At the conclusion of our fantastic visit to Petra we boarded the bus and set off back towards the Jordanian port of Aqaba, a trip of around two hours which included a brief stop for souvenirs (we picked up some excellent soap) and use of the toilet for anyone who hadn’t sweated out all the moisture from their body already during the day.
With this being late in the year and late in the evening it got dark quickly, and by the time we arrived back where Marella Discovery was waiting for us it was pretty much pitch black. And our moods were heading that way too. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but it was hard not to feel down upon approaching our room on the ship once more and seeing suitcases in the hallways. Some on the cruise would be remaining on for another week, and some new faces would be flying out and boarding the vessel the following day, but for those with their luggage decorating the passageways and for us too this was the last night of what had proven to be an incredibly relaxing, fantastically enjoyable cruise with Marella. We’d spent more days at sea in a row than we’d ever done before, we’d met some wonderful new friends, and we’d added to our list of travel experiences with some stunning new ones.
Just a last evening on the cruise ship to get through, then, and one treading familiar territory for us with showering followed by dinner to start with. As we approached the entrance to what had become our regular dining venue of choice, Gallery 47, the Italian restaurant option on Discovery, we bumped into Paul and Carole and decided to share a table for our last night aboard. The food was up to the usual high standard and there was plenty of entertaining chat between our waitress and Paul in particular which made this last meal a particularly enjoyable one.
Thinking this would be the last time we’d see our fellow travellers and bloggers for a while we all had a fairly quiet evening for us mostly up on the pool deck, enjoying some drinks from the bar and the pleasant temperature of a Jordanian night, chatting a bit more, and swapping tales of our experiences in the ancient city we’d all visited during the day.
From our location on the top of the ship we could see across the port and towards the main part of the city, the illuminations of which helped to silhouette the Aqaba Flagpole which warrants its own entry in Wikipedia on account of it being the sixth-tallest, free-standing flagpole in the world. Exciting! Did we briefly consider tracking down and visiting the five flagpoles taller than it? Yes we did. Are we actually going to do that? Chances aren’t high.
And so to the morning of our departure. It was to be a late-morning departure; not enough time to get off the ship and really do anything, though, but we still needed to be out of our room early enough for our steward to clean it and get it ready for the cruise passengers joining the ship later in the day. Our port-side balcony gave us some views across the water with Jordan immediately to our right, Israel to the left of it, and leftmost of all, Egypt. It’s a fascinating part of the world where so many different countries can be seen at the same time and further down in the gulf it’s possible to see Saudi Arabia too.
On the other side of the ship was the commercial port of Aqaba and its rather beautiful harbour control tower. Seventy five metres in height, concrete and steel with a circular control room, and operating as a lighthouse for the port with – in case you really wanted to know – three white flashes every ten seconds for identification purposes. Well, you never know when that sort of information will come in useful.
There were some buses around and the process of unloading suitcases was taking place alongside the ship but it was surprisingly hot even early in the day in November so we decided to take our carry-on luggage into the atrium and spend our last hour on Marella Discovery in the cool interior and in the company of our books.
And then Paul and Carole spotted us again and spoiled it all. No, of course they didn’t spoil it all. Instead, we enjoyed an unexpected bit of bonus time with them before it was time for us all to leave; the pair of us to the port to find our luggage and board the bus; the pair of them to head into Aqaba for a look around. You can see what they thought of Aqaba (and even possibly catch a glimpse of us) in their travel vlog: Aqaba, an Arabian Sunset, and a Speciality Restaurant.
We arrived at Aqaba Airport (officially: King Hussein International Airport) to a scene of minor chaos. Our buses had left at staggered times specifically to avoid this particular chaos and TUI’s organisation probably helped a bit but the airport at Aqaba, due to its small size, single runway, single departure gate, and single baggage carousel is not one well-suited to taking on a lot of people at once and we weren’t the only people due to fly out. A queue had formed outside the building just to get past security (or first security; more on that in a moment) and outside it was hot. Very hot.
Initially outside with our luggage, we slowly shuffled forward over the course of ten minutes to the automatic doors that kept closing on people stationary in the gap between them but eventually made it into the small area in which passengers had formed a giant snake taking up all the space of the air-conditioned interior. This was the queue for security where passports and flight information was checked and luggage was scanned. For the first time. In a larger space some twenty or more minutes later we then lined up to get our boarding passes. It hadn’t been possible to (or, more accurately, we’d not checked whether we could) book seats for the flight back to the UK but this isn’t the sort of thing that concerns us anyway as we mostly spend the time reading or watching movies if they’re available and a seat’s a seat in that respect. It was a bit of a surprise to discover we’d been allocated seats in row 2, therefore. That sounded remarkably like those best seats near the front but we didn’t want to get our hopes up.
To second security where the boarding pass and passport was checked and the luggage was scanned again with the hold bags whisked off to be readied for loading on the plane. Our carry-on bags came with us to the third security point where everything was checked and scanned again and where I was then sent off to a separate station to have my camera lenses examined and swabbed for drugs. Then into the waiting hall with nowhere near enough seating for everyone and not a lot of options in the shops.
We did eventually find a couple of seats and sat down, realising there was still two hours until take-off. Half an hour later – and with absolutely no flights having taken off or arrived and with nobody in the airport having moved – our flight was called to the boarding gate. This seemed early but we reckoned that maybe the plane was already here and everyone had turned up so they could fly ahead of schedule. Wishful thinking. The boarding gate area required another queue to get past another security point and sit down, with random people pulled aside to have their hand luggage gone through. Not us, fortunately. There was more seating in this area but now no access to the shops or to the toilets. Indeed, for those who wanted to use the toilet they needed to go back through security before returning where passport-checking, boarding pass-perusing, and pat-downs or rummaging through any luggage that had been taken out then in again took place. Security is big business in Aqaba airport and it’s likely that the proximity to Israel and Saudi Arabia plays a huge part in that.
Anyway, the time to board arrived and we made two pleasant discoveries. Firstly, the plane departing was the same one we’d arrived on: the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner “Mrs Patmore“. Secondly, we were indeed in the Premium seating. We hadn’t paid extra for it and we’ve no idea how it was allocated but we certainly weren’t complaining. We wondered whether it was down to spending money on the ship since we’d paid for an excursion, upgraded to premium drinks, paid for wine tasting, and paid for speciality dining too, but it could just easily have been because we booked early or pure luck. Ultimately, who cares? Fabulously comfortable seats, central arm rest with space to rest our complimentary fizz on arrival, and some very impressive headphones for a flight. Well, for the sorts of flight we normally take. The food was superb too and it all marked a superb ending to what had already been a superb cruise.
This concludes our travelogue series covering our journey to Jordan from Italy through the Suez Canal on Marella Discovery in November 2019. This was our first time travelling with TUI and on a Marella ship and it was as near faultless as makes no difference. Incredible value for money, outstanding service throughout, and a genuine sense at all times that you were in the company of people who were appreciated by their employers and really enjoyed the work they were doing. We will travel with them in the future.
Our arrival in the UK was at Manchester and with us not fancying driving directly back to Portsmouth we’d booked a couple of nights in Chester – a place we’d never visited before – to do some post-cruising, UK exploration. You’ll be able to find details of that on this site… when it gets written.