Ocean Princess sailed from Dubai at a little past 6 PM last night (Tue) after a man was taken off for medical reasons. Our ship is now travelling south thru the Sea of Oman after navigating the Straits of Hormuz at 1 am this morning.
Dubai is simply amazing - a city of such magnitude in the middle of the desert. The purpose in creating this metropolis was to make a financial economic hub that will long out live the oil revenues in the region. Our visit included the Dubai Museum in the old city; then a Dubai Creek cruise on an old platform boat. Dubai Creek might be called an small inlet as it is salt water and is quite wide. We then went to the Spice Souk followed by the Gold Souk which had every kind of jewellery from items in the millions of dollars all the way down to copy watches. We then went to the Grand Mosque - one of several mosques in the city. The next stop was the Burj Al Arab - the only 7 Star Hotel in the world. It has a tennis court and a helicopter pad at the top. One can book high tea for about $75 per person if one desired to go inside just to see this amazing place. We met a good friend, Bruce Watson, a local resident there at the hotel who took us onward to one of several Tim Horton's at the Dubai Mall. Bruce is a senior executive with Emirates Air and a fabulous host. Right next door to Tim Horton's is the Burj Kalifa - the tallest structure in the world and it looks so amazing it almost seemed like it might not be real. We went for a drive in the desert minus the AZ Saguaro Cactus. We toured past the horse race track then back to the ship.

A very clean safe and modern city but I am not sure if it would fit into the best priced category. The beach looked awesome but a little light on surf as it faces into the Persian Gulf.