Wednesday, November 27, 2019; At Sea, Dubai to Muscat (Mina Qaboos), Oman.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019; At Sea Dubai to Muscat, Oman

We sailed through the Strait of Hormuz for a second time, being able to see both Oman and Iran on either side of the ship.  We had company of multiple large tankers and freighters. It is nice to have that part of our journey behind us without making an unscheduled port of call in Iran.  

We had a late morning today after a late night last night. We barely made it to the morning Trivia this morning.  We met up with Bob and Mary and played with just 4 players.  We ended up scoring 2pts behind the leaders.  

Ben hit he fitness center and Janet watched the destination lecture before our second round of progressive trivia.  We ended up recruiting two new players, Tom and Laura from Tulsa, OK, who walked in the venue just as the game was starting because Bob was opting out of the progressive trivia for this last segment to attend the enrichment lectures live. We had a good start with a perfect score including 3 bonus points for knowing the year Freddie Mercury died. 

We opted to take tea instead of lunch today, and then attend the afternoon trivia with Bob.  We recruited Trish from Florida at the last second, who was wandering looking lost as the game started.  It turns out her usual team had to scramble to find a place to sit, and they didn’t spot her, nor she them.  We managed to finish one point off the lead with 20/21, and 2 teams tied with 21/21.  We didn’t know the original color of Coca Cola, but nailed all the other questions.  The tie breaker was how many times has Phantom of the Opera played on Broadway since it opened.  The answer they were looking for was 10,401 and counting.  

We retired to the room to watch an enrichment lecture on the history of pop music from the 50’s and 60’s.  It is done by one of the ship’s entertainers who is quite knowledgeable and had put together a really good program like a Ken Burns documentary on music of the era.  His background as a performer added additional perspective on the history. For example, he noted that Burt Baccarat songs were notoriously hard for performers because of constant time changes and frequent vocal pitch leaps.  These facts were easy to demonstrate because it was extremely hard to clap along with most of the songs which would go from 4/4 to 3/4 to 5/4 and back again to accommodate complex lyrics and rhythms that are interesting to hear, but very difficult to perform.  

We got into our formal clothes again and had a late dinner.  The service is still good, but the staff gets tired towards the end of a meal, and even though the rolls are fresh baked daily, by the end of the 5:15-9:30 serving period, they lose some of their crispness.  The hot items aren’t as hot, and the cold items aren’t as cold as if you show up right at 5:15pm, when Ben prefers.  It’s easier for the chefs and kitchens to prepare foods if the exact serving time is known, so in some ways, the flexibility of anytime dining is a compromise between passenger convenience and quality of the presentation of the dishes.  But even closing down the dining room like we did today, the staff still manages to provide courteous and attentive service, and a pleasant dining experience.  We did finish with a Chocolate Journey hazelnut bar, which never fails to satisfy.  

Some people lament formal nights, but it is fun to see how people clean up and it does make for a more elegant and special evening two nights out of each cruise segment.  They usually have a captain’s reception during the first formal night of each cruise segment, and this was the first that we have seen the waiters bringing out beer in addition to champagne to pass around during the reception.  It seems like it’s all too easy to come by free champagne on these cruises, so the beer was a nice change.

We finished the evening with a Princess Theater Showtime featuring Sharene, “The World’s Greatest Female Harmonia Soloist”.   She is a 25 year old Malaysian woman who plays the harmonica like a stereotypical Asian piano or violin virtuoso.  We have never seen anyone playing a harmonica like that, so it was quite a thing to see such a unique performance.  It was most amazing how she was able to articulate the individual notes so precisely and quickly.  She did a rendition of Flight of the Bumble Bee that was quite dizzying.  She was backed by the Sapphire Princess orchestra, but normally tours throughout Asia with her all harmonica band.  She did one number, the William Tell Overture, backed by two of her harmonica band via video in the background on the giant set backdrop, and it was something to see and hear the giant bass harmonica and baritone harmonicas providing a full orchestral background to her solo harmonica work.  You’ll have to look for Sharene Harmonica on YouTube.  

We got our mini-bar restocked, but Room Service has been swamped by the new incoming passengers, so it took all day to get it swapped out for two new coffee cards.  It’s too bad our internet minutes wont’ get renewed until our next cruise segment in Singapore.  Janet had managed to burn through more than half her allowance by the halfway point of this cruise, and the free Wifi at the terminals in Abu Dhabi and Dubai was not fast or reliable enough to get our pictures uploaded.  

We arrive in Muscat (Mina Qaboos), Oman tomorrow.  This is a large Arabian country not endowed with oil or natural gas reserves, so it should prove a bit of a contrast to the UAE.