Day 8 Dubai 21/03/2009

We arrived in Dubai at 7.00am just as indicated on our itinerary. Deb and I were up at 5.30 and had our showers and then our early morning tea before going up on deck to watch her pull in to the terminal. We are located just behind the Queen Elizabeth 2 - which was sold to Dubai for refurbishment and conversion to a floating hotel. Not much has happened to it yet, and it looks very small alongside the QM2.
Dubai was shrouded in smog as we arrived and it was difficult to take a decent photo or video but we tried. Today a large number of passengers leave the ship as their holiday is over. Deb and I are booked on a tour to Dubai, but is is scheduled for 1.30pm, so we are able to stay on board and watch the proceedings.
After breakfast, we take our books and sunglasses and go up to deck 7 where we get ourselves a lounge in the shade, and watch and listen to the announcements related to disembarking. I figured it would give us some idea of what it will be like when we get to Southampton.
It took nearly 4 hours to disembark all the passengers. Our Deck - 6 was the last one to be disembarked, so I hope that won't be the same when we get off.
Much of the ship was closed to everyone, and we managed to get ourselves a cup of tea and a muffin around 10.00am. We went back to our cabin after that to have a rest from the heat, and get ready for lunch. Lunch is only available in the Britannia Restaurant from 12.30pm and we have to be in the muster area from 1.00pm so it will cutting it fine for lunch.
Deb and I have discovered that the organisation of the tours is quite poor - in fact disorganised would be a better way of putting it. We found it hard to comprehend that they scheduled lunch for 12.30pm, knowing that there were quite a number of people going on the tours in the afternoon. We duly arrived at the assigned time for lunch, only to find that they didn't open the doors until 12.35pm and didn't seem to know that we would need to be our again by 1.00pm. Deb ordered soup and I had a turkey sandwich, which we only just managed to eat before racing off to the Queen's Room to get assigned to our tour bus.
Once again we found it very frustrating, as Deb and I were told to follow 2 other ladies to the gangway and off the ship, rather than being escorted off with our tour guide. Eventually, wer found our way to the gangway, and then to the area where the bus was located, only to be told that we were late and that others had arrived earlier and were already on the bus. This really upset Deb and me, and it looks like another letter of complaint will be written to the tour office.
We are finding more and more that the Service on the Cunard Line is not living up to its reputation - which is really disappointing. Whether we receive an acknowlegement regarding this we will wait to see.
The tour of Dubai was quite interesting, and we drove around this very modern city with enormous building projects going on everywhere. The guide told us that Dubai was only 37 years old. We drove to a number of different areas, and took photos etc. One place had an indoor ski run - the Kempinski Hotel - which was the same hotel group that we stayed with in Budapest. They make 80 tons of snow a day to keep the ski run operating. It is 400 metres long and 81 metres high. Talk about a waste of money.
Petrol is ridiculously cheap in the United Arab Emirates but the guide said that the oil supply will only last them another 30 years.
A lot of the building work has been suspended because of the global financial crisis, and the guide said that they expected to resume this in 12 months or so.
The tour ended with a visit to the Gold Souk (market) where we were allowed to spend some time. Deb and I spent our money on a Baskin and Robbins icecream - which we believed was the sale of the day.
We returned to the ship by 5.00pm, and she is due to sail at 6.00pm, but looks like leaving late because it hasn't finished loading supplies.
Tomorrow is another day at sea, and the following day we will be in Salalah, Oman. We have decided not to go ashore there, as all the tours were booked out, and they have advised that the only way to get into the city is by taxi, and the chances are that you might not be able to get one to bring you back unless you pay an excessive amount. So it will be lolling around on deck all day for us.