Sunday, April 2nd, 2023 Queen Victoria, Dubai, UAE
Updated: Jul 4, 2023
During the night the ship slowly cruised up the coast about 100 miles to Dubai and we were up early this morning to watch the sail in. Out on the balcony we were very surprised to see that we were not going to dock at the Port Rashid cruise terminal; this is where we docked on our previous visit to Dubai, we remembered it as being very new and the location where the old QE2 was docked - now a hotel. We had no idea there was another cruise terminal. As the ship slowly approached the shore, we were further surprised to see we were right next to the famous Palms development – this is a series of manmade islands that spread out in ever increasing circles, the whole thing resembles a gigantic palm frond when viewed from above. The islands of the Palms are populated with hotels, apartments, villas, and shops. As the sun rose, we started to see the outline of skyscrapers at the southern end of Dubai – the architecture here is amazing. Before docking, the ship turned through 180 degrees and we got to see the southern extent of the high-rise development – terminated with a huge Ferris wheel, the Dubai Eye – of course the largest of its kind in the world. The ship eventually docked at the Dubai Marina Cruise Terminal; it looked like a brand-new facility and was located about 15 miles south of the center of the city. On our previous visit to Dubai we concluded that it was a great place to shop and lie on a beach in blast furnace like temperatures – probably not a place we’d select as a vacation destination. Nevertheless we do appreciate the grandeur of the shopping malls and the architecture. The ship is staying in Dubai overnight and so for the first day of our stay we decided to go to the top of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. The Burj Khalifa is located over the Dubai Mall, we took an Uber for the 20-minute ride to the center of Dubai – the location of the mall. I had purchased tickets online and they had a prescribed entry time; we arrived a bit early and decided to chance our luck to see if we could get in early. Entry to the Burj is through the lower level of the mall and we had no problems getting in about 45 minutes early. On our previous visit to the tower we went all the way up to level 148 and so on this visit we decided to check out the observation deck on level 124. There was no queue for the lift and about 45 ear-popping seconds later the doors opened, and we entered the lobby of the observation area on level 124. The wooden deck of the observation platform is open to the sky and tall glass windows offer unobstructed views of Dubai and the surrounding area. Although a bit overcast, the views were still breathtaking – from the Persian Gulf and out to the barren desert with the skyscrapers rising up like a sci-fi cityscape. We spent the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon in the Dubai Mall – even if you don’t buy anything, the mall is still worth a visit; it’s enormous and filled with all the high-end shops and interesting art installation, there is an aquarium on the scale of the one at Monterey Bay. Sandra found an amazing Turkish Delight shop and a Christian Louboutin shoe shop. We found a big Lego store that put the one in Copenhagen (the home base of Lego) to shame. There is a full-sized brontosaurus skeleton housed inside a gigantic Romanesque dome, I had to keep reminding myself this was a shopping mall. I don’t know why we were surprised to find a Cipriani restaurant; this is the same group with branches in New York and of course originates from Harry’s Bar in Venice. The lunch we had was every bit as good as our visits in New York and served with exactly the same verve. We even came across a full-sized ice arena and of course a Marks and Spencers.
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