February 2019: Dubai Diary – Day 1

We landed in Dubai at around 7:00pm local time after a 12 hour flight from Boston. None of us slept more than a couple hours so we were excited to be there but also in a slight daze.

The Airport Experience

After deplaning we headed towards the customs/immigration area. It was a LOOOONG ways from the gate. We walked for a solid 20 minutes to finally get to the passport control area. Luckily there were moving walkways but it did seem to go on forever. For whatever reason our gate was just at the far end of the terminal.

Getting our passports checked took just a few seconds. Being from the US we got our visa on arrival. We then proceeded into the massive baggage claim area to get our bags. The bags for our flight were just coming out and we only had to wait a couple minutes before we saw both our bags.

The airport, while huge, was well laid out and easy to navigate. Signs were in Arabic and English and it was obvious where to go.

After going through customs we looked for an ATM to get some local currency. There were several that were, again, easy to find. We quickly found the location of the kiosk to get our SIM cards as well. We presented the voucher I had printed out, handed over our passports for scanning and were all set up within 10 minutes.

After such a long flight we all needed a bite to eat. We were pointed in the direction of a small food court upstairs in the departures level. There were a few options and we went with the safe and familiar option from Burger King. My wife, who had slept more on the plane and had more energy found something more local.

To the Hotel

The kids were refreshed after getting a bite to eat and we headed off to find a taxi to the hotel. Signs were clearly marked and there was an orderly line of a half dozen groups ahead of us being directed to the next available taxi. We were directed to a “pink” taxi. Apparently in Dubai they offer taxis for women only that are driven by women. They can apparently choose to offer rides for families, but can refuse a ride to a group consisting only of men.

In any case, the ride we perfectly fine. The taxi was clean and new and the driver never said a word, which we found would be the custom with nearly all our taxi rides male or female. There were no chatty drivers, that’s for sure. We were also able to pay with a credit card.

The drive to the hotel took us down one of the main roads in Dubai. Since it was night the skyline was full of color and uniquely shaped buildings. We said “wow” nearly constantly at all the unique buildings. I think a “normally” shaped skyscraper would actually stand out as being retro or minimalist!

Hotel Room

It was about 30 minutes to get to our hotel from the airport and it cost about $30. We were greeted warmly at checkin and they noted my wife’s Titanium status with Marriott. Titanium is the new name for the Platinum Premiere status she already had. I was happy to see the desk agent refer to it with the new name which had just rolled out a couple days earlier with the renamed rewards program called Marriott Bonvoy. What a dumb name and a great way to waste millions of dollars, but that’s what they decided to call it. At least it’s just a rename and doesn’t change any of the actual benefits.

The checkin process was one of the best we’ve ever experienced. Tomitico eloquently described it as “epic”. They confirmed that we got the 2 bedroom suite we had booked and told us we were upgraded to a room on a higher floor with an ocean view of the palm island like we had hoped, but not expected. With our status we also got a buffet breakfast for two in the restaurant and a 25% discount on breakfast for the kids. That worked out to be about $12 US for each kid which was very reasonable.

The desk agent also gave us a map of the city and pointed out some recommendations. He gave us the schedule for the complementary shuttle to Kite Beach and the Burj Kalifa/Duba Mall/Mall of the Emirates areas. We didn’t know this existed but we’d definitely factor that into our plans. He also recommended some tours and trips and informed us we could talk to a travel agent in the morning to get detail on those options. I was also able to change some of the larger bills I had gotten from the ATM at the airport so I would have more money for tips and other things.

With that, we were ready to go up to our room and boy were we surprised with what we found….

HUGE is an understatement. In our room, we walked down the short entryway to the living room with expansive views of the palm islands at night. Amazing. This was the living room/dining room and there was a door out to a small balcony as well. This room itself was probably 15 feet by 30 feet. Behind that was a large kitchen with a large stove, full size refrigerator, full size dishwasher, microwave, and all the utensils. Just outside the kitchen was a small bathroom. We had enough space to throw a huge party for all our friends, if only they lived in Dubai.

After finding the living room we started checking all the doors to see where the bedrooms were. We eventually found a hallway leading to what we would refer to as the sleeping wing. The first bedroom had two twin beds and would be the room the boys would stay in. The second one had a king size bed. Both bedrooms had a full bathroom and was large enough to serve as a normal hotel room all by itself. They also had views of the ocean.

There was also a sort of storage room which had a rollaway bed in it that we didn’t use. Next to that room was another bathroom, though that one had fixtures which were of lower quality. We never fully figured out what those rooms were really for. We joked that was where the butler lived but maybe there was some cultural reason for that room and the lower quality bathroom that we didn’t quite understand.

In all there was a TON of space to spread out in. There were several times during out stay that we had trouble finding each other! This was literally a furnished apartment and we could easily have lived there permanently.

Calling it a Night

While it was just after noon at home it was getting late in Dubai so we needed to call it a night. Other than my wife, who had slept more on the plane than we did, we were all pretty tired and fell right asleep. I did remember to set the alarm to make sure we didn’t miss breakfast in the morning.

We didn’t have anything specific planned for the morning as we didn’t know how we’d adjust. We were hoping for a solid night of rest so we could wake up in close to the right time zone.