As an additional measure, the Promenade Deck, Sun Deck and Sports Deck were closed from 4:00 Saturday afternoon until 2:30 Sunday afternoon as we transited the narrowest part of the area, where the pirate activity had always been the greatest. Here are photos of some of the more obvious measures that are still in place, even though we’re past the area:
The Promenade Deck, where each fire hose was fitted with a high pressure nozzle to deter any potential climbers
Golf lesson on Deck 6, Security Watch on Deck 7
This has happened a couple of times already on the world cruise. In fact, the ship had to abandon two port stops between Mombasa, Kenya and Mumbai, India due to potentially dangerous situations in the Seychelles and Maldives. Of course, this meant that some of the world cruisers were complaining that they had to do the drill all over again…
After all this preparation, we halfway expected to look out each morning and see a “pirate ship” flying the “Jolly Mohammed” (they ARE Islamic pirates after all) sailing off our beam, but after two and a half uneventful days, we safely entered the Red Sea (which, “oddly enough” is actually blue) early last evening. We are sailing toward Jeddah, our next port of call, where we are scheduled to arrive early Tuesday morning. According to our friends at Shorex, some 450 of the 580 passengers are going on tour tomorrow. Local laws prevent anyone not on tour from leaving the ship (much like in Russia) so Shorex has also arranged a tour for the crew so they can get ashore, too. As a side note, one extension of the conservatism of the Kingdom is the law banning alcohol, which extends on to the ship while we are in port. All of the bars must be closed and all alcohol had to be removed from guest staterooms as well, to be returned tomorrow evening. As you can imagine, this has not gone down well with a segment of the passenger community. This also happened in two other ports (spanning three days) on the previous segment as well. Rick (the Cruise Director) commented to us that it was quite funny watching people, who had paid “big money” for this cruise, scrounging empty water bottles from the crew to refill with vodka and gin to “tide them over” until the ship left port and the bars reopened!! For some reason Larry says he could “identify” with that!!!
Of course the lecture program was fired up 1) because of four sea days in a row and 2) to keep people off the outer decks on Sunday morning. Included in the series are lectures by a number of experts on the Arab world, from historical to social to political. Since the culture here is so foreign to almost all Westerners, the lecturers are trying to give us as much information as they can prior to our arrival in Jeddah. Crystal Serenity will be the first cruise ship EVER to visit the port. Most people coming to Jeddah are business people or pilgrims heading to Mecca; tourism is a very new and different concept for the local Saudis but the government is looking for alternative sources of income than oil, and one that will employ more people. The Kingdom is one of the most conservative in the Arabian Peninsula with significant restrictions on dress, especially for women. They are required to be covered entirely (except for the face) at all times, and all of the women have been given abhayas. These are ours to keep. The only dress restriction for the men, however, is long pants and closed shoes. This, of course, has caused a bit of a stir among some of the women on board - so much so that some have refused to get off the ship. All we’ll say to that is - their loss.
Of course, no “method of passenger distraction” on a cruise ship would be complete without FOOD!!! As a result, the Grand Gala Buffet, which is normally held toward the end of a segment, was held on Sunday at Noon. Since we know everyone is always interested in food, we have included some pictures below. As for us, after taking the pictures we went up to the Lido and had a hamburger!!! And ice cream and oatmeal raisin cookies too. We (well Larry anyway) are sooooo predictable!!
We’ve had a chance to talk to a couple of the lecturers for this segment. The most interesting is the human interest lecturer, Michael diSpezio. He’s lecturing on Brain Power - keeping your mind active and sharp, how your eyes trick your mind, etc. He’s an educator and scientist who has worked at Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute. Talking to him is like being in the middle of an episode of ‘Eleventh Hour’ for any of you who ever watched the show. We invited Michael and his wife Susan for cocktails after Liar’s Club on Saturday evening and discovered in the course of the conversation that, like Larry, he is a military history buff. As it happens, they have read many of the same authors and had also visited the Normandy Beaches. Michael has a very outgoing personality and a similar sense of humour, so as you can imagine, the conversation was lively and we actually ended up “closing” the Avenue Saloon!! He has given us a couple of very old souvenirs, one is a meteorite fragment estimated at 4 million years old(!), that we’ll pass on to Matthew and Kady when we get home.
The celebrity lecturer on board for this segment is Hugh Downs, whom you might remember (depending on your age) from the Tonight Show with Jack Parr, the game show Concentration, and/or the ABC news show 20/20. When we arrived at our table tonight, it looked like there might only be the two of us, and Leo, the maitre d' asked us if we would mind company, as Hugh and his wife Ruth preferred to eat at a different table every night. So, we ended up having quite a nice dinner with a radio/TV icon who has been around for over 70 years. As Larry said afterwards, 'If somebody had told me when I was twelve years old watching Concentration on TV, that one day I would have dinner with Hugh Downs...'
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