“I’m just a girl who can’t say no!”
When Nanine asked me if I’d like to go with her on a 15-day cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line over the holidays starting in Doha and continuing to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Seychelles, Madagascar, Reunion, and Mauritius, I said, “Yes.” The timing worked out beautifully and the price was terrific.
My trip began with my driving up to San Francisco, picking Nanine up in Mountain View en route to the airport. After an uneventful flight from San Francisco to JFK, we faced the gauntlet of misinformation, hurrying to the international terminal, and multiple layers of security to finally arrive at our departure gate. Only to find out that our flight was delayed two hours. Ultimately, we had a smooth flight from JFK to Doha, Qatar. In Doha, Norwegian had arranged transport from the airport to the cruise port. Since we were scheduled to arrive at 6:35am, we thought we’d figure out how to store our luggage, explore Doha, and embark at our check-in time of 4:00pm. We did not know that Norwegian had other plans for us! The shuttle company took us to the Hyatt in downtown Doha, where they stored our luggage and had a delicious buffet laid out for all of the travelers. Transport from the hotel to the port would begin at 11:45am with five buses moving passengers until the final bus at 12:30pm. After eating breakfast, we moved our luggage to the concierge, thinking we could NOT embark before 4:00pm and there MUST be enough for us to see until then. Little did we know that jet lag and lack of sleep would hit us hard. We wandered through the souk, walked along the Corniche, and looked at the scenery. Then fatigue hit us hard. Returning to the hotel and quickly retrieving our luggage, we were the only passengers on the final shuttle to the port.
At the port, we got into the long line of passengers waiting to embark, figuring we might get pulled out of line because we were early. Wrong. Nobody mentioned our “official” embarkation time while processing us.
Thus began our journey!
Sunrise through the plane’s window
Walking through the souk
One of many mosques
Views from the Corniche
The Pearl, an homage to pearl diving in the Arabian Gulf
Ah! The Norwegian Dawn, our floating resort for two weeks!
Doha at night as seen from the Norwegian Dawn as we head out to our next port
