesting thing though - they had to delay the start of this part of the drill because they actually use artificial smoke for realism in the fire-fighting part of the drill, and some of the smoke had leaked into one of the passenger muster areas, so they delayed the drill until they could get rid of it.
Apart from that, just a standard day at sea.

18 November - Petra

The ship docked early this morning at Aqaba.  I had to be in the Wheelhouse Bar at 7am ready to leave for the excursion to Petra.
Normally the issues at Petra are with heat - it can exceed 40 degrees, and with the rock and sand all around it can be extremely hot.  However, it's getting on towards winter and so the forecast maximum today was 13 degrees which I found to be completely comfortable.
It's two hours each way on the bus to Petra, which is a long time for only spending 3 hours on site, but I think it was worth it.  I was only up to walking as far as the Treasury - distance wise it would have been fine but it's a relatively steep downhill walk all the way and although the downhill walk getting there is fine, I was quite sure I'd not make the walk back.

15 & 16 November - sea day and Suez Canal

Spent the 15th heading towards Port Said.  We arrived there in the afternoon as expected and the first thing we have to do is wait, as ships go through the canal in convoy starting early in the morning.

The captain said he didn't know exactly when we'd start - maybe 4am.  As it happens the ships thrusters woke me a bit after 3am and we got up, but really not a lot exciting happened - basically all the ships just got lined up in position to start.

This is one of the first 'almost daytime' shots; we're already in the canal here.  The two little boats immediately behind us are tug boats, and the ship behind them is one of the other two cruise ships in this convoy - the Norwegian Jade.  

 

The other cruise ship is in front of us - it's a much smaller ship called the Ocean Dream that's not with any of the mainstream cruise lines.  However, in another life it was the Pacific Star - a P&O ship based in Brisbane. 

Altogether today there were 22 ships in our south-bound convoy and 42 ships in today's north-bound convoy.

Early shot of the canal, somewhere near the northern end

Tuk Tuk - heading along the highway faster than the ship

Bridge that can be opened across the canal

The canal now separates into two lanes here, so the northbound and southbound convoys can pass each other

Sinai - the port side southbound - generally much drier than the 'Egypt' side

Lots of ferries that duck across between ships

And another swinging bridge - you can see it's not ready to be used yet

A few of the ships behind us

And two going in the other direction

Not all the ships using the canal are huge

First, the start of a long line-up of trucks waiting to use another opening bridge. Then, others at the same place were using a ferry but I suppose the ones waiting for the bridge were just too big for the ferry:

Out of the canal, looking back at one of the container carriers still making its way around the last corner at Port Suez:

Next stop is Aqaba, with another sea day in between.  We had another small diversion overnight - another medical evacuation to a city in Egypt, but we're now well on our way to Jordan.

14 November - Rhodes

In Rhodes the ship docks right beside the old city, and we decided that we would just walk off the ship and have a look around.  The main thing I wanted to see was the Archaeological Museum, which we managed to find without too much trouble.  It was really impressive - a lot of displays in a building which is itself quite old and majestic.
Unfortunately Paul was taken ill by the time we finished looking around the museum; not sure if it's something he ate or if he was suffering from "land sickness". Although I've never known Paul to get seasick, the really rough journey across from Naples to Santorini had him taking seasickness tablets for the first time, and it's quite possible that this is a hangover from that rough ride. Anyway, as I'm writing this, Paul is hopefully sleeping off whatever ails him.
Next stop - well, not really a stop - is the long-awaited trip through the Suez Canal

12 & 13 November - sea day and Santorini

Not long after we were all back on board in Naples, the captain advised that we'd be missing another port - the authorities at the port of Messina had banned any access by cruise ships on 12 November because of oncoming bad weather.  So, instead of going to Messina on 12 November and then at sea on the 13th, we ended up at sea on the 12th - running from the worst of the storm - and then stopping at Santorini on the 13th.
The captain said the forecast was for winds up to 45 knots (83kph) once we left the Strait of Messina, but he understated it a little.  The sea certainly got very rough, and it stayed that way all through 12 November and that night too.  Later the captain said that the winds had been as high as 60 to 70 knots (110 - 130 kph!!) for a lot of that time.  I'm glad we weren't in the worst of the storm!!!!
Unfortunately, as we're at the front of the ship, we get to hear (and feel) lots of huge thumps and bangs as the ship hits the waves.  And because we're up high, we get quite a rock and roll on.  Very tricky to change for formal dinner when you can hardly stand up!
And, the formal dinner was an annoyance anyway.  I simply don't like dressing up for dinner, so we booked to eat dinner at one of the specialty restaurants on Wednesday 13th, which was scheduled to be a formal night (it's counter-intuitive, but you don't have to dress formally to eat in the specialty restaurants on formal night).  Basically as soon as I had made that booking, the captain announced we'd be missing Messina.  And as a result of that, they changed the formal night to the 12th, so I ended up having to get dressed up in my formal gear anyway.
Santorini is a lovely place, but just the same we decided not to go ashore today.  We have seen most of the things we really wanted to see, and although we would have gone ashore anyway if the weather was nice, it was not.  The day started off cloudy but with rain forecast, but by 1pm it was "thunderbolts and lightning" everywhere.  All the streets in the area around the port (Firá) are cobbled and I'm not comfortable walking on wet, slippery cobbled streets.  Add to that the need to take a water shuttle both ways, and the no-doubt huge lines for the cable car and it just wasn't our idea of fun.  (The 500-odd steps up are a risk on any day because you're sharing them with donkeys and donkey-poo, but on a day like today they'd be deadly, so the cable car was the only choice).  In any case, our Mediterranean cruise next year is also due to stop at Santorini, and although there's still no guarantee about the weather (we'll be here on 16 November 2020) there will be a much better choice of excursions.  They actually managed to get together about 5 excursions for today - pretty good given that they had almost no time to do so - but on next year's cruise there are 26 excursions to choose from.

Naples 11 November

Today we did a Princess shore excursion that was actually run by a guide called Aldo from "Eating Europe".
It was basically a walking tour, starting from the ship - because the port is right in the centre of Naples.  As the name of the company suggests, the tour was mostly about the food of Naples, but Aldo also explained some of the history of the city as we walked around.
First stop was for some coffee - I tried an espresso for the first time.  It was good strong coffee but I think I'll stick with my preferred cafe latte.
Then we tried some fried pasta - basically fillings as you like between layers of cooked noodles mixed with egg and then all deep fried.  I really liked it, Paul didn't.
Then we went to a pizza restaurant. First course was a huge chunk of delectable buffalo mozzarella with fresh basil and the best tomatoes I have eaten in many years.  Then we had half of a Margherita Pizza each, and again, the best one I have ever tried.  When we get home, we are going to try out one (or more) of the Canberra restaurants that promise "Napoli Style" pizza, and if we find one even half as good as today, we're going to become regulars.
Final stop was at Ke'Kaffe for a sfogliatella which I'd never tried before, and which was completely delicious. Although to me it's a dessert, I'm assured that coffee and sfogliatella is a classic breakfast!
And although Aldo assured us that there are some things that you don't ever put on pizza - number one among them being pineapple which he assured us is an abomination! - apparently not all the pizza places in Naples agree.  We walked by one store just as a young man was walking out eating on his slice of pizza - thick pizza dough with sauce topped with meatballs and cheese (and maybe other things) and then with french fries on top of that, and all then fried!!  I love greasy fried food, but that was too much even for me.....

Civitavecchia 10 November

Civitavecchia is the port for Rome, but it's quite a long drive.  We have seen most of the sights in Rome that are available on shore excursions and so we decided not to leave the port today.  Not saying I don't want to see Rome again, I do, I just want to actually stay there again.
We did go ashore and got a shuttle into Civitavecchia itself - had a nice coffee and a wander around, and then back onto the ship.  It's not a particularly attractive city, at least not the parts we saw, it seems to be very much just a working port.
This is an interesting day today, because it's a new leg of the cruise - a lot of people have left the ship here and more have joined.  And, although we purchased the entire cruise from Southampton to Dubai as one single cruise, the way the "new cruise" is being managed onboard is really interesting and a bit contradictory:

• Internet access - because of our loyalty status, we get some free internet minutes on each cruise - and of course we had both paid for more minutes on top of that.  We got a new set of free 'loyalty' minutes today, but we lost the rest of the minutes we had previously paid for.
• Coffee card - we both purchased a coffee card at the start of the cruise and we haven't used up all the coffees on either.  It looks like we don't lose those coffees.
• Casino - it's treated as a completely separate cruise; you had to cash in whatever winnings you had on your card last night, or lose them.  Not an issue for us; we've played plenty but as expected, lost plenty  :-)
• Minibar - again because of our loyalty status we get one free minibar set-up per cruise - we always swap it for soft-drinks.  Again, this is treated as a new cruise, so we got a new mini-bar set-up.
• Safety drill - it's not mandatory for us to attend today's new drill, although they strongly recommend that we do.  I'm pretty sure I remember enough of the first one to give this a miss.

Up to now, and for the next three ports, we have had internet access in port because we bought SIM cards (including data) from Three in the UK - they work in lots of places overseas (and not just in the EU, they work in Australia for example).  But, that ends once we leave Rhodes; the last few ports are in countries that aren't part of the Three deal.  Not too big a drama though as we aren't planning to spend any time on our own in Jordan or Abu Dhabi, and we can probably manage to get around in Dubai without too much of a problem.

Florence 9 November

The ship actually stops at the port of Livorno.  The plan today was to do a Princess tour which is called "Florence on your own".  The idea is that they take you to Florence on a bus, drop you there, and pick you up a few hours later.  They are very light on details such as "what time will we arrive in Florence" or "where will we be dropped off" but since the excursion started at 8:00am I hoped we'd be in Florence by 10:30 or so.  So, I booked a guided tour at 11:30 with a group called City Wonders - who we have used before - to show us the Duomo - the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.

View from the bus - snow on the Appenines:

We had a bit of a rocky start.  Of course, there's a tour guide even on a 'drop you in the city' tour like this, and she managed to horrify quite a few of us by saying that we'd only have 3 hours in Florence.  And, although you expect that they'll encourage you to shop at the stores they've picked out, I was appalled when she basically claimed that you'd almost certainly end up in hospital with food poisoning if you didn't eat at their recommended restaurant.

Anyway, it turns out that we had quite a lot more than three hours.  We got into Florence a little after 10:30, and even though we went through the "presentation" in one of their shops, we managed to find our way to the City Wonders pick-up spot with no drama.  And their tour was just excellent.  Of course being out of peak tourist season it wasn't quite as crowded but the queues were still really long, and with this tour we skipped them all.  And, we only had two other people on the tour, and went into places that most people aren't allowed.  The guide explained so many interesting things about the church and the history of Florence; as I said, I was really impressed.  Just one example - this is a painting of Sir John Hawkwood, which she used to explain both his story and his relevence to Florence, and the use of perspective in paintings:

As part of the tour, we could have climbed right up to the top of the dome - 464 steps - but I wasn't really up to that.  We did get up to the terrace though (157 steps), and got some wonderful views over the city. 

To give an idea of how much further we could have climbed, this is a view from the terrace up to the dome.  Just above where the ribs of the dome meet at the top,you can see some tiny figures.  To get up there, you climb inside the dome - there is an inner and outer skin, and you climb up between the two.

 

The tiny gold ball on top of the tower above:

is actually big enough for three people to stand inside!  It has fallen twice, once in the 1400s and once in the 1600s, both times after being hit by lightning.  Both times, it landed in the plaza in exactly the same place - they've actually put a marble marker in the plaza to show where:

The tour officially ended in the cathedral, but the tickets that come with it allowed us to go into the crypt underneath.  It's not really a crypt; it's the remains of earlier churches that have been built on top of over time.
This is the tomb of the architect responsible for the dome:

And some other parts of the crypt:

Afterwards, we found a little cafe where we purchased some (non-food-poisoned) lunch.  Then, we asked the maps app to show us the museums in the area - there are dozens! - and aimed for the Galileo Museum.  This was a treasure - heaps of really impressive displays.

We then just wandered back to the meeting area and were driven back to the ship, with a bit of sight-seeing around Florence on the way.  All in all a great day, and Florence is now added to my list of cities I'd love to go back and see.

Toulon 8 November

We caught the shuttle boat over to Toulon from where the ship docks at La Seyne Sur Mer.  Toulon has a huge navy base, so lots of interesting sights on the way.

It certainly made me realise just how big cruise ships are - our ship is nowhere near the biggest in the world but it's bigger than any navy ship we saw today.  Toulon is also the home port for the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle which wasn't in port, but our ship is almost 30 metres longer.

Our first stop was at the Maritime Museum.  Although the displays are mostly labelled in French, some have English translations.  And, surprisingly, they have an audio guide which is available in English.  We spent a fair bit of time here because there was a lot of interesting stuff.

We had a bit more of a look around then decided it was time for lunch.  We opted for a French take on an American burger restaurant - Baroque Burger - and it was just excellent.

Then we did a choo-choo train type tour around the town; not really worth the money but we did see a few points of interest.  The bombardment of the city by the allies during WW2 was mentioned enough times to make it clear that there are still bitter memories though.

Finally, we went back to the ship and walked to one of the two forts on the La Seyne Sur Mer side.  With a bit more time and energy we'd have walked to the second one - which is a museum and garden, unlike the first which is a locked up military site.  However, it was all just a bit too far.

So, back to the ship to rest up for tomorrow's *really* big day in Florence.

Oh, and the Charles de Gaulle arrived while we were having our afternoon nap:

Barcelona 7 November 2019

We had a quiet sea day after Gibraltar, and then a day in Barcelona.  I can understand why Barcelona is such a popular city with tourists, it's simply beautiful.  Our shore excursion concentrated on the buildings of Anton Gaudi, in particular La Sagrada Familia which of course is not yet complete even though construction started in 1882. It already soars over most of the buildings in the city and is going to be much higher once complete.  When I first saw pictures of it I was underwhelmed but it grew on me so by the time we got here I was very keen to see it, even despite knowing that the people of Barcelona don't really want tourists in their city (I had originally planned to stay onboard the ship because of this).
First we saw a couple of other of his works - you can see that he did not believe in straight lines:

And, a few photos of some small parts of the Sagrada Familia, although none of these can really do it justice:

They're hoping to finish it by 2026 and the highest tower will be at least 100 metres higher than any of the current ones - seems to me it will be very much the tallest building in the city and definitely the most amazing.