Friday, March 12, 2010
NOTE: We have posted several pictures from the Grand Mosque. Those areas that look like gold are in fact genuine gold. The Mosque must have cost a fortune to construct.
We also included some pictures from last evenings World Cruise shore side event.
We wanted to start off with some observations and comments from yesterday.
From what we could judge, a good portion of the construction within the city of Abu Dhabi has occurred over the past ten years with many buildings being constructed even more recently that that. Like Dubai, these new buildings are quite tall. Many of the newly constructed buildings include government buildings along with commercial office development and hotels.
As we noted, the Grand Mosque is the second largest Mosque in the World. It is capable of holding approximately 50,000 people. The interior walls and ceiling are made of marble and many of the interior fixtures are made of gold. It is a work in-progress. The Mosque has the largest continuous carpet of any Mosque in the world. It was hand sewn in Iran with over 1,000 people involved in its creation.
Unlike Dubai, there are not all of those flashy resorts and other tourist attractions such as indoor skiing. At the same time, there were some very impressive buildings such as the Palace and some 5 star Hotels. There are also a variety of other new facilities such as museums, and even hospitals. They have brought in the best of the best such as the Cleveland Clinic to coordinate the building of new state of the art hospitals or even folks from the Louvre in Paris to help them with their museum.
It is oil that is clearly the driver of all of this, which allows this city to grow quickly. For better or for worse it is the continued growth in world-wide demand for oil that fuels this economy along with the economies of other countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Many of us commented that it is unfortunate that so many countries around the world, including the United States of America are indeed not energy independent. As they say, Oil is King and this has been evident in our travels during this leg of the World Cruise.
The area that was quite flashy is the area where the Formula 1 racetrack is located. The hotel that is adjacent to the track is a five-star+ hotel and it was beautiful from the outside. We know a few of our fellow passengers who went inside it yesterday and thought it was equally impressive. The roller coaster that is also located on the property is another unique looking attraction.
We are very glad to have had the opportunity to visit Abu Dhabi and look forward to visiting it in the future.
We had a great time last evening.
As part of our World Cruise Abu Dhabi event last evening we were the first cruise line to have its guests treated to a very special evening at the Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island. We enjoyed hot and cold canapés and refreshments including wine on the terrace lawn of the new dazzling five-star Yas Hotel at the Tracks Center. Our evening event also included exciting entertainment
The Yas Marina Circuit was first created to host the Formula 1 Grand Prix. On November 1 of 2009 the UAE hosted their first ever Formula 1 Grand Prix at this circuit. This circuit includes 21 corners and an estimated lap time of 1:40 minutes making it one of the fastest track in the world with drivers achieving speeds of 200 mile per hour.
The Yas Hotel was created as an iconic five star hotel at the center of the circuit with the idea that it would be easily recognizable across the world. It was certainly a challenge to create a hotel with a Formula 1 race Track running through the middle of the hotel that was half submerged in a marina. The designers came up with the idea of a “veil” and created the grid shell of the Yas Hotel, adding 5,000 glass panels along with extensive LED lighting. In turn, this would turn the roof into the region’s largest digital display unit and literally light up the skies above Yas Island.
There is even an unbelievable looking roller coaster that is adjacent and nearby to the racetrack.
We thought that the racetrack was spectacular and we appreciated the efforts that went into the planning of this event. The evening program went as follows;
A brief introduction to the Yas Marina Circuit Race Track.
A welcome reception at the Formula 1 Paddock Club Building.
An opening welcome by Paul Quinn from Marina Circuit.
A Porsche GT 7 Radicals Demonstration.
A Demonstration by World Stunt Car Champion Terry Grant.
For the finale, a Forumula 1 Racing Car Demonstration.
When we arrived back to the ship we had dinner in the Main Dining Room with friends Bob and Glo. For us it was a late dinner and we finished dinner at around 10:15 PM.
This morning Keith awoke early and worked out at the Fitness Center. He enjoyed a wonderful workout on the Elliptical Machine. He was the first one to the Fitness Center and then was shortly joined by fellow passengers John and Brian. After a nice workout, he stopped by the Lido Café to bring some coffee back to the room. Afterwards, it was time for Anne Marie to workout and she worked out on the Treadmill.
We took advantage of the time on the ship to take care of items such as doing the laundry.
We met Allen and Lynn for lunch at the Lido Café. After we finished lunch Keith. Allen and Lynn took the complimentary shuttle from the pier over to the Shopping Mall. We walked around for about an hour. Some stores were closed given the Muslim prayers on this day of the week.
While we were out and about, Anne Marie took another long walk on the Promenade Deck and then afterwards sat out at the pool.
This evening we will dine at Prego with our friends Allen and Lynn and will post more about this tomorrow.
TODAY’S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY….
“Friends are like stars; you don’t necessarily see them, but you always know they’re there.
Keith and Anne Marie
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