Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 14

Geo: 24.4764, 54.3705The Zanzibar Buffet is relatively quiet when we arrive for breakfast. We pick a table with a view over the gulf and the many flat islands dotting the horizon. We later learn that over 200 islands make up what is the largest of the 7 Emirates, Abu Dhabi.We head to the aft bar to collect our tour stickers and then head outside to pick up the tour. We board coach number 4 and meet our tour guide Marshall. He's very knowledgeable and chatty, explaining the history of Abu Dhabi as we make our way towards our first stop The Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Not the biggest mosque in the world but pretty sure it is the most impressive. We spot the gold topped domes from a few miles away and although I had seen ... read more

Geo: 25.27, 55.33The cruise terminal like the airport is modern and spacious and we are soon walking up the ramp to board Fantasia. We head to the Zanzibar Buffet on deck 14 for some breakfast as it is still only 9.30. We then have a few hour to kill before our cabin is ready at 1pm. Seems the whole ship had overnight flights as people are asleep everywhere. On sun loungers, chairs and various sofas through the ship. We find a quiet spot to snooze for an hour or so before heading to our cabin just before 1pm.We are cabin 12223 which is situated on the Incanto deck. The cabin is very similar to the cabin we had on Splendida except the balcony on this one is much larger and deeper. We unpack and again we ... read more

First stop... Dubai. Although we didn't have the typical Dubai weather it was still great to explore ready for when we head back there. We had a walk around from our hotel to the old quarter on the first day and on the second day we did the typical tourist "big bus tour". It was all about saving the pennies when we were in Dubai, and we thought this would be impossible, but, we only spent around £150.00 in our five days there!! We found an online deal with the big bus company offering all the attraction's you can go to for free so we spent the first two days on the bus - getting wind burnt from the sandstorm on the first day (typical). We saw the mall and the aquarium in there which was ... read more

Dubai! Possibly one of the cleanest places I've ever been, but despite my love of all things clean, after spending three nights here, I've decided that it's very unlikely we will return. It's just too pricey, restrictive and the people are in my opinion very rude. We've seen some really cool things, Burj Khalifa, Jumeirah Beach, Dubai Mall, Mall of Emirates and oh yeah a shit tonne of construction sites!! Everywhere you look something is being built, which will be great in the future but right now it ain't pretty! The Burj was cool, but pricey, 1100AED for us both to go to the 148th floor at the very top. We got given a drink, but that's the priciest glass of Tropicana I've ever had! The views are cool, but are blown out of the water ... read more

Geo: 24.316, 52.6015... read more