***If you find value in in this post, please spread the word. If you purchase a product that we recommend or are affiliated with, we may receive compensation and we appreciate your support as it helps us to bring you continued value.***
We're Going To Dubai
Recently, I came home from a day roof work. I was not home for more than five minutes when my wife told me that she wanted to go to Dubai. My wife is the type where she does not ask for much, but once she does and she has her mind set on it; it gets done. I was not very familiar with Dubai. I believe I knew about as much as most people, which was that everyone in the country is rich, there are exotic cars everywhere and it is home to the world’s tallest building. A friend of mine had recently told me about Priority Pass and hanging out in the airport lounge before flights so I figured worst case scenario, I’d take this trip, hangout in the lounges and see some cool cars. What I found was so much more. In this post, I’ll share my experience in Dubai and the five must do activities and adventures that you should also experience.
Priority Pass and Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Air France Lounge at Dulles International Airport
There were a lot of layers on this trip that helped it to be one of our best trips ever and it began with us getting off to a great start.
We gout out of the house early and parked at a local hotel using Global Airport Parking. This saves us a couple of dollars per day when we travel on parking our car at the airport. The shuttle took us to the airport and dropped us off at the Emirates at IAD – Dulles International Airport.
Getting through security was a breeze and once we arrived to our gate and we understood the lay of the land, it was time to test out this Priority Pass and see if it was worth all of the hype.
We were in Terminal A and just across from our gate…maybe a 30 second walk, was the Air France Lounge. So the crew and I gathered in front of the entrance and before I knew it, the doors were automatically opening and we were introduced to the life of luxury and finally able to see what lies behind those doors that I previously never knew existed. I must say, I was blown away. Buffet styled food…cereal…AUTOMATIC COFFEE MACHINE!!! Oh…and a full bar with complimentary drinks.
The boys got their food and we got them situated…then Autumn and I got a little breakfast and coffee. Then she said “Wil P…I think they have mimosas.” I said “Say no more,” and I got us drinks from the bar and sure enough…no charge… or, included with the membership. Of course, always tip your bartender.
After a couple of whiskeys (I get really nervous when I fly and this was about to be a 14 hour flight), I remember looking around at my three sons and my wife and in that moment thanking God for the life that we live. I did not take my first plane ride until I was a teenager and here theses boys are chillin’ in the airport lounge and are able to enjoy multiple trips per year. God is so good!
Well, this was a wonderful first Priority Pass experience in the Air France Lounge at Dulles International Airport. If this was any indication as to how this trip would be, then the best was yet to come. This is how every trip should begin!
Air Bus A-380
For this 14 hour flight, we were fortunate enough to ride the Air Bus A-380. It is the plane with the upper deck. Were were in the economy class near the front of the plane. It gave us a little more leg space than in the back of the plane, which came in handy, even for short people like us.
The crew was fantastic. They were attentive. They have a program where if you have young children (our youngest at the time of this writing is seven), then they take a picture of you and your family and give the child either a duffle bag or a book bag. We had three meals on this flight and their ICE entertainment system was just what the doctor ordered between naps.
To put the length of the trip into perspective, I was able to watch all there installments of Lord of the Rings and still have a lot of time in the air. This was a long flight. I had to be mindful to get up and stretch and walk around every couple of hours. At first I felt strange doing it, but when I saw another passenger doing it, I felt more comfortable and I even convinced Autumn to walk around and stretch a bit. My buddy Jermaine, who is lives in Amelia County, VA (shout out) suggested that I get some compression socks for the plane ride so Autumn and I both purchased a couple of pairs and I guess they helped out. I have to keep reminding myself that I am getting older and I just can’t wing it when it comes to my body because it is changing and simple things like compression socks can help with circulation. Jermaine said that these made him feel like he could dunk a basketball again, lol. I’ve never dunked a basked ball, but if it made him feel like that, then I wanted that feeling too.
As scheduled, just around 8:30am local time, we were touching down at Dubai International Airport. Thank God for a safe flight. We were able to exit the plane from the front and because we were only 4 or 5 rows back, we were one of the first to get off. Pretty cool! Let the vacation begin…or continue. Not sure where we are at this point. 🙂
Welcome to Dubai
The Beautiful Buildings of Dubai represented in
Lego Land Dubai.
After a 14 hour flight, we were finally in Dubai. Time to see what the deal is with this place. We got off of the plane and immediately went to the restroom. I’m a big believer in use the restroom when you can because you do not know when the next opportunity will present itself. Now that I got that out of the way, we had a 20 minute walk through the airport to get through customs and to the baggage claim. It was HOT!!! There were these huge windows that allowed the sun in and they acted like big magnifying glasses.
So, getting through customs took about 3 minutes. No issues. The distance between customs and baggage claim was about the length of two football fields. So it begins… “Would you like a free tour of Dubai. All you have to do is listen to a 45min presentation and we’ll pick you up from your hotel…it isn’t a timeshare.” Now…in my experience, when people lead with “what it isn’t” then usually, it is what they are saying it isn’t. At any rate, I left the first guy and before I could turn around, there was another one. Maybe 3 or 4 in total, but I had to just let them know, “I just got off of a 14 hour flight. I hear you talking, but I’m not listening.” We eventually made our way to our luggage and found the Emirates Vacation area (we booked the trip through Emirates Vacation). Our assistant directed us to our transport form the airport to our hotel – Lego Land Hotel.
The drive from the airport to the hotel took about 45min and we were able to see a lot of the popular buildings along the way. That was fun and exciting but I was really excited to reach our destination and just lay down in a bed for a few moments.
Legoland Resort - Dubai
Pulling up to the Legoland Hotel was really exciting. The boys had no idea where we were going to stay so once they saw the legos, they started to get hype. We arrived about 11:00 and just missed breakfast. The representatives at the front desk were very polite and they wasted no time getting our room assigned to us, as they had already made preparations for our early checkin. That said, Clark wasted no time checking out the indoor playground.
As I mentioned earlier, we booked our vacation through Emirates Vacations. We choose to stay at the Legoland for a few reasons… for starters, it’s Lego Land and who can resist Lego Land. Also, it included breakfast, lunch and dinner; so to be in a foreign country (or anywhere away from home) for an extended period of time with three kids and not have to worry about food, that was a HUGE plus. I’ll talk more about the food and the resort and the parks in another post, but that said, another reason for staying here is that we had full and unlimited access to all four of the theme parks on the property. These included LegoLand Dubai, Lego Water Park, Bolly World – which is a theme park based on classic movies from India and Motion Gate, which is similar to Universal Studios, and has rides and attractions based off of popular American movies from Columbia Pictures, LionsGate and DreamWorks. There was something for everyone from the youngest to the oldest. We stuck together for most of the time but when Clark wanted to do something more on his age, then I would stick with him and when there was a roller coaster or something more for Ethan and William, then Mommy went with them.
The average temperature while we were here was about 90 degrees. There was some really good strategic planning as a lot of the rides were indoors and the air conditioning was very welcomed and appreciated. Prior to leaving the States, we did order a couple hand held USB Fans which came in extra handy for walking from the hotel to the various parks and for when we were not in air conditioned environments.
The lines for the rides were very short. Most rides, we were able to walk right on and the ride attendants were waiting for us (or anyone) to show up. The few times that there was a line, we never waited longer than seven minutes.
Camel Ride - Sand Bashing - Desert Buffet
Emirates Vacations, offered us an opportunity to book our excursions through them. The benefit was that Emirates Vacation would make sure that the vendor who we were dealing with would take care of us. The catch was that we had to book all of our excursions at one the same time, so we felt kinda of rushed when describing and booking times around our schedules but it worked out. One of the excursions that we booked was a 3-in-One… Camel Ride, Sand Bashing and a Desert Buffet.
Our driver picked us up on time (he was actually early) in a Lexus Land Cruiser (this will make sense later). Our driver was also our tour guide. We drove for about an hour and then pulled off on side of the road into a small hut/store that was in the middle of the desert. This was our first destination. We were the only people there which made me feel kind of uneasy. The driver ushered us out of the car and into store and we were bombarded by aggressive salespeople putting desert scarves on our heads and putting colored desert sand in my kid’s hands and sell, sell, sell. I wasn’t prepared for it and before I knew it, I had paid $250U.S. for five head scarves. Then they found the traditional clothing that the men wear in my size. I started to get my earrings about myself and negotiated this a little better. They tried to hit me over the head for the sand and I was in character now and I was like “I am not going to pay $200 for some colored sand that my seven year old can make at the beach with sidewalk chalk and I not know the difference.” I walked the tight rope and balanced contributing to their economy and individual pockets vs getting taken advantage of so I paid $60 for the bottled sand. I still did not feel good about the $50 each for the head scarves, but it is what it is.
After about 15 minutes, more people and other groups began to arrive and it felt good to see others go through the same experience that I just went through. Once we were done with the shopping, we were escorted outside and prepared for our camel ride. There were three camels laying down that were linked together by a rope. Ethan and William got on the first camel. Autumn and Clark got on the second camel. The third camel and I locked eyes and he let out a big groan, as if to say “You are not getting on me!” I got on him, but he didn’t like it. As he stood up, he released another groan and we started our walk. The guide lead the first camel by rope while the second and third camel followed. We walked for about seven minutes and stopped. A kid drove up on a 4-Wheeler and took pictures. Then we returned to our starting point. Part of me was like, “we paid how much for what?!?” Then I was like, “did you really want to be on longer? That was enough.”
There was a gentleman holding a falcon to take pictures, but our guide explained to us that there would be a falcon holder at the dinner buffet and we could take pictures there at no charge, so we waited for that experience. The sales person approached and wanted to sell me the print out of the pictures that were taken on the camels in the desert while we were out. Again…balance supporting the local economy vs being taken advantage of. We went from $150 US to $40 US for the five pictures. I believe that was fare. After the transaction, we got back into our ride.
We drove about five minutes and went on the side of the road again. Here, the driver switched gears and we entered the sand dunes of the desert and our off road sand bashing adventure started. I did not know what to expect. I’d seen a few videos on the YouTube with the cars in the sand, but never really though much of it. Well…after about 30 seconds, I learned really quick that this is pretty intense. We saw cars on side of the sand that had stalled out or needed some maintenance. All that I could think of was that this is not the place to breakdown because as far as the eye could see in every direction was sand, sand and more sand. Flat sand. Sand mountains. “Hey, what’s that over there?” “Sand!” At any rate, this guy was really good. Where was sand coming up over the car. He’d to go the top of a sand mountain and we’d go down 10 and 12 pitch declines and the car would be just fine. I see now why he picked us up in a Lexus Land Cruiser. This was really intense and it just kept going on. We were out there for about 30 or 45 minutes. I was able to get some pretty good video footage. We all really enjoyed it. Once done, we parked and did some sand boarding (snow boarding, but on the sand) until the sun started to go down, then we made our way to the dusk buffet in the desert…about another 30 minute drive away.
The food was nothing to write home about…three or four different types of rice. Something with sauce on it. Some dried out pieces of chicken and some seasoned ground lamb. That was pretty good, in fact it was the best thing on the menu. I did not eat much because the bathroom was not the best and I did not want nature to start calling with me being two hours away from the hotel. It worked out.
There were four shows. A guy who turned in circles. Literally…that’s all he did. Turned in circles…spinning and spinning and spinning for about 10 minutes. I just kept thinking to myself, “is this what they did for entertainment before they found oil out here?” That said, as far as professional spinners go, this guy had to have been at the top of the list. There was a second show…I forget what it was, but one of the boys will remind me later and I’ll update the post. The third show was a belly dance. After she finished, everyone was allowed to eat. Following dinner, there was another show featuring a fire eater. He was pretty good. And the last show for the evening was another belly dancer. Her top was a little too big and I believe she had a wardrobe malfunction in the very beginning of her show, which may have been a good thing because the had the attention of everyone in the audience from that point on.
After the show, we headed back to the hotel. I gave the driver proper warning and let him know that if he hears strange sound then he should not worry and we are not being attacked by a bear, it’s just that I snore…loud…and it may not seem natural, but I promise that I and we will be all right. He said that he understood. about an hour later or two later, we pulled up to the hotel. I was well rested…he was traumatized. I gave him a great tip and we disembarked his automobile and headed straight to the hotel dining room with just enough time to get a proper dinner before they closed for the evening. What a day!
At The Top: Burg Kalifa | Mall of Dubai | Water Show
Our tour to the Burg Kalifa did not come with transportation, so we took a taxi. The hotel has taxi cabs that wait outside, so there was no trouble hailing one. It took about 30 minutes to arrive to the Dubai Mall. The cost was 123 Dirhams…about $35U.S
The most popular attraction in Dubai is probably the Burg Kalifa. It is in the Guiness Book of World Records for being the tallest building in the world. It is also known world wide for being the tallest building in the world and if you visit Dubai, then you’ve got to visit the Burg Kalifa.
The Burg Kalifa, is attached to or right next to the Mall of Dubai – which is the largest mall in the world. Our Burg Kalifa tour was scheduled for 3pm. Every evening, there is a water show just under the Burg Kalifa, that puts you in the mindset of the Water Show at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, NV. The plan was to arrive early enough to be able to tour the mall a bit. Then do our tour. Then hang out until the sun went down to see the water show at the Burg Kalifa. It worked out perfect!
We toured the mall. There was an Air Jordan store that had every pair of Jordan’s in gold.
We eventually made our way to the checkin for Burg Kalifa and picked up our ticket. The representative told us that if we wanted to take our tickets now and start our tour, then we could. We had about 2 hours to go before our tour started so we took her up on her offer. It took 56 seconds to ascend to the 125th floor. We were greeted by picture takers once we got off of the elevator. We purchased the packet because who knows when we’ll return and the boys are getting older.
We had a great view of Dubai and once the city stopped, it was sand as far as the eye could see. It was as if someone took the city and dropped it in the middle of the desert.
The New Museum in Dubai.
The Unexpected 3-Hour Tour
After we finished taking pictures and posing and taking more pictures, we made our way to the elevator and back down. Back to the regular section off the mall and the food court where we could not resist the temptation to have lunch at McDonalds and get a McRoyal with Cheese. By the time we finished eating it was time to go outside and claim our space on the fence to view the water show.
Once the show was over we headed back inside of the mall with plans to make our way to the taxi cab area and make our way back to the Lego Hotel. As I was approaching the door, a fella said hello and introduced himself as a tour guide. He offered to take us on a three hour tour of Dubai for 200 Dirhams and drop us off at our hotel. Autumn and I discussed it for a few moments and if it just made sense. We paid 123 Dirhams to get to get to the mall. We’d probably pay about the same to return to the hotel. For a few dollars more, we could get a tour.
We were not really interested in a tour; however, we still needed to visit the Gold Souk and Spice Souk for my mother and we would be leaving Dubai the next day, so once again, this “opportunity” was right on time. He escorted us to his SUV, which was parked in the underground parking lot. Once we got settled, he counted five people and said ok, “how would you like to pay? 5 people at 200 dirhams, that is 1,000 dirhams. I said “Wait a minute Jack…you said “200!” “Yes, Buddy…200 per person. I told him that he could let us out right now because that’s deceiving and I don’t appreciate that one bit. We went back and forth a few times and we agreed to $700 dirhams for the tour. Once we discussed the bag and got the money out of the way, the tour began and I must say, he was awesome.
He started with giving us the history of Dubai and explaining that the country is the United Arab Emirates and it is made up of seven states. Dubai is one of those seven states. He continued with the history. They used to be fishermen and their primary export was pearls. Then other countries started to make fake pearls, and their industry dried up over night. Then in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, oil found and life changed overnight.
He took us to the New Museum and we took pictures there. We drove by the famous Picture Frame. We visited the creek and old Dubai. Eventually, we parked and got onto a boat which took us across the creek. Here, we ventured into the Gold Souks, which is over 600 stores that all sell 18karet+ gold. As far as the eye could see…gold!!! PURE GOLD!!! It was truly something to experience. After we finished at the Gold Souk, we went to the Spice Souks and found some good quality Saffron, for my Mom. After returning to the car, we continued our tour and visited the Burg Al Arab and drove to the Palm Jumeirah. The Burg Al Arab was lit up beautifully and we were able to pull up right in front and take some beautiful pictures of it. Unfortunately, for the Palm, it was dark and we could not really see it; however, we can still stay that we visited it.
As promised, he delivered us to our hotel and we arrived around 1am. What a way to wind down for our vacation.