Days 7-8 At Sea, Bahamas, Orlando

I woke up early today right after sunrise, thirsty. Forgot to mention, Im not having ice cream sundaes late at night again, that stuff was too heavy I couldn’t sleep! There were barely any clouds outside, outside on the deck I tried to see if I could spot any whales or if I was lucky – dolphins. Some people say they have but they must look very hard I guess. I did see a couple of seaguls, meaning there was land close by - the Great Stirrup Cay of the Bahamas. There’s another small bird, flies really close to the surface and then goes in water and just disappears. The water is a really dark blue, depth is around 500 metres - just makes you wonder what is actually down there. The Arabian sea has a different colour, it’s not as deep maybe 35 metres maximum and has more a of a turqoiuse colour. There’s water as far as your eyes can see from all directionsI had breakfast alone today, people around me this morning all spoke a different language a couple behind me in Spanish, infront of me was an old South African lady from the accent Im guessing and a few from the US

It’s kind of funny how far people travel away from home but they look for the same comforts , this ship has everything from restaurants, a mall, theaters, bars, dance clubs – the whole reason of traveling is so that people escape from these, right?

I met some people from the US today, both go to a universities in Orlando - they shared some of the same opinions about the kind of people on this ship. Theres alot of those really rich elegant yet ignorant people, blinded by things in life like money, jewelry and missing out on the best things that are free

There's alot to say but I dont feel like writing anything, I spent a day at the Bahamas, there was a storm, strong winds, mean sky - very memorable. Dropped my brother at Miami airport and countinued to Orlando, till the next time

Day 6 –Tortula, British Virgin Islands

The ship was moving slowly last night so it seemed a lot more still than usual throughout the night

I woke up at around 5:10 am from a dream, I was frightened and worried so I couldn’t go go back to sleep, I decided to go outside on the deck till sunrise. It was pretty quiet with the exception of an old lady sketching part of the ship on a small notebook. The ship ancored at 7 am at Tortula, a nearby Virgin Island.
Went back to the cabin to wake up the guys, they were deep asleep – we all got ready and made our way to Cane Garden Bay beach the route there was up and around a hill, crazy local drivers but seemed they’ve been doing this forever, maybe easily with their eyes shut. Made a quick stop at a local shop for grapes mangoes and water, also some Cadbury chocolate since it was a UK island.
The sun was hot, perfect weather to swim, we chose a place a little further from most tourists and went straight in the cool water, it was great. The white sandy beaches stretch forever most people would describe this place as a paradise. After all the swimming we saw a guy selling coconuts, he had a huge knife and kinda looked like a Bob Marely, the accent too was Caribbean. Maybe the best coconut I’ve had yet. Then we saw another Bob Marley, with sunglasses and a basketball shirt selling fresh juice and started mixing our own fruits
After going back to the ship, we went to see a show called sharkbait, two really funny talented guys who use to perform at universal studios Japan, then 5 comedians from Chicago did some stand up comedy, picking out people from the audience and putting them in the spotlight – my youngest brother being one of them. After that I went back to my room and got a voice mail from my mom, it was the dream I had, so I can say it was more of a vision I had early this morning

Day 5 – St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Woke up early! Wanted to make the most out of the day in St. Thomas – beautiful island. Had a good breakfast, well half a good breakfast … a special announcement was made, “Mohammad al Ansari has been chosen for random inspection” – Please proceed to Deck 13. That’s exactly what I did, as soon as I entered the lounge I was escorted to an office closeby with the US Customs, recognized them from the uniform at the airport. They asked me a couple questions and I had to wait for an hour till I was allowed on US soil.

If ever you have watched ’50 First Dates’, then this place reminded me exactly of it. As soon as we docked it started raining, very light cool rain, it made it humid but I liked it. A bunch of jewelery and watch shops everywhere. We took an open cab to Magens Bay, according to National Geographic, the 2^nd most beautiful beach in the world. I had to agree about it being beautiful and clean – the sand was really soft, the water crystal clear and to our luck the sun came back and the beach was getting a lot of people

After swimming, play football on the beach we headed to downtown Charlotte, it had a historic French atmosphere, I guess it was colonized by the French before. It turned US eventually cause I saw a footlocker and 2 Hooters restaurant haha
After having some Belgian chocolate from a local store we took a Sky Ride to Paradise Point, the best view of the island and its surroundings, there were a couple of parrots too

DAYS 3 & 4

Day 4 – Samana, Dominican Republic

Not the best start of the day, originally we were supposed to go horseriding and hiking down a waterfall in Samana. Due to confusion and mistiming we missed the whole event but instead went speedboat riding around the island – it was fast, really fast.

Halfway through we stopped at a village near a remote beach. We were greeted by young kids selling seashells by the seashore (haha seriously), we bought a few for my sisters. Right there I had my first fresh Pina Colada (without the rum), actually 3 of them, we just sat at the beach and for some reason didn’t swim today. Took some photos there and then returned to the main dock. Samana to me was very underdeveloped – even for tourists so not a popular destination but at the same time it’s quiet and not many of the tourists visit them

As soon as we got back to the Pearl it was around 5, we were starving and ate, as usual. They have around 7 restaurants too much food for the people on deck.
Spent a little time at the Duty free, got some Bounty chocolate and skimmed through the Art Gallery they have. I think I’m pretty burned from the sun now!

DAY 3 – Entire day at Sea

I got really good sleep today at the expense of missing sunrise, had breakfast at a place onboard called the garden café and ate so much watermelons, pineapples but compared with my brothers who literally ate everything I had a lot less, my stomach isn’t as strong

played football on the 13^th deck right til sunset , basically it ended up being my brothers, marzouqi and me – Arabs vs the rest– it was a lot of fun

After that I tried to race Abdullah rock climbing but I had an accident and slipped half way through, much pain, but he was happy to win – no worries I’ll get him another time

Spent some time at the gym with Yousef - weird when it comes to working out, the ship rocks back and forth so you get off balanced. Finished the night with an interesting game of ping pong – using 2 tables!

DAY 2 - Miami & the NC Pearl

DAY 1 – Miami and boarding the ship

I didn’t get much sleep last night so it took me a while to get up. We all packed and checked out of the hotel ready to head to Miami port. We were kinda early so drove around the beach and saw what we could of Miami beach, it’s really a great city. We saw our ship from the distance, and headed to the departure terminal. Everything was going well at this point, passed security, check in, and then the bad news – My I-20, it’s a pretty important form for international students, my brothers and Marzouqi had theirs in the passports but I kept mine in a folder – back in Richmond. I did have a scanned version on my laptop but at first they didn’t accept it. The lady at the front desk with a thick accent simply said I wouldn’t be able to get on board, unless I got that form. I was thinking of what to do alone in Miami for a week, or my other option to get someone to send it by Fedex then take a flight to Samana, Dominican Republic where the first stop is.

I said a dua under my breath and soon after, this guy comes out from the far counter and asked me to show him the I-20, I emailed it to the company and then he printed it – that was the green light for me, I was so relieved I couldn’t believe it– out of 2600 people we were the last people to board the NC pearl

All the people onboard were wearing life jackets, it was a mandatory safety drill. As soon as that we went to our rooms, we began exploring the Pearl. The ship is huge, 13 decks and each deck has 3 different sections.

As soon as I got up on the 13^th deck, we were moving – fast and I didn’t even feel it from inside the deck. Miami Beach was fading away slowly, I made a quick call to my mom telling her we’re on aboard and you might not hear from us this week. It was getting a little cloudy but the sun was pushing the clouds away, warm sunshine and a perfect blue ocean on the other side of the ship. The 12^th and 11^th deck was a little busier with people, mostly tanning and there’s a jogging track, people running an hour into the cruise – relax!

All the exploring made us really hungry - forgot to mention, we ate at 4 different restaurants in the entire day.

At night, the deck gets really quiet and its relaxing, looking out there’s nothing but the dark blue sea, looking up is another thing, the stars are all over the place shining right back at you, something majestic. There’s a lot more to say but Im tired now, till the next update and will leave you with a few photos.

Too much food - DAY 1

So I kinda decided to write a little summary of my day for the next 2 weeks, it'll be nice to share and maybe look back at this to remember things.

Thursday was a crazy busy day for me, I packed my stuff in a hurry got a few things sorted, made a few CD's with my favourite songs and washed my car too. My brother Yousef and his best friend al Marzouqi from Sharjah, UAE were late arriving at Richmond and I missed my last lunch with the smartest Astro kids

I had 2 Red Bulls and a venti Vanilla latte, that's alot of caffeine and taurine in one day but I had 15 hours of driving and we set off from Richmond at around 11 pm - only stopping for petrol and when I felt my ass got numb and sometimes played football at the station. In the beginning it was pretty fun, everyone is talking and we hadn't seen each other for a while so it was good to catch up, by the time we were in North Carolina all I could hear was the snoring - they were exhausted

After a while on the road, your eyes stay focused and I start day dreaming and realise Im speeding, 20-25 mph above the limit - its good cause the roads are almost empty and the expected time on the GPS gets lower and lower!

By the time I was in Georgia, I saw the first Palm trees and soon later sunrise, it was great - I stopped to pray el Fajr at some random station ... Yousef woke up too we both washed up, made our wudu and prayed ... Freezing cold and you could sense people staring haha

I let al Marzouqi drive the last 4 hours and I tried to get some sleep in the back while they took funny photos. By the time we got to Miami we were really tired, stopped by at a random hotel, showered and cleaned up and were ready to go and check out South Beach. It kind of reminded me of Salmiya, Kuwait very similar style - had dinner at Cheesecake Factory at Aventura mall, had around 4 scoops of Ben and Jerry's and finished off the night at one of the worst movies - Alice in Wonderland, made for weirdos

Oh yeah not forgetting to mention this is officially the day I ate the most, Yousef too - I need a separate post to list everything

Till tomorrow, Im tired