Having been on several cruises, five to be exact, I can confidently say that I enjoyed this one the most. Although I thought I would be much more impressed by a cruise in the Caribbean or the Norwegian fjords, but alas, they clearly lost out to this one.
On this cruise, we decided to go spontaneously. I had wanted to go to the Emirates for a long time, but somehow it didn’t work out. I had to apply for a visa, and the prices were not at all encouraging.
As money was in short supply, we planned our trip with special care. We did not dare to fly to Dubai one day a day, and we wanted to wander around the city before the cruise.
So we decided to book a hotel in the centre of Dubai for one night, so that we could walk to the fountains and the Mall. That’s why Jumeirah and Deira were excluded at once.
We booked the hotel through Hotwire service, so we found out the name of the hotel only after payment.
The hotel Villa Rotana turned out to be quite good and cost us $100 for one night for three people. Considering its location and stardom, the price was in line with the quality.
We were not due to fly back after the cruise until the night before, so we had to walk around with our luggage during the day. We never found a luggage room. Even at the airport, in the terminal (terminal 2) from which we flew out (Fly Dubai), there was no locker either.
So we decided to just go to the beach in Jumeirah, went to the Food Festival and generally had a good time.
But back to the cruise itself. The cruise lasts 7 days. Embarkation starts around 15-00 and lasts until 19-00.
But in this cruise in Dubai and in Abu Dhabi the ship stood on two days, that is in fact acted as a “floating” hotel.
So on the first day, leaving our things at the hotel reception, we went to an amusement park. And there are quite a few of them in Dubai. It’s a delight. All children should visit it, and adults should see it at least once. I was as happy as a child and didn’t want to leave at all.
Don’t ever do that. What seemed like a very short walk turned into an hour-long walk just around the harbour. In the end, when we were finally able to leave the port area, we wanted nothing more.
After the cruise, we solved this issue in a different way. We called a car through Uber. The car was great, the price was reasonable, and you can pay by card. I recommend this option if you need to get out of the harbour.
What other stops did we have on the itinerary?
These were Doha (the capital of Qatar), Muscat (the capital of Oman) and two days in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE.
In Doha the parking was not very long, so all we had time for was a walk along the seafront and a visit to the Museum of Islamic Art.
It is located near the stop of the shuttles that will take you from the harbour. Entrance to the museum is free. But the museum is simply amazing. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a museum visit so much.
But one of the favourites of our trip was Muscat. It’s like being in the book “One Thousand and One Nights”. It is so different from anything we have seen before, it is so fabulously beautiful that I wanted to walk and walk there.
In Muscat, the stopover is quite lengthy. You are taken by shuttle to the harbour border and then you have to find your own entertainment.
I’m talking about independent travellers, not those who book expensive excursions on board a liner.
As soon as you get off the shuttle, you’re bombarded with excursion offers and it’s not easy to fend them off.
But you should go a little further to the old market and the seafront. There, firstly, you can walk on your own, go to the oldest oriental market in Oman and just enjoy a walk along the promenade, which takes you to the Royal Palace. On the way you will meet very beautiful places and fortresses, which you can climb if you want.
But that’s not how things worked out for us. We were still persuaded, albeit a little further away, to take a tour.
The man was very nice and showed us things we couldn’t have seen without the car.
He took us to an ATM where we took money. And to be honest, later, when I converted their money into roubles, I realised that we had paid him very little. I even felt uncomfortable.
After a 3 – hour tour by car, we returned to the ship to have lunch and not to spend money. After lunch we went for a walk along the seafront. We liked Oman very much and now I think that sometime we should definitely go to Salalah – the sea resort of Oman.
In Abu Dhabi we of course visited Ferrari Park and water park (day one). And the second day was already for mum – so we walked around the city, visited the Louvre and the heritage village.
Our cabin was, as always, the cheapest, inside cabin. But there was an exit to the deck (aft), where you could sit on deck chairs and relax in silence or read a book. So we only slept in the cabin itself.
The obligatory programme of our cruise was a visit to the evening show (Italian tenor was especially good) and a la carte restaurant.
What can I say, having tried travelling in the format of a sea cruise, we have become eternal hostages of such trips.
