India to Dubai

A final early morning wake-up call in India, then breakfast and the trip to the airport. India has been exactly as our guide promised, An experience and not a holiday. The sights and sounds and the crush of people everywhere make India unique and initially a shock. My poor sense of smell may well have been an advantage on this trip. The excursion was shorted by one overnight stay at a hotel and was reorganised on the fly magnificently and with good humour. We did manage to do all of the items on the original schedule, sometimes in a different sequence and in the case of the morning visits to the Taj Mahal and Amber Fort this was probably for the better. We are both so pleased to have been able to do the trip and it has lived up to all the hype and our expectations.

I'm putting the good night's sleep down to the technology employed at the Hotel.

As usual, the full amount of time was required at the airport to check and clear security. More of the time was taken finding the Oman Air lounge which was hidden away in a Holiday Inn airport hotel.

The first flight was comfortable and included an early lunch to follow up the breakfast and snacks in the airport lounge.

A comfortable flight in a comfortable seat. Kathy still maintains her seat was already broken so she had to move to a new seat for the landing.

A short stopover at the Muscat, Oman airport before boarding a short flight to Dubai. This was necessary as the ship had skipped to stop in Muscat so we had to fly ahead to catch the ship in Dubai. A bit of an inconvenience for those who had plans for Muscat. However, as Princess made all the arrangements and picked up the tab not a big concern for us. The airport in Muscat was new, large and over the top as expected and nothing like the crowds we had recently been used to.

Onto Dubai and another over-the-top airport where we were met and guided through immigration and onto buses for a short trip to an airport hotel. As the bar was open while we were waiting for room allocation we did not immediately feel the heat.

The Millennium Airport Hotel was a huge complex and our group had rooms varying in size from huge to huge suites with multiple rooms.

Dinner and then breakfast and lunch were provided and more than acceptable. The pool area was large and included lounges and shade. The night we arrived there was a pool party in full swing and Piney went missing.

The next morning we found Piney at the pool which was a great place to relax and wait before our afternoon transfer to the ship. The bar did not open until noon which was a shame but the pool area was still a great place to rest up.

Back onto the ship, through a huge modern cruise terminal, cavernous and almost empty each time we went through. There were a few passengers getting on and off at Dubai. (possibly around 50)

Dubai itself continues to expand in size and in its collection of amazing architecture. Roads are wide and modern yet somehow choked with traffic. Temperatures were up above 40 with the weather apps saying it felt more like 50 degrees. I have to agree.

On the first night, we did a Dhow Dinner cruise. It was still baking hot and we ended up sitting on the open top deck which was uncomfortable until we started moving and some breeze was generated. The boat and the dinner were pretty much the same as buffet dinner cruises the world over and the only beer available was Budweiser. Still, the view of the buildings and the illuminations made the trip worth it.

The next day we tried the Hop-On-Hop-Off bus. Not much hopping off was done but we did the tour of Old Dubai on the red route. and spent some time in the huge mall to recover in the air-conditioned edifice before boarding the blue route to head back to the ship. The whole trip took all morning and into the afternoon and we finished up at the cruise terminal trying to calculate how best to spend our remaining Dirhams on fridge magnets and chocolate.

It was good to have a look around Dubai, rather than just the brief airport stopovers we have previously done. While not a bucket list destination for us there are certainly attractions worth a look and we would probably have tried to see more if we were not still decompressing after the India overland.