After Imodium, a good night, and a day of “plain” food everything checked out this morning (Friday the 16th) and I was released from captivity in my cabin. Just to be certain I stayed in much of today except for some routine tasks. One of those was a load of laundry to wash everything I had on the past several days and the administrative task of getting the medical department to approve a refund for the two excursions I missed that were not my fault. They did and the excursion desk processed the refunds. That’s something I did not expect and it was greatly appreciated.
At Dubai I made Platinum in the Captain’s Circle and that gives me 250 Internet minutes each segment of the cruise. If I don’t use them before the end of the segment they go away. So, it’s like the UVTO meal credits; use them or they go away at the end of a period only to re-appear at the start of the next period. The unused extra minutes do not roll over.
Add to that the fact that the free time does not appear until I fully use up the time I paid for before the trip started back in January. That means that I have about 700 minutes to use over the next couple of weeks or about three quarters of an hour per day. Considering I’ve been getting along fairly well on around 4 minutes per day since January this looks like a great bonus. I’ve already done some necessary research on Petra that I did not do earlier. Of course, if I do use all the minutes, free and paid, then I go back to about 10 minutes per day for the next segment as I’ll only be on the free minutes. But, that’s still more than I’ve been getting on well with so far.
Also did a small bit of exploring as we are entering the pirate operational zone tomorrow. Outside on deck five is now closed and I note that there are a series of high pressure water hoses in place on the deck that can be used to repel if necessary. I also saw something added to each of the flying bridges (areas of the main bridge that “fly” outside and over the edge of the ship). I’m not going to mention what these are but did get to ask the Captain and he confirmed my speculation so I now do know my guess is correct. I’ll mention what this device is during my Photo Club talk when I describe the ship; possibly as late as October as I have a full hour’s plus worth of photos for July already and anticipate that after Petra I’ll have a similar amount for August. September will describe the most intense portion of the trip where we come close to hitting a port per day along the top of the Mediterranean. That leaves the Atlantic and Panama Canal for October so I’ll probably stick the ship description in that month as there are fewer ports of major interest.
Unless something really interesting happens at sea between now and Petra (scheduled for March 21st) this will likely be my last post until after that visit.
[Added 3 September 2023]
While I did not take the excursion I scheduled for this day I did get off the ship and into the port. I also received a copy of a photo others took on the excursion. This photo gallery records those photos…
