Our Sweet Suite at the Burj Al Arab

The Prime Minister of the United Arab of Emirates is probably one of my favorite people. I know nothing about the man, but I do know that he has put considerable amounts of oil money into Dubai. All this money has lead to a nicer Vegas type culture growing in this urban city in the middle of a sandbox. The area is still developing extremely rapidly. Most buildings in Dubai are still being worked on making the pictures that you see of the city a bit deceiving, but I can only imagine that the city will continue to grow (unless terrorism becomes a problem and then the UAE is screwed.)

We pulled into port a bit late on the day that we arrived due to some timing issues of the port, but were eventually able to get in. Marty, Dan and I went to check into the hotel that our wardroom gets that everyone can share. It was a nice hotel and through some connections was stocked with alcohol.

We drank for a bit and then went to the hail and farewell. I really wanted a dirty vodka martini (light on the olive juice, Belvedere preferred) and after some extensive explanation I got what I wanted. The hail and farewell went on way too long, but a bunch of us went out afterwards. We took a fun group photo in the elevator:
Dan dancing in a club that we went out to later:

All of this was really fun, but none of it compared to the only seven star hotel in the world that I stayed in. the Burj Al Arab.

Marty, Nisa and I planned on splitting a room with a panoramic view. The cost wouldn’t be too bad, split between three of us. When we arrived at the hotel we checked in with the concierge. They had us take a seat on some couches and offered us dates and a cool, moist towel while we waited. After a short time we were escorted up to our floor by two people giving us a small tour with some information along the way. We were told that the atrium was the largest atrium in the world. A picture of the lobby (We got dressed up later and took the pictures then):
When we got up to our floor we were introduced to our floor butler and shown to our room. In our room they gave us some paperwork to sign and it said that we had a two bedroom suite. We were concerned with the price and asked about the panoramic suite. It turns out that we were upgraded. We thought about it later and figured that it was because a women staying in a room with one bed with two guys that she wasn’t married to wasn’t culturally acceptable and so they upgraded us for free.

The suite was absolutely gorgeous, and gaudy, but fun. Our butler (Marty called every butler we had “Jeeves” the entire time we were there) showed us around the room and gave us a tour on the different parts and the way the remotes worked. Here are some pictures of our suite (it was pretty sweet):

Entry way and staircase up to the second floor:
Bar and office area with internet set up for any use:
Family room:
Breakfast/small table:
Living Room:
Dining Room (You can see the Kitchen in the back):
Chandelier:
Master Bedroom:

Second Bedroom:
Both Bathrooms looked like this with different colors:
After the tour of the suite, and the non-stop giggling about how great our room was we drank some complimentary wine, changed into swimsuits and went down to the pool area. It was pretty hot out so the pool felt nice. There was a swim up bar so we spent some time there getting some drinks and hanging out in the water.

We went back up to the room after we were done baking in the sun and started to get ready for drinks and dinner. Once we were all ready we took some time to take some more pictures all dressed up. We decided that we couldn’t take regular pictures because this wasn’t a regular hotel, so we took model pictures:
We went up to the Sky View bar at the top of the hotel and had some drinks. They have a drink there that was the most expensive drink in the world. There was a page long explanation of the drink. It was $9,000 and none of us had one. After the bar we went down to the restaurant that has an aquarium in the middle and the restaurant curves around the outside of it. The dinner was very nice and fun.

Back up in our room we drank some more and hung out enjoying the hotel. The next morning we ordered room service and spent some more time relaxing and enjoying the hotel room. We were able to check out late in the afternoon. The experience was great and it was fun to dress up and go to a nice dinner with good friends.

It cost a lot, but it is something that I have wanted to do for some time. I am glad I did it and I can now say that I have stayed in the only seven star hotel in the world.