NOTE: We posted pictures from last evening on the ship with friends Lynn and Allen. We posted various pictures from today including the Queen Elizabeth Cruise Ship, pictures from the Shopping Mail and pictures of buildings including the tallest building in the world
We enjoyed a lovely evening on the Crystal Serenity last evening.
We began the evening activities by meeting Lynn and Allen for a pre-dinner drink. Once again complimentary drinks were provided from 5:15 PM to 6:00 PM in all of the lounges.
Afterwards the four of us dined in the Main Dining Room at our regular table. It was fun to be back in the Main Dining Room with our wonderful wait staff. The other day we spoke with headwaiter Augusto at which time we ordered a special meal for the four of us. This included chopped liver, challah, chicken soup broth and matzah balls, kosher chicken, potatoes and steamed vegetables. We also ordered a cake.
We have enjoyed an outstanding time with Lynn and Allen, with lots of fantastic meals, tours, conversations and memories that will last a lifetime.
Afterwards, we attended the Captain’s Farewell Reception and we spoke with a few passengers and a few members of the Enrichment Team. We spoke with the Rabbi and his lovely wife for a little while and we also spoke with Destination Lecturer Ken Rees and his lovely wife for a little while as well. Ken and his wife are getting off in Dubai but will return to the ship in Rome so we look forward to getting together with them for dinner on that leg of the cruise.
Tomorrow morning marks the conclusion of this leg of the World Cruise. This leg of the World Cruise featured so many unique and extraordinary ports and this itinerary certainly exceeded our expectations.
Dubai is the capital of the state of Dubai. Overtime it has become a very modern city whose focus has been on tourism. Its goal is to be the tourist capital of the world. This has all come about because of the realization that the oil supply will not last very long.
Dubai is the chief port and commercial center of the United Arab Emirates.
The major attractions of Dubai feature several beautiful shopping malls, the Al Fahidi Fort and Dubai Museum, the Gold and the Spick Souks, the Burj Al Arab Hotel, the Heritage and Diving Village, the Burj Dubai, which is the tallest building in the world, and the Jumeirah Mosque.
The ship arrived to Dubai at around 8:00 AM and we took the complimentary shuttle at 9:00 AM, which took us from the pier over to a shopping mall.
Before our arrival to Dubai we began our day as we do each and every day. Keith woke up and was to the Fitness Center very early in the morning. He enjoyed a wonderful workout on the Elliptical Machine. He was the first one to the Center until fellow passenger John arrived.
He watched on the television the third and final lecture given by Bill Miller on Cruising called “Sailing to the Sun: Cruise History and Folkore. This was another outstanding lecture and for those of you who like to cruise and are cruise buffs it was another wonderful lecture not to be missed. Bill spoke about the changes that have occurred in the cruise industry along with its future. There were some good takeaways from this lecture.
In spite of the economic turndown because of lower pricing overall occupancy rates on cruise ships were still relatively high this past year.
While cruising is popular in markets such as the United States of America, only 15% of the population of the United States has ever taken a cruise. So, there is a big opportunity for cruise lines to attract first time cruisers and like many of us once you cruise for the very first time you are hooked for life.
One of the cruise lines has ordered its first new set of ships since the economic turndown began and one of them will be a residential ship.
The third largest cruise line in the world in terms of number of ships is owned by a Malaysia Cruise Line Company and evidently is growing tremendously in various markets.
Around the time that John arrived Keith had just finished watching this lecture so Keith and John spoke the entire time until they both finished their workouts. It was fun to catch up with John.
After the workout Keith stopped by the Lido Café to bring some coffee back to the room. Anne Marie began her workout shortly after Keith arrived back to the room and worked out on the treadmill.
Afterwards, we both enjoyed a nice breakfast in our room as we got ready to go into Dubai.
Today we arrived to Dubai, which is our second time to visit this port of call. We first visited Dubai in 2007.
Keith went outside as we were sailing into Dubai. There were two large cruise Costa cruise ships in port. Keith could also see the Queen Elizabeth and various tall buildings during our arrival including the tallest building in the world.
When we first arrived to port, two Costa ships were already docked at the pier. In the afternoon, our ship moved to another location on the pier and a Royal Caribbean Ship who was docked with us in Abu Dhahi also arrived.
We took the complimentary bus that Crystal Cruises provide the guest from the Pier to the Dubai Mall. This Mall is the “mother” of all malls. It probably contains the most stores that we have ever seen in a shopping mall. It looks more western than any mall one might see in Europe and just as western as a shopping mall in the United States of America. Many of the stores were grouped by category with electronic stores in one end, children’s clothing stores in another area and so forth.
The mall is several levels but also very long and wide On the garage level there are many banks, and other stores including a pharmacy, a grocery store and also an organic grocery store.
The mal also includes an Aquarium with over 33,000 aquatic animals, the world’s largest indoor gold souk. An Olympic size ice rink, an indoor/outdoor streetscape featuring cafes, restaurants and various lifestyle stores under an retractable roof.
There are many escalators throughout the mall and those in the mall and also in the department store do not run as sensors control them unless one gets within a foot of them or is already on them.
The mall also includes a bookstore that is supposedly the largest bookstore in the world.
A lot has changed in Dubai since we were first here in 2007. The biggest changes are three-fold. There are far less cranes than the first time we were here because a good portion of the city has been built out. Related to this first point is that many of the buildings that were under construction are now completed. There are many more roads throughout the city and a good deal of the construction of these roads has been completed. Traffic appeared to flow much better than our first visit in 2007.
We would note a couple of areas of concern. As we understand, many of the large office buildings that are ready for occupancy are empty as this city has been affected by the economic situation. Another issue is one that we have observed in the various countries we have visited including Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE. The issue is the fact that there are two major classifications of many of the people living here. There are those who are citizens of this country and there are those who are not. In many ways there are the “haves” and the “have not’s”. For example, we spoke with someone who moved here from Iran in 1966 when we was quite young and his frustration is that he is here on a visa as he cannot become a citizen. There is the reality that while his children were all born here that they too will never be citizens and in many ways will be disadvantaged.
We arrived back to ths ship in the afternoon and had lunch at the Lido Café. We enjoyed a nice salad entrée and spoke with many from the staff.
Later in the afternoon Anne Marie walked for an hour on the Promenade Deck while Keith wrote, read and took care of some errands on the ship.
This evening we will be dining with a fellow member of Cruise Critic (Anne) who lives in Dubai. We will post more about dinner when we post tomorrow. We plan to meet Anne at 4:30 PM and first walk around the ship prior to dinner.
We will be in Dubai tomorrow and then the following day.
TODAY’S THOUGHT OF THE DAY…..
“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.”
Keith and Anne Marie
1 comment:
great pic's love to see more and more.
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