Dubai Dhow Cruise

Our first night in Dubai, we took a dhow canal dinner cruise (another Groupon find).  A dhow is a traditional ship used in this region.  You can find all sorts of dhow trips both here in Oman and in the UAE.  In fact, when looking on Groupon at our options, we had many to choose from.  We originally chose a different one just to find out that they were currently not operating.  We were able to cancel that Groupon the same night to go with a different option.

Family picture at our dinner table.

Family picture with the waterfall bridge.

Our dhow

We went on the Al Faris Floating Restaurant that is offered by Amazon Tours UAE.  I cannot say enough good things about this dinner cruise! 

The cruise starts with coffee and dates as you get on the boat.  They show you to your seat and bring bottled water and juice.  I’m not a big juice fan, but this stuff was very tasty.  It was probably full of sugar.

The cruise starts before dinner does.  They pull away from the harbor so you can watch the Imagine light show from the water.  Waiters brought around a couple of appetizers (fried chicken with a sauce and something else on a stick that could have been tofu).  Even without knowing what I was eating, they were both tasty.  Then you continue down the canal as they open up the buffet.  The buffet features Arabic food and a hot line.  I’m not sure if the hot line changes, but ours was pasta.  I was getting the boys some pasta when the light show on the Burj Khalifa started.  So note to others:  don’t go for the hot line first.  You’ll still be waiting and you’ll miss the lights.  I sent the boys to watch the lights while I waited for their food.  In addition to the pasta, we enjoyed Arabic bread, salads, mixed grill meats, and desserts.  A waiter also brought around Coke products and additional waters to drink.

An example of the Burj lit up.  I missed the show.

The Imagine show occasionally has fire at the end.  This was my attempt to capture it.

Before we left the harbor, Stephen had toured the buffet to see what was offered.  The hot line chef explained what some of the food was and recommended a dessert.  I still don’t know what this dessert was, but it was delicious!  It was like a coconut bread pudding, but more soupy.  The same man even got the boys a bowl of the same dessert when he saw that they were done eating.  One of the dessert trays was an assortment of French desserts that would change slightly as they refilled.  I found tiramisu!  Another dessert tray was a variety of baklava which seems to be popular over here.

A fun aspect of cruising the canal at night is getting to see all of the buildings lit up.  They pointed out a few areas of town as we cruised by.  Dubai is apparently big in designing parts of town for specific purposes.  They have a design district, a business district, etc.  And you go under a couple of really cool bridges.  I love one particular pedestrian bridge that curves as it crosses the canal.  Another one has waterfalls on either side that splits in the middle as boats pass underneath.  They were lit up purple at night.  Beautiful!

E checking out the lights.

Some of the buildings with the Burj Khalifa in the background.

The waterfall bridge already split open.

The waterfall bridge closed.

The curving pedestrian bridge.

The Al Faris cruise also features entertainment beyond the city lights.  There is a photographer that takes pictures as you get on, as you settle at your table, and at the waterfall if you want.  The pictures cost 50 dirhams each which is less than $15.  After dinner, the real entertainment started.  A man dressed in a colorful dress came out and spun for the entire song.  He had round, colorful box tops (for lack of a better description) that he would hold up in different patterns as he spun around.  After the boxes, he handed them off, the lights went down, and his dress lights turned on.  This was J’s favorite part of the cruise.

The spinning dance

The spinning dance with lights!

Dinner cruises are certainly more expensive than other cruises, but we figured we’ll want to eat anyways.  We could board the dhow at 7 with dinner at 8.  Our kids got hungry, so we did have to purchase a snack to tide them over to the rather late (for us) dinner.  It really was a very fun night.