With only 5 days to go, I thought I would actually start my trippy in advance! Hopefully I will manage to do the report live! I have managed to do the last three trips so this one shouldn't be any different. I love looking back on our trips!
First things first - who are we?
Me - Mel, aged 48, mum to two and wife to one! I am a training manager in a small company! We live in the SW of France!
DH - J, aged 49. He works hard to fund my travel lust (though this trip is actually at his request!)
O - our son aged 15. A lovely lad who is very happy to be going back to Dubai!
F - our adorable daughter aged 12. As an aside she us T1 diabetic. I only add it in as sometimes we have to change things around but it certainly doesn't stop her doing anything!
So some details!
We are off to Dubai for a week! We only decided to go about 6-8 weeks ago. J piped up one evening about going back as we gad such a fun time last year during the Easter holidays.
This year the Easter holidays are two weeks earlier than we had last year! We were also somewhat stuck by the fact that J and O are off to see Bruno Mars on the middle weekend of the holidays - which meant we either had to go before or after! After was more expensive as it hits the Easter weekend! We decided to take the kids out of school on Friday - flights were cheaper and it meant we could get 6 whole days in Dubai!
On Friday we are flying from our local airport first to Frankfurt and then Dubai! I ended up choosing to fly with Lufhansa because the long haul flight is on a 747 and the kids have never flown on one before! The other option was with Turkish Airline via Istanbul. Whilst France hasn't implemented the same ipad in hold rules that the UK has, I am glad we are going with Lufthansa!
We have a 2 1/2 hour layover at Frankfurt. Hopefully enough to grab some lunch before boarding. I am not sure where we will eat as F refuses to eat at McDo since watching some youtube videos! I guess we will see what is available. Frankfurt is not my favourite airport but one we often end up travelling through!
We should arrive in Dubai about 10.30pm - which is 8.30pm our time. Hopefully immigration will be ok! Last year it was fairly quick!
We will then get a cab to our hotel!
As last year, we are staying at the Jumeirah Creekside hotel - it is the cheapest of the Jumeirah hotels but very lovely nevertheless.
It is a bit out of the main area but the metro is not far and taxis are cheap and plentiful!
We have booked a Club room. This gives us breakfast in the club lounge, afternoon tea, hors d'oeuves and evening drinks. Price wise it wasn't that much more expensive and it also gives us extra space!
The main activity will be at the Wild Wadi water park. We get unlimited access. The kids loved it and we laughed so much last year! It was one of the highlights last year!
Since we went last year, several theme parks gave opened. Two have less than glowing reports on Tripadvisor - lots not yet open but no discount on the price. We may go to the one that gets the best feedback - IMG theme park. It is indoors and based on the Marvel characters. It isn't cheap at 60 euros each but I think the kids would love it!
We will see!
Near the IMG park is the Global Village - a temporary exhibition in a similar vein to EPCOT World I think - lots of shops though. Last year it had already closed. It gets a good write up so I think we will go!
There will no doubt be some mall visits! O's favourite shop last year was the book shop!
I don't think we will do much shopping - nothing in mind particularly!
Food - we have mo real plans! We will see where we are and what we fancy!
Yo Sushi was a hit last year so we may go back there - we will see
The packing cubes are done - should easily go into two cases!
So there we go - a week in Dubai! I can't wait!
So a couple of new additions potentially to the trip. The first is a dhow trip in Oman with the possibility of seeing dolphins and also snorkeling. However it is a 6h round trip. Everyone is keen so far ...
The other possibility is a morning trip to the desert - a bit unsure about this! The evening camp type trip does not appeal at all.
The one I have found does dune bashing, sand surfing and biking which appeals more.
Anyone done a trip to the desert?
The two suitcases are packed! DH is still not home (8pm) but we should be good to go! I managed to do OLCI - changed the seats from the middle 4 to a row of 3 next to the window and an aisle seat behind!
My backpack is ready - that has all the docs, the diabetes stuff(well except the insulin in the fridge), my ipad, two cameras, cables and my sunglasses!
Getting excited! Hopefully will start the actual report tomorrow at Frankfurt
