Athens to Muscat - The Middle East with a Muse

[Silver Spectre]

Ok, this is a serious gripe. CC has made loading photos and media easier but we have lost the ability to resize (or downsize) photos that we had with Tapatalk, especially useful when using CC on a cruise ship with slow Internet. The upgrade is well meaning, but my photos are around 2 to 2.5MB and it’s horribly painful to have to resize them just so I can post on here.

 

This is destroying the rational for a live photo rich trip report and needs fixing.

 

Rant over, for now.

[Silver Spectre]

Under full anti pirate measures. Blackout on all outside decks, all outside venues closed tonight. The internet is currently running at 10% of normal and it’s impossible to post any photos.

[jpalbny]

Too bad you have to worry about such things. I can only imagine how beautiful the stars would be under those conditions - wish you could go outside!

[Silver Spectre]

2 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Too bad you have to worry about such things. I can only imagine how beautiful the stars would be under those conditions - wish you could go outside!

Agree, real shame, but we must obey.

[les37b]

10 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

Agree, real shame, but we must obey.

 

Just remember..   see a ladder appear on the side anywhere.... Push it away from the hull! lol

 

I know freighters get targeted for a ransom... But have their been instances of cruise ships? I would have thought so many people make it too difficult to control.... Though these are my thoughts with my pirate hat on!

 

 

 

 

[Silver Spectre]

25 minutes ago, les37b said:

 

Just remember..   see a ladder appear on the side anywhere.... Push it away from the hull! lol

 

I know freighters get targeted for a ransom... But have their been instances of cruise ships? I would have thought so many people make it too difficult to control.... Though these are my thoughts with my pirate hat on!

 

 

 

 

Not since the Seabourn Sojourn got hit by an RPG in about 2008. We were shadowed by an Indian frigate all day yesterday. Exiting the zone at 19:00 and everything will be open tonight.

 

Not posting photos at present as the inability to downsize makes it extremely painful.

 

Come on CC, get your act together!

[Unibok]

Silver Spectre, thank you for taking us along, and for facing the frustrations of the new interface. When you have a chance, I have a quick question for you: which stretch is the one where you need to go dark for pirates? I'm doing the reverse of your sailing in 2020, and I'm just curious.

[dougburns]

It wasn't the Seabourn Sojourn that was hit by the RPG; it was the Seabourn Spirit. We had friends aboard when it happened and one of them was badly injured.

[Silver Spectre]

29 minutes ago, dougburns said:

It wasn't the Seabourn Sojourn that was hit by the RPG; it was the Seabourn Spirit. We had friends aboard when it happened and one of them was badly injured.

Thanks Doug, I thought it didn’t sound right and I had forgotten our discussion about it. All the best to you and your lovely wife.

[WesW]

 

Hi Mr. Silver and Mrs. Silver, am late to offering our sincere wishes for “ Fair Winds and Following Seas” for you Muse Middle East voyage.

 

We feel your pain with the migration of the old CC version to the newer, as the migration began (Oct 10th, with CC offline) the day we boarded  Regent’s Mariner for our 36 day South Pacific crossing (Miami to Honolulu).

 

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

Edited October 20, 2018 by WesW

[Silver Spectre]

2 hours ago, Unibok said:

Silver Spectre, thank you for taking us along, and for facing the frustrations of the new interface. When you have a chance, I have a quick question for you: which stretch is the one where you need to go dark for pirates? I'm doing the reverse of your sailing in 2020, and I'm just curious.

From about where the ship turns just off Djibouti and until it gets close to Salalah.

 

Tried to post a photo of the ships moving map but have given up after an hour!

 

The premium WiFi upload speed is showing about 0.5Mbps.

[Silver Spectre]

45 minutes ago, WesW said:

 

Hi Mr. Silver and Mrs. Silver, am late to offering our sincere wishes for “ Fair Winds and Following Seas” for you Muse Middle East voyage.

 

We feel your pain with the migration of the old CC version to the newer, as the migration began (Oct 10th, with CC offline) the day we boarded  Regent’s Mariner for our 36 day South Pacific crossing (Miami to Honolulu).

 

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

Hi Wes, making the best of things and having a wonderful time. Good to see your other postings.

[TLCOhio]

On 10/19/2018 at 11:26 AM, Silver Spectre said:

Under full anti pirate measures. Blackout on all outside decks, all outside venues closed tonight. The internet is currently running at 10% of normal and it’s impossible to post any photos.

 

Appreciate your very helpful posts and the interesting follow-ups.  Keep it coming!!  Great sharing, especially given the various technical challenges..  It will be around Nov. 30 when we will be sailing with Oceania through the Djibouti/Gulf of Aden area.  Hope by now, you have survived that potential pirate zone.  Enjoying reading the nice details for the Silver Muse as we prepare for our next July's Muse sailing to Alaska. 

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise from Copenhagen, July 2010, to the top of Europe. Wonderful scenic visuals with key tips. Live/blog at 231,446 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Edited October 20, 2018 by TLCOhio

[Silver Spectre]

Just docked in Salalalalalalah. Very nice parking manoeuvre from the Captain, tucking us right up against the breakwater and behind a large bulk carrier that is loading what looks like gravel (with of course dust).

[Silver Spectre]

We have left Salalah and Job’s enormous footprint behind and are now heading towards our cruise end in Muscat on Tuesday. Placed 4th in a tough trivia yesterday, but Vicki believes there are Googlers in the room, the WiFi is still extremely slow.

 

Played bridge yesterday and bid and made 7NT, on a shuffled hand, so came in first out of 12 pairs!

 

Captains farewell this evening.

 

There are 74 guests staying onboard.

 

The weather is gorgeous and well over 30c in the shade.

[les37b]

1 minute ago, Silver Spectre said:

Placed 4th in a tough trivia yesterday, but Vicki believes there are Googlers in the room, the WiFi is still extremely slow.

 

 

 

Oh dear! How embarrassing!  (And I didn't mean finishing 4th!)

 

Forgot to ask...... Is Albert at the bar on this trip?

[Mayflower1]

Well done Mr & Mrs Silver on your 7NT Bid & Make - rather a rare scenario in my world but so good when it comes off. So Pleased you have been having a great time on the Muse - Beaujolais also seems to be enjoying the experience.

[Unibok]

21 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

From about where the ship turns just off Djibouti and until it gets close to Salalah.

 

That makes sense -- thank you. That's a pretty signficant stretch of land, but I'm glad to hear it's not the entire 4 days of sailing in the Red Sea!

[Silver Spectre]

1 hour ago, les37b said:

 

Oh dear! How embarrassing!  (And I didn't mean finishing 4th!)

 

Forgot to ask...... Is Albert at the bar on this trip?

Egbert says that Albert is in the Spirit at present. Clifford is the main man here.

[TLCOhio]

2 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

We have left Salalah and Job’s enormous footprint behind and are now heading towards our cruise end in Muscat on Tuesday.  The weather is gorgeous and well over 30c in the shade.

 

Appreciate your reporting and follow-ups.  What did you do or see at Salalah?  What's on your schedule for seeing, exploring at Muscat?  Or, what have you heard from others as to their best interests, plan for these stops in Oman?  Any other port stop highlights, loves, tips, etc., from your various, earlier port stops?  Glad to hear the weather is "gorgeous"!!

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

AFRICA?!!?: Fun, interesting visuals, plus travel details from this early 2016 live/blog. At 42,917 views. Featuring Cape Town, South Africa’s coast, Mozambique, Victoria Falls/Zambia and Botswana's famed Okavango Delta.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2310337

 

 

 

[Silver Spectre]

12 hours ago, TLCOhio said:

 

Appreciate your reporting and follow-ups.  What did you do or see at Salalah?  What's on your schedule for seeing, exploring at Muscat?  Or, what have you heard from others as to their best interests, plan for these stops in Oman?  Any other port stop highlights, loves, tips, etc., from your various, earlier port stops?  Glad to hear the weather is "gorgeous"!!

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

AFRICA?!!?: Fun, interesting visuals, plus travel details from this early 2016 live/blog. At 42,917 views. Featuring Cape Town, South Africa’s coast, Mozambique, Victoria Falls/Zambia and Botswana's famed Okavango Delta.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2310337

 

 

 

Hi Terry, we did not get off in Salalah as we have been there before. There is a very strong Customs Union in place so no taxis in the port, instead there was a shuttle from the ship to the port gates, about 10 mins, and you were not allowed to walk anywhere on the dock. For us it was just not worth the effort to take the shuttle so we had another sea day. We were only at dock from 8am to 3pm.

 

The Internet is still extremely slow so currently no photos and not really worth posting backfill without them.

 

For Muscat we are lucky enough to have an early afternoon flight back home so will take the ships transfer direct to the airport. Those who have late night flights are generally headed to a 4 or 5 star hotel for the day.

Edited October 22, 2018 by Silver Spectre

[Silver Spectre]

One minor grumble about La Dame. It is an experiment with two sittings in the evening, 6pm or 9pm, and almost impossible to persuade the M.D. to let you eat at 8:15 or 8:30.

 

This was just about ok on short Med cruises when they were trying to squeeze more guests in, and it was open for lunch, with Kaiseki closed.

 

On a long cruise like this it makes no sense, but HO wants to run the experiment for at least a couple more cruises.

 

I asked Paolo to open Kaiseki for lunch and thankfully he got permission to terminate the La Dame lunchtime experiment and Kaiseki was open for lunch from the first day and for good.

[TLCOhio]

10 hours ago, Silver Spectre said:

Hi Terry, we did not get off in Salalah as we have been there before. There is a very strong Customs Union in place so no taxis in the port, instead there was a shuttle from the ship to the port gates, about 10 mins, and you were not allowed to walk anywhere on the dock. For us it was just not worth the effort to take the shuttle so we had another sea day. We were only at dock from 8am to 3pm.  The Internet is still extremely slow so currently no photos and not really worth posting backfill without them.  For Muscat we are lucky enough to have an early afternoon flight back home so will take the ships transfer direct to the airport. Those who have late night flights are generally headed to a 4 or 5 star hotel for the day.

 

Appreciate your follow-up details and helpful comments!!  From your past visits to Salalah and Muscat, do you have any special tips, insights, suggestions, etc.?  No rush!!  Reply when you are back home and it is handy for your schedule.  Do the ship officials have any reactions or explanations as to why the Internet is so slow and/or if there are any improvements planned for the future for the Silver Muse?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

Amazon River-Caribbean 2015 adventure live/blog starting in Barbados. Many visuals from this amazing river and Caribbean Islands (Dutch ABC's, St. Barts, Dominica, Grenada, San Juan, etc.).  Now at 60,848 views:

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2157696

 

[Stumblefoot]

Can't believe I'm just finding this thread now, but glad to read you've enjoyed your cruise Mr. Silver.  And, I'm with you on the frustrations on the new CC website.  Hopefully, great medical and technology minds like JPAlbany will get it all figured out for us and share their tricks.  All I know is that I'm not spending near the time I used to on the website.

[Silver Spectre]

Had a nice dinner with Vicki last night and another excellent Trivia this afternoon.

 

One of the topics of conversation was guest behaviour and guest complaints.

 

All of the obvious ones came up, drunks, bores, snobs, children running amok and of course the hated smokers, however the worst offenders were deemed to be pipe and cigar smokers who persisted in lighting up on the pool deck instead of using the Humidor as per the very explicit rules. Almost all being middle aged or older men who refused to be told or have any consideration for their fellow guests.