Jayayeff

2 hours ago, ChatKat in Ca. said:

 

You can blame me for that. I tagged him to play 10 travel photos in 10 days and he's an over achiever.

At almost 80 days now I'd say that was an understatement!!!!! 😀😀

Anne..

On 7/12/2020 at 5:07 PM, mef_57 said:

Thanks Simon. This is helpful.

I don't arrive until almost 9pm after a full day flying from Canada, so I won't be using the metro from the airport. I had hoped I could get to the BK area in time to catch the last fountain show but I might be cutting it fine. Alternatively, I would use the next day to mid afternoon to poke around the area, then get to ship, check in and spend the rest of my time around Burj Dubai. Alternatively, I would stay in BD area and metro to BK for a few hours. Last year I had a great room booked with window viewing of BK and fountain show but now that room is priced at $500Cdn. I can't justify that so looking for affordable but near.  The Tower might work.

Thanks.

Simon is spot on with regard to the Towers Rotana and the metro information.   I remember you asking about B&B’s in Old Dubai previously but don’t remember the details either!!  However, I would stick with known hotels and transport etc. in these time of heightened health and safety requirements.  Whilst, Covid-19 is now under control here and the vast majority of activities have now reopened, the Naif area of Deira is what is classed as highly populated and at the height of the Covid crisis here was completely locked down for several weeks due to rapid spread and high numbers of cases.   I know April is still a long way off but who knows what restrictions and precautions we will still be living with then, for now I can only advise around the current situation and I’d say future hotel rates are just a shot in the dark at this stage.  Many hotels were, or still are, either closed or being contracted for quarantine purposes, and those now open to guests are mainly attracting local residents taking staycations as they can’t travel overseas for summer vacations and Dubai only opened to visitors a week ago.... I’d say any listed 2021 hotel rates are very ‘fluid’ and could well change between now and April - my advice would be book where you want to be but don’t prepay so you can keep an eye on the situation and change your booking closer to the time if you need to....
 

Anne..

29 minutes ago, ChatKat in Ca. said:

Dding Ding Ding! Winner! I'd send you a print if you had a US Address

 

Thanks but I already have several of my own from a visit to the castle in 2015 when the Symphony cruise from New York to Dover called at Greenock... 

Anne...

1 hour ago, Mudhen said:

Is this the Scottish castle that was used in Downton Abby? If it's not, it's very similar!

Yes.  It’s Inveraray Castle which you can get to quite easily from the port of Greenock, and it featured in one of the Christmas specials of Downton Abbey...

Anne...

On 5/11/2020 at 2:12 AM, Jancruz said:

Right now shipyards are closed no one to refurb

Jancruz1

Well, it is heading somewhere!   The Nautica and the Norwegian Jade left Port Rashid together a couple of days ago and are both now sailing towards the Red Sea and the Suez Canal so they should be entering the Med in a week or so...🤔

On 3/21/2020 at 9:38 PM, Wayfairers said:

We are hoping to visit Victoria, Seychelles on the Grand Africa Cruise this fall.  Is anyone aware if there is a beach that we could walk to from the ship to spend a day?

The port of Victoria is a commercial port in a commercial part of the city, there certainly isn’t any beach within walking distance.... You can walk into the city (very small city) but any beaches would be a taxi ride away....

Anne...

On 3/10/2020 at 10:19 AM, Jayayeff said:

 

You, and I, would have thought so but I still can't find anything 'official' and the local authorities have been excellent here with regard to any travel restriction updates since the virus crisis started.  It appears to be true, and the number of ships docked either at the cruise terminal or more remote locations in the port is ever increasing.

 

Anne..

Further to the above, it is confirmed the Federal Transport Authority for the UAE has suspended all cruise ships from entering UAE ports until further notice - however long that may be.   Several left Dubai en route to either Abu Dhabi or Sir Baniyas Island yesterday but they are back in, or sitting offshore from Port Rashid this morning..  No sure what happens now as the berths at the cruise terminal are all full and there are 3 other cruise ships that came in empty from SE Asia berthed at more remote parts of the port...

Anne..

6 hours ago, ken98230 said:

Here is the only other mention I could find.

 

https://splash247.com/uae-suspends-all-cruise-ship-operations/

 

I would think UAE closing to all cruise ships would be bigger news than just two mentions.  

You, and I, would have thought so but I still can't find anything 'official' and the local authorities have been excellent here with regard to any travel restriction updates since the virus crisis started.  It appears to be true, and the number of ships docked either at the cruise terminal or more remote locations in the port is ever increasing.

Anne..

1 hour ago, CruisingFox27 said:

We had an announcement from the Captain last night to advise all UAE ports are closed, we will not go to Abu Dhabi. However, we've been given special permission to dock in Dubai. 

I see the MSC Spendida is docked this morning in the space that the Costa Diadema was in yesterday, and the Costa ship is now offshore but going who knows where!!   This is still a mystery as I've scoured all local sources and whilst all local authorities have been excellent to date with Coronavirus related updates the port closures is still a complete mystery...  I also noticed that the Jewel of the Seas has gone nowhere since embarking passengers yesterday, and the German ship Mein Schiff 5 is also still in its same location.  All these in addition to 3 ships that were 'evacuated' from SE Asia to Dubai and Port Rashid is beginning to look like a cruise ship parking lot!!!!   I counted 6 this morning plus the Costa Diadema sailing just offshore....

Anne...

37 minutes ago, vizslapup said:

I was booked in a Celebrity cruise leaving from Dubai on April 1. We received the email from Celebrity yesterday morning saying that our cruise was cancelled because the cruise port in Dubai was closed to cruise ships. 
 

Good luck. I hope your cruise line let’s you know soon what is happening. It is possible the embarkment and Disembarkment port will be changed ; this is all assuming that there are not more port closures.

 

The Celebrity cruise that I was booked for that was cancelled was a different situation: we were the last cruise before a scheduled dry dock to do the revolution. They could not afford for someone on our cruise to potential get sick and the ship be quarantined.

I believe the correct notification should be that the port of Dubai was closed to the Celebrity Constellation not all cruise ships.   I was in the vicinity of Port Rashid earlier today and there were 4 cruise ships at the terminal (RCI, Costa, Mein Schiff and Norwegian).  
 

I have heard two interpretations of the status of the UAE ports but haven’t been able to verify either.  The first was that the port is only taking cruise ships that have been sailing in UAE waters, the other is that it is open in line with general UAE entry restrictions, i.e. that it is closed to any cruise ship coming from a country on the current ‘restricted entry’ list.  This I believe was the issue with the Celebrity ship as it had arrived in Mumbai short before their announcement of the Indian port closures yesterday morning, and was then unable to return to Dubai because India had been added to the restricted countries list.     At the present time the ports of Doha and Bahrain are closed to all cruise ships but the UAE ports and Muscat seem to be open subject to restrictions so I would suggest the only people who can confirm whether your cruise will be affected by changes, or cancelled, is the respective cruise line....

Anne...

6 hours ago, mef_57 said:

Hello Anne. Word has it that UAE has closed schools for several weeks to reduce contagion spread and that large gatherings are being stopped. I note several large tourist venues, like Global Village, Miracle or Glow Gardens have not made any such announcements on their website. Would you be able to give an on the ground verification of any of these statements? I received it several hands removed, and tend not to go searching out media hype, so would appreciate a local's knowledge. Websites might not be updated quickly either.

I personally don't arrive until April, and can adjust plans to be bird wstching instead of at a group event but knowledge might save folks from buying tickets on line they can't use.

Thanks for any clarity.

Yes, school closures were announced this morning.  They would have been on Spring break for 2 weeks later this month anyway but the ministry has decided to bring that forward to this coming Sunday (8th March) and added a further 2 weeks to the break.  The announcement says to facilitate deep cleaning of all schools, colleges and universities however it isn’t an out and out holiday as there is a distance learning programme in place to cover the period they will be closed.    Some large gatherings have been cancelled but as far as I can tell it is due more to them being international, i.e. a Book Fair, another exhibition/trade fair or sporting events with international team participation.  I believe the Dubai World Cup horse racing festival later this month is still going ahead, as did the ATP tennis championships last week... I am not aware that the Global Village, Miracle Garden etc. have been affected so far... The two local newspapers carry all the latest ministry announcements so you can check either Gulf News or Khaleej Times online to stay up to date....

Anne....

10 hours ago, bearette said:

We ended up having to switch our flight, coronavirus, so now we are arriving via Sharjah.  We thought we would rent a car and drop off our items and check into the cruise before going out again minus our bags, but from what I understand there is not parking at the port. (The ship overnights and leaves the next day).  Is there any option of where we need to park for an hour or so nearby? I would probably have my husband drop us off and then go park somewhere if need be. 

 

I can't find any car rental offices near the port either.  Am I missing them,, or would we be better off returning the car at the Dubai airport and taking the metro back to the ship (I understand a 30 or so minute walk is involved from the metro)?

 

After all.your helpful advice to pick a place to stay we ended up doing a b2b on the ship because the cost had come down so much in price.  I figure I'll use the same advice for my next trip out there.

 

Thanks!

There is parking at the cruise terminal.  I’ve driven myself into the port a couple of times, once when I was sailing the following day when I took my car with my baggage, checked into the ship and took my car back home later in the day.  I’ve also visited friends onboard their ship when they were on a port call in Dubai and left my car on the parking lot in front of the terminal buildings.   However, there may be an issue taking a hire car into the port as I seem to recall having to use my car registration card to get a security pass to get into the port and hire cars don’t usually have the card in them....  I also don’t recall seeing any car hire desks in the cruise terminal but I may be wrong there, as I’ve never really looked for them...   If you did return the hire car to the airport or other location you’d need to get a taxi or metro + taxi back to the ship as you cannot walk into the port.  The port is a secure area and the cruise terminal is quite a distance from the port entry gates...  Unless you really need to have a hire car for the day, you may be better just getting a taxi from Sharjah Airport to Port Rashid or booking a private transfer.... 

Anne...

On 2/26/2020 at 4:32 PM, tring said:

Just for feedback.  We are now home, having spent 6 weeks away flying out to Sri Lanka and back from Dubai with Emirates.  We had no problem sharing luggage allowance on either flight.  We took 3 cases between us with a total of 50 kgs total in fairly evenly weight cases for the hold.   

good to hear however, I would have been very, very, very surprised if it had been otherwise!!! 😀😀

Anne...

7 hours ago, jhenry1 said:

We are going on a cruise to Africa and flying Emeritus from the US with a 8 hour layover in Dubai and want to do a tour of Dubai during that time.  Does anyone have a local tour operator to contact that will pick us up at the airport and return us?  How difficult is it to depart and then return to the airport and are any Visas needed to do this?

 

Thank You

Virginia from Texas 

Try Arabian Adventures as they are the inbound local tourism arm of Emirates.  I feel certain they have an office/desk in the Arrivals hall of T3 at Dubai Airport so they should be able to arrange something for you with airport pick-up and drop-off.  If you are travelling on full USA passports then a visa isn't an issue as the US is part of the visa waiver programme and you are entitled to a visit visa on arrival...

Anne...

11 minutes ago, sddsddean said:

https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/before-you-fly/dubai-international-airport/shuttle-service-dubai/

 

This site just says you must have a valid ticket...doesn't specify which day, so I suspect you might have to drop them an e mail and ask. It also says the bus is supposed to be booked with you air ticket, so you might have to amend it....unless I'm getting this all wrong!

 

Simon

I think it is the day of travel... I believe the ticket shows Abu Dhabi as the point of departure but the segment from Abu Dhabi to Dubai is by road.... They check you and your bags in at their ‘terminal’ in Abu Dhabi, then transfer directly to the airport in Dubai... However I may be wrong  as I haven’t used the service myself, I just know it exists...

Anne..

On 2/1/2020 at 10:12 PM, Lauren Spray said:

Question for Anne..

 

Besides the Gold and Spice souks, what other souks are open in the evening in Dubai?  Karama?  Deira?  I read that Deira is supposed to be the largest night market (is this the right word?), but I can´t confirm that it is open.  Thank you.  I appreciate all information that you have previously posted.  It has been very helpful in planning.

Sorry for late reply - I have been away on a cruise around the Seychelles!!!    Other than offices, banks etc.. all markets, malls etc are open until late in the evening, as are many of the leisure parks.... 
 

Anne...

5 hours ago, Skoobdo said:

To Anne:

 

I just want to thank you again for recommending the Al Seef Heritage Hotel!

 

I checked in this morning for my 20 night stay, and OMG it's just fabulous. I have to say this is the best hotel (villa), I've ever stay in. And I've stayed at a lot of places from motels to 5 star hotels, but this place reminds me of my youth. I have two balconies with creek and souk views.  Birdseye view of the band pavilion. Absolutely fantastic! Hats off to you. Excellent advice👍👍👍

It’s certainly ‘different’.. However, I hope the room you have is quieter than the one I had when I spent a weekend there last year.  Mine overlooked one of the souk alleys and there was a shop opposite that sold ‘antiques’, one of which was a very scratchy record player, that the shop owner played well into the night!!!!  😱🤣😱🤣

Anne...

9 hours ago, Lauren Spray said:

We´ll be in Dubai in early April where I anticipate hot and humid temperatures.  How should a woman dress to be mindful of the conservative culture, but comfortable in the heat.  Suggestions?

 

P.S. I do know heat and humidity.  We live in Mexico.  The summers...ugh!

 

Thanks.

Unless the weather is unseasonably warm, it should  not be very hot or humid in early April, just dress as you would if you were in the Med during summer or in the Caribbean....The really hot weather usually starts from May onwards... As Simon and Skoobdo have already noted you only need to be dressed ultra conservatively if you are visiting a mosque or other Islamic centre, regular Western summer clothing is fine everywhere else...

Anne..

1 hour ago, dynamic cruiser said:

Thanks Anne: 

 

Perhaps you can advise on another area. We will have about 3-4 hours to walk around the Souk / Al Seef area. Are there specific places you can recommend to see in that venue? We will need to return to the Holiday Inn Jumeirah. Do we take an Abra then taxi? .....Steve

Steve,

You can take a Taxi to the Al Seef area and then walk beside the Creek as the heritage area stretches all along the Creekside and take an abra (small water taxis) across to Deira side as well if you want to visit the Spice Souq and the old Gold Souq... Again, just get a taxi back to the Holiday Inn Jumeirah... You can easily spend 3-4 hours doing that....

Anne...

4 hours ago, dynamic cruiser said:

Hi Anne:

 

I understand there's a ferry which goes along the Jumeirah coast and it's the best way to get a good photo of the Al Burj Arab Hotel.

1)   Where do we board the ferry and is it close to Metro station Al Ghubalba?

2)   Are there stops along the way?

3)   How long does it take to do a round trip?

4)   Any idea what the cost is?

Is the Mono Rail a good alternative to the ferry?

We have approx. 4 hours before getting back to the ship 

Thank you in advance.

 

Regards,

Steve

Steve,

Here is the link to the Dubai Ferry site with all the details, timings costs, etc....  You would need the ferry that operates between Al Ghubaiba and Dubai Marina in order to pass and photograph the Burj Al Arab.  I haven't used the service but I have seen them when I've been down by the Creek and I'm not sure about getting good photographs from them as they are enclosed??    The best option for getting photographs of the Burj Al Arab is by going out on a tourist boat from Dubai Marina as it is a much shorter distance trip and they sit off the Burj Al Arab so those onboard can get photographs.   Unfortunately your 4 hour time window doesn't really give you much time for getting out to Dubai Marina, onto the water and then back onshore and back to the cruise terminal so I'm not sure what to suggest as an alternative, other than taking either the HoHo bus along Jumeirah Beach or getting a taxi out there and photographing the Burj from the beach beside the Jumeirah Beach Hotel or from the Madinat Jumeirah which is the other side of the Burj Al Arab....

https://www.dubai-ferry.com/routes/

I'm not sure what you mean when you ask about the monorail... The only monorail operates along the 'trunk' of Dubai Palm, there isn't a monorail that operates near the Burj Al Arab???? 

Anne...

If you are a ‘family’ travelling together then I don’t see it being an issue.  I’ve been travelling with Emirates since they first took to the skies and have never seen them segregate individual family members luggage.  When I travelled with my sons we just handed over three tickets, put all the luggage on the belt together and provided we weren’t over the combined weight limit they were all checked in and went down the conveyor together...  The changes last year were in baggage weight limits for different Economy Class fare categories.  Whereas previously all Economy fares received 30kgs, only the flex fares receive that limit now with the Saver fares getting a lower limit (I think 25kgs).... If they checked in all family member’s luggage piece by piece by ticket-holder we’d all be at check-in for hours!!!!   The only restriction I have ever come across is no individual piece should exceed 28kgs.....

With regard to Skoobdo’s comment above, I think he is referring to flights to/from the US which is by pieces allowed per person as opposed to actual weight limits but US flights are an exception in that regard....
 

Anne...

I’ve been a resident of the UAE for a very long time.   Skoobdo summed up the current situation perfectly.   The recent torrential rains and subsequent flooding, etc. has caused way more inconvenience that anything ‘political’ has, or is likely to..... Enjoy your holiday..

Anne...

29 minutes ago, UK Cruiser2 said:

Thanks for the info. Wont be too hot when we go in 3 weeks.

That I can guarantee - it's been wet and chilly for well over a week now.  I even had my house flooded last Saturday as a result of torrential overnight storms.... If you believe the weather forecasters it should brighten up again from today - fingers crossed it does!!!!    I can't remember where the nearest HoHo stop is to the Hyatt Regency, but a short taxi ride to Baniyas Street (the road right beside The Creek) should get you to one of the stops if they don't go by the hotel....

Anne..

30 minutes ago, Cyclospora said:

Hi Anne

 

We have booked a cruise and stay package and the hotel before the cruise is the Holiday Inn Dubai - Al Barsha. I understand it is close to the Mall of the Emirates and a Metro stop but seems to be quite a way from the Creek and the Fountains. It also seems to be quite far out on the Hop on Hop off map which we were thinking of using to get around. Should we bother?

 

Thanks

 

Anne (another one :))

Anne,

If you scroll back through this thread you will find posts from Simon (sddsddean) who used the Holiday Inn Barsha as a base during his pre-cruise stay about a year ago and used both the Metro and the HoHo buses extensively to get around the city.  The Mall of the Emirates is on the HoHo route and is I believe a changeover stop between a couple of the different colour routes.  It is quite a way out from the Creek but it is only 3 or 4 stops on the Red Line from  MofE to Dubai Mall for the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai Fountains.   As for the hotel itself, hopefully Simon will see this and comment on that directly for you...

Anne...

2 hours ago, MN Cruizin said:

Hello Anne, 

We will be disembarking a cruise ship in Dubai in early March.  We will be staying 2 nights in Dubai and then flying back to the USA on Royal Jordanian Airlines.  We will be in Abu Dhabi the day before we arrive in Dubai to disembark.  I understand that the cruise line (NCL) is handling visas for all of the ports on the cruise, and I just got to thinking that we might need a visa after we disembark in Dubai.  If so, how do we go about getting a visa?  And, is it free if we are staying such a short  time?  We will probably be in Dubai for less than 48 hours before we fly home.  I read something online about being able to get a visa on arrival.  Is this possible coming off of a cruise ship?  Thank you!!  Nancy

 

Nancy

If you are entering the UAE via the port of Abu Dhabi the day prior to embarkation in Dubai then you will already have received a short visit visa there that covers your stay right through until you exit the UAE via Dubai Airport for your return flight to the USA..... You need to do nothing further.....  

Anne...