Our Decision to End the Cruise...(Dec. 9, 2010)

After six days at sea, we arrived in Muscat, Oman. I had a tour booked, but it became obvious that Jim was not going to be well enough and that we would probably be ending our cruise in Dubai the next day.

Marty faithfully came to get Jim each morning and brought him back to the cabin at night.

Jim patiently waiting to see the doctor…

Nadine, the doctor from South Africa, is on the left. We had met her in the elevator one day before Jim got sick and I jokingly said to him “I bet your asthma is worse now!” teasing him about the pretty doctor. Little did I know! Tracy, the nurse from England, is in the middle. She was so kind to us.

And sadly, it was definite now. Jim was just not recovering as fast as he should and it was best to get him into a hospital. We were so sad to be leaving the cruise in this way.

A double rainbow…a good omen?

The flag of Oman...

The terminal looked nice and new. Our tour was to include a visit to a huge mosque, the Sultan’s palace, the souks and a local restaurant for lunch. Since the 1970s, Oman has been in an ambitious program to promote tourism. It is said that Muscat is a city right out of the Arabian nights and just an hour outside the city is the vast Arabia Desert. We’ll just have to come back sometime to see it.

Amidst all the containers, we could see another cruise ship off to the left.

I didn’t know if these were mountains or just huge piles of dirt.

Not sure what was going on here. These boats all came racing out with their flags.

A hot air balloon?? The harbour is guarded by two 16th century forts one of which we could see on the right.

And then it was time to say some goodbyes to some of the best crew that we have ever met. I wished Jim could have come as well. Everyone was asking how he was. Direk was in charge of the Elite lounge and did a fantastic job. He was our new “Mike.”

The crew rotated every week or two, so our favourite waiters would be all over the ship. Direk, me, Gerard (who was quite droll and liked to make fun of our accents), and Charlton from India who spoke with a beautiful British accent.

Jeff and Kathy dropped by to say goodbye, as did Gary and Diane our tablemates on the first part of the cruise.

And last but not least…Lailen, shown here with Silvan from India. We’ll miss Lailen. She was so adorable with a very distinctive voice. Every night she would say in her sing-song voice “See you la-ter!”  They have been so good to us!

So tomorrow it’s on to Dubai where Jim will go to the hospital so he can get better soon...