Although I have visited parts of the Persian Gulf before, including Dubai and Qatar, there were several countries in the area that I hadn't added to my collection. In the past year, a number of European-based cruise lines have started sailing to various ports in the area. A particular cruise from MSC Cruises, an Italian line, caught my attention, so we booked a cruise on the MSC Lirica, which stopped in Dubai, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman. To get another country, I added a stopover in Kuwait on the way home.
Here's a map of where we went. To add to the excitement, on our flight from London to Dubai, we got to fly over Iraq and Iran (but avoided Syria).
The Lirica is a mid-size ship (about 1,950 passengers), and has very low initial cruise fares. I assumed that we would be nickel-and-dimed to death, so we splurged for a suite and beverage/spa package, which increased our bill to what we would probably have paid on another cruise line.
Since MSC is an Italian line, they cater mostly to a European clientele, and the majority of the passengers were Italian, Russian, and German. I would estimate that less than 10% of the passengers were from North American. This also meant that they made announcements in (literally) 7 languages, and the no-smoking areas were merely suggestions.
A few general observations from the trip:
- Although we (Americans) tend to lump all of the countries in the region together, there are some significant differences. For example, alcohol was easily available in Dubai, but you couldn't get it (anywhere) in Kuwait. American chain hotels and restaurants were on every block in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar, but much less frequent in other countries (except for KFC, which was everywhere).
- In most of the countries, the majority of people are not natives. Generally, we saw a lot more South Asians (Indian and Pakistani) than we did locals.
- There was a wide variety of dress among women. We saw lots of women covered head to toe, but we also saw a lot wearing western dress.
- The countries we visited are among the safest in the world. There's no terrorism, and almost no crime.
- We visited several mosques, and I asked several guides and clerics whether they were Sunni or Shia. Every one of them said that the distinction was not important, and they all emphasized the connection between Islam and Judaism, which I found very interesting.
Next: Days 1-2 -- Dubai
