So I had a truly bewildering interaction with the front office. I inquired about a paid upgrade to a specific suite type which was not offered as a NOR1. The upgrade rate I was offered was thousands of AED per night above the hilton.com rate.

On top of that, has anyone actually been successful with a NOR1 upgrade to a specialty suite here or is it just a gimmick? As an example, do they actually process NOR1s for the Royal Suite?

They offered me a suite (still space available upon check in and not guaranteed) 1/5th the size of the Royal Suite for 3x the price of the NOR1 to the Royal Suite

I e-mailed the GM to see what on earth they're thinking.