Big thanks to AS and EK for making this possible. The missus and I loved the trip. For less than 670K miles I thought it was easily worth it.
Business Class RT airfare, 5 nights in a 5 star hotel and an outing. For the hotel we chose the Jumeirah Zabeel Saray.
http://www.jumeirah.com/Hotels-and-R...-Zabeel-Saray/
It was a magnificently over the top experience. As it turns out - they filmed part of Mission Impossible 4 there and you could see why.
The rooms were very nice and everything was polished marble We (honestly it was me) chose FerrariWorld for the outing as I am a certifiable petrolhead. They picked up VIP passes which really saved time in not having to wait in line for the attractions.
We even had the pleasure of meeting of meeting the Senior VP of the EK Skywards program, Brian LaBelle. Super engaging fellow and it was very gracious of him to take the time to meet with us (and present us with a very generous little bonus on top of the package)
If you're flying Business or F on EK and are within 60 miles of the airport - EK provides limo service so our trip to the airport started well and of course saved us the $130 normally spent on parking. The limo service applied in Dubai as well.
14-15 hours in the air can be miserable but the EK 777 200ER is a nice place to be.
Mimosas to start...
Standard pour for whiskey - Chivas Regal 18. If you prefer a single malt - Glenfiddich 15. The port was a lovely 20 year old Grahams.
The food was quite good as well.
Fun fruit - kind of like lychee:
The lay flat seats were comfy and they bring along an articulated mattress pad for additional comfort as well.
Come to think of it - the service onboard was excellent. I'm sure that the FAs have to meet a set of standards that would surely be illegal in the US. Very nice.
The ICE remote control:
The Dubai airport was very cool. Miles of polished everything. Solid duty free shopping as well.
FerrariWorld was cool but slightly underwhelming. I paid a bit extra to drive the Challenge simulator that is supposedly what the team uses to train on.
I am an amateur racer and have done a lot of track days and it wasn't what I had expected. The operator did applaud at the end of my run though so that was kind of cool.
The superfast roller coaster was insane though. Highly recommended if you like crazy acceleration. Zero to 62 mph in 2.0 seconds. Zero to 150 in less than 5 seconds. Simply awesome.
Naturally we had to visit the highest building in the world so up we went the the Al Burj Khalifa using the 33 feet per second elevators. Pretty cool but every day in Dubai was hazy.
For a momento - the missus wanted to visit the Dubai Gold Souk. If you are serious about buying some gold or simply want to see an overwhelming amount of gold packed into a very small area it is a must see.
She found a cool 22K white, rose and yellow gold ring the likes of which she had never seen before. Negotiated prices can be excellent as well. Happy wife, happy life. ^
The malls (Dubai and Mall of the Emirates) were interesting. Lots of luxury items. Pricing roughly the same as everywhere else on the planet. Long taxi queues from the Dubai mall btw)
That points me to the thing that makes me kind of put off by Dubai. Most all the service workers were really cool and English is universal in Dubai. They all were from somewhere else (India, Pakistan, Morocco, China, Russia etc... )
The locals were extremely unfriendly. Towards the end of the visit I felt like stiff arming a few in the malls as they would just walk right into you given the opportunity.
The signs in the mall were amusing. No holding hands or kissing allowed.
The only folks flaunting that rule happened to be the guys wearing the keffiyah.
We really liked the hotel. The food and drink were excellent (albeit pricey) and even though we didn't have the top shelf room - it was sweet!
The staff was helpful and friendly.
Nice long entry hallway:
Even the balcony was a nice place to hang out as we had a great view from our room.
The weather (besides the fog) was perfect.
Thanks to AS and Emirates Skywards all the AS FT folks who have been so helpful to me over the years and during my quest to win this auction.
It really was a killer once in a lifetime trip.