Arabian HEIGHTS
Sometimes, in places far, far away that twinkle so gaily, you simply can’t see the stairs for the Swarovskis. Twin golden-balustraded staircases jazz-hand aloft from the MSC Splendida’s atrium, each glass-sheathed step stratified with the Austrian crystals; presumably Italian design studio De Jorio’s interpretation of stairways to cruise-ship heaven.
The atrium’s polestar, a glossy black grand piano, is garnished with an impulsive Swarovski gust, too; the surrounding plum-coloured velvet lounges vapid by comparison. Like an inadvertently ungrasped fairground balloon, a chandelier hangs way, way up in the apex, too high to compete or complement the action below.
The ‘Fantasia’ class Splendida – christened by Sophia Loren, no less – is a lot to drink in for first-day cruisers, freshly funnelled from nations near, far and obscure, from Italy and Russia to Kenya and Bolivia. Mouths agape, they ride the glass-backed elevator, eyes wider than a Philippine tarsier recently cured from blindness.
Yet this is only phase one of a seven-day glitzkrieg. By day we, The Splendidans, will explore the subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle complexities, cultures and cities of a couple of Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. So, what do you get when you mix the Arabian Peninsula with a molto Italian cruise ship peopled with passengers from just about every land on Earth? This...
IN SEARCH OF OLD ABU DHABI
To kneel nose-to-beak 50 centimetres away from a snow-white gyrfalcon is
