A word about our photo album. Last evening, we attempted to place pictures on the photo album site from Dubai but after trying several times and thinking that they had posted we could not view them. Earlier today, we removed some of the old photo albums (not all of them but about 20%) and this evening we successfully added the Dubai pictures to the site. The challenge in posting pictures from a cruise ship is that while we are using an Ethernet internet connection the speeds are only a little better than what might experience over a dialup connection.
After we posted last evening the ship set sail from Dubai to Salalah, Oman. We have a couple of days at sea before reaching Salalah.
Keith is feeling better than he did yesterday and hopes to be back to normal in a couple of days. The medicine from the doctor seems to be doing the trick. As we mentioned, we had been taking many pro-active steps to minimize the chance of getting sick from taking plenty of vitamins, to eating lots of fruits and vegetables, to continually washing our hands throughout the day, to not touching the handrails when we walk up and down the stepts, to using the hand wash provided by Crystal multiple times along with our own, to many other items. With that said, we knew the odds were there of getting sick, particularly this time of the year and being in closed confined areas.
We awoke a little later this morning (early for most but late for us) and had a nice breakfast in the Lido Café. The Café was fairly crowded which seems to be the pattern for this new segment of the cruise. Afterwards, we went to the Fitness Center. Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill for an hour and Keith skipped his usual one hour workout on the elliptical machine and instead went on the treadmill for thirty minutes. We also walked in the afternoon on the Promenade Deck. The outside temperature was very comfortable and the seas have been relatively calm.
Being a sea day there have been lots of lectures on the ship today. In the morning, Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI Profiler, Hostage Negotiator and Television News Analyst discussed Psychological Profiling.
In the afternoon, Rocket Scientist and Author Tom Logsdon discussed Dubai, Athens, Istanbul and other colorful ports shot from space.
We had team trivia at 12:00 Noon today and this was the start of trivia for this segment of the world cruise. The good news is that our team finished in first place for today by correctly answering thirteen of fifteen questions. We began today as we did the last few games of the last segment with a strong performance. Let’s hope this continues throughout the cruise.
After team trivia, we went to lunch with a very nice couple who has been on several World Cruises over the past years. They were on the team trivia team that finished in first place during the last segment of the cruise. We enjoyed an excellent lunch in the main dining room and thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful conversation with them.
There were many other activities on the ship today from social to duplicate bridge, to paddle tennis to table tennis. There were many fitness classes from stretching, to yoga to walking. There was registration for those who have just joined the cruise from classes on the computer, to language classes, to a memoir writing classe and so forth. Some of the folks that coordinate these activities are full time Crystal employees such as the sports director or the fitness director while others are on just for a few voyages each year or for the world cruise . Just about all of the folks who are not Crystal employees who coordinate these activities are on for the entire world cruise which is a wonderful opportunity for them. We have gotten to know many of them quite well along with those with spouses. This includes some from the clergy to some of the computer instructors, to some of the other instructors. They have all been so very nice to talk with and very friendly and outgoing.
This evening was the first of four formal nights on this segment of the World Cruise. We went to the Captain’s Welcome Reception before dinner and once again sat with a couple of couples including the couple that we were seated with at the World Cruise Gala who we sit with at most of these receptions. We enjoy each of these receptions as they provide a wonderful opportunity to talk with fellow passengers and crew and to hear from Captain Otto.
Afterwards, we enjoyed another wonderful dinner in the main dining room. We are very happy with our table and the wonderful service from our waiter, senior waiter and head waiter.
We look forward to another wonderful day at sea tomorrow.
Keith & Anne Marie
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