At Sea, Tuesday, Nov. 8th

We missed the Aqaba lecture this morning because we slept in.  We didn’t sleep well, I think because we ate so much food so late in the evening.  Anyway, they do put the lectures on the TV, so we found it and watched it later in the day.   

This morning, deck by deck, we had Israeli immigration.  I might have forgotten to say our passports were collected when we boarded the ship and they will not be returned to us until the end of the cruise.  We have not experienced this exact procedure in the past.  Seems I recall Celebrity doing something similar when Mom and I went to Peru for one of our stops.  This morning we were given a stamped card to enter Israel.  Many people have been concerned that if their actual passports were stamped that they entered Israel they will not be allowed to enter Egypt (and perhaps other countries) in the future with the same passport. Anyway, we will not be having our passport stamped but just this card to carry with us for entry into Israel.  The lines were long this morning.  An idea would be to wait until they make a call for any who have not passed through and go then. 

After we finished that we went and posted the blog up in the Windjammer, then took the netbook back to the cabin and headed to the dining room for lunch.  We like the salad bar they have there everyday.  After lunch the timing was perfect and we went to the Rumba dance class.  It was fun and we went back to the cabin for a brief rest that turned into a nap before tonight’s formal dinner.  John almost had me convinced that we shouldn’t go but he decided to put on his tie after all!  I was really glad he did because it was the best dinner so far (to me)!  The lamb shanks were so delicious, the meat was tender and succulent and fell right off the bone.  We ate at a table for four with Stuart and Darlene and we all had the lamb shanks and enjoyed them.  Afterwards we wanted to get together and discuss our excursions but John and I wanted to go to the show so we decided to meet later.  However, the show was packed and trying every side upstairs and down we could not find two seats together.  We stood and watched for awhile but decided we didn’t care after all.  We opted to go back to the room, called Stuart and Darlene to come over, and ordered the crème de menthe I was so ready for.  Darlene had not had it before and she liked it so that was nice.  Then we all went up on deck to see what we could figure out as far as entering the Suez Canal, which we have queued up for now.  We are set to begin this portion of the journey around 1:30am per the captain.