Cruise 02: UAE - Abu Dhabi and Dubai

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Port: Abu Dhabi, UAE

By the time I awoke this morning the ship had already docked in our first port, Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. While I visited the UAE before, it was just Dubai, so this was a new city for me to explore. When I booked the cruise, I had selected several tours in the various ports along the way, including one in Abu Dhabi. Since this was my first cruise, I didn’t want to risk doing too much on my own in the various ports and risk missing the boat’s departure times.

Breakfast was again at the buffet and it was similar to dinner the night before: just so-so. The bacon was very good, as were the pancakes. The egg station allowed diners to have a chef make eggs any way they wanted, but it was very crowded. I nibbled on some food and had some juice before heading down to my cabin to prepare for my day tour.

All passengers were required to disembark the ship today to go through passport control, regardless of their plans for the day. Passengers taking tours, like me, were required to meet in the ship theatre at designated times so they could organize our departures. I was given a group number by a member of staff and then waited until it was my group’s turn to depart. When exiting the ship, the staff scanned everyone’s keycards so they could track who was on and off the ship. I then proceeded to the passport control area, where a sticker with my cabin number was placed on the back of my passport. The staff then collected everyone’s passports, which they would retain for the remainder of the voyage. I felt a bit strange surrendering my passport, but I knew that it was so they could best facilitate our entry at each port.

Outside of the cruise terminal were several tour busses, each one with a different group number on the front. I found my bus and climbed aboard, excited to see what Abu Dhabi has to offer! The day’s tour was a simple city tour, which is what I love to do whenever I visit a new city. Since my time here was limited, I figured that this would allow me to see as much as possible. Once the bus was full, we set off on our tour.

The first stop was at a ‘historical’ village, but we made a brief photo stop at a scenic overlook that gave us a view of the entire city. The local guide on the bus really talked up the historical village that we were visiting, but the reality of the place when we arrived was disappointing. It was a collection of small buildings that didn’t really have much to offer for visitors. I had a short walk around the village and was ready to move on to our next destination. The rest of the group wrapped up their visit in the village rather quickly as well.

After stopping at one more lookout point, the tour continued on to the main sight for today: the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Built in the early 2000s, it is the UAE’s largest mosque and is a smaller replica of a mosque in Indonesia. The late president of UAE, for whom the mosque is named, wanted it to symbolize peace, tolerance and diversity. It is a massive complex covering over 30 acres of land, and several foreign dignitaries have visited the mosque since it’s completion, including Queen Elizabeth II.

When we arrived at the complex, we were led below ground where the ticket offices and entrance are located. A large indoor shopping mall was built there as well, fully of stores, restaurants, and cafes. The mosque has a very strict dress code, as is standard for mosques. For people who did not have appropriate coverings, there were several stores in the mall that sold simple coverings for tourists at reasonable prices. One American woman in my group outright refused to visit the mosque and declined to buy any covering – it became plainly obvious that she had zero interest in visiting a Muslim religious site, which I found to be very disappointing. The tour description clearly stated that this was the highlight, so why would someone like her sign up to go on this tour?

My clothes are usually acceptable for entering mosques, but this one was particularly strict, which meant that my T-shit was insufficient because a small part of a tattoo was peaking out from my sleeve. The guide pointed out a store to me that had the cheapest men’s clothing, so I quickly popped inside and purchased one. It was a simple and entirely white, but it fit me and it satisfied the dress code.

Our guide then led us through the entrance and through various security queues. At one point we had to line up in two lines by gender so the staff could quickly examine everyone to ensure we were following the dress code. For some inexplicable reason, the concept of lining up by gender proved difficult for many of the older people in the group and they seemed utterly confused by the process. One younger woman had tried tying a sweatshirt around her waist since she was wearing short-shorts, but this was insufficient for the dress code as her knees were still visible (our guide had stressed to use numerous times how important it was to be dressed appropriately – as had the tour briefing from the cruise). They had to turn back to buy some clothes before rejoining us later on in the mosque.

The group then took escalators back above ground so we could enter the mosque itself. The building was constructed with white marble that shone brightly in the daytime sun. Twin reflecting pools flanked either side of the main entrance. The entrance gate itself was covered with intricate and detailed floral carvings – all in white. Inside, the neutral color theme continued, which I feel enhanced the beauty of the artwork throughout the mosque. There were several smaller domes that had astonishingly detailed artwork.

The central courtyard of the mosque was massive and our guide told us that the place could hold over 40,000 people! Visitors could not enter or cross the courtyard though – we had to walk along the covered walkways surrounding the area – which made the pictures all the better because there weren’t crowds of people all over the place. The stone tiles of the courtyard had colorful floral patterns around the perimeter, which was the first hint of color that I’d seen in the mosque thus far. The guide graciously took a photo of me in front of the courtyard – she insisted that I must have a picture of me wearing the traditional Arab robe.

The true beauty of the mosque awaited us as we neared the central building. The doorways were surrounded with more colorful floral stonework, with an amazing chandelier hanging above the entryway. The chandeliers in the mosque were all imported from Germany and had incorporated an immense number of Swarovski crystals. The colored stones that made up the flowers on the walls were also imported from around the world, which helped support the vision of Sheik Zayed of uniting the world.

Inside the mosque we were able to marvel at more chandeliers and the remarkable carpet that lined the floor. Again, visitors were not permitted to wander about freely in order to help preserve the carpet. The chandeliers inside were even grander than the ones outside and are some of the most unique features I’ve ever seen. The carpet, which was made in Iran, is one of the largest ever made in that country – it weighs 35 tons! The huge building was supported by dozens of stone columns throughout the main prayer hall, each of which was simply, but beautifully, decorated. It was truly a unique mosque and breathtaking to behold!

When our visit at the mosque concluded, we returned to the underground shopping mall, where we met back up with the woman who had refused to enter the mosque. The guide gave the group a short bathroom break, during which a couple tourists from a different group (though still part of the cruise) asked her for help – they had missed their group’s earlier departure time back to the boat. She agreed to let them ride back to the ship with our group, which was kind of her. When it came time for us to leave, several people in our group were missing. It turned out that they had gone to get coffee or ice cream at one of the shops, which was incredibly stupid of them since the queues at every shop were ridiculously long! Once back on the bus, our guide reminded everyone how important it is to be on time for these tours and to not wander off to get snacks when there wasn’t enough time.

Once back at the terminal, I made my way back onboard. When returning from shore, we had to scan our key cards and go through airport-style security. It was forbidden to bring aboard any food or drinks, which is primarily what they were scanning for to prevent people from bringing back alcohol, etc. It seems silly, but the ship has strict rules around alcohol, which I had zero problem following – especially if it keeps passengers from being obnoxious drunks while onboard.

I took a short nap in my cabin before heading upstairs to the buffet, where I nibbled on the afternoon snacks. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing. I read quite a bit of my new book by the pool, where there was a large, covered seating area. I was looking forward to completely disconnecting over the next two weeks – I could kick back and read to my heart’s content!

During dinner this evening (again, at the buffet), I received some messages from work on my phone (we were still in port, so I had signal). One of my employees had not shown up to work that day and wasn’t responding to phone calls – very atypical of him. About an hour later I got a call that he was in the hospital, though we didn’t know exactly why (we had our suspicions). From what work was told, he would be in hospital for several days, which prompted work to call me to see if there was any way I could work during the cruise. They offered to pay for the ship’s WiFi package and I felt that I had no choice but to agree. At the very least, it would provide me with something to do during the long days at sea. However, I stressed to work that the cruise itself and my plans would take priority since the trip had been planned as time off for me. Since it was such an extenuating circumstance, I didn’t really mind having to work.

By the time the ship left port around midnight, I was already back in my cabin getting ready for bed. Overall it had been an okay start to the day. While the shore excursion wasn’t the best tour, it had let me see some of Abu Dhabi. I hoped that future shore excursions would be an improvement though.

 
Friday, February 14, 2025

Port: Dubai, UAE

The cruise ship had already docked in Dubai by the time I woke up this morning. I did not have a tour booked for today since I have visited Dubai already, so I took my time getting ready this morning. I ate breakfast at the buffet before heading ashore. Once I was outside the cruise terminal, I hailed an Uber to drive me over to the Dubai Mall, where I planned to spend the day.

The mall was virtually empty when I arrived around 10:00, with only a few stores and cafes open. The mall itself is gigantic, with several wings and multiple floors of stores for shoppers to enjoy. One could easily spend hours just walking around the mall and easily get lost among the shops. I wandered around until I found a Starbucks, were I relaxed for a few hours, both working and reading.

Around lunch time, I went for a walk outside the mall so I could see the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building. During my previous visit to Dubai, I had gone to the top of the tower, so I didn’t have the need to revisit it on this visit. I contented myself with walking around the outdoor plaza at the base of the tower, where a large pool was located. A musical fountain show is put on in the pool throughout the day, though I did not wait around to see it today.

Since the food onboard the ship was proving to be so underwhelming, I was glad to be able to eat at the mall’s food court today. There were dozens of places to choose from, but everywhere was packed with people. I finally settled on having a burrito, which was both filling and tasty (vastly superior to anything I’d eaten on the ship). When I finished with lunch, I made my way to one of the designated Uber pickup spots in the mall so I could head back to the cruise ship.

I spent the afternoon relaxing onboard. I was beginning to fall into a routine of either hanging out near the pool (if there was space) or in the coffee shop on deck six. Dinner was back at the buffet, where the food options continued to disappoint. The Asian section proved to be the most reliable area for me to find something to eat, usually fried rice.

Our departure from Dubai was at 17:00 so we could begin the long journey to our next destination: the Seychelles!