20250514 Regent Seven Seas Voyager Cruise Bangkok to Dubai, Day 23 - Persian Gulf to Dubai

Regent Seven Seas Voyager Bangkok to Dubai Day 23 - Entering the Persian Gulf and arriving in Dubai

We awoke as we were sailing through the Strait of Hormuz, en route to the Persian Gulf and ultimately to Dubai.

Our location was the small star in the Strait, on the line showing our route from Mumbai to Dubai

It is the little things that make or break a cruise. Having been on top-tier lines like Seabourn and Viking Ocean, we had high expectations for what was billed as another top-tier cruise line with Regent. One of the expectations that comes with that is exceptional service. We simply don't find that on Regent. We don't drink coffee. We drink Coke Zero in the morning. We carry large and highly noticeable Yeti and RTIC steel mugs with handles. We are used to walking in for breakfast after the first couple of days on a cruise and have the waitstaff bring us the drinks and glasses of ice. I should mention that this scenario happens on Viking and Seabourn. Without fail. After 18 days on this ship, and sitting in the same spot every morning, we still have to ask for Coke Zero and ice. And, we have to wait. Sometimes, like today, it took over ten minutes after we were seated and eating. Two days ago, we were completely done with breakfast before we got anything to drink. Imagine going to your local restaurant for breakfast and sitting there for 20 minutes before they bring you anything. The service on this ship simply doesn't measure up to what a top-tier cruise line should deliver, and that's a shame because other aspects of this cruise are very good. The itinerary was excellent. The excursions have generally been well run by the tour companies, not so much by Regent in some cases. The list of included excursions is very good, with plenty of good choices. The food has certainly been above average, and the always-available selections for dinner in Compass Rose are outstanding. Our base-level veranda room is spacious and comfortable with plenty of storage.  OK - service rant over - let's continue with today.

We had a few more opportunities to win points this morning before this afternoon's redemption event. We started with a putting challenge. 

We both were so close on every hole, but neither of us could drop the putt

We all had a chance to get a hole-in-one on five different holes. If you got the hole-in-one, you got three or six points, depending on the hole. The bonus was that if someone got a hole-in-one, everyone else scored one or two points, depending on the hole. Enough folks scored, so everyone walked away with at least 12 points.

The Mensa challenge and trivia were held early today to distribute more points. Plus, since we are docking at 4:00, most folks will be off the ship at the normal trivia time. Today's trivia was downright silly and fun. Everyone in the room got every question right. Some examples of the silliness:

• For 21 points, what is the name of the game where the object is to score 21 points?
• Question #8, for eight points, how many legs does an African tree spider have?
• Question #12, In the Bible, how many children did Jacob have? You don't have to name all 12, just answer how many.
• Name any three songs by the artist with the middle name, Aaron, and the last name, Presley

It was all good fun, and there were lots of laughs.

Speaking of the points, what are they good for? Here's a look at the redemption schedule that came out this morning.

They had a nice selection of items to choose from - we had 214 points to redeem

Arlona started packing this morning - I got started this afternoon prepping for tomorrow's late-night departure

Just before 1:00, we headed down to Deck #5 in the Main Street area near the shops. The entertainment team had tables set up with the items available to spend your Regent points on.

The 214 points we had amassed got us three long-sleeve tech shirts, a couple of short-sleeve tech shirts, a polo shirt, two luggage straps, and two sleeves of Callaway golf balls - not bad

We tried to eat a quick lunch, but the inadequate service in La Veranda didn't allow that. For the second time today, it took over 15 minutes to get something to drink. I can't stress enough that Regent's service falls well below what we would consider a top-tier luxury cruise line. 

After lunch, we went to the jewelry store where they were announcing the winner of a $500 gift card. The card was awarded for the most accurate guess at the carat weight of a tanzanite ring. Arlona had the second-closest guess at 17.4 carats. I had the closest guess at 17.8 carats. The actual carat weight was 17.78, so I was only 0.02 carats off.

We didn't find anything in the store that we wanted to purchase. The prices, to us, seemed extremely high, especially when we compared similar items that we had looked at in India. As an alternative, they offered us a blue topaz in exchange for the gift card, so we took that.

My fingernail is included for size reference

I got most of my packing done this afternoon. Tomorrow will be an easy but long day as we have a morning tour and then have until 8:00 in the evening to get our bags out for pickup.

We docked in Dubai right on schedule at 4:00 this afternoon. We had to get off the ship and go through immigration in advance of our tour. We returned to the ship and grabbed a drink in the Observation Bar while waiting for our tour. Our tour, Dubai by Night, met in the theater at 5:45 for a 6:00 departure.

The tour was simple - drive to the Dubai Mall and go up to floor 124 in the Burj Khalifa. Any time leftover was free time until 9:30, when we would meet to return to the bus.

We passed the Museum of the Future on Sheik Zayed Road

The left tower is the Residence Inn by Marriott, where we stayed in December 2023

The Burj Khalifa and Address Sky View

This building was under construction the last time we were here

We arrived at Dubai Mall and walked to the entrance of the Burj Khalifa. The line was long and slow-moving. It is always impressive to ride the elevator from level 0 to level 124 in less than 60 seconds and better than 10m/s. Zoom. The views of the city lights from the top were stunning.

,,,again

We waited in the insanely long line for the ride back down. We got the the meeting point with a little over half an hour to spare. Since we didn't have dinner, we hit up Five Guys for some excellent fries and a couple of pops. We caught a light show on the side of the Burj Khalifa as we munched. 

It sure is pretty at night

At 9:30, we met up with the other guests and walked back to the bus for the ride back to the ship.

The Museum of the Future was lit up in all its glory - the characters are Arabic poetry by the Sheik

We were back on board by 10:30 and were looking to hit the hay. The excursion I booked for tomorrow didn't start until 11:00, when I booked it. Now that we have tickets, they show that we will meet at 7:45 tomorrow morning. Yikes! With our departure for the airport tomorrow night at 11:30 and a 2:50 am flight, tomorrow is going to be one long day.

20231226 AAAA Trip - Cruise day #8, Persian Gulf sailing - Captain you're drunk

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 101/105 - Cruise day #8 - Sailing like we stole it

Study that map closely. Does it look like the path of a sober captain? We had two days to kill in the Persian Gulf with nowhere to go. This is how we accomplished it. Zigging. Zagging. Back and forth. At least the weather was nice.

Today is our second, and last sea day on this cruise. We did the usual big O point activities today, racking up those points to exchange for Oceania merch on the last day of the cruise. We did the golf putting in the Horizon lounge. We played Majority Rules and took second. We played ping pong. We played bocce. Our team took second in trivia this afternoon and first this evening. Between the two of us, we racked up 26 big O points today. We hope to get something better than a pencil when it is all done.

In our afternoon trivia, we set a new team best scoring 18/21 for second place.  The misses:

• In the Cooper's Hill cheese rolling competition, how heavy are the wheels of cheese that are rolled down the hill? 3-5lb, 7-9lb, 9-12lb?
• We guessed 9-12ln - it was 7-9lb
• What sport, developed in Santa Monica, California in the 1920s, became an Olympic sport in 1996?
• We guessed surfing - it was beach volleyball
• Name the top 5 longest-running Broadway musicals - we had four - we also had Jesus Christ Superstar, but it was Wicked

Tonight, Oceania put together an unhosted get-together for residents of The Villages. We heard there were 11 cabins involved. Only four cabins showed up, but we had a terrific time meeting neighbors. Another couple came right at the end, so a total of ten of us were involved. It's pretty cool to be halfway around the world and meet neighbors.

We hit the Terrace Cafe again for dinner tonight. They had an Asian theme tonight,

My sampler includes Tandori chicken and other treats

Arlona had the pork chow mein

We returned to Martinis for evening trivia.

After a new team best, we broke that record with 19/20 tonight for the win.  Our sole miss:

• What Moroccan city is known as the red city?
• We guessed Fez, but it was Marrakech 

Still, it was a good showing and an overall nice day at sea.

Tomorrow morning, we arrive at our last port, Abu Dhabi. We will spend two days there before disembarking and making the crappy three-flight trip home.

20231225 AAAA Trip - Cruise day #7, Persian Gulf sailing

2023 Alaska, Asia, Australia, Arabian Peninsula Trip 
Day 100/105 - Cruise day #7 - Gulfing on Christmas

Persian Gulfing, that is. We reached day #100 of this trip and we found ourselves slowly floating about in the Persian Gulf. 

Because of the changes in itinerary, we have two days to kill with nowhere to go, so that's exactly what we're doing - going nowhere. Well, technically, that's not true. We're going this way a bit, then that way for a while, then this other way for some time...you get the idea. We will continue doing that until we can dock in Abu Dhabi on December 27. No matter - they have stuff for us to do on the ship and we're good with sea days.

Of course, we started out with the crazy putting challenge this morning to rack up more O points. Arlona attended a needlepoint demonstration before we met up with other cruisers for a game of Majority Rules. The Cruise Director, Paul, would read a question. Each team would write their answer on a slip of paper and turn it in. Whatever answer that was the most submitted was the "correct" answer and those teams were awarded a point.  For example: Who is the most attractive male actor?  Teams submitted names like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and such. The most popular answer (and ours) was George Clooney. We scored a point for that. Several teams decided to play for humor rather than points and that made the game fun. For the question: If you could throw something overboard, what would it be? Cigars, cigarettes, and rude people were some of the answers - "spouse" was the winning answer, but "The Cruise Director" got the most laughs. In the end, we tied with a couple of other teams for the win and three more big O points!  Woo!

We enjoyed time on the balcony for the rest of the morning, taking in the salt air and smooth water of the Persian Gulf.

At lunch, they had a lovely (and delicious) chocolate mousse cake.

At 1 p.m., the singers gathered in the atrium and sang Christmas carols for 30 minutes.

That led up to the entrance of two non-ticketed and non-revenue passengers.

There are only seven children on the ship. Santa and Mrs. Claus had a present for each one and that was a nice touch. They also stuck around long enough for everyone to get photos.

We participated in the bocce challenge this afternoon for more O points and then returned to the room to relax a bit. Looking at the map, we've been sailing north for a bit and just turned to the northeast. It appears that we are only about 40 miles off the coast of Iran - the closest that we will likely ever be.

We hit the late afternoon trivia and with our partners, we snuck in a second-place performance.  The mistakes:

• Who is the Greek goddess of the rainbow?
• We didn't know - it was Iris - we should have known that
• What Missouri bank robber was turned in by his own gang for the $10,000 reward?
• We guessed Billy the Kid - it was Jesse James
• What country has the northernmost point in Europe?
• We guessed Norway - it was Finland, but the internet disputes that - it seems there is some disagreement about whether it is Finland or Norway
• What are the top five tea-producing countries?
• We correctly guessed China, India, and Turkey. We guessed Ethiopia, but Kenya produces more, and we guessed Cambodia, but Sri Lanka produces more.

We went to the Terrace Cafe for dinner tonight. They featured turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce plus many other options.

The turkey was beautiful

Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce - it was delicious

I decided to make it surf and turf and added shrimp and lobster tail - Arlona had two lobster tails

Another pretty cake, but ice cream called to me instead

After dinner, we played one more trivia match. Unfortunately, our partners abandoned us tonight, and the two of us only managed a 4th-place finish. Our undoing:

• What country uses the vehicle registration code, "P"?
• We guessed Poland - it was Portugal
• What Asian country's tradition is to dine at KFC for Christmas?
• We stupidly said China when it was Japan
• What three countries will host the 2026 FIFA World Cup?
• We didn't know - it will be USA, Canada, and Mexico
• What musical features the song, On the Street Where You Live?
• We guessed West Side Story - it is My Fair Lady
• How many gallons are in a barrel of wine?
• We guessed 16 - it was 60
• What three countries took home the most gold medals in the 2020 Olympics?
• We guessed the USA (correct), China (correct), and Russia - it was Japan

Oh well, no big O points tonight.

It was a nice, albeit non-traditional Christmas for us.  Tomorrow will be another day of cruising around the Persian Gulf.