Walking to Town in Khasab, Oman

Posted on April 29, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

a dhow sails past the Lirica in Khasab

MSC Lirica docked at Khasab harbor, about 3k from the city center in Khasab, Oman. There are 1.6 kilometers to the mile so that’s a bit less than 2 miles. There were of course excursions available through the ship for that port as usual. There were also last-minute excursions available both in the port building and outside.

dhow tour in the Musandam Fjords

People who just wanted to go to town without walking there could buy all-day tickets onboard the ship for shuttle busses into town for a nominal fee. These busses went back and forth all day and ticket holders could ride them as often as they wished. For people who don’t mind walking it’s an easy walk into town from this port. We took a dhow boat ride in the morning, which was awesome, and then had time to walk to town when we got back from our excursion.

streetlights on the road to Khasab

Staying on the main road out of the port leads right into the main part of town. The road leading out of the port area had some fancy streetlights.

canal through Khasab

Veering off on another road to the right leads to the other side of the river. On the right there are some small mosques, a very large store, some eateries, and a road that leads into an area of town where a lot of the buildings are boarded up and closed if you go too far away from the main road, though walking through that area we never felt unsafe.

old dhow boats at the fort museum

Also on roadway off to the right, but nearer to the main road, you can get to one of the town’s two forts and the giant store. Close to that fort a sign points the way to the other fort, giving a distance of 1 kilometer. At the end of the giant store’s parking lot there is a good view of the city center. There’s also a much larger mosque over on the main city side than any we saw on the other side.

little mosque

We took a 5k walk on the opposite side of the river from the city center, so we never made it into the main part of town. We walked past the fort in town, but did not go looking for the other one a kilometer away. Before heading back to the ship we went into the mega store, which was called LuLu Hypermarket. The store had all sorts of food, both familiar things and stuff we’ve never seen. Some candy bars that come in one flavor at home were available in multiple flavor options there.

LuLu Hypermarket

There were also all sorts of things that are not food in the giant store as well. One thing it does not have is alcoholic beverages since Khasab is a dry town. There were things that appeared to be, but had no actual alcohol content.  I don’t know if all their cashiers speak English, but the one we had did. A lot of people in Oman do.

stray puppy

Early in our walk we saw some cute and friendly little stray puppies who seemed to be in pretty good shape. They had little nests dug into the sand where they slept in the shade of a bit of vegetation on a small vacant lot. One popped up out of its nest and came right up to us wanting some attention. It was so cute and friendly I would have loved to take it home, but of course that is not possible on a cruise ship or easily done from a foreign country so we had to leave it there. Later some distance away saw mama dog, probably out in search of food. She seemed to be in decent condition as well.

fancy gate

The stray cats in this town didn’t look like they were faring so well though. All of the cats we saw looked pretty thin, especially one very scrawny half grown kitten. One stray cat popped up out of a garbage bin when we walked by. Probably its main food source as the barren rocky hills surrounding the town don’t look like they have much to support life of any sort so there probably isn’t much for them to hunt.

bigger mosque

We saw some interesting looking buildings. There were places with fancy architecture, places with fancy gates, and one place with a fence around a tangle of trees.

looks like a pyramid

We even saw something resembling a pyramid. It was off by itself in a rare green area on the outskirts of town.

view across the river

We didn’t come across too many other people walking around in the area where we went. Most of the ship’s passengers who walked to town went on the other side of the river into the main city area, which is probably where most of the locals would go too, unless they were going to the LuLu Hypermarket and they probably drive there. We did see a few people here and there though. All of them seemed friendly enough. The ones who said anything to us as we passed by all spoke English.

Khasab Fort

For people looking for things to do there, Khasab Fort has a museum and there is a castle and some restaurants in town.

buildings in Khasab

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in Lirica, Middle East, MSC, Port Cities, Ports of Call | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shanghai Tall Towers

Posted on April 22, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view from the Bund looking across the river to the tall towers in the Pudong district

The Tall Towers of Shanghai

Shanghai is full of tall buildings, but even there some tower above the rest. The Oriental Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower, and the Shanghai World Financial Center that looks like a bottle opener tower over much of the Pudong district where the city’s tallest buildings are located. Taller even than those, the Shanghai Tower rises above them all. It’s the tallest building in China and the second tallest building in the world. It has the world’s fastest elevator and an observation deck 120 stories up. The other 3 very tall towers also have observation decks. All of them are open to the public for a price, which is pretty close to the same for each tower. Currently the world’s tallest building is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, though there are buildings under construction that will move both it and the Shanghai Tower farther down the list of the world’s tallest buildings once they are completed.

view of the Jin Mao Tower from the Shanghai Tower

Jin Mao Tower | 420.5 m | 1,380 ft | 88 floors

This building contains offices and a hotel as well as exhibition and banquet halls and entertainment facilities. It’s the only one of the the Pudong area’s skyscrapers that has any sort of traditional architectural appearance. The observation deck is located on the 88th floor and offers a 60-meter-long glass skywalk without rails for a clear view of the scenery on the Huangpu River. Although how clear the view is in Shanghai on any given day depends on smog levels as well as weather. It’s probably a lot clearer now with the city on Covid lockdown, but nobody can enjoy the view when everything is closed.

Oriental Pearl Tower at night

Oriental Pearl Tower 468 m (1,535 feet)

This tower is a radio and TV antenna tower rather than a regular building with normal floors. It has 11 spheres and is supported by 3 giant columns. It has 15 observation levels ranging from the lowest at 295 feet (89 meters) to the highest at 351 meters (1151 feet). There’s a revolving restaurant at the 267 m (876 foot) level. What gives this tower its overall height is the antenna, which extends another 118 m (387 ft) above the rest of the building. In the evenings this tower lights up in ever changing colors. It’s definitely the most distinctive of Shanghai’s tall towers.

the Shanghai World Financial Center tower looks like a giant bottle opener

Shanghai World Financial Center 492 m (1,614 ft) 101 floors

From the outside this building somewhat resembles a giant bottle opener. In addition to the sight-seeing floors near the top, this building also houses a hotel, offices and meeting facilities, and a shopping mall and restaurants. There are sightseeing areas on the 94th and 97th floors and a glass skywalk on the 100th floor. You can also get a view from the lobby and bar of the Park Hyatt Hotel on the 87th floor. The hotel elevators are not in the same location as the observatory elevators.

Shanghai Tower

Shanghai Tower | 632 m | 2,073 ft | 128 floors

This building shares the world record for the highest observation deck within a building with the Ping An Financial Center in Shenzen. It has the one of the fastest elevators in the world, which races at a speed of 20.5 meters per second, reaching the observation deck on the 118th floor in a mere 55 seconds. So fast it will make your ears pop like during take-off on an airplane.

at the base of the Shanghai Tower

The exterior of this buildings twists toward the sky in spiral fashion. In addition to the observation deck, the building houses 5-star hotels, high end retail shops, offices and financial services, a recreation zone, conference and banquet facilities, and indoor gardens.

the viewing area has full length windows circling the outside in a donut-like hallway, and other things like this artificial tree at the inside

We chose to visit the Shanghai Tower because if you’re going to go up a tall tower might as well go up the tallest one available. We went up in the afternoon on a weekday and it wasn’t very busy, though judging from all the line dividers they had both at the ticket window and inside the building it must get pretty crowded sometimes. From the ticket window you go down a nearby escalator to get to the entrance for the observation deck. Once in the building you pass several exhibits before reaching the elevator.

view of Shanghai and Jen Mao Towers from a park on the other side of the river

One exhibit shows the world’s tallest buildings from over 100 years ago when the tallest one would be dwarfed by ordinary apartments of today up to the Burj Khalifa at 828 m (2,717 ft) and 163 floors. It also showed each building that was tallest at the time it was built in between. Some are highlighted in individual cases, but all are posted along the backwall.

tall towers of the future

Another display has information about building the Shanghai Tower. There’s also one that shows proposed tall towers for the near future including several that will be taller than the Shanghai Tower and one to be even taller than Dubai’s Burj Khalfa.

smoggy view from the Shanghai Tower

The view from the tower is quite impressive, though it would be far more so in daylight if not marred by smog which gives a clear view only of the buildings pretty much directly below it while everything else is in a brownish haze that gets thicker and more occlusive the farther away you look.

you can see farther at night when the view has lights and darkness masks the smog

We decided we might as well stay up there and wait for the sun to set to get the nighttime view as well. The closer it got to sunset the more people came into the tower, most flocking to the windows on the west side, probably in hopes of a sunset view. Though the sky got darker there were no brilliant colors of sunset, probably due to the fact that the sun had never actually been visible that day through the smog. Once it got too dark to see smog the distance we could see actually got farther since everything is lit up at night.

looking down on Pudong and across the water to the Bund from the Shanghai Tower

The nightly light show of buildings on the Bund and around Pudong is brilliant from up in the tower. We waited for the Pearl tower to turn its lights on so we could have that in our photos before going down. Many of the other buildings light up before it gets quite all the way dark, but the Pearl Tower is not so quick to turn theirs on. The bottle opener looking one was even later to turn on its shiny blue lights. The boats that do river cruises in the evenings put on their own light shows as they float by.

little tram cars run on rails surrounded in light shows through Shanghai’s sightseeing tunnel

We were going to take the subway back to the other side of the river, but seemed to have left the tower at the same time as thousands of people got off work because there were throngs of people headed for the subway station at the same time. When we got there both the line to get tickets and the line to go down to the platform were so long we decided to take the sightseeing tunnel instead even though we had already rode on it once. I was glad we did because the first time we were behind other people in the car, whereas that night when we got to the front of the line we asked to wait for the next car so we could stand at the front window. From the front of the car I saw how much we had missed in the light show the first time through. Standing behind people the first time we just saw the sides of the tunnel and missed things directly in front like where a screen rose up or a curtain opened to reveal more beyond.

the buildings up close are pretty clear, but the farther away you get the more they fade until disappearing entirely into the smog

Walking around China or riding on the subways I felt like a tall person with big feet even though I’m just under 5’4” and most of my shoes are size 4. They may not bind their feet anymore, but a lot of them wear very tiny shoes.

Jin Mao Tower and World Financial Center

Tourist attractions throughout the world exit through the gift shop, and the tower had one at the top as well as one at the bottom. You can walk from the tower through a tunnel leading to a subway station. The tunnel has an opening with a view up to the tall towers before winding through an upscale underground mall on the way to the subway. A lot of the subway stations in Shanghai have underground shops or malls around them.

looking up at Shanghai’s tall towers from the open area in the underground

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in China, Holland America, Port Cities, Westerdam | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Coconut Lime Cookies

Posted on April 15, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger
Coconut Lime Cookies

These cookies are so tasty nobody will ever know they are gluten and dairy free.

Ingredients

Juice of 2 limes (about 1/3 cup)

Zest of 2 limes

1 1/2 cups almond flour

1 1/2 cups shredded or flaked coconut

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/3 cup brown or coconut sugar

3 Tablespoons melted coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

Directions

Stir all ingredients together until well blended. Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined pan. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-14 minutes. If flatter cookies are desired you can flatten them before baking.

coconut lime cookies flattened before baking

copyright My Cruise Stories 2022

Posted in recipes | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Bionic Bar on Symphony of the Seas

Posted on April 8, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Bionic Bar on Symphony of the Seas

One of the many bars on Royal Caribbean Symphony of the Seas is called the Bionic Bar. It’s called that because the bartender is a pair of robots. Or at least robotic arms anyway. I really wanted to try the Bionic Bar because the robots looked something like a miniature version of a robot I used to run when I worked in a sheet metal shop. That one was much larger than a person and coordinated with a press brake to form bends into metal parts. The bright orange robot was built by a German company called Kuka that makes industrial robots who perform all sorts of tasks in different types of factories and can work in tandem with other machines. Unlike the bartending robots whose bases are stationary on the counter, the Kuka robot moved through its work area on a track in the floor.

bartending robots

Though the robots in the Bionic Bar resemble the industrial ones in that they are a robotic arm and are programmed to perform tasks, they are made specifically for the purpose of bartending by an Italian company called Makr Shakr who builds the entire bartending system (with German technology). Each robot has its own name, and the robots on different ships have different names. On Symphony of the Seas they are called Rock’Em and Sock’Em. On other ships they have names like Mix and Mingle or Shaken and Stirred.

the robot bartenders work under a canopy of upside down bottles

The Bionic Bar is located on the Royal Promenade. When not at work mixing drinks the robots sit still on the counter. Upside down bottles of alcohol and mixer hang above them. They have quite an assortment on non-refrigerated things to choose from. When the robots finish mixing a drink they rather sloppily pour it into a plastic cup on the counter, then visit a cleaning station behind them before returning to their non-working pose.

filling up

The robots can make quite a variety of mixed drinks, but they do not have a blender nor do they make any frozen drinks. You can get those elsewhere on the ship from human bartenders. The cost is the same as for drinks at other onboard bars, including the automatically added gratuity. Perhaps they share that with their human helper who was standing off to the side to assist newbies with the ordering process. She probably had to clean up after them as well since they often spill some when they pour the finished drink into the cup, and of course somebody has to keep their supplies stocked.

robots at work

To order you use a tablet in a stand on one corner of the bar. You can choose from a set menu or make up your own customized drink. It offered some standard drinks and some robot bar signature drinks on the set menus. Once you have chosen your drinks you pay with your Seapass (keycard) just like you would for anything else purchased onboard.

If there are other people ahead of you at the bar a screen will display a queue that says what drinks it is currently making and how long until your drink will be made. There wasn’t anyone else there when we got our drinks so it started making them as soon as it scanned my card. I was going to order 3, one for each sister, but after putting 2 in my cart it would not let me add a third so apparently more than 2 has to be a separate order since it can only make 2 at a time. The sisters could have ordered drinks on their own accounts of course, but offering to buy them drinks was the way I talked them into coming to the Bionic Bar with me as they did not have the same interest in the robots that I did. It can make 2 drinks per minute so even if there are a few people ahead of you the wait isn’t too long and watching it make other people’s drinks is pretty good entertainment while you wait. Since there wasn’t anyone else there it jumped right into making the two drinks before I even had the camera ready so we skipped the third drink and just shared.

drink data displayed on a mirror

The movements the robots make were programmed to simulate movements of a human dancer so they would look more graceful as they worked. Every move of the industrial robot I used to run had to be carefully programmed and though it was not mimicking anything human I really didn’t notice the movements of the bartending robots as being much different.

the robots look like they have eyes

The robot bartenders did have a more humanistic appearance in that their working appendage had a couple discs that made it look as if they had eyes.

pouring a finished drink

The robots gather the ingredients and then mix them according to whatever drink they are making. They can mix, muddle, stir, shake, or strain depending on what each individual drink calls for.

drinks are ready

Once the drink is finished there’s a place to tap your SeaPass card at the end of a track in the bar, after which the drink slides forward on a track in the counter. I suppose tapping the card is to insure each drink goes to the person who ordered it.

waiting for a drink

We picked drinks from the robot signature menu and they were quite tasty. The bright blue one was called Avatar.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in Royal Caribbean, Shipboard Life, Symphony of the Seas | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Cruise Ship Cabins on Celebrity Constellation

Posted on April 1, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Celebrity Constellation

Cabin choices on Celebrity Constellation include the usual selection of inside cabins, ocean view cabins, balcony cabins, and suites. Among those major categories there are some variations, especially in the suites. Each category has some accessible cabins, which tend to be the largest ones in any given type. Fully accessible cabins also have lowered vanity, raised toilet, roll-in shower, grab bars, and if they are balcony cabins, an accessible balcony. When booking sometimes there is a category guarantee option, which costs less than choosing a specific cabin and also has the possibility of getting an upgrade if the category you chose books full. The downside of that is since you aren’t choosing your own cabin it may not end up in your preferred location.

inside cabin

Inside cabins are the least expensive so they are always popular with budget conscious cruisers. People who like to sleep in the daytime without being bothered by outside light prefer these cabins too since there is no outside light other than a bit of hallway lighting from the crack under the door. The inside cabin we had on the Infinity felt bigger than the balcony cabin we had on Constellation, possibly because the mirrored backwall made it seem larger than it actually was. These cabins are generally 170 square feet, but if you look over the deck plans some are larger. Especially accessible ones which are up to 347 square feet.

oceanview cabin

Ocean View cabins have a standard size of 170 square feet, though some are larger. They sleep from 2-5 people. Most are located on lower decks with round porthole type windows. There are a few on upper decks, at the front of decks 6, 8, & 9. Some of these are the deluxe ocean view cabins with larger rooms.

family veranda cabin

Veranda cabins come in a variety of options. Family veranda staterooms are the biggest at 382-461 square feet and sleep up to 5 people. These cabins have extra-large balconies. The regular veranda sleep 2-4 people.

deluxe balcony cabin with oversized balcony

There are a few deluxe veranda cabins toward the bow of deck 6 that have oversized balconies. There are some deluxe and sunset veranda staterooms at the back of decks 7, 8, & 9 that also have extra large balconies. Standard balcony cabin size is 170 – 208 square feet.

concierge class

Concierge class accommodations come with access to concierges who can help guests with their vacation plans whether that is booking things onboard like spa treatments or specialty restaurants, or excursions for the port stops. Rooms are 251 square feet and have verandas. There’s a special embarkation day lunch just for people booking these rooms.

AquaClass

AquaClass guests have their own private dining room, Blu, which serves healthy style meals. AquaClass accommodations come with access to the Persian Garden thermal suite and a spa concierge in case they want to set up any spa appointments.

aquaclass sky suite

Aquaclass cabins are 271 square feet and all have verandas. These rooms include premium bath products, massaging showerheads, and complimentary fitness classes. Aquaclass sky suites receive both aquaclass and suite amenities.

Celebrity suite

The top tier of rooms is the suite class, called The Retreat, although that name is for the amenities that are included with suites rather than an actual place on the ship. Suite guests have their own restaurant called Luminae, serving upscale food. They also have a private lounge called Michael’s Club, and a private sundeck.

royal suite

There’s a retreat host and concierges as well as stateroom stewards to tend to their every need. The rooms include premium bath products and other amenities. Sky suites are 311 square feet (accessible 423), with a large veranda. Celebrity suites are 587 square feet with separate bedroom and a dining table for 4. The royal suites are bigger yet and have fancy doors.

penthouse suite

The largest suites of all are the penthouse suites at 1432 square feet with a back deck wraparound balcony of 1098 square feet.

door to a penthouse suite

The whole back of deck 6 is taken up by just two penthouse suites. The floors in the hallways by these suites look like marble rather than the usual carpet, though the doors are not as fancy as the ones on the nearby royal suites. Guests in these suites have private butlers. Amenities include complimentary premium beverage packages, unlimited premium dining, complimentary mini-bar stocked daily, and many other things. Furnishings include a baby grand piano.

royal suite door

On our cruise the front section of cabins on deck 7 was closed off with authorized personnel only sign on the door barring entry from the elevator and stairway landing, something new that wasn’t needed in the past but is now – the covid isolation ward! Luckily there were very few covid cases on our cruise so most of those cabins sat empty. Most of the cases onboard are asymptomatic crew who only know they have it because of routine testing rather than people who are feeling sick, though they do ask that anyone who does have symptoms get tested right away so they can be isolated too.

covid isolation ward – do not enter

Whatever cabin guests choose, they are all clean, comfortable, and attended to daily by a stateroom steward who cleans the cabin and replaces used towels twice daily.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in Celebrity, Constellation | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Boston Aquarium

Posted on March 25, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

New England Aquarium in Boston

After we finished touring the Constitution at the end of our walk down the Freedom Trail in Boston we decided to look for the tall ship sailing harbor tour we’d seen when looking online for things to do in Boston. Google said it was at the central wharf and google maps said it was only a mile away so we decided to just walk there rather than look for a subway station. My Garmin watch pegged the distance we traveled at over 2k so the mile was a bit of an underestimate since 1.6k = 1 mile.

aquarium theater and amphibious duck vehicle

When we got there we found a little row of booths for various tours, one being the sailboats we were looking for and another for the amphibious duck tours. We saw a number of the duck vehicles come and go, each painted a different color. A horse-drawn carriage pulled up to the area and some people got in for a ride.

harbor walk

We got there around 3pm, and the last daytime ship had sailed at 2:30. The next one would be the sunset tour leaving at 5:30pm. This one cost less than the earlier tours, but also left us with a chunk of time to fill while we waited. The aquarium happened to be next door and the guy who sold us the sailboat tickets said it was a good one so we went there. On the other side of it we found a sign saying harbor walk, which followed a dock around the aquarium and back to the other side where the boats sailed from. It had views of the harbor on one side, and part of the other side had views of the aquarium’s seals. The actual name of the aquarium is New England Aquarium, but it is located right on a wharf in a touristy area of Boston. People were required to wear masks inside to protect from covid during the time we visited.

stingrays in the touch tank

Inside the aquarium the bottom floor has a touch tank with small rays and some tiny sharks, seals, and penguins. The penguins are all around the central large aquarium, which has a walkway spiraling up to see the fish living at different depths of the ocean.

penguins

A sign listed 3 different types of penguins, and there were some dividers between the different colonies. It also said the penguins wear color tags to identify them, with mated pairs wearing the same color tag as each other. There’s also a marine mammal center on the first level.

fish

As you walk up the path around the center tank there are different levels where you can leave that path and see smaller aquarium displays around the edges of the building. They had fish from a variety of different places. Many from different tropical regions, but also some from areas like the coast of Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula.

sea anemones and starfish

Other sea creatures lived in some of the tanks too. Things like coral, seaweed, sea anemones, starfish, lobsters, or sea urchins.

the leafy sea dragon resembles a plant

One tank had leafy sea dragons which resemble seahorses with leafy appendages. Another had very tiny seahorses. There were even some hermit crabs. We did not see any jellyfish or octopus, but the aquarium’s website lists jellyfish as something that they have.

whale skeleton

There was an octopus statue on a railing, but no live ones. No live whales either, but a giant whale skeleton hung down from the ceiling over the penguin habitat. You can book whale watching tours in combination with aquarium tickets.

small turtle

The large central tank had at least a couple giant turtles in it. We saw one swimming in some of the lower levels, and when we got to where you look down into the tank from the top there were two. It is a 40-foot wide 4-story 200,000 gallon tank full of Caribbean reef creatures. One of the turtles is a green sea turtle named Myrtle who has lived there since 1970, but I don’t know if she was one of the turtles we saw. There were also some smaller turtles.

reef exhibit

The aquarium also had a theater, but the movies cost extra and we really didn’t have time to watch any so we didn’t go there. It’s a giant screen theater with a selection of aquatic films lasting just over 20 minutes each.

fish

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in Day Trips, USA | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Camano Island

Posted on March 18, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

map of Camano Island

One of Washington State’s largest islands at nearly 40 square miles, Camano Island sits north of Seattle in the Possession Sound area of Puget Sound between Whidbey Island and the mainland. A bridge connects Camano Island, which is in Island County to Stanwood on the mainland in Snohomish County. For anyone not local to the area, Puget is pronounced Pew-jet (NOT Pug-et). It derives its name from early explorer Peter Puget. Camano Island is named after far less known Spanish explorer Jacinto Caamaño who explored the west coast from Mexico to Alaska.

Camano Island Inn (internet photo)

Early inhabitants included people from various groups of the Coast Salish tribes. Currently the island is home to 2 state parks and 13 local parks. Both state parks have campgrounds and the island also has Airbnb and other vacation homes as well as 2 inns. Camano Island Inn started life as a boarding house in the late 1800’s. The current inn has 9 guest rooms and a separate beach house. Sea Mist Waterfront Inn is a former family home turned into a 5 guest room BnB. Most of the beaches on the island are on private property, but both state parks are on the beach and there is access at a couple other parks and some other beach areas. Some of the vacation homes come with private beach access.

the beach at Cama Beach State Park

Camano Island is a great place to go for a quiet retreat. Besides beaches it has acres of wooded trails at 2 state and 3 county parks. There are also other things to do on the island besides hiking on the trails, hanging out on the beaches, or enjoying nature and the views. There’s a zipline called Canopy Tours Northwest, a marketplace, a sculpture park, several wineries, a brewery, boat tours, and a couple restaurants. The island also has farms and farmer’s markets.

ancient photo of Tabu in a parade – he’s the smaller of the 2 horses at the front of the photo

The whole island is unincorporated and semi rural, though not nearly as full of wild open land as it was way back when I bought my first horse there when I was just a kid. He was a feisty unbroke dark bay gelding named Tabu. An inexperienced kid training an unbroken horse was not the best idea, but we both eventually learned and he became one of the best riding horses I ever had. He was so tuned in to me I just had to think what I wanted him to do and he’d do it. He would also rear up on his hind legs on cue. Not the best thing to teach a horse, but what can I say, I was a kid.

Cabin on Camano Island

I hadn’t been there in ages, but when looking for a quiet social distance getaway, Camano Island seemed perfect. After all the most isolated places are generally islands, forests, or lonely beaches and Camano Island has all three. It’s also an island you can get to without a boat or plane, which is a bonus when avoiding public transportation.

pond lily at Cranberry Lake in Cama Beach State Park

Like most places over the years Camano Island has seen development. While it’s still a quiet place without a city, what was once mainly wild untamed land has largely given way to large, sometimes manicured yards surrounding permanent or vacation homes instead of acres of undeveloped land. At least in the area of the island where we stayed, but odds are the rest of the island has seen development over the years too. It’s not exactly isolated with a population of over 13,000 – 17,000 (depending on the season) within the island’s nearly 40 square miles of land. It’s still open enough that we didn’t see much traffic or a whole lot of other people during our stay. Even hiking at one of the state parks we only came across a few people.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in USA, Washington | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Cabins on Symphony of the Seas

Posted on March 11, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Symphony of the Seas

Most cruise ships have interior, oceanview, and balcony staterooms as well as suites. There’s often some variety in amount of people a room accommodates, and a bit of variance in shape or size due to the location of some of the rooms. Suites often come in small, medium, and large varieties. Symphony of the Seas goes well beyond the usual choices, especially when it comes to suites and interior cabins – some of which aren’t closed in by 4 walls the way interior cabins are expected to be. Like on most cruise ships, there are accessible cabins, which are generally larger than the square footage given for standard cabins of that designation.

grand suite

Suites

Suites on Symphony of the Seas come in three Royal Suite Classes – Sea, Sky, and Star. Sea is the lowest suite class with the least amenities, and is the classification for the Junior Suites, their smallest suites. Sky class is the standard suite classification used for the majority of the types of available suites. Star class is for the highest level premium suites like the Ultimate Family Suite and AquaTheater Suites. Some suites have one or more separate bedrooms. All suite level rooms have bathrooms with bathtubs. Some suites have more than one bathroom.

Exclusive suite class services

Sea –dinner at Coastal Kitchen (exclusive suite only restaurant), bathrobes, luxury pillow top mattress, luxury bathroom amenities

Sky – concierge service, all day access to Coastal Kitchen, specialty bottled water on arrival, complimentary internet, priority boarding & departure

Star – exclusive access to Royal Genie (concierge service), all day access to coastal kitchen, complimentary specialty restaurants, complimentary beverage package, complimentary gratuities, complimentary internet, priority boarding & departure

Types of Suites

royal loft suite

Royal Loft Suite – The largest suite on the ship. Two level suite with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, dining and living room areas, and private jacuzzi on the balcony. 1524 sq ft, with a 843 sq ft balcony, sleeps 6.

4 bedroom villa

Villa Suite – 1142 sq ft, balcony 476 sq ft, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, up to 14 guests. Veranda with private jacuzzi. Sleeps the most people of any cabin on the ship.

ultimate family suite

Ultimate Family Suite – top level two story suite with slide, jacuzzi, air hockey, ping pong, cinema & video game room, 1134 sq ft, balcony 212 sq ft, up to 8 guests. Most colorful suite and most family fun.

Star Loft Suite – Two deck high stateroom with master bedroom and 2 bathrooms, living and dining areas. 722 sq ft, balcony 410, sleeps 4

AquaTheater suite

AquaTheater Suites are available with one or two bedrooms. These are star class with the 2 bedroom suites ranging from 673 – 823 sq ft, with balconies of 610 – 772 sq ft. They sleep up to 8 guests. Besides the 2 bedrooms, they have 2 bathrooms, living room & dining areas, and the wraparound balcony has views of both the ocean and the AquaTheater.

The one-bedroom AquaTheater suites have 1 bathroom, are 604 – 606 sq ft with balconies from 589-631 square feet and sleep up to 4 guests.

owner’s suite

Owner’s Suite – 556 sq ft, balcony 243 sq ft with living room and bedroom areas, 1 bathroom with tub and 2 sinks.

grand suite

Grand Suite comes in 1 or 2 bedroom options.  2 bedroom – 580 sq ft, balcony 238 sq ft up to 8 guests, 2 bathrooms, marble entry, living room area. 1 bedroom – 371 sq feet balcony 105 sq ft, double sink in bathroom, up to 4 guests

crown loft suite

Crown Loft Suite – 2 level urban contemporary style loft suite 545 sq ft, balcony 114 sq ft up to 4 guests, living and dining areas and bathroom on main level, master suite with bathroom with tub on upper level.

junior suite

Junior Suite – glorified balcony room, 284 square feet with 80 sq foot balcony sleeps up to 5.

balcony cabin

Staterooms

Staterooms come as balcony, ocean view, or interior. These cabins all have one bathroom with a shower. Rooms with balconies in the central park and boardwalk areas are on the interior side of the ship, but their balconies are open air because those portions of the ship are open to the outside, Accessible cabins are larger than the square footage listed.

Balcony Staterooms

ocean view balcony

Ocean view balcony cabins come standard or with large balcony. Rooms are  182 sq ft, large balcony is 80 sq ft and standard balcony is 50-52 sq ft. These rooms are located on the outsides of the ship with balconies overlooking the sea. Up to 4 guests.

central park balconies

Central Park View – the balcony overlooks the central park area of the ship, which is open to the sky. 182 sq ft, balcony 52 sq ft

boardwalk balconies

Boardwalk View – although on the interior of the ship, the boardwalk area is open to the sky and at the stern of the ship beyond the AquaTheater. Cabins in this area may be noisy, especially during AquaTheater performances. 182 sq ft, balcony 52 sq ft

Ocean View Staterooms

ocean view

Ocean view staterooms are located on the exterior of the ship and have windows with views of the sea.

Ultra spacious ocean view 271 sq ft up to 6 guests

Ocean View 179 sq ft, up to 4 guests

promenade view interior

Interior Staterooms

There are numerous interior cabin choices on Symphony of the Seas, some with views.

Spacious interior – 260 sq ft, up to 6 guests, bunkroom area, one bathroom. No window, but it is an extra-large cabin.

Central park view interior – 199 sq ft, up to 4 guests, window with view of central park

windows with a view of the Royal Promenade

Promenade View Interior – 194 sq ft, up to 4 guests, bowed windows overlooking the promenade.

interior cabin with virtual balcony

Interior with virtual balcony – 172 sq ft, max 2 guests, no actual window, but real time views of the ocean and destinations on a nearly floor to ceiling high definition screen could make it feel as if there is one.

interior cabin

Interior – 149 sq ft, up to 4 guests, good for cruisers on a budget or day sleepers who want a room without any natural light.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in Royal Caribbean, Shipboard Life, Symphony of the Seas | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Celebrity Constellation

Posted on March 4, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

Celebrity Constellation in Aruba

Leaving Tampa, it becomes obvious why the ships sailing from that port are of the older, smaller variety. Initially the ship sailed backwards until it came to a wide enough spot in the channel for it to turn around – barely, and the Constellation is not large for a modern cruise ship. It’s a long way from the port to open water through narrow winding channels – and under a bridge that the Constellation barely cleared. Anything taller would not fit under that bridge, nor would a longer ship be able to make that tight turnaround.

metal art above the pool deck

On a ship that holds 2170 of passengers, Constellation set sail with around 700 – and about 900 crew. On this early January 2022 sailing the low number was not all due to covid, though with omicron waging war on the world some of the over 1200 passengers originally booked for this cruise likely did choose to cancel or were required to due to a positive covid test. As for the rest of them, with thousands of flights getting cancelled daily due to storms and lack of flight crews because they were all out sick with covid, quite a lot of people simply couldn’t get to the port. We got lucky in that our scheduled flight was nonstop and went out just an hour and a half late. With that same flight cancelled both the previous and next days, we were very lucky it flew on the day we needed it to.

view nook behind elevators

Constellation had quite a few similarities to Infinity, the one Celebrity ship we have previously sailed on, as they are sister ships of the Millennium class. The layout was slightly different in some areas. For some reason the Constellation felt smaller than Infinity, although it is actually slightly bigger.

stairway art

Like every other ship we’ve ever been on, Constellation had some odd art choices. It had some nice art too. The front stairway had fake plants as the centerpiece on the landing between decks, but not pretty flowers. Mainly weeds, with a lot of levels having dandelions in various stages of budding or blooming. The middle stairway had really odd sculptures, probably ceramic. Mostly they just looked like somebody glazed a big blob of clay, but one had human legs with shoes on the feet sticking out of the middle of a twisted mass. The back stairway had sculptures that each looked as if it were made either by or for a small child, other than the 2 lowest decks which just had jars of marbles. There were also quite a few much larger odd sculptures around the ship, but also some nice things like metal art old sailing ships and dolphins.

it kind of resembles a giant covid virus

Considering we’re in a pandemic, the weirdest art of all was a statue that looked something like a gigantic covid virus with a few bites taken out of it.

What time is it?

Normally there are clocks about the ship, usually at every stairway landing set to ship’s time. On this ship, all the clocks were covered and just said isn’t it time, which was very odd. One can only speculate if some of them didn’t work, or if they just didn’t want to bother to have to change them when the ship sailed from one time zone to another.

solarium pool

One of the best things on this ship is the solarium, which has a pool similar to that which you pay extra for in thermal suites on some lines, but people can use free here. They do have a thermal suite called the Persian Garden, but with just a group ceramic bench, sauna, and steam rooms, it’s nowhere near worth the price they want to use it. Especially since on this cruise even after people paid for the Persian Garden they couldn’t even use it whenever they wanted to. Appointments were required for each use in order to keep the number of people in it at one time low due to covid. The spa had a variety of rooms and treatments available, for a price of course.

main dining room

Dining for most passengers occurs mostly in the main dining room or buffet, but there are a few specialty restaurants where reservations can be booked for an additional cost. Some cabins come with access to smaller dining rooms only open to people booked in those particular cabins. Aqua class has Blu, a healthier eating restaurant. Luminae has an upscale menu for suite guests only. Aqua class also gets to use the thermal suite for free. Suite guests have exclusive access to Michaels Club, which caters to their needs as well as providing bar services.

Cafe el Bacio coffee bar

Shops onboard are mainly luxury items like jewelry, clothing, expensive liquor, and perfume, but they did have a logo shop, some less expensive clothing, and a few sundries. They had some big ship models, but did not have any ship model Christmas tree ornaments, something I like to collect from all the ships I sail on if they have any.

the animated petite chef barbecues a steak on your plate

Premium restaurants on the Constellation are the Italian themed Tuscan Grille, Sushi on Five, and La Petite Chef at Qsine. When we were on the Infinity, Qsine served quite a variety of very imaginative dishes. Though the venue is still called Qsine, the menu now is very limited and the creativity is in the serving, as each dish appears to be made on your plate by a tiny cartoon chef. Besides the dining rooms and buffet, limited menu free food is available at the poolside grill, coffee bar, and cafés in the spa and solarium. The coffee bar and cafés have some items free and some for a fee.

pool deck

Other than pools, hot tubs, a movie screen, and lounging in deck chairs there’s not a lot of free do-it-yourself entertainment, but there is a daily schedule of activities as well as lectures and shows. They have dance classes, and in the evenings dancing at a bar. There’s also a library and various places around the ship where people can sit and read or watch the scenery go by. Mostly bits of furniture in hallways or on the outskirts of bars, but there’s a little nook near the atrium with a bunch of chairs next to windows that is just a semi-hidden sitting area not attached to anything else. There’s also deck chairs outside in a bunch of places other than the main pool deck. And perhaps in an attempt to keep people from spreading towels over all the deck chairs to reserve them for themselves, folded towels are set out on a lot of them, ready and waiting for anyone who comes by to use.

movie screen on the top back deck

Do-it –yourself entertainment that is not free comes in the form of internet, a casino, and a lot of bars. Outside the Mast bar sat above the pool deck, with the pool bar on the pool deck, and the Sunset Bar at the back of the ship behind the buffet. Inside it has the ever-popular Martini and Crush bars centrally located by the grand staircase, the Rondezvous Lounge, which had live music and a dance floor, Cellar Masters wine bar, and bars in the Casino and Reflections Lounge for when those venues are open. It also had Cafe el Bacio coffee bar and gelateria.

a giant glass ceiling sculpture reminded me of either snakes or kelp

With more of the boarding process than ever taken care of online before arriving at the dock, boarding itself goes pretty quickly. Around a month or two before sailing the schedule opens up for people to register and choose a boarding time, with of course the earliest times going to whomever gets that done first other than suite and high loyalty status people who are offered an earlier time than the rest. Lines are set up outside by time slot rather than people waiting inside the port building like they did pre-covid. When the line clears and there’s nobody else waiting at a given time slot then people from the next one will be let through even if it’s not quite their time yet. They did limit how many people they let into the building at a time, so once inside the lines were short and moved quickly, unlike the much longer ones outside. If you aren’t there too far ahead of your assigned time slot the wait isn’t bad, but if you have a late slot and arrive too early it could take quite awhile to make it to the door.

Reflections Lounge

The much-hated muster drill has been replaced by a couple videos to watch in the app and going down on your own to your muster station to get your card scanned. It’s quick and easy. Just takes a few minutes. Hopefully they will continue with the new do-it-yourself muster program even after covid, but I guess that remains to be seen. Easy as it is, there’s always those few people who can’t be bothered to do it so they have to keep making announcements and even call them by name at departure time to get those cards scanned so the ship can set sail.

small cabin with a big balcony

Our cabin was a bit on the small side for a balcony cabin having just room enough for a small sofa rather than a full sized one like some have, but then again I’ve been in balcony cabins on some ships that had no room for a sofa at all so definitely not the smallest one we’ve had. As far as the balcony goes, this one was the biggest at about 2.5 times the usual size. There was just one small row of cabins on each side of deck 6 with these oversized balconies so we were lucky to get one. It’s an older ship and the cabin just had 2 outlets, no USB ports. There were also 2 foreign outlets and they sell plug adaptors in one of the shops so a person could gain a couple extra that way. I brought one that had 3 plugs and a clock with 2 USB ports so for the space of one plug I gained 2 more plug-ins besides the one with the clock plus the 2 USB ports, which made enough for us.

top deck track

The outside promenade deck does not go all the way around. The ship has a tiny topdeck track, which is really just a wide red line painted around the deck above the pool area. One side of that passes over as well as through a smoking area so it’s not really suitable for exercise with that as well as wind, weather, and exposure to the elements. There is a pretty nice gym, but with masks required in there it’s not so easy to exercise. I don’t particularly like treadmills to begin with, and with a mask on I could not run nearly as far or fast as normal. The ship’s internet was not good. After the first few days it was so slow most of the things I needed wouldn’t even open, including my business email. Internet at sea is always notoriously slow, and now that a lot of the ships are going with all-inclusive fares there are more people on it than ever, making it slower yet.

Grand Foyer

At the time the media liked to make a big deal about Covid on cruise ships, ignoring the main population of anywhere. On our ship for example out of over 700 passengers and over 900 crew about halfway through the week there were just 5 cases – none of them badly ill. Two crew and 3 passengers. The crew are tested regularly, and as is usual for crew cases they were asymptomatic. All 5 were put into isolation. That’s less than half a percent of the population onboard, so far better than most anywhere on land. By the end of the cruise it was closer to 1%, so still very few cases. On the ships you know everyone (except very small children, of which there were only 2 on this ship) has been vaccinated and tested, whereas on land they are not. The captain made announcements regularly with updates on medical issues. At the beginning of the cruise it was one of the crew airlifted for appendicitis, later the very few covid cases onboard. There was an area of the ship closed off to all other passengers reserved for isolating people who tested positive from everyone else so they were moved from their original cabins to that area.

SHIP STATS

The Constellation was built in 2002, the last of the Millennium Class. Ship’s registry is in Malta. It has 11 decks with a passenger capacity of 2170, and international crew of up to 999 officers and crew members. Gross tonnage is 90,940, length 965 feet, beam 105.6 feet. The average speed is 24 knots. The ship has 219 inside cabins and 822 outside cabins with balcony or window.

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022
Posted in Celebrity, Constellation | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Dhow Boat Ride in Khasab, Oman

Posted on February 25, 2022 by LBcruiseshipblogger

view of the Lirica from the dhow

Our cruise from Italy to Dubai on the MSC Lirica had several port stops in Oman, one of them at Khasab. Due to pre-cruise research where everybody on all the websites I could find about cruising to Oman said there was nothing to do in Khasab and recommended booking an excursion, we booked a Dhow boat tour through the ship that included fishing and snorkeling. I like to snorkel and John likes to fish and we both like boats so this excursion seemed perfect for us.

dhow in the Musandam Fjords

Dhow boat tours are a very popular thing to do in Khasab. They sail through the fjords of the Musandam Peninsula, which is where the town of Khasab is located. Whether just taking a scenic tour through the fjords, or one that includes fishing, dolphin spotting, snorkeling, or all three, it’s a fun way to spend a day. Many of the dhows used for these tours are made of wood in an authentic looking style resembling historic boats of that area.

snorkel stop on a dhow cruise

We booked pre-cruise, so it was cheaper than booking on the ship. As it turned out we could have gotten it for less by booking last minute after getting off the ship, but we didn’t know beforehand that this tour or anything else would be available there. People who booked their dhow boat ride last minute at the port had pretty much the same tour as those who had booked through the ship, but on a different boat.

dhow boats at the dock

There were lots of the dhow boats, most similar in appearance so even those who booked through the ship did not all sail on the same boat. Everyone on ours spoke either English or Italian so speakers of other languages went on other boats. At the port there were tours available inside the port building, and even lower priced tours available outside.

at the start of the tour some people walk through the line of boats to their assigned dhow while others settle in after arriving at the right one

Cruise ship excursions often don’t measure up to expectations, or don’t turn out as described, but this one was one of the better excursions we’ve ever done. It was one of the highlights of the entire cruise. From the ship we were led down the road to a row of waiting dhows. Similar to boarding a gondola from a crowded stand in Venice, people walk from one boat to the next until arriving at their assigned craft.

row of dhows at the dock

We had just 11 passengers on our boat, though it could have held more. Which meant everyone had lots of space. Most spoke English, but there were a few Italians. There was also a girl from the ship’s shore excursions department. She said she was from Iran, but she also spoke both English and Italian. She wore shorts and no headscarf, and a regular western style 1-piece bathing suit with a skirt. Most of the women from the ship had long pants or skirts rather than shorts as we had been told to dress conservatively, though at the snorkel stop not everyone with 2-piece bathing suits put t-shirts over them as was recommended since Oman is an Islamic country.

relaxing on deck

The boat had a fairly open deck with a raised edge all the way around. One side sat higher than the other so the deck sloped down toward the low side. It also sloped up at both the bow and stern ends. The deck had Persian carpets covering most of it, and cushions all around the edges for people to sit on.

one of the crew sets up for fishing

The center console near the engine pipe had room for coffee and tea service as well as a platter of fruit and one of dates. They also handed out water at the beginning to anyone who wanted it and soda after we finished snorkeling. The boat had one small restroom, just barely big enough for a small person to change clothes in. Everyone who wanted to snorkel had their swimming suits on under their clothes at the start and most of them just put their clothes back on over their wet suit on the way back. I was one of very few who changed out of their wet things in the tiny bathroom.

double deck dhow

We started our tour by cruising out of the harbor and made a stop for fishing early on. Now and then a different style dhow boat with an upper story and less authentic look went by. There were tour options that just cruised around without the snorkel or fishing stops so perhaps they used that style boat. Ours was made of wood like the traditional boats would have been, but some double decker ones were not.

fishing Oman style

Nobody caught anything at our first stop so we headed into a fjord to try a different fishing hole. Fishing on this tour was done with line wrapped around a little plastic donut thing rather than using a fishing rod. Besides bait and a hook there was a little weight on the end of the line so it would sink when held over the water and allowing the line to spool out. Nobody caught anything at our second fishing stop either so we went to a place where the 2 guys who made up the boat crew said dolphins like to hang out.

dolphins

I spotted the biggest dolphin I have ever seen in my life, but did not have my camera out. It popped out of the water 3 times before disappearing into the depths not to be seen again. Most of the people on our boat missed seeing it. The crew turned the boat around and went back to where the dolphin had been, but the big guy must have swam off because he never showed himself again. Instead we found a pod of about 5 small dolphins, of which the total of all of them probably wouldn’t equal the size of the first one. These popped playfully in and out of the water, sometimes just one, but sometimes all, or one followed by another and then another. The hung out by our boat for awhile so everyone had a chance to see the smaller dolphins.

island at the snorkel stop

Next the boat cruised to into a small inlet that looked like someone either lived on the beach or had set up a pretty elaborate camp there. It appeared like they might drop anchor, but then they seemed to change their minds and instead headed over to an island where a number of other dhow boats were already anchored up with swimmers and snorkelers in the water. Some people wandered around the tiny island, having gone up a stairway from the sea.

dhows anchored up at the snorkel site

Apparently the fish there like bananas. At our snorkel stop some came up to our boat to nibble on banana bits the crew threw into the water for them. Bananas on a boat are considered bad luck for fishing and we did not catch any fish. Maybe we should have used bananas for bait since the fish had no interest in the bait we used.

snorkel self portrait

The crew put a ladder down one side of the boat and people donned their snorkel gear and went in. The deeper water near the boat was pretty murky, but shallow water by the island was clear and had enough structure to support sea life.

spiny sea urchins

There was more life under the water than on the barren rocky desert hills surrounding it. That area had a few small corals, lots of spiny sea urchins, some clams, a giant sea slug, and all sorts of fish.

sergeant majors

We saw lots of the small striped sergeant major fish you see snorkeling in warm waters pretty much anywhere, various bigger fish, and a few smaller ones.

blue fish

There were some pretty blue fish that liked to hang around the anchor, unless any people came nearby. They were a bit shy and swam off quickly when anyone came near. The sergeant majors seem to have no fear of people. You can swim right through a school of them, but the others all tried to make themselves scarce when anyone came around.

lots of fish at the snorkel site

On the way back we made one more short fishing stop with no luck. There were still bananas on the boat, which were not used for bait. This was a great excursion, which made Khasab one of my favorite ports of the entire trip. It was quite relaxing sitting on the pillows on the deck and watching the scenery go by, and I’m always happy for a chance to go snorkeling.

bow of the dhow

Copyright My Cruise Stories 2022

 

Posted in Lirica, Middle East, MSC, Ports of Call, Shore Excursions | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment