WOW!!

Royal Caribbean have what they call their WOW! awards. It's a scheme where you can give recognition to members of the ship's crew who have given you exceptional service.
Well they couldn’t print enough awards to go around this ship, as every single member of staff I've come into contact with have been superb.
For example at this moment, I'm sitting in the concierge lounge at 5.30am having a coffee and writing this blog, the guy who puts the food out in the lounge and the guy who cleans the lounge, have just finished their jobs and on the way out, stopped and said to me, "safe journey home sir, it's been a pleasure".
I mean WOW! never had that happen before, and it's the attitude that the staff on this ship all have.

Afternoon high tea

As promised, Peter took a group of us out for afternoon tea at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel.
This place is the only 6 star hotel in Oman, it was originally built for Sultan Qaboos as a palace.
But he had it converted into an hotel.
I suppose he had enough palaces already, lol.
The hotel is located right on its own beach, and has an infinity pool, that when in the pool it looks like it flows directly into the sea.
It really is a beautiful place.
The afternoon high tea was great and a lovely experience, with dainty smoked salmon sandwiches along with caviar and things.
They served us English scones, with jam and cream, and some really cool chocolate cakes decorated with real gold leaf.
It was a brilliant afternoon, and a treat not only for the ten passengers Peter had invited, but also the three staff Monet, Adriana and Stokely who were invited also. It gave them a chance to get out of uniform and kick back and relax with the passengers. As I've said before Peters management style is different and it works perfectly, as his staff all love him, and consequently give their best, and us as passengers reap the rewards.

Hotel Director, Peter Dimitrov.

What can I say about this guy?
Apart from being professional, very friendly and approachable from the passengers point of view.
His management style is such that he has the happiest crew I've ever met, and as the saying goes, "Happy crew, happy passengers".
Anyway last night we where invited to the captains table by John Hazzard the F&B manager.
Besides the six of us guests, his new wife Ann joined us and we had an excellent meal, in a very relaxed atmosphere with excellent company. Despite his senior position, John is another approachable down to earth and friendly guy, and his wife Ann is beautiful and in true Scottish Glaswegian fashion is a great talker and very friendly.
After the meal we went back to the cabin and lo and behold what's on the table but a courtesy bottle of wine from Peter, along with a bottle of Moet Chandon champagne also from Peter to apologise for the soot mess we had on our balcony over night.
Apparently they were doing some work on the funnel, and a load of soot ended up on the rear balconies, the cabin steward Franky had told us about it, and it was cleared up by late morning, so was no big deal to us.
But Peter being Peter there was a bottle of champagne in the cabin as an apology, but not the usual sparkling plonk that's dished out as quiz prizes, but a bottle of genuine Moet.
To continue with this cruise to end all cruises, later this afternoon a group of us have been invited for afternoon tea at the 6 star Al Bustan hotel with Peter and some of the officers.
I'll tell you all about that tomorrow.

Didn't we do well!

We had a very nice surprise off Gisleni yesterday, she upgraded us to a junior suite, which was unexpected.
Things on this ship just get better and better we've been treated like royalty from the minute we entered the cruise terminal.
Peter the hotel director and Andre the guest services manager escorted us through check in and Gi Gi the suites concierge came down to escort us on to the ship. We've had captains table, galley brunch, and the promise more this week.

Almost forgot

Forgot to mention that all four of us jumped a taxi to Mercato Mall to meet our friends Eric and Doreen who will be joining Sheila and I for the next cruise, Maz and Sue are going home as they have some business to attend to. Mercato is one of the smaller malls in Dubai, but is a beautiful mall and a lovely place to have a coffee and people watch.
After coffee five of us got a taxi to Karama souk that's the place in Dubai that you can buy copy designer gear, anything from T shirts to Rolex watches all genuine copies, lol.
It's a fun place to shop if you don't mind running the gauntlet of friendly, polite but very, very, persistent guys trying to sell your watches, sunglasses etc.
The thing that tickles me is that these guys are spaced sometimes inches apart and you say no to the first one immediately the next one is trying to sell you exactly the same stuff, and so on down the line.
But as long as you don't take it to seriously, it can be good fun.
I mentioned earlier that only five of us went to Karama, this is because Mazen would rather have red hot needles poked in his eyes than shop there, lol. As I say it's not for everyone.

Well that's the first half over.

Last night was the usual happy/sad occasion when you say goodbye to friends old and new.
I've already said how good the staff are on this ship.
But also once again we've met some lovely people, in particular Paul and Deana from Northampton, and Jimmy and Louise from Conwy, North Wales also Steve and Teresa from Liverpool, along with Teresa's Italian mum, who's name I didn't get because from the off I called her mother.
Such lovely people and we had a great criac every evening in the concierge.
These cruises get to be less and less about the destinations and more about the people we meet.

Definitely the best and friendliest ship I've sailed on

Peter Dimitrov the hotel director came to say hello to the four of us at breakfast yesterday and invited Sheila and I to the afternoon galley tour and brunch. Being the highest cruisers Maz and Sue already had their invite, as did the other two pinnacles Steve and Barbara, but as Peter said Maz, Sue, Sheila and I are a group so the invitation was extended to us also.
We had a great tour of the galley and a brilliant meal after. Also as Sheila and I are on the next cruise also, Peter said we'll be invited to an event next week too, he's not sure what his going to do but it will definitely be something off the ship. Last trip he took his guests to the Al Bustan, which is probably the best hotel in Muscat, for afternoon tea, the trip before he took them to the local fish market and they picked their fish and it was brought back to the ship and cooked especially for them. Apparently Peter likes to mix things up and do something different for the pinnacles and high point guests, just to show appreciation for their loyalty.
We've never had anything close to this on other ships, and it's sad that this ship is being sold to Thomson cruises and this brilliant staff is being broken up and going to different ships.
Because seriously every one of them have been brilliant, from our bar waiters, to Gisleni the concierge, to Andre and Elaine on guest services, to Gordon, bar services manager, to Peter and many

  more I've not named.