I am not a great fan of that great cruise ship tradition of fixed dining, so I was not looking forward to dinner time on my Costa Cruises' voyage around the Arabian Gulf on Costa Victoria.
In fact I was dreading it so much that even before leaving home, I planned to avoid it by paying to eat to the speciality restaurant every night.
My dread was heightened because it was a Costa cruise, packed with Italians, Germans, French and countless other nationalities. Imagine sharing a table for a whole week with people who do not speak any English.
But here we are, four nights into the cruise, and my daughter Ilana and I have yet to set foot in the speciality restaurant.
Food and the service has been good - and full marks to our assistant waiter Yang Li, from China, who on discovering I like iced-water makes sure there is a jug waiting at the table when we arrive for dinner - but best of all, my daugher Ilana and I have a table for two, by the window, so I don't have to make pathetic attempts to converse in French or German. Italian, I'm afraid, floors me completely.
This is actually our second table. The first was allocated for second sitting, on my request before I know that on Costa that means 9.15pm or 9.30pm, which is too late to eat for me. First sitting is 7pm, which is OK. Certainly not so appalingly early as the 6pm first sitting on other cruise ships.
The change was organised by Fausi, from Tunisia, to whom I explained we needed a table for two because of the language problem. He smiled - somehow I got the idea I was not the first Brit with such a request - shook his head several times and came up trumps. What a star!
Incidentally, the Dutch couple - more correctly he's Dutch, she's English and they live in Holland - we met on our excursion in Oman were allocated a table sharing with others from the Netherlands.
Costa's maitre d's clearly put a lot of thought into this sharing table business. I'm impressed.
Jane Archer
