First Day at Sea

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^{Today was quite something. I remember waking being so excited I would be out in the open sea today. We would have passed Iran sometime overnight and be sailing along the Gulf of Oman into the Arabian Sea. I don’t remember what time I woke, but looking at the photos it must have been just before 7am. Stepping outside onto the balcony, it hit me how humid it was, but also how beautiful the view was. There was this humidity haze over the water that gave it this magical feel. The water also looked like silk and we were just sailing quietly along so peacefully. I think from the entire time I spent on the ship, this moment would have to have been my favorite. It was beyond words and I imagine what everyone dreams of when sailing. I had to wake my husband up to come and check out the view. I just remember standing there quite a while, even though it was getting hotter as the time went by. In the near distance, but not close enough to photograph we saw a pod of dolphins jumping in and out of the water. They almost looked black in colour. You} just couldn’t get anymore magical than that.

<sup>My husband decided to jump back into bed while I went off to get some breakfast. Now I had stated before going on the cruise that I would be eating all healthy food. I couldn’t help but giggle and take a snapshot to show my husband what I was eating. It was probably my worst breakfast ever, but I couldn’t help myself. They had the loveliest looking donuts screaming my name, as well as French toast and banana pancakes. Now I don’t actually like banana pancakes, but it was saying eat me I’m bad! How could I refuse? Sitting by myself at breakfast time was a frequent thing for me in the end. I guess because I was always in bed early, I was always an early riser.

As far as the rest of the day went, I don’t know how many times I just walked around the ship. I guess being a first time cruiser it was still all new to me, and not reading the program over extensively I didn’t have anything pre-planned that I just had to do. I couldn’t get over how many people were out</sup> on the deck lying in the sun. It was too hot for me, and I’m really conscious of getting burnt now, especially after having a burning experience a couple of months earlier, so I was overly conscious of it! People just lay on the deck chairs for hours. I did try laying on a deck chair in the shade one day, but found I got very bored of it. Kind of funny considering I’m such a sun baby at home. I guess for me being a sun baby, I do like the weather to be just under 30 degrees however, and I’m very time wary, only staying out for at maximum 20 minutes.

Have had to come back and re-edit this as I forgot a huge event that happen today .... Meet & Mingle day! Now being an internet type of girl and google is my friend, I stumbled across a website called Cruise Critic. Its basically a website where all the cruise groupies get together and rate the cruise lines, the actual boats, the menus and anything else they want to complain about ... ok, so its not all complaining, but they can be some of the more funnier posts to read. Every single cruise can have its own little posting ground so you can meet online some of your fellow travellers and all help each other out by giving advice and offering tips to people as per what you have found out yourself. Considering I hadn't been to any of those places before it was quite helpful throwing ideas around and it was through this that I decided I wasn't going to use the ships inflated shore excursion options but rather plan things myself. I meet some lovely people online before going, and considering I had organised for three ports things to do with other people and the fourth I was going on a tour with a different group, the Meet and Mingle party is a must attend.

It was held in the Cleopatra Lounge at 10am. Our cruise Director Gordon attended, and he completely cracked me up. Later we were to find out about 200 people registered for this "private" party. We were all given a ticket to attend which ended up being your raffel ticket chance as well. Going into the event, it was a case of, now who on earth is who? I met one of the girls I had previously added to facebook quite quickly, and she had recognised me from my photos I had been posting while in Dubai, so that was nice, one down, about 23 more to go .... Sitting down, we were near a couple that got scolded at the Mustering. I asked who they were on the Cruise Critic site, as everyone has these nicknames, because real names would just be too confusing I guess ... they had been lurkers, but as soon as they heard my name of bluekat, I think I wanted to have the well I guess I can't say ground open up, seas open up and swallow me. I hadn't realised posting on the website what I considered every so often would be classed as "oh I know you, you never sleep". We laughed over the whole mustering ordeal and tried to work out who everyone else in the room might be.

When the event started Gordon let us know how many people registered, and then due to the volume of people he didn't have an open microphone. He then asked the crowd to put up our hands if we have organised a shore excursion for groups, so that we could then be given the chance to identify ourselves so that those people who we had never met before might see what we look like, and stalk us later. Considering I had a tour of 16 of us going off in KL, I had to put my hand up reluctantly. I really looked out for the lovely Roberta, as I was going on her tour, and I had been speaking to her and her friend Jeff quite a bit, so was kind of dying to see who they might be. After my turn on the microphone (oh and I can never pronounce my name clearly so that people understand it? I must have a speech problem or something?) Roberta was given the chance, and as it happened to be she was right over the other side of the room from us. I had my people to stalk now so was happy. They then had a raffle and I dont think I've laughed so much as Gordon completely dissed the gifts that the cruise line had on offer. He said we may have broken their budget because the entire table of products looked like it was worth around $20 ... My husband ended up with a hat as a prize. Was definitely nice to walk away with something. Oh and we all got a pen and notepad for attending. When it came to the "top" prizes, which were bottles of wine or something, Gordon when looking at them was like "oh .... I wouldn't even wash my hair in this stuff!". I loved it.

After the prizes were all given, it was a case of the mingle is over so everyone kind of dispursed. We did have a gift swap, that I was to take my swapping item to the table, and had my eyes on Roberta as I wanted to speak to her as well. Unfortunately on the way, so many of the people I had organised tours with kept coming up to me saying they were on my trip and asking details about it and things that I just didn't have off the top of my head. It was so over whelming! I must have looked like a right idiot, but I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss out on the gift swap, and was dying to speak to Roberta. I was so flustered! We made it to the swapping table, and ended up walking away with an American mug from some city. I think I was spun around a thousand times and then fell over Roberta.

It did cause a few arguments post speaking with her between my husband and myself. Especially after she made the comment to my husband that "your wife must never sleep, she was always online". He thinks I'm forever on the internet as well. I routinely check before I go to work, then late at night to wind down I look over the news and websites to relax. Anyway, thats a domestic issue. It was just nice putting a name and face together, but it seemed that there just wasn't enough time to talk at that event, and it was cleared out it seemed just after it had started. I guess that it did give a good reference point, and I knew the faces of the people I would want to talk to along the cruise, which worked out really well.

^{Due to moving towards India, in the middle of the day they decided to do a time change} and bring the clock forward an hour. I actually didn’t mind the whole midday time change. As they said, if it’s the middle of the day, you don’t notice it nearly as much, and it means you can have lunch earlier … no issues, if they made it the middle of the night, you would lose an hours sleep and that’s just cruel! There were several time changes along our trip, this first one went without noticing!

^{For dinner, it was the first formal night of the cruise, with there being a total of 2 on our 11 night adventure. Due to having so many children and nothing of a life, I booked into the hair dresser for 5pm to get my hair done for the event. I had noticed that the boat was getting quite rocky by this time, but tried not to think too much about it. The headaches from the previous few days were nearly all but gone, so the last thing I wanted to think about was my stomach turning. I asked the onboard hairdresser to curl my hair. It was either that or going straight. I didn’t feel like paying all that money to} get my hair done up. Well talk about torture for the next fifteen minutes. She wasn’t gentle at all, and I felt my hair being ripped out from the roots! It only took a total of 15 minutes and $50 later to walk out with my hair glued into a mash of curls. I did rebook for the further formal night and hoped that it would be a much more pleasant evening.

^{For the formal night, I had a somewhat daring dress to wear. As I stated, I never get out much and had bought a dress a couple of years earlier that I’ve always been dying to wear. Tonight was the night for it. After discovering that they don’t make undergarments to suit these types of dresses anymore, apparently special sticky tape was the way to go. I have to admit that dressing up was a lot of fun. I guess with a lot of others dressed up that night, I kind of forgot what I was wearing and just felt one of the crowd, which was a nice change. We were sat over in the corner of the dining room, and unfortunately could see outside and} the rocking was getting considerably worse.

^{As for the actual meal, I can’t remember what we had. I was too busy trying to hold my stomach down, as by this point I was feeling very green. The company however was wonderful, and it was a few days later that we really seemed to get along well with one of the British couples that were on the table with us this night. Due to not feeling too well, I just struck up a conversation with the couple that were opposite us, who I believe had been onboard the ship since the USA. It was after the main course that I had to excuse myself from the table and race off to the toilet. I really thought it was the most inelegant timing. Thankfully I didn’t vomit however. It took a lot of re-composure to get myself back into shape for returning to the table. The waiter was then present to accept dessert orders. I declined as I wasn’t feeling to well, and the couple opposite noted my predicament. It was then, that I was taken to her room and given a motion sickness patch to wear to help me get} over the sickness. I thought it was so lovely of her to share with me. We returned to the table as everyone was finishing their meals. It was a bit of a shock having this sea sickness, but and I was really feeling uncertain as to why I jumped on board a ship in the firstplace. With everyone knowing we were first time cruisers, I found it hard answering the ever asked question as to would I cruise again …. at this point in time, honestly, I don’t know!

^{After dinner we went to watch the Headliner show. A Singer named Colin Roy was singing. Apparently he was in the West End of London and starred in Five Guys named Moe, Smokey Joe’s Café and Sweet Charity. Now I can’t admit to ever having heard any of those shows names let alone their music, and his style of singing Swing and Motown just didn’t keep me involved at all. Coupled with the fact I felt so flat and sick I left the show with my husband being entertained, and snuck off to bed early. I did love the bed …. It was so lusciously comfortable!}

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Photos

Banana
How cute is that!

Formal night
whats formal photos if you aren't standing next to Shrek to dress them up?