May 11, 2019

Yesterday was the first of two sea days between leaving Mumbai, India and our arrival to the first of 3 ports in the United Arab Emirates, Fujairah.

Our cruise director, Ray, had been getting us excited about the Indian “Bollywood” night that took place last night.  First of all, everyone was encouraged to wear Indian style clothing, so I think the passengers contributed a lot of money to the Indian economy. Norm and I had clothes that we purchased in India last time, so no need for us to buy anything!

First there was a pre dinner show at 5:15 with the entertainment team doing “Showdown” where each of them tries to get the most applause from the audience.  We have seen the show several times but each time this particular team seems to get even better.  This time Charise, aka Lucy Lopez in the show, was the winner.

After the show, the crew came into the lounge, many dressed Indian style, for Salute, the farewell that always happens a night or two before the end of a segment.  A bonus this time was the winner of the contest the crew had – “Crew Idol”, who works in the engineering department.  He brought tears to our eyes with his rendition of “You Raise Me Up”.

Here are some photos of the Salute.  There are 404 outstanding crew members on this ship, from 42 different countries.  Ray said that if only the world could be on a cruise ship and get along like they do, it would be amazing.

The captain is in the center of this photo, in the dark uniform.  Sanjay, our butler, is the man in the first row far left.  He’s great!

Here are two shots from dinner – he came to find us!

Here are some pictures after the Salute.

Mario, our executive chef, has about 60 chefs on board and 21 of them are from India.  So he had them cook their favorite dishes and had an Indian buffet in the Terrace Café.  A lot of the crew was dressed Indian style, even those who were not from India.  The food was absolutely delicious, and how about this model of the Taj Mahal!

As I mentioned, the staff looked amazing in their outfits.

Here are two of the chefs.

Sanjay is one of our favorite waiters.

These three women are part of the entertainment team Charise and Amy are singers, and Kelly is a dancer.  The second photo is of Rex and Kelly, our dancers. Lamont is one of the male singers.

Marijana and Shanvia from the casino looked lovely.  Shanvia (on the right) is from Goa, but she bought her outfit in Mumbai – she says she doesn’t dress this way at home!

There was a contest for best dressed couple and best dressed individual.  I tried to get all of them in photos, but the lighting didn’t work.

This couple won the top prize. Well deserved!

Marie was among the best dressed women.  And she is every day in everything she wears!

Ray gave bottles of champagne to all of the finalists, not just the winners.

So many people came to Horizons for the party – it was fun and a huge success.  Each of the entertainers performed too and the band, as always, was great. 

Today is our second day at sea, and Norm spotted many dolphins – but he couldn’t get a picture.  But he did get one of this military ship.  Too hazy and far away to see the details though. We do know that there are threats to US interests from Iran and there are forces deployed here but so far it has not affected our route.