The first thing we heard this morning at 5:15am were morning prayers being chanted/sung all over the city. We could hear it easily on the ship. It seemed to be coming from everywhere. It’s a unique sound and definitely adds to the sense of exotic we run into everywhere we go.

We split up our activities this morning for a while.  Judy has a hair appointment.  My first job (after breakfast of course) is to go pick up our passports at our assigned spot.  After passports, I went to Café al Bacio to work and kill time until I could talk to the Future Excursions people.  I’m working on a possible change of our room for our Alaska cruise in May.  We currently have a suite, but since we’ve learned to live comfortably in our Aqua Class cabin, we’re going to try and shift from our Suite to Aqua.  The Alaska cruise also has lots fewer sea days, so we’re going to be out of the room for excursions lots of days.

I’ve also been trying to arrange an appointment with the Excursions Director.  I can save 10% on our Alaska excursions, if I book them on board now.  Wasn’t planning to make these decisions so early, but I can always change them.

Judy and I meet up around 10:00am and exit the ship.  We boarded a shuttle bus for the World Trade Center (WTC).  There’s a big modern mall, but also a traditional souk, with some of the traditional Arabian items for sale.  I can hardly wait to do some bargaining with the vendors.  After spending a couple of hours and making a few purchases, we catch the shuttle back to the ship.  We cleaned up, did some packing, and eventually went down to Café al Bacio for our afternoon tea.

Judy’s view on the shuttle bus (that’s me)

Lunch at a mall Kabob cafe

They can put a lot of people on these little shuttle buses.  Fold down seats fill the aisles.  Hope we don’t have a fender bender.

Judy’s idea of fun….taking my picture as I tried to climb out of the front seat (over the transmission hump).  There’s no door for the front seat passenger?

I finally had a chance to meet with the Excursions Director, and set-up three excusions for our Alaska trip. I went back to the cabin to do some blog work, while Judy went walking around the deck.   She came in talking about the rain.  What?  It’s raining in Abu Dhabi?  Everyone’s probably excited, except it’s going to interfere with the big Formula One Championships.  I’m curious to hear how it goes.

We eat dinner in Blu and head back to the cabin.  As we finalize our packing (luggage has to be in the hall by 10:00pm), I spend time going over finances and making sure all the bills back home are caught up and credited correctly.  We’re scheduled to disembark around 7:30am.  Gotta get to bed so I don’t sleep thru breakfast.