Temp: 86F 27CDistance travelled: 334 nautical milesI'm not normally one to go for the seminars and lectures on board (I get enough of them at home and in work!!) but I thought I’d try the first in a series of seminars by Marianne and Peter from Ulm in Germany. They are the guys that Jim and Margaret shared the taxi with yesterday in Abu Dhabi. I don’t know if it was the schadenfreude in me but I just wanted to see if the ordeal had affected them!!...

Temp: 81F 27CMiles travelled: 77 nautical milesThe day of embarkation. We could see the MSC Lirica tied up in Port Rashid. This is the cruise terminal that serves Dubai. Although there were some very stunning yet very affordable hotels further down the coast near the Burj Khalifa and even further down near the Palm Jumeirah, we consciously ensured our hotel was in the vicinity of the port to allow us a relaxing morning and to minimise the transfer from our hotel ...

Never put off to tomorrow what you can do today. However, for us the opposite was true. We were going to visit the old part of Dubai in Bastikaya tomorrow before we checked in with MSC. As the ship wasn't leaving until 7pm we did not have to check in until mid-afternoon. We decided against this option and planned on a lazy morning tomorrow and head for the MSC Lirica immediately after we checked out of the Ahmedia Heritage Guest House. So, we brought forward ...

We awoke at about 8am after a sound night's sleep. We weren’t the only ones who seemingly had a sound night’s sleep as we never heard the morning call to prayer. Either the Imam has read yesterday’s blog and thought 'Hmmm! Texting. Now there’s a novel idea!’ or he is saving himself for the big derby soccer match tonight: Al Ahli versus Sharjah. I have it on recommendation that this rivals the Milan derby, Barca –v- Real...

I was woken by the clinking of glasses and the adjustment of the horizontal bed back in to seats. A new day had begun although it could still be a continuation of the old one. I wasn't too sure! What I do know is that it was time for breakfast. Although a menu for breakfast had been passed out, you could order anything you wanted on that menu or combination thereof. Having eaten so much, though, yesterday in the Clubhouse and then another 3 course meal on the...