dolphingirl47
In Search of the Tag Fairy
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2007
Day 8
By the time we got up this day, we had arrived in Dubai. Although we still had a full day left on our cruise, we had an overnight stop in Dubai so we arrived there a day early. We go to Dubai fairly regularly and had only been there in August so we decided to call this an unofficial sea day. There were two things I wanted to do that day: I wanted to get the last port photo and I wanted to do our online check in for the next day. Every morning the ship photographers were out by the gangway to take photos. The photos had special graphics for that port and I really wanted the full set. So I had checked the previous day when they would be out to take photos and they said they should be there between 9:00 and 10:00. So we got up in time for this and headed out to get our photo.
As we were out and about anyway, we figured we may as well check out the terminal. We discovered shops that we had not seen on embarkation day. So we had a quick look. This turned out to be a rather fruitful undertaking. One of the shops was a jewellery shop. A few years ago, I developed a real liking for rose gold. I have a number of fashion jewellery items in rose gold, but I have never managed to find a piece of jewellery that is actual rose gold that I liked. Dubai is one of the best places to buy gold as you are just charged by weight and not for the workmanship. Unfortunately the tastes in Dubai are a bit more flamboyant then my personal taste is and most jewellery is dripping with gem stones. However hard I tried, I have been unable to find the plain rose gold pendant that I had been looking for. The hunt for one had become a bit of an obsession. So when I spotted the jewellery shop, I had to check it out. Initially I thought I was out of luck again. As far as the pendants were concerned it was just more of the same. I had actually already started to leave when something caught my eye. It was actually a pair of earrings, which consisted of a large rose gold heart with a smaller silver heart. Because the heart was quite large, I thought that this would make a perfect pendant. I make jewellery as a hobby and have all kinds of tools so I knew it would be easy to convert the earrings into two pedants. As they were really lightweight, they were a real bargain, too. One of them will get the first outing on our upcoming cruise.
With the purchase done, we headed back to the ship. I took my earrings to the cabin and then we went up to Windjammer to get some breakfast. Graham had some fruit and a pastry and I opted for an omelet, sausages and hash browns. We both had coffee and juice. We ended up chatting with an officer, who is from Germany. It was nice talking to him. Once we finished our breakfast, we decided to have a wander around the ship and take photos of the artwork that is dotted around the ship and especially in the stairwells. We went down the forward stairs and then walked down a corridor and walked up the midship stairs taking photos of the artwork as we went. It was nice to have a wander around the ship that was practically empty as most people were in port. We also took a little detour and checked out the itinerary folders near the Next Cruise desk. This was the point when we realized just how many opportunities our willingness to try Royal Caribbean has opened up. In 2010, after doing a Med cruise out of Barcelona and then a Westbound Transatlantic the same year, the idea was born that we should try to get once around the world in stages. This had kind of ground to a hold with our Hawaii cruise in 2012, but suddenly it looked like a real possibility again. Little did we know at that stage that we would add another segment to this endeavour as soon as May. By that stage, we will have gone halfway round the world.
Once we got back up to deck 10, we were ready for a rest. We found ourselves some loungers and made ourselves comfortable. I was hoping that I would be able to indulge in some plane spotting, but it was surprisingly quiet in the Dubai airspace. So after a while, we decided to go and play a round of mini golf. We had planned to do this at some stage when we had a look around the ship the first day, but for some reason we never got around to it until this point. The mini golf course on the Splendour has 9 holes and is pretty compact. I can imagine that this can get very crowded very quickly. When we started playing, we were the only people there, but we were soon joined by a group of tweens. They were better at this then we were, but politely and patiently waited for us to finish. We did enjoy playing although some of the holes were quite tricky.
When we finished our round of mini golf, we headed over to the Windjammer and had some lunch. They had a rather nice goulash that day so I had some of this with mash potatoes. Graham stuck with cold cuts, salad and some chips. We decided to pass on the desserts that were available and get a soft serve ice cream from the pool deck instead. Graham got a coffee while we were there and I had a Coke. We then went back on deck 10 and found ourselves some loungers. By then it was around the time most of the flights bound for Europe were leaving and a lot of them are Airbus A380s. So I was not disappointed. In between plane spotting, I read my book. It was just a really pleasant afternoon.
Once the main plane rush hour was over, my window for online check in had opened. So I left Graham to his own devices and headed over to the cruise terminal again to use their WiFi. This was pretty good on embarkation day, but was very patchy that day and I had to move multiple times to get a signal at all. In the end I did succeed and true to form, all I got was an online check in receipt. I double-checked the loads and they looked fantastic so I was not worried. I decided if I was there, I may as well check my emails. While I was doing this, one of the two people that I had chatted with the previous day came and sat next to me. She was flying back with my carrier the next day and was trying to sort out some special assistance and seating as she had one of her legs in a cast. I don’t think the person she spoke to understood what she actually required so I signaled her to hang up and I sent an email to my office to sort this out. Fortunately this was all taken care of although due to the patchy internet, I did not find out that it had until I got to the airport myself the following day.
I headed back to the ship and rejoined Graham. We spent a little while longer on our loungers, but once the sun turned away from us, we took this as a hint to go inside to pack. Fortunately the packing did not take very long. After this, we decided that we had earned a reward. On the first afternoon I got chatting to one of the bartenders at the bar in Centrum and we got to the topic of Caipirinhas. The Caipirinha is one of my favourite cocktails along with Margaritas and Mojitos. Unfortunately on DCL they possibly murder this drink. He asked me to come back and he would make sure I would get the perfect Caipirinha. At some stage I told Graham this story and once we had packed he suggested that we should see if the bartender is as good as his word. So we went down there. I had my Caipirinha and Graham had a beer. I am not sure I would go as far as saying that this was the best Caipirinha I ever had, but it was delicious and miles better than anything I have ever had on DCL.
After we had finished our drinks, I went back to the photo gallery for a last check on any photos that I had not spotted earlier. Fortunately the port photo from that morning was already out. So I collected this and then went to get the folders with the photos that I had collected during the week. I took them back to the cabin and then went in search of Graham who had gone off somewhere when I headed to get the photos. He had found himself a lounger by the pool. It was a beautiful clear evening, but a little breezy. I got myself a towel and made myself comfortable. Again, there was hardly anybody around and it was a nice way to end the cruise. At some stage, we realized that we better go back to the cabin to put our luggage out. So we went downstairs and took care of this.
Then it was time for dinner. Again there were only 4 of us. We had a lovely final dinner. Graham had the Seafood Ceviche, which consisted of shrimp, bay scallops, red onions, cucumbers, dill and cilantro for his starter and then went with the roasted rack of lamb with parsnip mash, white bean ragout and a thyme reduction. He seemed happy enough with his choice. There was nothing really on the menu that day apart from the starter that took my fancy so I went with some choices from the classic menu. I had the chilled mango and pineapple soup with toasted shredded coconut for my starter. I then went with the aged hand-cut Manhattan strip steak with garlic-herb butter and seasonal vegetables. This was really tender and flavourful. For my dessert, I went with tried and tested and had the Chocolate Sensation. Once we had all finished our meal, we said goodbye to our table mates and our serving team and then we headed to our cabin. Our luggage was still in the corridor so we put a few more odds and ends in there and then we went to bed.
By the time we got up this day, we had arrived in Dubai. Although we still had a full day left on our cruise, we had an overnight stop in Dubai so we arrived there a day early. We go to Dubai fairly regularly and had only been there in August so we decided to call this an unofficial sea day. There were two things I wanted to do that day: I wanted to get the last port photo and I wanted to do our online check in for the next day. Every morning the ship photographers were out by the gangway to take photos. The photos had special graphics for that port and I really wanted the full set. So I had checked the previous day when they would be out to take photos and they said they should be there between 9:00 and 10:00. So we got up in time for this and headed out to get our photo.
As we were out and about anyway, we figured we may as well check out the terminal. We discovered shops that we had not seen on embarkation day. So we had a quick look. This turned out to be a rather fruitful undertaking. One of the shops was a jewellery shop. A few years ago, I developed a real liking for rose gold. I have a number of fashion jewellery items in rose gold, but I have never managed to find a piece of jewellery that is actual rose gold that I liked. Dubai is one of the best places to buy gold as you are just charged by weight and not for the workmanship. Unfortunately the tastes in Dubai are a bit more flamboyant then my personal taste is and most jewellery is dripping with gem stones. However hard I tried, I have been unable to find the plain rose gold pendant that I had been looking for. The hunt for one had become a bit of an obsession. So when I spotted the jewellery shop, I had to check it out. Initially I thought I was out of luck again. As far as the pendants were concerned it was just more of the same. I had actually already started to leave when something caught my eye. It was actually a pair of earrings, which consisted of a large rose gold heart with a smaller silver heart. Because the heart was quite large, I thought that this would make a perfect pendant. I make jewellery as a hobby and have all kinds of tools so I knew it would be easy to convert the earrings into two pedants. As they were really lightweight, they were a real bargain, too. One of them will get the first outing on our upcoming cruise.
With the purchase done, we headed back to the ship. I took my earrings to the cabin and then we went up to Windjammer to get some breakfast. Graham had some fruit and a pastry and I opted for an omelet, sausages and hash browns. We both had coffee and juice. We ended up chatting with an officer, who is from Germany. It was nice talking to him. Once we finished our breakfast, we decided to have a wander around the ship and take photos of the artwork that is dotted around the ship and especially in the stairwells. We went down the forward stairs and then walked down a corridor and walked up the midship stairs taking photos of the artwork as we went. It was nice to have a wander around the ship that was practically empty as most people were in port. We also took a little detour and checked out the itinerary folders near the Next Cruise desk. This was the point when we realized just how many opportunities our willingness to try Royal Caribbean has opened up. In 2010, after doing a Med cruise out of Barcelona and then a Westbound Transatlantic the same year, the idea was born that we should try to get once around the world in stages. This had kind of ground to a hold with our Hawaii cruise in 2012, but suddenly it looked like a real possibility again. Little did we know at that stage that we would add another segment to this endeavour as soon as May. By that stage, we will have gone halfway round the world.
Once we got back up to deck 10, we were ready for a rest. We found ourselves some loungers and made ourselves comfortable. I was hoping that I would be able to indulge in some plane spotting, but it was surprisingly quiet in the Dubai airspace. So after a while, we decided to go and play a round of mini golf. We had planned to do this at some stage when we had a look around the ship the first day, but for some reason we never got around to it until this point. The mini golf course on the Splendour has 9 holes and is pretty compact. I can imagine that this can get very crowded very quickly. When we started playing, we were the only people there, but we were soon joined by a group of tweens. They were better at this then we were, but politely and patiently waited for us to finish. We did enjoy playing although some of the holes were quite tricky.
When we finished our round of mini golf, we headed over to the Windjammer and had some lunch. They had a rather nice goulash that day so I had some of this with mash potatoes. Graham stuck with cold cuts, salad and some chips. We decided to pass on the desserts that were available and get a soft serve ice cream from the pool deck instead. Graham got a coffee while we were there and I had a Coke. We then went back on deck 10 and found ourselves some loungers. By then it was around the time most of the flights bound for Europe were leaving and a lot of them are Airbus A380s. So I was not disappointed. In between plane spotting, I read my book. It was just a really pleasant afternoon.
Once the main plane rush hour was over, my window for online check in had opened. So I left Graham to his own devices and headed over to the cruise terminal again to use their WiFi. This was pretty good on embarkation day, but was very patchy that day and I had to move multiple times to get a signal at all. In the end I did succeed and true to form, all I got was an online check in receipt. I double-checked the loads and they looked fantastic so I was not worried. I decided if I was there, I may as well check my emails. While I was doing this, one of the two people that I had chatted with the previous day came and sat next to me. She was flying back with my carrier the next day and was trying to sort out some special assistance and seating as she had one of her legs in a cast. I don’t think the person she spoke to understood what she actually required so I signaled her to hang up and I sent an email to my office to sort this out. Fortunately this was all taken care of although due to the patchy internet, I did not find out that it had until I got to the airport myself the following day.
I headed back to the ship and rejoined Graham. We spent a little while longer on our loungers, but once the sun turned away from us, we took this as a hint to go inside to pack. Fortunately the packing did not take very long. After this, we decided that we had earned a reward. On the first afternoon I got chatting to one of the bartenders at the bar in Centrum and we got to the topic of Caipirinhas. The Caipirinha is one of my favourite cocktails along with Margaritas and Mojitos. Unfortunately on DCL they possibly murder this drink. He asked me to come back and he would make sure I would get the perfect Caipirinha. At some stage I told Graham this story and once we had packed he suggested that we should see if the bartender is as good as his word. So we went down there. I had my Caipirinha and Graham had a beer. I am not sure I would go as far as saying that this was the best Caipirinha I ever had, but it was delicious and miles better than anything I have ever had on DCL.
After we had finished our drinks, I went back to the photo gallery for a last check on any photos that I had not spotted earlier. Fortunately the port photo from that morning was already out. So I collected this and then went to get the folders with the photos that I had collected during the week. I took them back to the cabin and then went in search of Graham who had gone off somewhere when I headed to get the photos. He had found himself a lounger by the pool. It was a beautiful clear evening, but a little breezy. I got myself a towel and made myself comfortable. Again, there was hardly anybody around and it was a nice way to end the cruise. At some stage, we realized that we better go back to the cabin to put our luggage out. So we went downstairs and took care of this.
Then it was time for dinner. Again there were only 4 of us. We had a lovely final dinner. Graham had the Seafood Ceviche, which consisted of shrimp, bay scallops, red onions, cucumbers, dill and cilantro for his starter and then went with the roasted rack of lamb with parsnip mash, white bean ragout and a thyme reduction. He seemed happy enough with his choice. There was nothing really on the menu that day apart from the starter that took my fancy so I went with some choices from the classic menu. I had the chilled mango and pineapple soup with toasted shredded coconut for my starter. I then went with the aged hand-cut Manhattan strip steak with garlic-herb butter and seasonal vegetables. This was really tender and flavourful. For my dessert, I went with tried and tested and had the Chocolate Sensation. Once we had all finished our meal, we said goodbye to our table mates and our serving team and then we headed to our cabin. Our luggage was still in the corridor so we put a few more odds and ends in there and then we went to bed.
Yes, because when you get a caipirinha your biggest concern is that you are getting real cane sugar! It is so stupid, but such a typical policy that only someone in a cubicle far away from any real bar can come up with!
