DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Day 23 Dubai, United Arab Emirates

From the Navigator - In the early hours of the morning, Dawn Princess will leave the Gulf of Oman and enter the Persian Gulf on approach to the Dubai pilot station.

WOW! I really was not feeling all that excited about Dubai before we got here, but let me tell you it is impressive. It is a little bit like Disney World, 5 to 7 star hotels everywhere. . We were very impressed with the buildings, as we pulled up to our berth is was impressive, My pictures do not do it justice as what looks like fog is sand in the air. It makes me appreciate our troops that are serving and have served in the Middle East even more. The shopping malls have ski slopes, Ice rinks, scuba tanks, you name it they have it. Shopping is the name of the game in Dubai. They have couches outside the stores to relax on.   Randy was amazed that I could not shop. I was too overwhelmed.  We took the Hop on hop off bus called The Big Bus Tour. For those that think it is on the expensive side, you get your money worth. It included a Boat Cruise, two Museums and most important, all the bottled water you wanted. This is important as it is very hot at this time of year. It was about 95 F with 90 % humidity. It gets even hotter in the summer time it can reach 118 F with 100% humidity. We got on the bus and headed for the Dhow Cruise, The Dhow’s are the wooden ships that have been used in Dubai for 100’s of years. We cruised on the Dubai Creek for about 1 hour. The Dubai Creek used to be a little creek until the forward thinking Sheikh made it deeper and wider turning Dubai into a busy port from a sleeping fishing and pearling village. In 1967 when they discovered oil the Sheikh put the money back in to the infrastructure. Very smart, the old saying is if you build it they will come and they have. Then we went to the Al Falhidi Fort, Heritage Village, Gold Souk where you can buy 18kt, 22kt and 24 kt gold sold at the Market Price of the day. People come from all over the world to buy gold. We stopped at the Burjuman Mall, drove by the Jumeirah Mosque, the Jemeirah Beach were on Monday they don’t allow men, just women and children. Drove passed the Burj Al Arab a 7 star hotel sitting on a manmade Island, shaped like a sail on a ship (after it was built a lot of people were upset that the building looked like It had a cross on it when viewed from the sea. We drove on to the Palm Island a man-made island in the of a palm tree when viewed from the air. They say that it is the only man-made Island that can be seen from space. At the end of the Island is the Atlantis Hotel, not as big as the one in the Bahamas but more upscale. Next was the Mall of the Emirates. This is where they had the Snow Ski Slope and Snow Park and over 450 shops. Next was the Burj Khallifa Building is the tallest building in the world.  It is 2680 ft. high, over, ½ mile tall, it has 160 floors.   Dubai Mall was our last stop; they have an Olympic Ice, Rink, Gold Souk, Aquarium Tunnel and the Dancing Fountain. We enjoyed an Arabic meal of Meza and then headed back to the ship.