Our last full day in the Emirates started by travelling back to Dubai. We could have flown Etihad direct from Abu Dhabi to Manchester but Mrs H's research resulted in identifying that the flights were slightly dearer than other options, Feedback of the airline was not to our taste and she also had reservations about the aircraft configuration. As long as it has 2 wings and a couple of engines, that’s configured enough for me!!The option we chose was to ...

Later that afternoon (see previous blog) we were advised that we would be arriving in Abu Dhabi at 9pm to the tumultuous welcome of fireworks. This is to celebrate the MSC Lirica's first visit to the Emirates. As we are on the late sitting for dinner (at 8:30pm) this meant we would miss all the fun so decided to forgo our dinner and moving on to deck at 8:15 watching Abu Dhabi appearing ever closer.9pm came and went. Our first experience in Abu Dhabi was to w...

We arrived in Dubai at 2pm. The ship would stay berthed overnight and depart about 2pm the following day. Apart from that, we received no information about the port. No shuttle bus was laid on so I assumed that walking to the port gate was an option.Our plan was to head for the Burj al Arab, a 7 star hotel built on its own man made island. Since its construction in 1999, the sail like structure of the hotel has become as iconic as Big Ben or the Eiffel Tower. Fro...