Geo: 25.27, 55.33Fantasia docks back in Dubai a little after 8am today. Luckily we don't have to get off until tomorrow. True our coach pick up time is 4am on Saturday morning for our 7.30 flight to Manchester but we won't worry about that now.We have an excursion planned for this morning and so we shower breakfast and head down to the theatre. Tickets in hand we head outside to meet our coach and tour guide Miriam. She is slightly bonkers but a great guide nonetheless. We leave the port and head southwards to the Jumeriah area (Jumeriah means flame in Arabic). Our first stop is the worlds first 7 star hotel the Burj Al Arab with its iconic and world famous sail design. Miriam regales with details of its construction and other gems of information. ... read more

Geo: 26.171, 56.2406After a poor nights sleep I am awoken by a clarion call of different alarms at 06.15. So paranoid that we would oversleep and miss our excursion we set alarms on both our phones and the in-room telephone. They all went off simultaneously. Today we are in Khasab. Khasab is a city in an enclave of Oman bordering the United Arab Emirates called Musandam.The Musandam Peninsula has an abundance of sheltered fjords, created by fragmented rock they stretch claw-like into the sea and massive overshadowing cliffs tower above. The coast juts into the Strait of Hormuz and extends some 600 kilometres. These spectacular fjords have given the area a second name "The Norway of Arabia".We shower and grab a quick breakfast before heading down to the aft bar to collect our tour stickers (No ... read more

Geo: 25.7227, 56.6607We awake late and almost miss breakfast. Fantasia is slowly making her way through the Straits of Hormuz as we round the Oman Promontory before heading southeast toward Muscat. The gulf is a flat calm, perfect sailing weather. A few white clouds dot the hazy blue sky and the air temperature is a pleasant 28c. There are plenty of ships about. The straits are the only way in and out of the gulf and many an oil tanker can be seen as well as smaller fishing Dhows. Large flocks of white sea birds bob gently on the calm waters no doubt after the silvery shoals of small fish I can see just beneath the surface. I even spy a group of 9 or so stingrays in formation heading northwards. I'm not sure what the ... read more

Geo: 25.27, 55.33The cruise terminal like the airport is modern and spacious and we are soon walking up the ramp to board Fantasia. We head to the Zanzibar Buffet on deck 14 for some breakfast as it is still only 9.30. We then have a few hour to kill before our cabin is ready at 1pm. Seems the whole ship had overnight flights as people are asleep everywhere. On sun loungers, chairs and various sofas through the ship. We find a quiet spot to snooze for an hour or so before heading to our cabin just before 1pm.We are cabin 12223 which is situated on the Incanto deck. The cabin is very similar to the cabin we had on Splendida except the balcony on this one is much larger and deeper. We unpack and again we ... read more

Geo: 45.4637, 9.18813... read more