We booked this trip as soon as we got back from Dubai in Sept 2023 - we loved it that much!
This time we stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dubai Maria. It was such a perfect location with the Marina on our doorstep and amazing transport links a few minutes walk away - 2 metro stations, a tram station, taxi rank and the ferry station. It was also next door to the Marina Mall and the Pier 7 building. JBR (Jumeriah Beach Residence) was only a 10 min walk away.
The hotel itself was fantastic, our room was beautiful with floor to ceiling windows with spectacular views over the Marina and we could even get a peak of the Persian Gulf between the buildings opposite on JBR! The service, facilities and food were exceptional and we will probably always return to this hotel in the future.
We arrived in Dubai in the early hours of April 16th - the day of the country's biggest storm in 75 years! On approach to the airport, it was very turbulent (the worst I have ever experienced) and when we landed there was very heavy rain. When we woke the next morning, lots of streets were flooded with cars floating around (mainly luxury brands!), there was flood water running down from the street level to the Marina, it was completely surreal. It stayed dry up until early afternoon, therefore Alan and I walked over to JBR, but decided to get back to the hotel as it was getting dark, and we knew something was coming!
Once we got back to the hotel, it went completely dark and there was constant thunder, lightning, high winds and very heaving rain for several hours. It was so weird being in the dark in the middle of the afternoon! By early evening we were hungry, so Alan braved the weather and went next door to Wagamama's in the Mall to get a take-away for our dinner! The hotel staff couldn't believe he was going outside, but he joked with them that he was from Scotland, and that we were used to this kind of weather!!
My video of the storm
Photos of Alan looking out our hotel window on the morning of the storm and during the storm in the afternoon!
The next day, we could not believe our eyes upon opening the curtains in our room - it was back to blue skies and sunshine and most of the flood water was gone! There was still lots of disruption at the airport as the baggage hall was completely flooded and some of the Metro stations were also flooded. On the streets, there were abandoned cars everywhere like a scene from a zombie movie. Over the next couple of days, the city had all the cars uplifted and the roads were all back to normal.
We were lucky as we were not directly affected by the storm but appreciate it must have been hell if you were due to fly in or out during these first few days, or if you lived there and your home was flooded.
A few days after the storm, we took a daytrip to Abu Dhabi (see separate blog entry) and on the way back, our driver had to drive through some flood water which was deeper that his vehicle wheels - this was very scary!
As we had already done most of the tourist activities on our last trip, so this time was quite relaxing and did a few things that we didn't have time for the first time. This included going for Afternoon Tea on the QE2, which is now permanently moored at Port Rashid in Dubai and has been converted into a luxury hotel. They have retained much of its original character and is pretty spectacular!
Afternoon Tea takes place in the Queen's Grill, which was originally the restaurant exclusively reserved for royalty and famous passengers (such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John, David Bowie etc). The room was absolutely beautiful, and we had a gorgeous table with everything personalised with my name! All the crockery is the original Cunard service. The food was delicious, and the service was impeccable - I can't recommend this enough! You can book it here.
Once we had finished our Afternoon Tea, we went on the Heritage Tour of the ship with our host was Craig, who was very knowledgeable, funny and very impressed that we were from Glasgow, just a few miles away from where the QE2 was actually built (John Brown Shipyard in Clydebank)! Again, I would recommend you add this option onto your Afternoon Tea booking.
Another activity we were keen to do was to take the Ferry trip from the Marina around the Palm Jumeriah Island, past the World Islands and finishing in north Dubai. Ideally, the Ferry port was right in front of our hotel and the trip was brilliant. It takes 2 hours with stops at Bluewaters and Dubai Canal. We had spectacular views of the 2 main hotels on the Palm - The Atlantis and the Royal as well as the Burj Al Arab Hotel and Downtown Dubai with the Burj Khalifa towering over the city. Once we got to the final destination at Al Ghubaiba, we were greeted by the House of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Saeed Al Maktoum which was such a beautiful area.
We had a few hours before our return evening ferry, therefore we jumped on the Metro to the Wafi City Mall, which contains one of Dubai's newest attractions, AYA Universe. The mall itself is pretty amazing with an Egyptian theme with giant pyramids, obelisks and Pharos everywhere!
AYA is a truly immersive experience with several themed rooms which each have music, lights etc. It is quite discombobulating at first, but was such an amazing experience. Alan even went into the ball-pit and loved it!
My Videos from AYA
We got quite a big discount at AYA as we showed them our Emirates Boarding Passes. This is a great scheme that is honoured in many of the tourist attractions and some restaurants. I think it runs mainly through the summer months. Find out more here.
We spent the rest of our time at the amazing Dubai Mall, JBR and around the Marina.
This was definitely not our last trip to Dubai, in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger ... "I'll be back"!
See all my Photos from this trip here
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