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
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.
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 2nd 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
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.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 13th 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!
