Abu Dhabi
We slept well and woke up rested. Now we had time to make ourselves familiar with the ship. First of all, our cabin was a lot better than we expected. We paid for the cheap inner cabin but were assigned a cabin with a window. Perhaps, because we bought the cruise close to the departure date and MSC had vacant cabins anyway. Our cabin was on Deck 9 and located in the bow right under the bridge.
Moreover, there was a narrow deck in front of the 3 bow cabins that we could claim as our own because other passengers hardly knew about this deck’s existence.
Our first stop was the island of Sir Bani Yas where we stood side by side with MSC World Europa. MSC Opera was built in 2004 and for 2 years it was the flagship of the company. These days, MSC Opera is outdated and pales in comparison with other cruise ships, especially with World Europa, the newest addition to the MSC fleet, that was launched in December, 2021.
MSC offered an excursion to the Arabian Wildlife Park where visitors can see giraffes, gazelles and other animals that are not native to the area. We skipped the excursion and spent our time leisuring on the beach.
The shallow lagoon behind the beach has a clay bottom that in some places turns into quicksand. We waded through the warm lagoon water and sank up to our knees in one spot.
In the evening, both ships sailed toward Oman. The following day was at sea. Out of the 7 days of the cruise, it was the only day when we did not call into port. We were going from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Oman through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Strait is narrow and strategically very important. It is one the busiest waterways in the world as the Strait is the only way to move oil out of the ports of the Persian Gulf and to deliver other cargo to the countries on its shores. We were constantly surrounded by tankers, container ships and other freighters. I started counting the ships around us and gave up after 30. Sometimes, we could see the Oman shore, then we moved closer to Iran. My phone kept switching between the two time zones depending on where we were.
In the evening, MSC Opera docked in Muscat, the capital city of Oman.