Cruise diary

A now-completed blog of my cruise on the Costa Fortuna sailing from and to Port Rashid, Dubai via Muscat, Khasab and Abu Dhabi. New posts at the top.

Friday, Jan 22: Back to Abu Dhabi by taxi. The final bill includes 9 euro a day service charge, plus about 75 euro for six hours of wifi onboard. Luckily, because I live in the UAE, I was able to use my own data package, otherwise internet charges would have been higher.

That’s all for now, but in the next few days, I’ll write a short, proper review of the cruise. Stay tuned!

Thursday, Jan 21: In Dubai, with all the options it offers. Again, it’s a story to be told elsewhere.

What I will say now, though, is that the Costa folk did a great job. I spoke to a lot of people onboard, and they all had a good time. As I’ve said before, cruise holidays are not for everybody, but when you see — as I did — people from all sorts or backgrounds smiling most of the time, then something is right.

Wednesday, Jan 20: Abu Dhabi. A quiet day gearing up for my off-itinerary treat: an Australia Day fucntion hosted by the Australian embassy. More on that later.

Tuesday, Jan 19 (evening): Tonight’s show, Kings and Queens of Pop and Rock, was everything I expected/ feared it would be. Well-executed by just a bunch of songs by Queen, Abba, Michael Jackson et al, which have their proper places in the bars and other venues. The designers made clever use of porjections, as in other productions, but made we wonder whether there was any consideration of sight lines. A huge metal construction stage right would have retricted the view for many people on that side of the theatre. The singers and dancers did their best — and they are very good. I’d just prefer something with a plot and some heart. I guess that’s tricky when you’re dealing with a multi-lingual audience. It’s easier just to crank out some hits …

I spent the rest of the night in the piano bar, which is remarkable for its lack of a piano. It is being reconfigured into a VIP gambling venue for the Chinese marke. The bar tender, Alfred, hared a few stories and I met some nice folk from the UK and Brussels.

Tuesday, Jan 19: The ship has dropped anchor off Khasab, in a pocket of Oman that is surrounded by the UAE and the ocean. Tenders (small boats that are also used as lifecraft) are taking people in for dhow (traditonal boat) tours, but I won’t be among them.

For me, it’s a day to relax, even though I have no excuse for doing so. Time is flying, though. We have a disembarkation procedures meeting this afternoon.

Monday, Jan 18 (evening): The company — two retired couples from northern England — and the service in the Ristorante Michaelangelo remains very good. The food is quite good, too, although I think I chose the wrong entree — a sausage risotto that was big on gluggy rice and small on sausage and taste. My first dessert of the cruise — a yoghurt cake — was excellent.

One of my dining companions confessed a sligth addiction to the cakes served in the buffet of an afternoon. “We don’t normally eat cakes, but these are delicious,” she told me. A quick check of my waistline suggests I should stay away.

It’s dress-ups night and there was a function with the crew, which allowed me to have a quick conversation with the English-speaking hostess, Stephanie, who I met on a previous cruise. “Why havn’t I seen youy?” she asked. “Because,” I replied, “I’ve had nothing to complain about.”

Tonight’s show, Sapori D’Italia, a collage of Italian culture through song and dance, was great. The highlght for me, and many others, was Nessun Dorma, sung with passion and fine technique by tenor Carlo Ruggiero. The design and choreography were slick, clever and cliched in good measure, and Duo Sky, who performed Romeo and Juliet last night, made a welcome return.

And there was a towel animal (something with big ears, reclining on a mat) and chocolates waiting in my room.

Monday, Jan 18: A very late start. I woke briefly for breakfast and then went back to bed, napping until set-sail time about 1pm. Coffee, lunch and some catch-up online.

Sunday, Jan 17: I went ashore for a brief walk around Muscat, which I’ve visited before and will write soon about separately.

The evening’s entertainment was Romeo and Juliet as interpreted by two immensely talented athletest whi blended a small amount of ballet with a big dose of acrobatics.

A wonderful production let down only by a very cheap set. The rendering of the balcony was less than high-school musical standard. A little more investment in props and sets would have served the talented artists better.

I finished off the night chatting to the lawyers I’d met over breakfast and people-watching at the White Party, which seems to be a compulsory feature of all Costa and NCL cruises, visitng the late-night venues, and checking out the service standards at the various bars.

Sunday, Jan 17 (morning): I wake up in Muscat, but I’ve been there before, so there’s not rush to explore, especially as we’ll be here until tomorrow afternoon. Breakfast in the restaurant was a bit disorganised. On the plus size, I met some English lawyers and we had a nice conversation; downside, I had to send my order back twice because they gave me scrambled eggs instead of fried.

Saturday, Jan 16: I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring and having a nap, before dinner, where I was sat with two English couples. We all got along rather well, which bodes well for the rest of the week given that the dinner seating is allocated and can only be changed once — which I’ve already done because they had me on the late sitting. We had a wide-ranging discussion including why it was that, unlike other cruises we’d all been on, Costa did not insist that passengers use the hand sanitisers. I guess a dose of noravirus (which I would not wish on anyone) will change that.

I’d seen most of the evening show, H2O, before, but the variation this time was a star turn for a guy who blows bubbles. Yes, really. Although it begins as a poor man’s Lion King (with the costumes clearly demonstrating how bad that show could have looked with a lesser designer), it evolves into a pleasant exploration of the theme of water through popular song, ranging from The Drunken Sailor to I Am Sailing, via (for some unexplained reason) the William Tell Overture and Surfin’ Safari. The vocalists and dancers are pretty good.

Saturday, Jan 16 (morning): Over my espresso — the Illy coffee expertly prepared is one of the best features of Costa cruises — one of the crew explained the changes to the ship since it left dry dock in December. When the Dubai season ends in April, the Costa Fortuna is heading to China, and it has had some modifications to suit that market.

The card rooms are gone, replaced with counters selling luxury items, and the piano bar is becoming a VIP/high-rollers’ room as an adjunct to the casino. There’s also talk of a karaoke room. The dragon is new, but a display of ships from the Costa fleet on the ceiling and several model ships that were on display around the vessel have gone.

My informant says the Fortuna will be in China for the foreseeable future, because the cruise market there is buoyant and they sell out well ahead on almost every sailing.

After breakfast, a continental affair in the buffet (although I could have chosen al la carte in the restaurant), I changed my dinner booking from the 9pm sitting to the 6.45pm one. Nine o’clock is too late for tea, as my Dad used to call it.

Friday, Jan 15: The taxi ride from Abu Dhabi to Port Rashid in Abu Dhabi took about two hours; at least 30 minutes of it in heavy traffic once we left the motorway. I was worried when the driver asked me if I had a GPS feature on my phone, but it was lucky I did as it helped us get around the tangle of Dubai traffic — until the very end, when it wanted to take us well beyond the cruise terminal (which is not well sign posted, although Port Rashid itself is.)

Boarding was very easy. I just walked up to the counter and was onboard within minutes. Apparently the ship boards over 24 hours, from Friday afternoon until Saturday morning, to suit the arrival of those on international flights, mostly from Europe. The first thing I heard was a band singing Volare — one of the staples of Italian cruises. I knew I was in the right place.

I salied on the Costa Fortuna, on this same itinerary, two years ago. but it seemed different this time — more open in places, and with some familiar features missing. Also, there’s a big drag on the ceiling in the atrium that I’m sure wasn’t there before.

My balcony cabin is, or at least seems, larger than the inside stateroom I had last time. It certainly feels more open, because of the large glasss window and door out on to the verandah. The view isn’t so good now, but it should be once we get to sea.

I ate at the Critofo Colombo buffet. I sampled a few dishs, and the salmon was particularly tasty. Then I went looking for the piano bar, which isn’t there any more, so I settled in the main room under the dragon and had a beer before bed time.