April 15th, 2025 (did you do your taxes?)

Hello Cruisers!

Tuesday the 15th was a memorable one. Sir Bani Yas is an island owned by Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi and current President of the United Arab Emirates. Originally a sandy rock of an island, the Al Nayan family have spent a lot of oil money terraforming Sir Bani Yas into a resort and animal preserve primarily by importing lot of climate-tolerant plants from other parts of the world.

Seasoned cruisers will be familiar with Royal Caribbean’s island Coco Caye and NCL’s islands Stirrup Caye and Harvest Caye. The resort on this island seems to have been thought-up with those islands in mind. Large beach area with chairs and umbrellas, food to eat, shops, swimming areas, etc. Very modern, wheelchair accessible, etc.

I Thought It Was Foggy, But it Wasn’t

When I walked onto the pier I was surprised (pleasantly) to not be blinded by the Arabian sun. At first I thought it was fog (having spent most of the pervious month in the UK and the Atlantic) but I soon realized it was not. It was sand. There was a sand storm that lasted pretty much the whole morning. I kept reminding myself “if it weren’t windy it would be unbearably hot.”

We made our way past the resort to the ground transportation area. We were then sorted like Hogwarts students onto Toyota trucks which had been modified for safari-like seating and off we went.

We Saw a Number of Different Animals

These Included lots of these small Middle-Eastern deer, peacocks, cheetahs (which are used to keep the peacock and deer populations under control), giraffes, a zebra, a type of African sheep, and the nearly extinct Arabian Oryx. Our guide also described the history of the island, the plans for future terraforming, and he pointed out things like “That’s a large orange grove.. jut for the Sheik’s family” and a large organic food green house again “just for the Sheik’s family.”

By the time I returned to the ship just before noon I was covered in tan dust. Even my beard was a nice and even tan color rather than the old man white it usually is. LOL. I stripped-off my clothes and handed them to my cabin steward along with the rest of my laundry. Free laundry for high status on NCL is a nice perk.

It was good tour, but I was ready to get out of the dust when it was over so I spent the rest of the day relaxing on the ship.

Tomorrow is a LONG excursion to the oasis town of Al Ain.

Until we meet again, may you have Fair Winds and Following Seas

Eric Cable

April 16, 2025