Our morning began early with a tour departing from the ship at 8:15am.
We drove from Mutrah to the newer areas of Muscat where we visited the Grand Mosque, a gift from Sultan Qaboos to his people to mark the 30th anniversary of his reign. While the exterior is imposing yet restrained; the interior (especially the men’s prayer room) was richly appointed without tripping into the realm of ostentatious. Speaking aesthetically, I find mosques generally—this one in particular—to be some of the most visually pleasing houses of worship that I’ve visited, as their design and decoration tend to be cleaner and less overworked (as in more akin the sensibility of Arts and Crafts or Shaker style furniture). Yesterday, Yusef joked that he didn’t like to prayer at the Grand Mosque because its beauty was too distracting. I can understand why.
Grand Mosque
Grand Mosque, Men's Prayer Room
Next, we returned to the Mutrah Souq. Having scouted it out the day prior, we made a few purchases including a really attractive embroidered top for Libby (which she wore to dinner tonight) and a two-piece outfit for Emerson in purple and gold. We then moved on to Old Muscat (the historical city center) and visited the Bayt Al-Zubair—a small but enjoyable museum—with exhibits focused primarily on Omani heritage. We concluded our exploration of Old Muscat with a visit to the Sultan’s Palace.
Sultan's Palace, Muscat, Oman
Back aboard the ship, we went to dinner as Chops Grille this evening. It was excellent, markedly better than our visit aboard Navigator back in November. Particular stand-outs included the shrimp and crab cake, the cheese and onion soup, and the red velvet cake. I had a glass (and than another—2-for-1 special with my Platinum C&A coupon) of New Zealand “Meritage” (I’ll have to note the name when we return on Saturday night). After dinner, we put in an appearance at the Crown & Anchor event (and had yet more free drinks) and then moved on to tonight’s headliner show (“The East Coast Boys” – a Frankie Valie and the Four Seasons tribute show). The show was remarkably good. Indeed, both Libby and I thought that “Frankie” was West End or Broadway worthy. Yes. Really, that good! Of course, my opinion—from a guy who claps along like Steve Martin in the Jerk—isn’t really worth much (as Libby happily reminds me), but Libby does know what she’s talking about(as she also happily reminds me). 
Tonight’s the ships 70’s party in the centrum. So, needless to say, our cabin is rocking!
Tomorrow is our one and only day at sea. But, we’ll actually be spending the morning anchored off the coast of Fujairah before heading on to Abu Dhabi. Why? Brilliance is getting her annual bottom cleaning, which makes sense since the distances between ports here isn’t great. So, instead of coasting along slowly, we’ll sail quickly, stop, and then sail quickly again.
One final housekeeping item: I mentioned that we’d requested a table for two in the MDR, but we didn’t get it upon sailing. The next day we did get notification that we’d been moved to our own table. For us, this was a bit too little too late, as we’d made other plans around formal nights (which we avoid like the plague on cruises from anywhere but Florida), specialty dining (which we always enjoy), and dining out in our overnight ports (a rare treat on any cruise). However, I’ll give RCI bonus points for coming though in the end. Well done.