April 8 - 21
Day 1
We flew overnight and arrived into Dubai at 5AM. We collected our bags, had breakfast, and thought about our plan for the day. We were not allowed to board the ship until noon, so we needed to figure out a way to keep ourselves occupied for the morning. We found that the Dubai Museum, which is described as a must see attraction, opened at 830, so we went for it. On the way, we were able to see a bit of the city. Dubai is a very big, clean, safe, and modern city. We were really impressed with the architecture of the buildings. The clearest landmark in the skyline is the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world at the moment. Another building that stood out was one under construction that looked twisted. The museum was about a 10 min ride from the airport and we found that taxis are very inexpensive. The museum is a natural history museum, showing the development of Dubai over the years. Dubai is one of the 7 emirates in the United Arab Emirates. Dubai is the second largest geographically, but the largest economically with about 3.5 million people. The original inhabitants were Nomads. A tribe settled in the area and supported themselves with agriculture, fishing, and pearl diving. That is until they struck oil and their life changed very rapidly - a real Beverly Hillbilly’s story. The sudden wealth brought infrastructure, jobs, and immigration. Only about 30% of the population are UAE nationals.
The museum had a lot of interesting displays, but what fascinated me was the traditional huts (essentially sticks and leaves). The interesting part is that they were built with a “chimney” that captured wind and funneled it into the huts to create "air conditioning".
After a couple of hours at the museum, we took a taxi to the port and tried to check in early. It was a good gamble because they were allowing people to check in early and we got there just before a big bus tour dropped off a bunch of people. We checked in quickly, got aboard the ship, had lunch at the windjammer, and then slipped into our suits for some swimming. We were pretty beat, so instead of swimming, we all took a nap on some recliners in the Solarium. After our nap, we got settled into our room and got ready for dinner.
We ate dinner in the main dining room. We were seated at a table for 8. We had requested to be seated at a table for 4 so that we could talk together as a family. Fortunately, no one else sat at our table so we had the whole thing to ourselves.
After dinner, we went to the show. It was an introduction by a cruise director, Matt Sole (who’s intro music every night was Soul Man – very creative), as well as an intro performances by the RCL singers and dancers.
Day 2
We got up late and made a gametime decision to visit the Jumeirah Mosque before the ship departed at 1PM. The only way to visit the mosque is through the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, which leads a guided tour called Open Doors Open Minds. We went on the tour which was very educational.
We watched the cleansing ritual that takes place before prayer and JP and Sandy even got to take part. They think of the cleansing ritual as what you do before any big date or interview, except that the date is with God.
We went inside the men’s portion of the mosque. The woman’s mosque is a small room off to the side. We learned that men are obligated to go to the mosque to pray while women are not. They mentioned that the women’s mosque in the shopping mall is bigger than the men’s because that is where the women spend most of their time. We learned about the 5 pillars of Islam: Prayer 5 times per day, fasting during Ramadan, charity, trip to Mecca and belief that Allah is the one and only god. A couple of other interesting points:
• On the point of charity, a Muslim must give 2.5% of their salary to those in need.
• The Berka worn by women is at their choice, but most find that it is convenient to wear it. Underneath, they usually have jeans and t shirt. It is same with the facial covering that some women wear. It is very sunny and windy in Dubai so the facial covering is an easy way to protect the skin.
• Muslims believe that they have an angel standing at each shoulder. The one on the right writes down all the good deeds and the one on the left all the bad deeds.
• Fasting during Ramadan is a way to think about the poor who do not have enough to eat.
• Muslims believe Mecca to be a holy place. Adam and Eve got separated from each other for a while and this is the place where they reunited. God asked Abraham to walk around the spot 7 times to mark its location. His footsteps can still be seen. A small black mosque is built on the spot. When building the mosque, a rock was found in the perimeter that Abraham had walked around. The rock was white and was like nothing anyone had ever seen. The builders incorporated the rock into the construction – it is contained within one of the walls and can still be accessed. Over the years it has turned black. Scientists were brought in to determine why it turned black. They could not figure it out, but could only conclude that the rock is not from Earth.
After getting back on the ship, we had lunch at the windjammer and then got reaquainted with the ship by playing mini golf and ping pong. We wanted to do rock climbing, but it was extremely windy so they closed the rock climbing wall. We ended up going swimming and spending time in the hot tub.
We tried a different table for dinner, but the table was extremely small. It was a table for two that was set for four. We had a nice dinner but decided that the bigger table would be better.
We went to the evening entertainment, which was a sax player/singer/comedian. He was very talented, but the act was better suited for adults, so we left early, put the kids to bed and tried our luck in the casino. We played the machine that pushes coins over the edge and managed to win 30.
