Well, what can I tell you – Dubai has really changed a lot. Both externally and internally. Externally – understandably, apparently even the crisis did not affect the pace of construction very much. I am amazed at the way some architects think, the shape of the facades of their buildings. Driving along Sheikh Zayed Rd. yesterday, I saw a house under construction in the form of a dolphin jumping out of the water, and the face of this “dolphin” is made with such precision that one cannot be amazed. That area of Jumeirah, which I remember from the last trip, is not recognisable at all.
But it is possible to fully appreciate the changes in Dubai only during a sightseeing tour. And we have it scheduled for the day after the hike (as it happens).
People have changed, too. More dismissive attitude of “people in white” (about the a/p I briefly noted in the first post) and felt on myself. In DUBAIMOLLE we, having walked around and had fun, could hardly find the section for selling our favourite brand AMUAJ, there were representatives of the manufacturer or dealers sitting there. In an ABSOLUTELY empty large hall, which was surprising compared to the crowds almost everywhere, these “white” at our appeal to them defiantly silently stood up and left. Instead of them in just a few seconds a horde of either Pakistanis or Indians (I do not distinguish them) rushed in and began to offer and praise their products. There was also a girl from Kazakhstan who helped us when our language knowledge was not enough. After we bought (the difference with Kiev is one and a half times) several flavours, the picture took on its former appearance: those who worked with us – evaporated, “white people” took their comfortable chairs, apparently waiting for others like them. This, of course, made me a little uncomfortable. But come on, God, or rather ALLAH, is with them. It has become noticeable that the newcomers of other nationalities who managed to get a job in Dubai are not always able to do their job properly, I mean taxis. They don’t know the route and literally have to show you where to go on their fingers, they know the final point, but they take you by routes known to them only, adding extra kilometres (and with them dirhams). Only the hotel staff leaves a very favourable impression, and the staff of those restaurants, where we have already had time to visit.
I pre-booked all the excursions online. I had excursions planned in Muscat, Abu Dhabi and Manama. The package of excursions that I was offered in Kiev through Neptune did not suit me. The obligatory condition is to buy the whole package. And though prices in it separately corresponded to COSTA prices – it still did not suit me. On advice of forum members I didn’t want excursion on Fujairah, and it was, in Muscat I planned only review, and in the package on 8 hours on all weights around Muscat, and to me it is not interesting. Didn’t want dinner on the abra along the Dubai canal. So I chose separately. And then I found out that if you take a package of 3 excursions (Manama, Abu Dhabi and Dubai – sightseeing) on COSTA website, you get 22% discount. In Neptune about it modestly kept silent. I ordered a package and only added Muscat, in the end I got an increase of only 50 euros, but one excursion (Dubai) more. Back to the incident with the loss of my online orders, this problem was fixed at the reception. At the desk of the tour desk everything was done properly, and although they didn’t sell packages of excursions anymore, they went to my satisfaction and, thanks to the printout with the date and time of ordering, gave me tickets for excursions as it was in the preliminary order and at the same price. When I told Svetlana about it, she confirmed that there is really nothing much to do in Fujairah. It was enough to take a shuttle to the centre. That’s what we did. For two days, the ship’s video on one of the channels constantly played this first meeting for those who had forgotten something. Speaking of TV. RTR-Planeta was on all the time, so we were up to date with all the news. The wifi worked well enough, but it was a bit slow of course, not without it, I expected much worse. I took a package for 3 hours, cost 27 euros, enough for the whole cruise to watch the news and regular communication on Skype.
I once suggested that the quality of the staff sometimes depends on the liner itself. Our table was served by a waitress from Filipinas, who said that she had worked on larger liners: Serena and Concordia. It was harder for her to work there, as there were more holidaymakers, a bigger restaurant and, consequently, more tables to serve. Apparently, this affected the quality of her work and she was “exiled” to ALLEGRA. There she felt the difference and made every effort to be returned to her new ships. She has been on LUMINOZ for a month now, loves it and is keen to extend her contract. She has been going out of her way to please everyone, and all the staff. It turns out that COSTA ALLEGRA and MARINA have some sort of punishment cells. And those who can’t cope with it there – to Vykinstein.
I will continue about the cruise itself. I will not describe the ports themselves, as there is a lot of information about them on this forum and in general, I’d rather share some nuances.
The drinks allowed on the liner were more than loyal. In our luggage was a 2 litre bottle of iced tea, which the baby loves. We were not sure we would find the same in the Emirates, and on the liner. Plus there was a bottle of cognac and liqueur from the duty station. I even put them in the outer pocket of the suitcase on purpose, so that they wouldn’t go through my things. There was also a penknife. Everything was delivered to the cabin as it lay. In the ports themselves we sometimes came back from the city with bottles of water, juice, etc., our neighbours at the duty-free table brought beer and gin and vodka. Everything was in bags in plain sight – all were passed around. Maybe that was just on our cruise? I don’t know…
The food – as expected – is above and beyond, to suit all tastes and preferences. From fresh fruit: kiwi, mangoes, apples, pears, peaches, grapes, melon and pineapple. Strawberries and blackberries were in our daily set of fruit in the cabin, but only 3-4 pieces each. But large ones.
Cocktails were tastier than on the BRILLIANCE. But there was a larger assortment of pastries and tastier.
There were certain disadvantages, but not significant in my opinion. Although there was a strong wind (up to 40 km/h) along the whole route and we felt a little excitement – the rocking calming devices were NOT switched on. The liner was constantly rocking in the sea, when stronger, when weaker. But nobody seemed to suffer from it. I remembered the film on National Geographic about SERENA, where the captain was calculating a new course to get away from the cyclone and thus save fuel on the calming devices. The vibration was felt enough not only at the stern, but also in the middle of the liner.
Now a little about leisure. I liked the show programmes in the theatre better, apparently they are better adapted to Europeans. On BRIELIANCE there were more musicals, here shows and concert programmes. Animators near the pools are a bit old, as it seems to me, but it did not affect the quality and fun, apparently Italians have some energy known to them alone. We didn’t go to shows like “Mr Cruise” etc, but excerpts from them were regularly shown on TV, so we know about them. This one is a BIG fan. I don’t really understand it and I don’t really like it. The people had fun, though. A lot of attention is paid to children. In the club we played and played with children all the time and regularly brought them to the pool. There was one more disadvantage. The pool is designed for a maximum of 3-4 children, it is very little. And when this group (10-12 people) in one fell swoop jumps into the water, the children can only stand or squat, you can’t run and play. At these moments we left there. But the plus – a large enough open children’s town with slides and other entertainments.
Water in a children’s pool with heating (28-30), in other – not, so that people bathed in the main pools not much. And in the aft pool – almost nobody at all. Water temperature in them is 17-19, as it seems to me, plus the wind in the aft area. But the Jacuzzi is bigger, and in them constantly “soaked” 7-10 people. Less – very rarely. Another plus – on all the beds there were constantly rolled towels, to get them on a separate counter, as on BRILLIANCE, there was no need, and on all beach decks there were a lot of special boxes with clean towels. There you could also, having wiped yourself after the pool, throw a wet towel and take a dry and clean one.
