Subject: Report # 93 Sailing Towards Al Aqaba, Jordan April 2, 2016 Saturday Partly cloudy & 87 degrees
Today is the first day of a four day sailing towards the country of Jordan. Not originally on the 2016 itinerary, Aqaba, Jordan was added later, after all of the ports in Egypt were cancelled. It will be a nice stop for the folks that are new to this trip, but for those of us who were sailing on last year's cruise, it will be a repeat. Many will take the opportunity to visit Petra, the Rose Red City of the ancient Nabataeans. It is a once-in-a-lifetime UNESCO World Heritage Site that we have been lucky enough to visit four times. Don't think we will do it again this year, as we have never seen the port city of Aqaba. So we will stick close to home.
We had a chance to talk with one of our favorite head waiters during breakfast this morning. We discussed how things are changing with the HAL voyages, in particular, the Grand Voyages. He indicated that the breakfast service in the dining room may be changing on future voyages. Leaning towards free-styling, the dining room may be closed for breakfast service on port days, like it is closed for lunch at times while in port. This was not the kind of news we like to hear, as breakfast in here is a wonderful start of our day in port or not in port. "Free-styling" reminds us of another cruise line, not HAL. But come to think of it, the "SOE" logo HAL adopted a few years ago is not being used now. It stood for signature of excellence, reminding us of the reasons we book with HAL in the first place. Elegance, quality, tops in service in all areas, excellent food…..do we need to say more? In our humble opinion, the target group for HAL is not our group anymore, but the younger crowd…… those who want a more relaxed atmosphere with more casual and less gala evenings. The head waiter said he no longer has the job of turning anyone away from the dining room if he thinks they are dressed improperly. Short of wearing swimwear without shoes, anything goes. Speaking for ourselves and our friends, we don't like that. Lower the standards, and you draw a whole different crowd. And it has already begun with this cruise. By repeating the same ports as last year's cruise (well almost), many of the regulars chose to bypass the trip or transfer their booking to the Prinsendam. Lowering the price, which was nice for all of us, attracted many more segment folks. So the feel of the world cruise has been different. Hard to explain, but that's the way we see it. Our head waiter agreed.
We made good progress today, as we are finally caught up with homework. If we had not brought the computer with us on the safari trip, we would have been a week behind even by now. Good feeling to be done.
The weather has remained warm and humid, even though we are in a desert area. The worst of the heat is gone, and there is a nice breeze on the decks. Still there is only a handful of folks relaxing in the teak lounges. Maybe some of that is due to the pirate scare signs on the outside doors. Present always are the security guards doing their job well.
In the meantime, Barbara H spoke about going ashore in Aqaba, Jordan. We need to listen to her talk because we intend to go into Aqaba for a change. Don't remember if the locals will accept US dollars in the hotels or restaurants. They definitely took US dollars for souvenirs in Petra. And of course, credit cards are always welcomed.
A Beautiful Bowl of Soup was the subject of our guest chef who demonstrated her skills in the Culinary Arts Center this morning. Hmm, just happens that is the title of one of her books.
The two guest speakers delivered their series on pirates and ancient inventions, while another workshop on Elizabethan era acting was held in the Hudson Room. Wonder what this is about? Guess we will have to ask someone if they attended.
Once again, we met the girls, Barb and Maureen, for lunch after they finished going to trivia. They love to try to stump us with questions they had trouble with. Sometimes we know the answer, but most times we don't. So we make things up to get them both laughing. Trivia is far too serious on the world cruise, so that's why we don't go.
Lunch was good as they served some favorite entrees. One of us had fish and chips, while the other ordered meatballs and spaghetti. Both were excellent. Another reason we hate it when the dining room closes on some port days, as the food is really nice.
We had an invitation for a special cocktail party on April 5th between 7 and 8pm. It will be held in the Officer's Bar on deck A, and includes guests on deck seven as well as the President's Club members. Should be fun, since we did something similar last year. Except at that time, they served us a proper English dinner. No dinner this time, as there would be too many of us.
There was a rumor that we heard recently regarding the guest speakers and their talks being re-broadcasted on TV later in the day. Well, that was announced while we were gone, but so far, we have not be able to locate any of these lectures. Besides the news and movie stations, all we can find are the HAL channels with their in-house advertising. Will have to check daily now that we have three more days at sea, and lots of lectures happening in the Queens Lounge.
Checking out the information channel on TV, we found that we are now heading into the Gulf of Aden, passing the coast of Yemen. Thinking we would go up to deck nine to check out the sunset, we looked at the info channel to find sunset was at 6:55pm. The daily newsletter stated the sunrise was at 5:25am with sunset being 5:56pm. That was about one hour off of what it should have been. Wonder where they get their info to print in the daily paper? Oddly enough, this has been off the mark more than once since the beginning of the trip.
The show in the Queens Lounge was suitable for a gala night, but shown this evening. Titled Nations, we assume the HAL singers and dancers presented a show featuring the beautiful countries of Europe. Specifically, London in the 60's, the glamour of Paris, the folklore of Russia, the elegance of Austria, and the passion of Italy. There was an added promise of fabulous costumes and breath-taking dance routines. They were right, because they were great.
Three more days at sea, and we hope they are eventless, that is, without pirates.
Bill & Mary Ann
PS In response to the question about the President's Club gifts, you get your choice of one bottle of alcohol, wine, or sodas/waters, or flowers every two weeks. So in a two week trip, you would receive one bottle ( or other substitute) per person.
