It was Christmas Eve, and we decided to do a day tour and an evening tour.

We had a great view of Dubai from our cruise ship. Dubai has 3.6 million citizens, the fastest growing city in the world. Before oil was discovered in 1958, it was a small fishing village. It’s industries now are real estate, finances, and tourism, with 16 million visitors annually. There are 183 languages spoken and there are weekly festivals due to so many different national celebrations

Our day tour guide was Raj from India. The morning tour was supposed to be 1 hour at the observation deck of Burj AL Khalifa (BAK) building, then 2 hours at the Dubai Mall…but it didn’t go quite as planned. That is what travel is about…flexibility. We took a short bus ride from the pier and saw some of Dubai’s infrastructure. It is all very new, being built after 1971.

The first skyscraper hotel was built in 1979. Many more soon followed. The donut structure is a heritage museum. One side is present day Dubai and the other is what the future Dubai will look like.

The BAK is located in the center of the Dubai Mall. The mall has 1200 stores and 200 food spots.

Ticket booth and BAK entrance…

Being the holiday season, there were many, many visitors. What was supposed to be a 20 minute walk to the elevators, turned into a 1 1/2 hour wait.

We had plenty of time to learn about the building and it’s construction with the exhibits along the walkway. The building is named for Sheikh Khalifa who was the second president of the UAE.

Construction was started in January of 2004, and the building was opened in January of 2010. It is the tallest building in the world and cost 1.5 billion USD. It is 2716 feet tall with 163 stories. At it’s highest point the building is designed to sway 4.9 feet. Not sure we would want to experience that!!

As we walked toward the elevators we could see the top of the building. The design is Islamic inspired, rising from a flat desert base, then incorporating 27 setbacks in a spiral pattern.

We reached the elevators, and that, in itself felt like an accomplishment!! We waited patiently for the elevator to descend from the 124th floor. It is the world’s fastest elevator only taking one minute to descend.

The elevator ride was an experience as we were treated to an incredible digital display.

The experience and views from the top were amazing. The main observation deck is located on the 124th floor

Jim walked on a glass floor that pretended to break and we couldn’t resist buying a camel’s milk chocolate candy bar. There was also a mail box so that you could send a post card from the BAK post office.

We walked the stairs to the secondary observation deck on the 125th floor. The floors at the top of the building are occupied by a lounge. The Armani Hotel, the only 7 star hotel in the world, is located at the base of the building, with a one night stay costing $2000 USD.

The 125th floor gave a different view perspective since we could see the building’s shadow better.

We walked back down to the 124th floor for our last view before getting on the elevators.

Even with the delays, it was a truly amazing experience.

Back at the BAK entrance, we met up with Raj, who told us we only had 20 minutes before the bus left and no time to shop. With an evening tour and no time to go back to the ship to eat, we bought the only quick snack we could find…donuts. As we were eating our donuts and waiting for the rest of our group. an older gentleman in our group, got dizzy and fell onto the marble floor, splitting his head open. The mall personnel, were hesitant to help, so Cindy pulled out her first aid kit and we got him bandaged up so we could return to the ship.

The adventure was not quite over…the bus driver got lost on the way back to the ship and we were caught in traffic for over 40 minutes. Thank goodness, NCL had an excursion employee on the tour, who radioed ahead, that we were going to be late for our evening tour and not to leave us. Then in our rush to get off the bus, Jim forgot his phone, but the bus driver found it and turned it into the port officials. It was definitely a memorable tour. We hoped we would have a quieter Christmas Eve activity….