Dubai

This morning we woke up early and began our day as we usually do by having a nice breakfast in the Lido Café. Following breakfast we went to the Fitness Center for our daily workout. Once again, Anne Marie worked out on the treadmill and Keith worked out on the elliptical machine.

This will be our first time visiting Dubai. Even those who have been here before understand that there continues to be quite a lot of change in this city. Evidently, the philosophy for this city is make Dubai one of the major tourism destinations in the world with the idea that when the oil runs out fifty or so years from now that it will be tourism that fuels (no pun intended) the Dubai economy. As we understand, about 15% of all worldwide cranes are in Dubai with all of the construction that is underway.

We had an early lunch so that we had time to view the port of call as we arrived in Dubai. While we ate, we looked out at the scenery around us. The water was a little choppier than what we would have expected, but overall we’ve been so very fortunate with the seas throughout the cruise.

Our ship arrived at Port Rashid Dubai around 1:00 PM. Our first view of the city from the ship is that it has the look of a Western City. The major difference being that this city has been built on the desert.

A complimentary shuttle is provided from the pier to a city center shopping mall. We plan to utilize this shuttle tomorrow morning.

Our shore excursion for today was quite unique. It is called the Dune Dinner Safari. We began the excursion at 3:00 PM when we boarded a rugged four-wheel-drive vehicle and where we were transported from the pier and then we passed through camel camps and Bedouin settlements while also traveling by sand dunes until we arrived at an exclusive camp in the desert. We shared the vehicle with one other couple who we met early on during the World Cruise and we had an enjoyable afternoon and evening with them. The camp is maintained in traditional Arabic style. The ride to the camp took approximately three hours. We stopped several times and the last time we stopped before reaching the camp was watching the beautiful sunset. We feasted on a barbeque dinner and were entertained by a belly dancer. We even rode on a camel two different times.

On our way to and from the desert we drove past many of the buildings around Dubai. We observed a incredible construction activitiy from roadways to buildings. Many of the completed buildings have very unique shapes and many are very tall. Clearly, it is a 21st Century City.

We really enjoyed todays experience in the desert and it is surely one of those experiences that will last a lifetime.

Keith & Anne Marie