A break in the sun

Took a break in February to escape the winter and get some sun. Flew out to Dubai for a week followed by a Royal Caribbean cruise for another week. The Gulf is a bit short of interesting ports of call so the ship proceeded extremely slowly to El Kasab, Muscat and Abu Dharbi. The ship is showing its age and we understand is being sold to TUI this April. Fortunately, we had been upgraded to a Grand Suite that was excellent. Not just the cabin (very spacious and good size balcony) but also our entitlement to use the Concierge Club facilities that helped us escape the pandemonium of the Windjammers cafe area. Although the Windjammer could get very crowded and noisy with insufficient seating on occasions, we must say how impressed we were with the range and quality of the food on offer. The Concierge Club offered us a place of peace and quiet together with no charge nibbles and drinks provided by excellent Concierge staff.
Trying to find a couple of sunbeds on the sun decks was nigh on impossible it being very crowded with the sunbeds lined up closely together. Not very nice at all. The ‘raffle’ in the Spa at the start of the cruise was dreadful and more suited to an Under Thirties holiday camp. We quickly left.