bearette

I have nothing to go on, but my guess is the excursion was cancelled because  St. Barths was due to the case of Coronavirus they had right before you arrived.

Cadence, Imagination, Majestic and Magnificent of the Seas.

I thought I would be returning to work now, and I am, but online ( distance learning). Glad I gave some of you something to look forward to!

 

I hope others from February start doing reviews so we have others to read.

6 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

You lost your kids?!?!?!??!?  😲

 Lost my kids shore excursion.... they had to be rebooked. 🤪

 

March 16 Monday

 

We should have slept in and been doing a back to back, but instead we were heading home. [emoji17]

 

We got up in the dark and got ready to go. It took us about 40 min from the alarm going off to be ready to go. We strolled out of the ship around 5:40am and they had almost all of the bags off loaded. They came over to offer help, but we were good so waved them off. We exited the ship and port area( FYI, Dubai makes you go through screening when you enter as well as exit the port, so they scanned all the bags again.)

 

We headed outside and walked into the parking lot to call the Uber. It was a lot cheaper, only 55 aed. Check Uber before a cab because they are always 63-65 from the port because of the extra fee. He found us, but had to make a few turns in the parking lot first.

 

Waiting for our ride

 

 

The Ubers in Dubai were always fancy cars and this was no exception, a Lexus. (We also had infinities and Mercedes according to our Uber history. Lexus was the most popular.).

 

We arrived in style and found our counter. I won’t bore you with all the airport details, but it wasn’t that busy, however, there was a 30 min wait for Turkish airlines because everyone flying with them had to leave today.

 

We hadn’t eaten because we were too early for breakfast on the ship so we headed over to the chocolate cafe for breakfast.

 

Cappuccino for hubby and a chai tea for me- which was delicious, donuts for the kids and my husband and I spilt the croissant- it was stuffed with chocolate and I would venture to say it was as good if not better than any I had in France.

 

By the time we finished it was time to board. They didn’t start boarding until 8am for an 8:30am departure. We only had an hour layover so I thought for sure we were going to miss our flight home from Istanbul.

 

We arrived in Istanbul and the plane actually lands way away from the terminal in what can only be described as airplane parking. Busses came to get us, but since we were in the middle of the plane we missed the first two and had to wait outside. It was freezing and windy, luckily I had our jackets, but my daughter had a dress on so we gave her my husbands to warm her up and huddled close.

 

Once we got into the terminal we were surprised to have to go through a security check again (we didn’t have to arriving from LAX). Because we were in a hurry we went to the farthest security check down where the line was shorter, but in our luck we ended up with them closing the neighboring line and moving all of those people ahead of us. We had two people that didn’t know how security works and had to empty a laptop, phone, their belt and who knows what else that delayed us a lot. My husband finally complained and said we were going to miss our flight and we were able to skip one of the people being moved over.

 

It was now 12:15 for a 12:35 flight. We raced straight to the gate without stopping, of course it was across the new gigantic airport, but it was at least at gate one, though we had to take the escalators down. We made it, but only because they were late leaving, by about an hour. You need at least and hour and a half here- when we reticketed we commented on the short layover, but he assured us with kids they would wait for us. I had mentally prepared for $200 worth of visas and a hotel as they only have one flight a day to LAX.

 

FYI from here the US requires a second check and they went through our carryon bags again. They made me take the cover off the kids iPads- which took a minute because I had never taken them off before-so after we arrived it was still 20-30 minutes before the bus loaded to take us back out to a plane - remember airport parking.

 

Being last on the plane meant overhead bin space wasn’t near us, but the worst was kicking people out of our seats. Wait until the door closes before moving around on the plane! There was so many people doing this that the flight attendants were getting annoyed with people. I heard them get get gruff with a few people who wouldn’t just sit down in their own seat! They also were responsible for making the plane late. The only reason the people left our seats was because of the kids, I heard a few complain about not wanting to move until the word “kids” was thrown around. There was a couple with a toddler near us too and they had the same problem that people had stolen the seats. Wait until they close the door before moving around the plane please.

 

Several blissful hours later we were home and ready to accept our quarantine. ( not really but it was a comfy as you could get on a full

Plane)

 

Raining and cold for our return to California

 

My final thoughts are:

 

Problems- traveling has issues and overall I thought the cruise line did right by us by advocating for us to use the ship as a hotel and giving us our money back. I read about an interrupted trip by NCL where they didn’t give refunds until later, so I thought RCCL did right by us.

 

Service: the dining room was hit and miss, but we had an excellent cabin steward. We even saw him on the way out as he was waiting for his flight home ( as most of you probably know they sent home much of the crew). The time we waited to talk to guest services and their was a line cutter and they handled it well, not allowing them to cut, but being respectful.

 

Food: subjective but we are happy. Some was better then others and of course the Chiefs Table was delicious, but there were a few things not to my taste. I recommend if you do it to look at the menu and ask for replacements for things you don’t like/ can’t eat as they were very accommodating. I enjoyed the buffet this trip because they had similar items, but rotated every day for variety. Breakfast was boring after a few days because the menu never changed, in all the venues.

 

Ship: I didn’t notice any maintenance issues. They were constantly cleaning because of the Coronavirus.

 

The windows allowed you to see out everywhere which made the ship prettier. I enjoyed riding the elevator because we always had a sea or centrum view. I liked this ship for a week, but I don’t think there was enough to do on a long trip, but honestly we barley used the ship as we spent a lot of time in the city. We had two and a half days of sea time and I felt we did it all. Though to be dare we didn’t do any of the shows.

 

 

Overall: Even with the issues I felt like I had a nice mini vacation. Though I do need a vacation from my vacation as it was pretty stressful at times. I liked the Jewel and for a ship in her size she was nice. If you like bars, they had a lot of themed bars, which we didn’t get to take advantage of because of the kids. If you have a drink package I think this ship would be good because the different bars would be fun to bar hop for the week.

 

I hope you enjoyed reading a review in these troubled times! I’ll answer any questions I can!

 

 

Hopefully you can set sail soon. Happy cruising!

 

 

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March 15th evening continued

 

As I said this was a two hour trip so we stood outside for a while and got a ton of pictures.

 

 

 

 

It took about 30 minutes to get up toward the Palm

 

 

One of the Palm Resorts

 

Atlantis

 

We were getting cold and tired so we went inside. Since everyone was outside we found two rows next to each other and settled in. The kids went to sleep pretty quickly and we watched the onboard video on loop for a while before sending messages to family back home, as it was now morning time fo my family. We talked and just watched the city pass us by.

 

No waking her up

 

Tired boy and mommy in the reflection

 

Those were the only onboard pictures and by then I was photographed out so not taking anymore, even when we got to the Burj Khalifa.

 

 

We caught another Uber from the metro- low on cash now and it was about 8:45pm when we got back as the ship docked a few minutes earlier then 8:40pm.

 

Our kids window - they left their ships they colored in the window so we could tell it was ours.

 

We decided to give the kids an hour in the kids club so my husband went to drop them off while I dropped off our purchases- though they helped with that too as we passed our room.

 

While out and about on the ferry, we got an email that said we could get a cash refund for our cancelled cruise at 100% value or we could get 125% in FCC (cruise credit). Originally we thought with the uncertainty we wouldn’t book a future cruise on board, but with the extra credit we were tempted. Since we wanted to take the credit we decided we would sweeten the deal with the booking on board. With onboard credit we had from the RCCL credit card, and our cancelled shore excursion we would still be ahead in the refund from the port taxes and fees. Even leaving the tips in place because we stayed, we were still getting a refund so he met me at the future cruise desk while I checked on the onboard account because w head to leave before the 6am cutoff.

 

They asked that anyone leaving before 6am check out at the desk before so they could clear our account. Account cleared I headed to the future desk where luckily she was still there because she was working with another couple. We lucked out because she was supposed to be done at 8 or 8:30pm but she was still helping that couple so she was there. We were getting one of the cruises where we didn’t have to pick a specific one yet, but we have two months to select something to get the onboard credit or it just becomes deposit credit with no on board credit.

 

My husband was with the kids, because they had closed the kids club. I guess they used some sort of sanitation equipment so they wouldn’t allow the kids back in and closed early because no one else showed up. They gave the kids each an octopus toy for their trouble, which we now have several because they each tend to win one from previous cruises. But they were happy with the toys so we decided to take them to dinner. I took the kids quickly back to the room, as we were maybe ten rooms away and down the stairs from here to use the restroom and put their toys away.

 

By now it was about 9:15pm so I told hubby when we left I would meet him at the dining room, as it closed at 9:30pm.

 

The kids and I got a drink and some bread while we waited for daddy to finish. The waitress I think had had enough this week, and she was rushing me to order though I told her I was waiting for my husband. He still had 15 minutes, don’t rush me. She continued her amazing service- this is sarcastic- but the assistance waitress was very nice and made up for her banging the plates in front of me and not bringing the refills.

 

Five minutes later he showed up and she gave him a full minute to take our order, luckily he was ready. We ordered and enjoyed a decent dinner though rushed service and slow- food came fast but drinks were slow. My daughter ate her noodles but my son decided to sleep through dinner again. He woke up toward the end long enough to eat. But by then my husband had given up on getting a coffee, so he took my daughter back to the room and I stayed to let my son finish eating. They did bring the coffee so I enjoyed some and then brought my husband’s coffee back to the room.

 

The dinner menu which I only have because I sent it to my husband to help order for him when the waitress got pushy.

 

Now it was time to pack so I will save you the ordeal as I got the kids ready for bed and packed. We weren’t in a rush because we couldn’t use the luggage service as we had to leave before disembarkation officially started at 6am. We finished about midnight and tucked ourselves in for a few minutes of sleep.

 

Tomorrow the airport... well technically today.

 

 

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I didn’t get the package, but I can verify that if you upgrade your room on the same sailing they will keep your shore excursions. I just lost my kids because they were in a separate room.


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But fun for a day trip before cruise for those not wanting to go into the city.

I as on a RCCL cruise when this whole thing went down in March, I was told we would get the future cruise credit for the cruise we were on that got derailed.  I was told because I stayed on board, I would get the future cruise credit, but I'll believe it when I see it. Honestly not something I am concerned about, but with all the time on my hands I looked it up and so far I haven't gotten any points.

I was loo!ing at Alaska for July and the price has gone down, but the price is still about the same if you want a balcony and cheaper if you take an inside, with no perks.  I had twins 8 years ago and I haven't been on a princess cruise since because their prices were always super high for 3/4 in the room.  Right now, the price for 3/4 in a room is cheaper because they are trying to get bodies on baord.  I'll help the economy and cruise if we can in July.  I would cruise in June too if they were still running, but my kids will hopefully be in school then.

1 hour ago, Roger88 said:

What a nice family you are. Your photos are fabulous. Hope you guys are doing alright. How long is your trip? What kind of cabin did you get? Did you take any other tours? I was in Abu-Dhabi and Dubai in 2010, in May. It was super hot, +47C . We could really walk around in the afternoon. We basically were only visiting the local malls. Burj Halifa was amazing

Thanks for the cruise see had two connecting OV rooms on deck 3,  3578 and 3580.  We loved the location. This cruise was the first time we had two rooms and it was amazing. We got lucky and our side, port, had a city view while in Dubai. We were supposed to be gone just over two weeks, but we were gone just over a week because of coronavirus. Almost done with the review.

 

22 minutes ago, kernow said:

In the summer months (when the temps in Dubai are very hot, 40 plus deg) the Jumeriah hotels and many others do a deal where you get free half board in any of their restaurants. The Jumeriah hotels offer most of their restaurants in all the hotels (not the Burj) and all the restaurants in the Madinat souk, it's a great deal. My birthday is in August (and I like hot weather) so it's something we've done a couple of times.

They offered this in March too! It must have been low bookings, that's why we almost did it.  We thought the beach/pool would be wasted on my husband, but we did talk about doing two or three days and then the rest of the week by the fountains. Maybe when $$$ is no object... They wanted a a lot for the kids.

March 15 continued

 

Off to explore the marina we headed across the bridge and down the elevator. We walked along the waterfront and my husband investigated how to get to the beach. We had decided we would take the ferry back from here ( we passed it and reconsulted the schedule). It was about 5pm now because they had a Palm ferry getting ready to leave and they were trying to get people to come.

 

View of marina- I think this was from the bridge

 

We instead took the walkway up and then across the water heading toward the beach. There was a lot of construction so we held the kids hands and walked single file as it was very busy with cars and construction workers.

 

After about a 10 min walk we made it to the beach.

 

There wasn’t any dressing rooms that we could see, but we found a quiet corner by the closed water play area (Coronavirus closure) and used our towels to make a dressing room for the kids. We adults didn’t bother to change.

 

Having fun

 

Selfie as I sat in the beach- you can see the Ferrari car bag came in handy

 

View of the beach. I saw people in Speedo’s and half naked bikinis all the way to full burkas on the beach.

 

This was really nice and while the water was a hair to cold for me that didn’t stop the kids.

 

The two heads in the water are my kids

 

I enjoyed this stop and we both wished we went here first and saved ourselves the headache of the closed water park. Hindsight is 20/20 though and it was closing in on 6 so we gathered the kids and went over to the makeshift dressing area, pausing briefly at the foot showers to rinse off all the sand.

 

Someone had a water bottle and was using it to rinse the rest of him off- smart! He helped our kids get some of the sand off their feet.

 

We hurried back to the marina area and we were hoofing it to make sure we got there on time. This walk was the only time we saw the famous Dubai cars that I hear are driving around everywhere. Two cars, a grey and another yellow, I think one was a Ferrari but I couldn’t tell you the other, were passing by and the engines were roaring like crazy. My son was all excited over the “race cars” on the road. We weren’t fast enough to get a good picture, but here is a bad picture.

 

If you zoom in behind the people at the crosswalk- that is one of the cars

 

We saw other nice cars around here and I think it is because this is where people who work here live. Someone I work with has a brother that lives in Dubai and he lives in this area.

 

We decided we really liked this area. I understand why people live here because you have all the amenities you need to live, with some extra perks like a close beach and pubic transportation near by. (The metro doesn’t come out here but we did pass the tram that takes you to the metro).

 

We strolled up to the ferry to purchase our tickets (25 aed a piece) using our silver cards. Since we didn’t have enough cash on them we tried to add value and they wouldn’t accept it. She gave my husband directions back toward the mall where he could top it off, but she couldn’t do it there. I find things like this annoying, why have a booth and accept the card if you can’t add money!???

 

I stayed with the kids and my husband headed off quickly to load the cards. We didn’t want to be stuck with about $40 in credits. Luckily we were there at 6:10pm and we had until 6:30pm. He had loaded the cards and made it back by 6:20pm.

 

They had opened the ferry at 6:15pm so with tickets now in hand we entered. Others had already boarded so we couldn’t find two empty rows together so I took my son and he took my daughter and we were separated by a row. We were all thirsty so daddy got a coffee and he also bought two waters for the kids. They made themselves comfortable and watched the marina pass by.

 

The bright colored bag is a travel bag I carry with me. It was great for carrying the towels and I have used it as a grocery bag and to carry large purchases on vacation. It folds up small so I keep it with me for occasions like this. It came free with a purchase at Samsonite, the luggage store.

 

We weren’t allowed outside while the ferry left the dock, but someone came by and announced when we could go outside. They required the kids where a life-vest outside.

 

It was sunset so a pretty time to catch the ferry

 

My only complaint is the ferry takes a long time. It makes one other stop closer to town and that takes an hour and to go all the way to the creek is two hours. We boarded at 6:30pm and we made it back to the creek at just before 8:30pm. Though to be fair it would have taken over an hour to ride the tram to the metro, too. So using it as transportation was a bonus, but the real draw is the water trip itself.

 

 

 

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Still reading and enjoying your review. It's nice to have another update to look forward to at the moment while we are stuck at home.
So sorry that your time at Wild Wadi was cut so short, we love it there too. We've stayed at Jumeriah Beach hotel (the wave shaped one) a few times and it has unlimited access into the park from a gate by their pool area. It's a great perk of the hotel.
 
 
 

I looked seriously into staying here, Jeremiah Beach, and another Jeremiah property on the Palm. We ended up booking an AirBNB overlooking the fountains because ( a row or two back, the ones right on the water were gone or $$$$ when we booked) because that was what my husband really wanted. He isn’t a lay on the beach person and the apartment had a nice pool. But when the price of this cruise went down we cancelled the apartment (one day before cancellation penalties would have started) and booked a b2b. For the same money we upgraded to a suite one week and got the cruise, with food, for the week In-N-Out connecting ocean views. For us, that is a huge savings because we are feeding four. That is why I like cruises so much, I know how much it will cost upfront and expenses like food are minimal.




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Maybe in the gbeginning, but too many people, so $$$, required. This will only happen as needed on noro - or similiar infected cruises.

We know the world sucks and there are bigger issues, but this is a nice place to have a pity party. See other started threads and how people attacked them - this is the place to whine about something so let us have it. We know there are more important things, but that is why posting on a board of strangers instead of our friends and family is what we are doing.

 

We booked a UAE middle East itinerary over a year in advance which we never do. We got two rooms with our kids to spoil ourselves and when prices came down we added a week, up graded one leg to a suite and planned our first b2b. Mid cruise the world shut down and went to s@$#. We made the best of it had lots of fun, but we also were stressed out, slept little, and had lots of uncertainty. Scrambling to get home without freaking out your kids is not an experience I wish to repeat.

 

  While we got a refund for most of it, I am a teacher with limited time and the airfare money was used so we are out that.  I have a FCC, a large one, that I need to use so while exciting I am also stressed I can't use it. Plus still dealing with getting refunds from the interrupted trip.

 

Now back home I have new stressors, and my old ones that made me look forward to the trip to begin with are still here, but now in quarantine to make them worse.

 

I just want a vacation to look forward to, to make my world normal again.

March 15 continued

 

We headed toward the metro and it was busy so we split into the female/ kid car. Part way through my husband called me over to ask about going to Wild Waldi which was showing open on line. I agreed because I knew the beach was also near by and the souk from the Juremiah hotels.

 

We made a quick exit on the metro and got a cab the rest of the way to the park- which was open!!!!!

 

We needed everything so we dropped $500 on bathing suits, water shoes, a towel and sunscreen. Should have brought the bag or bought at the mall....

 

They were nice enough to let us enter early while my husband bought the tickets so I could make sure they had suits to fit us. We arrived at 1pm and by 1:30pm we were dressed and ready to salvage our day.

 

 

 

The view as you enter

 

New suit and near entrance and changing rooms- they had showers too

 

My tshirt style suit- with a skirt/shorts or a full surfer style was my choices- this is a conservative country so no bikinis were sold here (they were in the mall)

 

We headed in and the kids played in the wave area while we hid our stuff and used the Ferrari bag to hold our stuff- we didn’t bother with a locker because crime here isn’t really a big thing

 

Yeah!

 

This place is amazing!

 

Water play area and my fancy new suit

 

Items stashed we headed for the first water slide- a coaster style that took us up the hill. There were several stops with workers their to guide you through with two to three options on each of the three or four stop so we could have rode this multiple times and we would have if... it ended in a lazy river. We headed to the next slide and after a few minutes wait it closed. We couldn’t figure out what was going on up there. Oh well ... we headed down and came across a section of the one we just did so we went to get in and they worked stopped me from grabbing a tube.

 

“We are closing at 2pm”!

 

Wait! What?. *insert four letter word here

 

 

By order of the UAE government they were required to shut down immediately. It was a mess with people stopping every employee and all workers running people out of the water and play areas. For the next few minutes it was whistle city, as confused people were told to exit the slides, water parks, and wave pools and that they were closed. I told my husband we needed to hurry because I needed to argue over returning the bathing suits and the line would be long with people trying to get refunds.

 

We made it to the dressing rooms and got one of the last rooms - I was even able to shower off my daughters blond hair quickly- it will turn green otherwise- and we were one of the first out.

 

A manager was at the entrance area directing people to the front for refunds. Then I told him about our swimsuit debacle- he returned a few minutes later with bad news and a higher up manager. They would not give us money on the suits, after more complaining and negotiating, they gave us four free towels (maybe 25% of what we spent), the ticket refund and free tickets for a future visit- which is almost worthless as I doubt we will be back anytime soon. He did promise he would add his name to the ticket so it would extend the expiration- I’ll believe it when I see it and we are still waiting for the email with the tickets...

 

The good news is we were able to bypass the gigantic line which was now 100 people deep so we were out before 3pm with the clothing changes. We decided to walk over to the souk and check it out.

 

The entrance to the 7 star hotel was out front and many tourist were being dropped off for a quick photo stop- so we got a quick one too on our way over.

 

Even many areas of this area were closed and we accidentally went into a closed area and to avoid walking all the way around we had go under some barriers.

 

Open area

 

No people on this side

 

The gate was open but closed on the other side... oops

 

 

They were doing construction so we had to walk around the entrance to the souk.

 

It was nice inside but all the same stuff I have seen plus, without the local flavor. It felt very tourist to me and several flags passed us with groups of people on a bus tour.

 

We explored some, but we weren’t impressed. Now to stay here I think it would be nice. It was a fancy resort with nice restaurants and some reasonably priced considering it was water seating and attached to a 5 star hotel, but I don’t visit a country to feel like I am anywhere. I had the same feeling here that I got at a nice Marriott in Palm Springs. It was great, but didn’t feel like Dubai.

 

Walk along the water- where you could take a boat- we opted not to as we decided we would hit the marina. We had seen enough.

 

Another shop in the mall

 

We caught a cab to the marina mall out front. We knew we would be leaving tomorrow so we weren’t hoarding our cash anymore.

 

Cab selfie- we liked the purple seats

 

I love the malls!!!!

 

Yes that is a Starbucks but we refrained. The picture doesn’t do justice to how pretty the night sky decorations were.

 

The mall shops were open and the food, but the movie theatre was closed.

 

Area by the water with many food trucks

 

The kids were “starving” and I had already put them off with a snack from my purse- I always carry a few- so we headed to the food court for ...

 

McDonalds. The patio view was nice and we had a similar view to the five star restaurants across the way...

 

View from the patio waiting for food

 

I had a nacho burger and I love spicy so this is my favorite McDonald’s burger from anywhere. Fries always taste the same.

 

Now we were full and ready to explore the area.

 

 

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My twins were five when we went and they had plenty to do. As an adult, your options will be limited, for example they can’t go into certain bars, but you can enjoy a drink in the restaurant, Marco Grs’s would, their excellent zoo or aquarium while mixing in adult things to do like restaurants and the WW2 museum.


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March 15 Sunday

If it wasn’t obvious we went to bed after we feed the kids.

Now this day is when Coronavirus really began to effect true vacation. We started the day googling Coronavirus news in our area as the BBC said a lot about Europe and USA, but not the Middle East. This googling is what made us find out about two important items. One Abu Dhabi had closed all attractions such as theme parks, museums, and beaches. This closure included Ferrari world. [emoji22]

Secondly, the UAE has put in flight restrictions that started Tuesday that limited flights to several nearby countries, including our flight to Turkey. *insert four letter word here*. This forced our plans to immediate change. We decided a run on the airport or a three hour phone call was not on our agenda. Instead we headed to breakfast and looked up some more items, before realizing we had only one choice. We had to talk to the airline and go home tomorrow (Monday which happened to be the last day of the cruise).

The next item on our agenda was to head to the mall area where we saw there was a ticket office. We figured that would be less busy then the airport. We headed out, but I decided not to take our bathing suits as was our original plan. (Remember we wanted to head over to the marina and the beach using the ferry).


I didn’t take any ship pictures so I had to get one

We waited away from the taxis for an Uber, remember Uber was a lot cheaper than the taxis because of the extra 20aed fee.


Port and parking lot

We took the cab directly to the ticket office and that worked out great. It was busy, but we beat the rush and we were sorted on a new flight in 15 minutes. There was no change fee ( technically our flight was cancelled) and they were able to reticket us on the Dubai 8:30am flight the next day (as the Sharjah flight was busier he asked if we could do Dubai, we were fine with that was it let us sleep in longer and was a cheaper cab ride).

All sorted we headed toward the mall and began the sad process of cancelling hotels and tours. AirBnB was amazing and by the end of the day we had the refunds in process for our Dubai apartment and the Dessert tour we had scheduled for the next day. Hotwire we are still messing with, but to be fare it was a hot deal where you don’t know the hotel until after.

Without getting to detailed-Some issues with Hotwire included- the phone line not working at all while in Dubai, we just got a number not functioning message the several times we called, an email unanswered, and then once they set up an online form they said it wasn’t refundable. We had been communicating with the hotel and they stated they would return our money, but we had to go through Hotwire. A phone call the other day was in process, but they actually called the hotel, but due to the time change they were not open. My husband is an essential employee so the reservation is in his name so he has to call again when he isn’t working. Luckily it was cheap, but if they don’t refund I will not be using them again. They are my go to site for last minute hotels, but now I will be looking at direct more. Our credit card used to have insurance in it, but slowly all the benefits (BofA took over) have left so it is worthless benefits now. Travel Insurance is looking good now...

Car for our trip to Abu Dhabi cancelled, we decided to console ourselves with Kidzania for the kids and VR/ hysteria ( haunted maze) for the adults. That didn’t work out so well because when we got to kidzania, it was also part of the not as widely publicized ban in Dubai. Theme parks had closed this morning in Dubai as well, which was why we headed for the mall. *insert another four letter word*.

Now Hysteria, the maze was open so we decided to do that, minus the kids. It wasn’t busy, in fact the mall was virtually empty, it was about 10:30am now, so the worker offered to mind the kids while the adults went through. Gave the my phone and they happily played games while we were gone for 10 minutes. Normally I don’t think this would have happened but as I said there were no people in the mall.

The maze was ok, I do a lot of this stuff at home, Knotts Scary Farm and such,but since we had the entertainer app it was 2 for 1 which made it worth it. I liked how they did the rules, a legal requirement but done to the theme of a horror maze.

Finished we walked farther down and were sad to see more items, the mirror maze, VR and any fun item that contained people closed. I think they closed the maze right after us as well too by order of the government. I think some confusion allowed them to be open for a little while.

We found the Ferrari store and since we had promised my son Ferrari world we decided to let him pick out a car instead - long story short I put him on a sticker chart for behavior at school and he was earning the trip to Ferrari world, which is why it was such a big deal for us. He had earned it and if you are in the field of behavior/ education you know that anything promised must be followed through.


Closed ice rink


Maze- woo hoo! Still open!


Ferrari store

We were at a loss with what to do and still trying to deal with the hotel in Abu Dhabi and trying to figure out what was open. So we thought ice cream and a coffee would help and a visit to a toy store.


Gelato



Shopping

At this point we decided to head to the marina because we could look around a new area and check out if the beach was still open. There was talk of buying bathing suits but we didn’t, though I looked at a few. That turned out to be a bad idea- I should have brought or bought suits.


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I talked to them yesterday about my cancelled March cruise. They said as long as I have my March confirmation number they can look up my onboard credit. This process will also apply to my cruise next (booking on board) credit. Just keep your originally confirmation number handy and they will apply it to your next cruise.

I assume it will have the same cancellation timeline as the FCC, Dec 2021, but not sure on that. If anyone finds out, let us know.


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6 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Why does it matter which State they were from or, for that matter, there sex or age? 

So they can figure out if they interacted with the individual, but it won't matter if they touched the same elevator button.

Continued...

 

Back on the other side of the creek

 

 

We headed over to the Grand Souk. I recommend you do your shopping here as they started bargaining a lot cheaper than the ones we bought from. I might have been able to save some money.

 

 

Since the prices were good I spent the rest of my money, I was running low on cash. The men kept stopping to talk to Kylan and “fix” his head covering. They all had a different style and if you notice in all my pictures he has a different wrapping because he was constantly stopped to fix him, which was a great way to get me in the store.

 

Grand souk

 

Mosque on our way back-not the best pic but you can see the new wrap style

 

We walked out through the city by the above mosque then backtracked along the water toward the metro, which is the closest to the port. We made our way past the ferries and I took a picture of the schedule when we noticed a ferry went all the way to the marina. They were hawking trips in the ferry as it was 6:15 and a ferry would be leaving soon. We wanted to head there tomorrow so we thought the ferry would be a scenic way to do it, though it was pricey at 25aed a piece, but that was only about $7 which was better then the scenic tour boat prices we saw the next day.

 

Ferry schedule

 

We made a mental note to catch the 11am tomorrow.

 

 

Waterfront just past the ferries

 

We headed past the hotel and up toward the museum. We talked about going in, but the kids were tired and not interested. I let the kids have my phone to take pictures so I didn’t get any of the door art display outside the museum which I thought was pretty.

 

They did get this fascinating picture.

 

Dubai cat- I have about ten versions of this on my phone

 

Photo by daughter- as you can see we were in a parking lot so we could called an Uber- we were running low on cash so wanted to use Uber

 

Street view near the metro

 

We caught the Uber illegally by the cabs and made our way back to the port.

 

My daughter took some decent photos from the car

 

 

Cruise ship- No idea which

 

Nice shot of the Burj

 

Blurry Queen Elizabeth

 

Back onboard the kids were not hungry, and neither were we, so we took them to the kids club. We could make the tail end of the happy hour so he dropped them off, but first I made a stop at the bar to get bottles of water for the room for later. We met up at the Diamond lounge and my hubby had beat me there. He got me the last chocolate covered strawberry, which are my favorite! When I went to grab a snack they had more so I grabbed a few more. Yummy!

 

Full of strawberries, we saw they had a movie running on deck and since it was warm out we decided to hit up the movie. It was Jumangi 2, which I hadn’t seen but my hubby had. It was 2/3 of the way through, but he caught me up and we watched the last half hour or so of the movie.

 

Selfie on deck

 

Chilling and watching the movie

 

Before long it was over and while we were super hungry we decided to check out dinner.

 

We got a table for two, but it was right up to the tables on either side of us, so we ended up talking to the couples on those tables, who were on desert, until they left. It was lobster night and he brought my husband two and offered more because they were not busy. Two was enough and I passed.

 

We were finished in time to get the kids from the kids club by 10pm. They were the only kids again so they got to play whatever they wanted so they said they had a great time.

 

We needed to get them feed so we headed to the solarium and on the way there they had restarted Jumangi 2 so we sat with the kids to watch. It was near the beginning. I made multiple trips for pizza, drinks, and cookies. I’m still mad since my husband ate my chocolate chip cookie and there weren’t any more! He owes me a cookie.

 

We didn’t last the whole movie , but maybe an hour. I need to watch the whole movie from the beginning...

 

We took the elevator back to the room.

 

Atrium view while waiting for the elevator

 

 

 

The Ship

 

You’ll notice Dubai not the ship was the star of this review. While we normally on Caribbean and Mexico cruises will do a lot of the shows, we didn’t make one this cruise. I like the musical shows and my husband the comedians, but we slept through the revue and I never saw a comedian... that I recall, but we could have been gone, too. There were a lot of singer tribute shows which we tend to dislike (which I think was a result of the itinerary change). We past several singers in the lounges and atrium, but since dancing is my husbands idea of a nightmare we never stopped to enjoy them. We only caught a few minutes of them here and there, such as waiting for the elevator. I will say I did notice they had entertainment, piano player or band, most of the evening in the lounges when we past through.

 

The ship itself was small so I don’t think I would like it for a transatlantic or other cruise with a lot of sea days, but for a week it had enough to keep us entertained. I did note two and a half sea days were enough to do all the actives on board we wanted.

 

The highlight of the ship really is the views. I spent a lot of time by the elevator coming and going and I enjoyed having an atrium or sea view every time we rode the elevator- we avoided the aft (or was it-forward, I think we used it two or three times) elevator bank because they were the standard elevators.

 

Our rooms were on deck 3 midship but closer to the midship elevators. Since we docked so

much in Dubai it was the perfect spot as we were 15 rooms away from the gangway. It made coming and going a breeze when I was carrying a lot of purchases...I have found the ocean view rooms are usually placed well for this.

 

Since we had two rooms we had plenty of space, but I didn’t like how the door was at the tail end of the room so when both were open they looked right into each other’s beds- you could see how that could be a problem. We closed one door at night, but always kept the kids open to solve that issue. We also gave the kids a password and told them they were not to open the door unless someone said the password. Also they could only open the door if I told them to. Even if they said they were police I told them they must know the password or they shouldn’t open the door. This worked well and I never had trouble with them opening the door. This trip was the first time we weren’t in the same room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Does anyone know if you can use FCC for Air2Sea?

March 14 continued

We got a late start, but we had been having long days so we thought we would take it easy today.

We got a cab and had it take us straight to the abra station, the one next to the Grand Souk. I wanted to go to the Souk, but I was overruled and we headed for the abra. We decided just to take it wherever it went. For the steal of 1 aed (you pay the driver, he comes around to collect the money right before it leaves). The kids enjoyed the ride and it was pretty from the water.


Boat!



Where we landed

We ended up at the end of the Textile Souk, but we didn’t know that at the time. We consulted the map at the pier and decided to follow the path suggested. We past a store and noticed it was stocked with toilet paper and paper towels. I should have taken a picture.

If Dubai has a seedy area this was it as we were hit up often to buy Apple products and designer items. It was annoying, but if you ignored them, most of them, left you alone. Just don’t make eye contact or respond a second time.


We weren’t even close to following the path so we missed the mosques, but we made it to the Gold Souk.



The entrance

I looked around, but my budget this trip didn’t include purchasing anything. I did find a nice necklace in 21k gold for $1800!


Dreaming...

We didn’t dally to long and ended up in the textile souk. We had fun there... and I spent more of my money.


We all got something but she took her dress off.


This guy knows how to sell because he even got daddy to buy something.

All my money spent we decided to get out of here...

But a photo of my handsome son joining in the local dress.


He got a lot of attention after this...

Back to the boats we caught another one back to the dock, paying attention that we got the correct one.


Great photo but they couldn’t sit there because they put some boxes there.



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Saturday March 14

It started out as a sea day. The captain announced in the morning we would be back in Dubai around 2pm. This was also what they told us last night at the Diamond party.

Now bright eyed and bushy tailed after a full nights sleep, we had breakfast in the dining room. We got the kids cereal and donuts from the buffet while we ordered off the menu. This worked out nicely as the kids were settled first before our hot food came. We talked some to the table next to us, they were from the U.K. and they didn’t seem to be having as many lock downs as my family was describing from the US. Their schools were still open while I had learned my district and my kids were closed until April 1 (they are now closed until May 1).

It was an overcast and cooler day then it had been so we took the kids to the kids club. Again they were the only kids there. The attendant told me only 10 kids were left on the whole ship. Their soccer playing friends had also departed.

We headed up to use the coffee machine and the last of the internet -and sign up for my own free internet using my diamond discount- slow doesn’t even begin to cover it.



Our view of the mostly deserted pool while we had coffee

We wanted to check out the pictures so we went down to check them out and I purchased the photos I already shared.

We only had the kids in the club for an hour before he picked them up again. I met my husband back inside the main shops. We had done a quick visit on the first quarantine sea day and bought some of the 5 for $40 items. They had kid watches and since my kids just learned to tell time they were super excited about those. In some of the pictures you can see them strutting their unicorn and Nemo fish watches. It was also where the cheetah hat came from (My daughter is also obsessed with cheetahs) and gifts for people back home.

We wanted to attempt the rock wall, but it wasn’t open so we looked through the stores and at the end they were doing an art talk. My husband and the kids were there when I found them.

Then it was time to rest and we took a power nap in the room.


Wake up!

We arrived a bit early to Dubai, about 1:30pm. We were still resting and I attempted to wake my husband and kids, but none of them were having it. We slept until 2:30ish. I remember we made the tale end of lunch at Windjammer around 3pm.

My daughter really wanted to do the rock wall so we went to hit that before we left, but when we got there, it wasn’t open. [emoji17]We knew we would be out tomorrow so this was her last opportunity. We were annoyed they weren’t open, as the time in the handouts listed it as open now. We didn’t tell her it wouldn’t happen and said we would try tomorrow if they were open.

So we headed to the room to get items (water bottle, wallet and $$$) and use the restroom one more time before we headed out to see the old town area.



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On the way back to the room they had photographers so we decided to take some quick family pictures. They did a good job of hiding the chocolate stains.



Just the kids



A family shot


Then I was really done. I barely got the kids to bed and then put myself to bed. As my mom told me when she saw the pictures, just because the glass is there doesn’t mean you have to drink it.


While I was in the pictures I found the one we took yesterday when we disembarked to go to Motiongate. I remember saying “ oh hell yes we are taking a picture” when I saw them on the gangway. I didn’t like our boarding picture so this was to replace our gross embarkation photo.




The cruise to remember


Finally, I did break down and buy the 105 aed (about $25) photo they had when you first went into the Burj Khalifa- they had it at the exit-this bag with the photo and notebook was the one my son left behind. It was easy to prove it was mine when my picture was in it. I was annoyed when we bought it because they show it to you in a nice folder, but then gave it to me in the cheap folder as it was 300aed (that’s close to $75-$80) to have the nice folder. When I complained they gave me a one sided key chain. A nice gesture, but I wonder if they give it to everyone or if you spent a certain amount.



You can see the folder around the edges.

We had a nice lie in the next day, but I have kids so they only let us sleep so long...



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