Taking to choose another cruise, it turned out that the Internet is really very few reviews on this type of holiday. And since we don’t have much experience (2 times in the Arab Emirates on COSTE), I wanted to find out more about Mediterranean cruises. So I urge everyone who has experienced this wonderful type of holiday on themselves – write, share your impressions and knowledge gained !
In turn, I want to tell about our cruises “Treasures of the Emirates” – the first from 9 January for a week (Dubai – Oman (Muscat) – Bahrain (Manama) – Fujairah – Abu Dhabi – Dubai) on the “Costa Luminosa”, the second from 6 January on the same route on the “Costa Favolosa”, only Bahrain was replaced by Oman (Hasab) in connection with political unrest … Although I personally don’t understand, what kind of unrest can they have there, sitting on oil? It’s not beggarly Egypt, Bahrain is quite a prosperous country!
The liner was scheduled to depart from the port of Dubai at 13-00 the day after arrival. That is, the beginning of the cruise on 9 January, you can load on the liner, stay in the cabin, drink, eat, enjoy all the benefits, in the evening (and even the next morning) to go to the city, and directly into the voyage will go the next day on the 10th. It is very convenient, you can not guess with flights, do not take a day in the hotel, as in most European cruises. We travelled from Natalie Tours, so the round-trip transfer was included in the price of the cruise. But if some tour operators do not provide such service, there is no problem – it takes about 15 minutes to go from the airport to the port, taxis in Dubai are cheap, the lowest prices of all the Emirates we visited. Having approached the liner we were simply blown away by its size, beauty, grandiosity!!! Especially when you are on a cruise for the first time and have only seen such things in pictures. There are workers at the port counters who help you check in, give you a key-credit card, collect your luggage and … you are already on board! By the way, if anyone is interested in a pressing question, whether it is possible to carry on board alcohol, we both times there was no breakdown. We carried all bags from duty-free in hand luggage, in ports we carried juices and beer – no problems!
Once on board the tower is blown away even more – beauty, luxury, you feel like a hero of some wonderful film! The first time we took a cabin with a balcony, the second time – with a window. Of course with a balcony is not in any comparison with other categories… Our friends, who travelled with us on the second cruise, took an internal one, it is possible to live of course, but not everyone tolerates the confined space normally. Taking into account that in January in UAE the weather is excellent (at night about +20, during the day 25-27), the presence of a balcony in the cabin pleases incredibly. In order to see the exit from the harbour, it is not necessary to jostle together with everyone on the upper deck – you can relax on your balcony with a shot of Courvoisier, fresh strawberries from the supermarket – baldezh…! And the sunrises and sunsets! And dolphins, which we once saw a whole pack in the evening, how they jumped out and accompanied the ship for several minutes! In a word, if there is a possibility it is better to take a cabin with a balcony.
About all beauties of liners I won’t speak for a long time, in the Internet there are a lot of photos, everything completely corresponds to reality. Everything is the newest, sparkling and shimmering, linen is cleanest, service everywhere is above all praise. People also wrote about food – it is not Turkey and Egypt, you will not meet on a buffet table 55 salads, the food differs first of all in quality, as the courts are Italian, accordingly and the food is exquisite. Some fans of “all inclusive” will probably be upset because of the absence of these 55 kinds of salads and 110 kinds of desserts, but believe me, let it be a choice of 5-7 dishes, but it is smoked salmon, king prawns, squid, awesome chops, steaks of beef, pork, exotic fish and so on…
For the most part, I want to touch on some subtleties about excursions during stops. Excursions on board are very expensive and in my opinion not worth the money at all! we took a jeep safari to the desert (about it later) only on the last evening of the mooring in the port of Dubai. In the ports of parking places we decided to try to get acquainted with the sights on our own.
1-2 day Dubai. As I wrote before, load on board, grab a bite to eat, change out of your travel clothes and head out for a walk around evening Dubai. Right in the port there is a huge string of taxis (in the port the cost of boarding is a bit more expensive than in the city), the average cost of the trip is 15-20 dollars. I advise you to go to the centre, to Dubai Mall on the first evening. You can shop, watch fountain shows, go on a tour of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world). We didn’t manage it, it was only opened before our arrival. On the advice of friends, we ordered and paid for tickets on their official website. If you buy directly on the spot, the ticket costs about $120, but if you buy it in advance online, it costs only $30! I didn’t even believe it at first, but it really turned out to be true…
Day 3 -Oman (Muscat). My husband and son are not fans of Muslim shrines, and Muscat is mostly about visiting mosques and oriental bazaars, so we decided to stay on the boat and just have a seal day. Weather permitting, I hit the sun lounger with a magazine, from there to the jacuzzi, from there to the pool and so – round and round. They go to the gym, then to the pool, then to the basketball court… In short – division by interests. And in the evening there is a captain’s dinner, you have to get in shape, get flushed. All gather in the theatre, the captain makes a speech in 5-6 languages, champagne, canapés, performance, wonderful dinner… Then again by interests.
Day 4 – Bahrain (Manama). At the ports of call Costa organises transfers to and from the city centre in addition to excursions. The cost is 6 or 8 euros, I don’t remember exactly… We drove to the centre of Manama, walked around the city, went shopping. Honestly, Manama didn’t make any impression at all. People who went on an organised tour were not thrilled either.
Instead of Bahrain, we went to Khasab (Oman). It’s a completely incomprehensible settlement where motorboats just whiz back and forth. As the guide told us – smugglers. We took a tour of the sea here on a traditional Arabian dhow boat. It’s cool. Wooden double-deck vessel, carpets and cushions all round, all in oriental style. They offer drinks and light snacks. We walked along the sea, the shores remind something of fjords, the guide tells about the Sultanate of Oman, quite interesting. Then parking in the open sea with swimming and diving from the boat. Then we “went dolphin chasing”. The crew of the ship knows the places where they “graze” and here we were chasing them on the Gulf of Oman! We loved it!
Day 5 – Fujairah Emirate. For 140 dollars per person you will be offered to get on a bus with shouting Italians (most of them and they can’t talk quietly in principle!) and go to a super-beach 4-5* hotel on the Indian Ocean. We decided the question in our own way. At the port we took a taxi, having previously found out which hotels had the best beaches, we asked the taxi driver to take us to the hotel. On the way we stopped at some ancient ruins, climbed, explored. In the hotel we settled down perfectly on the beach, in the sea in a special “corral” there was even equipped something like a park of inflatable entertainments: slides, icebergs, rocking… We swam in this very Indian Ocean (the water in it is much bluer and warmer than in the Persian Gulf), drank beer, had lunch in a restaurant (for cash, inexpensive), then called a taxi from the reception and returned to the ship. For all of this we spent $130 for three people. The difference with the “organised” offer from Costa is obvious!
Day 6 – Abu Dhabi. Again a taxi from the harbour. We immediately agree with the driver that we want to see the centre, Grand Mosk (a gorgeous, just awesome mosque on the outskirts of the city), Emirates Palace (Presidential Palace) and then unload on the beach. The prices are steep at first, but you should definitely haggle. We agreed on $80. With a wait at the mosque for about an hour while we toured it. We saw the centre, the Grand Mosque made a huge impression first of all by its grandiose size, then by the luxury of the interior decoration – everything there is the biggest and most expensive – it’s all handmade carpets, it’s chandeliers for 150 000 euros each, etc. In short, it’s a must see! I would like to note that visiting such an important landmark of Abu Dhabi is not included in the organised tour! Then we went to the Presidential Palace – also the beauty is indescribable. The palace itself and the park surrounding it with such lawns, vegetation, singing birds, fountains!!!! Ulet! Not far from the palace the promenade starts (I think it’s called Corniche Road), there we went out in search of a suitable place for a beach holiday. White sand, all beaches are paid. We went to the first one on our way, it turned out to be not a city beach, but belonging to some hotel chain. The price killed – $50 per person. We went further – and here is a city beach, next to this hotel beach, with the same sand and crazy clear water, only for 10 dollars. We bought tickets, passed, beach-boy quickly put us sun beds and umbrellas and we once again enjoyed ourselves! After swimming and sunbathing we went to the port with a stop at the supermarket. They have very good concentrated juices in Eimrat. We bought them in all the ports, cherries and strawberries are also good! After shopping, we returned to the liner and…the last day of our cruise loomed ahead. Let’s go to Dubai…
Day 7 – Dubai. As I have already written, we took a jeep safari for the first time. We did not take it by chance, while having a holiday in UAE, we visited almost all excursions, but especially remembered jeep safari! Cool seven-seater Toyota-Landcruisers on flattened tyres dissected, took off and rolled down from the dunes with a five-storey house so that it took our breath away. Even our men liked it, though all of them sit only as passengers. Then – sunset in the desert, boarding (a la snowboarding) from the dunes. Then a picnic with a buffet. Imagine – in the middle of the bare desert there is a “Bedouin” camp… In quotes, because there are toilets with marble (!!!) tiles, hot and cold water. Camel riding. A classy evening of belly dancing, local cuisine and a cheerful disco. The whole event took 6 hours! We paid $50 per person. And here is! Riding on tiny barchans – 30 minutes, sunset without “boards”, picnic – 1 hour and… ALL! On cars, let’s go to the port! The price of the question – 110 dollars per person!!!! To say that they spat in my soul – nothing to say! Especially after all this was 10 years ago… We decided not to end the evening there and asked the driver not to take us to the port, but to take us to Dubai Mall, so that on the last day before our departure we could see how the beautiful Dubai had been rebuilt over the years. In the Mall we saw the aquarium, did a little shopping and went to the square in front of the Burj Khalifa, it was opened only a few days before our arrival and it was unreal to get there on a tour. But we saw the fountains – they are great, especially under the singing of Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli!!!!!. That was the SUPER chord of our final cruise.
On the second cruise we decided to visit an artificial island with Atlantis the Palm hotel and water park on it. Yes, let me tell you, when you see for yourself what a man can do with his simple hands in the desert!!!! To build something like this in the sand! It’s mind blowing! Especially when you realise that 10 years ago it was just a project. A beautiful embankment island with a monorail road in the form of a palm tree, villas and multi-storey houses, neat lawns with flowers, where every blade of grass has a water supply, lush greenery, as if you were not in the desert at all! The hotel and water park is a separate song! Words can not describe, who will have a desire, you can see everything in the network. I will only say that the water park is fantastic!!! Slides that go all the way to the top! – Have you ever seen one of those? And the tube that runs in the pool, where stingrays and sharks swim, into which you fly off the next slide? It’s a must experience! On the premises delicious ice cream with fresh fruit, pina colada in freshly cut pineapple. All SUPER! This day we remembered for the whole life, we touched so to say to the beautiful to the full programme! After dinner before leaving you can have a great shopping in the old part of the city (Nasser Square), prices there are lower than in Dubai Mall. Also take a dhow boat ride on the bay along the city.
Day 8 – Dubai. Folks leave the beautiful liner, which you can’t help but love, with SUCH regret!!! You can put your luggage in the corridor at night and it will be sent to the port terminal in the morning. We didn’t check in our luggage both times, we didn’t want to go through the pile of luggage looking for ours and waste time on it. We just independently left the board at the time when our transfer was to arrive – at 14-00. Our cruise was over… And in the meantime, taxis and buses with the lucky ones who were to occupy the vacated cabins and leave tomorrow for this amazing journey – “Treasures of the Emirates” – pulled up to the port.
