Packing and prep day…

Tomorrow morning at 6:15 am, our property manager in Dubai will take us to the airport for our 8:15 am flight on Emirates Airline. Being sick, these past few weeks, we stayed in bed until 7:00 or 7:30 each day trying to get a little more rest.

Getting up at 5:00 am tomorrow is the cause of my angst. Sure, I’ll set the alarm on my phone to awaken me so I can get a head start before I awaken Tom. By tonight, we’ll be completely packed except for the clothing we’ll wear tomorrow to fly away.

Checking our baggage restriction online for the zillionth time, we’re allowed a total of 66 pounds per person of checked baggage plus one carry on and laptop bag. With one large suitcase, one rolling carry on and one laptop bag, we’ll be as trim as possible. 

We’re expecting that we’ll have to pay overweight fees which we’ll know later today when we weigh everything prior to printing our boarding passes.  If we pay online there is a 30% discount, not at the airport. 

Today, I’ll probably ditch my handbag using the laptop bag as a handbag. I’ve been practicing not carrying a purse for the past few months and I think I can manage. It’s odd to give up carrying a handbag after doing so for the past 50 years, but then again, we gave up having a home after a lifetime. So what’s the big deal without a purse? None, I guess.

Our food supply will be depleted as planned after dinner tonight, leaving little to toss. With no time for breakfast in the morning, we’re bringing some nuts to munch on.  If no food is available on the flight, we’ll be fine.  Tomorrow night, we’ll have dinner in our hotel as we did on our last layover.

Dubai has left us with mixed feelings, more due to being sick while here than anything. For the first time since we left Minnesota seven months ago, Tom admitted to feeling trapped while here, with no way to walk around with the road construction around our building, my being sick and no other restaurants within walking distance.  Had we rented a car from the onset, we’d have been frustrated, unable to use it anyway.

If you’re a “city person” Dubai is the ultimate city to visit. A rental car is a must with easy, fast moving freeways and signs also in English. Hotels are expensive, most starting at $225 a night for a basic room, upwards to the moon from there.

Dining out for dinner is pricey, from the menus we’ve seen online but breakfast or lunch can be had for under US $60 without cocktails. Groceries are a steal, at least 30% less than in the US for most foods, making it sensible if on a budget, to get a place to stay with cooking facilities. 

Servers and support staff are friendly, anxious to help. The general population appears mostly under 50, keeping to themselves, from what we can see, but are courteous and polite. We haven’t seen anyone older than us since we arrived. Most likely Dubai is not known as a retirement city with few facilities available for seniors, although facilities are available for disabled individuals.

As mentioned in an earlier post, it appears seniors are cared for by their adult children in their homes, not in assisted living or senior centers.

Would we come back? With so much world left to see, I doubt we’ll return to any city/country we’ve already visited unless it’s a port of call on a future cruise. 

Would we recommend Dubai to other travelers? Absolutely! It’s an interesting, safe, meticulous, well-planned metropolis filled with lovely people, great hotels and restaurants. There’s a plethora of profound sights to see.  Its rich history offers museums, libraries, art and historical centers. One would never be bored with adequate transportation and money to spend.  Also, Abu Dhabi is a must, ideally splitting one’s time between the two amazing cities.

Pausing while writing this, we started doing some packing.  In the process, our little vacuum used to suck the Space Bags died.  Died.  Gone. Now what?  My stuff is sucked.  Tom’s is not.  Hopefully, we can figure a way to fit everything into the luggage without sucking.  Tomorrow, when we arrive in Barcelona, we’ll have the cab driver take us to a Home Depot equivalent to purchase a new one, we hope.  Oh, good grief. 

We’ll be back after we’re situated onboard the Norwegian Spirit, hopefully in 48 hours.  Stay tune

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