November 1, 2016 We left home for Anna Maria Island on November 1st and had beautiful weather the entire time we were there. Following are links to photos I took in Florida both this year, as well as last year.
December 16th We left Orlando, Florida on a direct flight to Dubai on Emirates Airlines.
Dec 17th to 19th Dubai is something to see. Real "Wow Power", but not much of anything else of interest for us. We took a four hour private tour of the city by car to take some photos of the more memorable buildings, but for the most part just relaxed and adjusted to the 9 hour time change. We stayed at the Sheraton hotel on the Dubai River .
December 20th Boarding Seabourn's newest ship the Encore went very smoothly. The vessel is larger than the "Odyssey Class Ships" we had become accustomed to. Passenger capacity is about 600 versus 400 for their other ships. We spent the afternoon unpacking and checking out the various areas of the ship. We found it to be remarkably similar to the slightly smaller Silversea Spirit we cruised on in 2012.
December 21st The Encore anchored off the coast of Sir Bani Yas Island. The majority of the passengers took the tenders to shore for a picnic lunch. We stayed on board and relaxed.
December 22nd The Encore docked in Abu Dhabi. We participated in a tour which was enjoyable. The Emirates were a new destination for us and one of the reasons we took this cruise.
December 24th This was our first time in Muscat, Oman so we participated in a tour. This area of Oman was much more developed and interesting than our previous visit to Salalah
December 25 & 6 Sea Days Christmas activities were a disappointment compared to the other Seabourn cruises we had been on over the Holidays.
December 27th We were docked in Mumbai for the day. We stayed on the ship. Unfortunately many of the ports in India are run down and in heavily industrial area. We stayed on board. With exception of final 3 photos the following were from a tour we took in early 2014.
December 29th We docked in Mangalore at what is probably the worst port we have been at during all of our cruising. We stayed on board.
December 30th We were in Cochin on the Sojourn in early 2014 and had a wonderful tour. Photos from that trip are included again here. By this time we were both having respiratory problems with the air quality on the ship and did not venture ashore. Included below are a few photos taken from the ship.
January 4th We had been in Langkawi several times. We were still suffering from respiratory issues and decided to stay on board. I did take a number of photos from the ship.
January 5th to 7th The remainder of the cruise we were at sea and overnight in Singapore. We had a day room at the Singapore Airport Hotel and departed that evening on Singapore Airlines for Auckland, New Zealand.