Monday, April 3rd, 2023 Queen Victoria, Dubai, UAE
Updated: Jul 4, 2023
We opted for an easy day today and took the ships’ shuttle bus to the Mall of the Emirates, the second megamall in Dubai. At a nice coffee shop, with good internet speed, we tried to sync up our photographs and I tried to upload this blog – unsuccessfully. Sandra had her nails done and we found an excellent Lebanese restaurant we had visited last time we were in Dubai – the food was as good as we remembered. Amazingly, there is a snow skiing facility located inside the mall – I think this could be the ultimate demonstration of the wealth of the UAE; telling the rest of the world “we can even make snow in the desert.” One of the benefits of doing the full world voyage is an invite to the shoreside gala ball; for this voyage the ball was held at the Atlantis Hotel located within the palms resort. Normally a Cunard world voyage might have a few hundred guests going “all the way around”. However due to the impact of Covid over the past few years there has been pent up demand, and, on our voyage, there were about 1200 attendees at the ball. Cunard really pulled out all the stops for the gala ball; coaches were awaiting us for the 15-minute drive to the hotel where we literally received the red-carpet treatment. We mingled in a gigantic lobby area in front of the ball room; waiters roamed with endless trays of champagne, wine, beer. and hors d’oeuvres. Arabic music filled the air - played by a lady of a strange-looking instrument, a talented artist created Arabic scenes from colored sand inside small glass bottles, and a falcon was available for “selfies”. Eventually the doors to the gigantic ballroom swung open and we made our way to our assigned table and found our seats, as indicated by our nametags. While in the lobby we had notice a long line of waiters carry large books into the ballroom, Sandra wondered if we were all getting a copy of the Holy Quran; now we could see one of these books positioned in each place setting and further investigation revealed the books were in fact insulated boxes containing the first course! A stage in was front and center and it was flanked by two gigantic screens; welcoming speeches were followed by a sand artist – the lady had a large white table upon which she scattered a thin layer of sand in which she created images with her fingers, the images were projected onto the big screens at the front of the ballroom. It was mesmerizing and amazing. Wine was served from bottomless bottles and the food was delivered with an easy grace – quite a feat considering the size of the group. During the meal we were entertained by a young couple, the lady played a cello, and the gentlemen played a kind of Arabian lute – they were really good. More speeches and then a band appeared on stage to play more contemporary music; suddenly the area between the tables and the screens was filled with dancing guests – including us, we had a great time.
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