This was a quiet day at sea circling from the Suez Canal through the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba so we can dock in Aqaba, Jordan in the morning by 7:00.

Today, we transited the Suez Canal from north to south, from Port Said to the town of Suez. The ship entered the canal about 5:30 in the morning while we were still asleep, although the captain had announced yesterday that we had an 8:00 a.m. time slot scheduled for entry. We expected to be anchored outside waiting for our time by 3:00 a.m., and I guess they wanted us to go in early with at least one other ship, a cargo ship I could see behind us. Ships go throug...

We were up early for breakfast in the hotel and to continue our tour of Jerusalem. Zibet asked the hotel to give us all wake-up calls for 6:30 not taking any chances that someone would oversleep. She had everyone ready and on the bus by 8:00. We had a lot of places to go and had to be back at the ship by 2:30. During the night while we were at the hotel, the ship moved from Haifa south to the port at Ashdod. It is closer to Jerusalem—only an hour's drive aw...