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| Dubai and Abu Dhabi Formula 1 Grand Prix | Page: 1 2 |
I think it was around 1 pm when we checked out of the hotel (after our long morning stroll), and called Uber for a ride to Abu Dhabi. Uber really makes getting around easy these days. I thought it would take a while to find a driver, since technically we were going to a different "state" (emirate) and the distance is over 80 miles one way, but a driver confirmed right away. The trip was made pleasant by the plushy luxury car, and it gave us a chance to learn about the local culture from the driver, who just like most workers, was not of Arabic descend, but instead hauled from Pakistan. We got dropped off at the Abu Dhabi Mina Zayed port cruise terminal, located across the bay from the recently constructed Abu Dhabi Louvre museum. Not long after, we were on board.
We were aboard the Virtuosa, which is a different layout from the Splendida on which I toured the Greek islands with my mom. Besides just being bigger, the most noticeable difference is the Gallery Promenade, which is a large area with shops and a ceiling covered with LEDs allowing it act as a big TV screen. But just like on the Splendida, there is a lot of sparkle all around! The grand staircase offers great picture taking opportunity. Not long after we got on board, a large contingent of arabic men, followed by a few women, made their way on board. One of the bartenders told us these were the "owners making an inspection". I believe that MSC is owned by an Italian family so I suspect that was not correct information, unless he meant owners of some Formula 1 team or the venue, which would not be out of the ordinary. Formula 1 themes were all around. An MSC-themed race car was parked on the pool deck throughout the stay. A chocolate race car adorned the chocolate shop display case. The Formula 1 racing simulator, which is nominally a paid attraction aboard of MSC cruise ships, was complimentary. Both Sandra and I tried, she did much better than me. I think you need to have the course memorized to do well. There were also various talks by the like of Mika Hakinnen. Unfortunatelly, no drivers from the current season made an appearance but I think they had more important sponsors to attend to. The Mika Hakkinen event was followed by a pool deck party with completely free alcohol. This was really nice. I really feel like MSC treates their customers well, unlike the nickel-and-diming scrounging I later experienced on a Celebrity cruise. During the party we also got to see a drone show somewhere over Abu Dhabi, perhaps because of the race. The cruise included only half-board (since most people were out in town during the day anyway), and we mostly ate in the main dining room for both the breakfast and the dinner. The dinner food was not bad but also not as good as on the Splendida. They made up for it by the free alcohol, which was provided at the various seminars.
We spent our first full day in Abu Dhabi (Friday) sightseeing. The cruise package included tickets for all four days, but it did not really make sense to go to the track for the practice days. Instead, we signed up for a tour offered by Viator (or similar) that first took us to the top of the Etihad Tower. We got great views from the observation deck, including of our ship way out in the distance (having a telephoto helps!). We were on this group with about 10 other people, including a very interesting family from Florida (if remembering correctly). The father, mother, and daughter were all decked out in fancy, in the drug-dealer fashion way, outfits, with the father taking a ton of pictures of himself. I figured we will find them later on YouTube or at least Instagram, but alas, no luck.
The next stop was the presidential palace Qasr Al Watan. This place is quite neat - if you are into Las Vegas style of glamor - with gold plated walls and majestic massive chandeliers and vast carpets. The men's bathroom was bigger than most apartments. After this stop, we were taken some older mall where we were offered buffet lunch in one of the restaurants.
The final stop was world famous white Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. This place is quite spectacular and absolutely photogenic. It does however lack the spirit one may find in historical sites like Istanbul or India. See, it is important to realize that much of the stuff one sees in Dubai and Abu Dhabi is new, and was constructed just withing the past several decades. In the case of this mosque, the construction occurred between the years 1994 and 2007. The mosque was built to showcase the splendor that comes with oil wealth with the primary target being tourist Instagram accounts, and not religious pilgrims. Going with this theme, the entrance to the mosque - not kidding here - is through a shopping mall. This juxtaposition serves perfectly to illustrate, to me, the Las Vegasness of this whole place. Everything is beautiful, but it's just a facade. Don't get me wrong, I actually very much enjoyed both Dubai and Abu Dhabi. But it is important that one has to realize that instead of looking at palaces of some former caliphate, one is looking at a monument to modern consumerism.
The next morning (Saturday) we went on a desert safari "dune bashing" adventure, which involved sitting in an SUV as it is driven up and down sand dunes. Had we more time, I would have liked to go to the Liwa oasis, but that is an overnight experience. Instead we did a half-day trip with an early morning start. We first stopped by a camel farm where I got some nice close ups. We then drove around a bit without getting stuck - other cars were less lucky. The dunes were quite magical; at some future time I definitely would like to venture in deeper. The trip ended with sand boarding, which was sliding down the sand on your belly on a snowboard. At the bottom of the hill was a small secondary hill that (almost?) nobody managed to go completely over except for me - probably my extra weight helped to carry me a longer distance, yay!
Sunday finally came and with it, the grand finale to the 2023 Grand Prix season. MSC provided shuttle buses from the port to the Yas Island (Abu Dhabi is basically bunch of islands) where the racetrack is located. From the bus parking lot, you can take another circulator shuttle that goes around the entire complex, including the (surprise!) another shopping mall and the Ferarri World amusement park, or you can just opt to walk. We did little bit of both. We had tickets to the North Straight, which was the cheapest options offered by MSC, but they still allowed us to wonder around the complex. Just strolling around, we found ourselves inside the W Abu Dhabi hotel. This is where the party was at! The downstairs lobby was filled with dancing girls and guys (?) wearing some bubble outfits - not sure what this was supposed to represent. Check out the pictures and videos below.
We actually came to circuit twice: first for the qualifying event Saturday evening and then for the race on Sunday. The pictures below are bit of a mix from these two events. The Sunday race was at night, so it made it more difficult to get zoomed in pictures due to there being less light. From the W hotel we got to walk on a pedestrian bridge passing over the race track just as the Formula 2 main event was taking place. This was a great opportunity to take photos of race cars. Here I even tried the photostacking capability offered by Panasonic Lumix (which unfortunately I no longer have as I write this), as you can see below.
Behind the stands you will find a large hospitality area featuring various bars and official merchandise shops. Here you also find large TVs. Our seats were not the best. The location would have been fine as we were not far from turn 5, but a massive pillar (one of those things that goes over the track) was blocking much of our view towards the turn. We also could not see any TV screens so it was not easy to follow the race. As such, we actually spent much time watching the race outside, on the TVs, with the racetrack providing the real-time audio input. The race itself was not particularly interesting as Verstappen had something like a 20 second lead throughout all of it. I don't think there was any overtaking at all, anywhere. But it was still a great experience, and if MSC offers a similar package again, I absolutely recommend this to any F1 fan. It was an amazing deal and also a great way to experience the UAE.
On the last day we had to disembark the cruise ship by around 9 am (it had to get ready to sail away that evening for the first of many loops it will do in the Persian gulf over the upcoming season), but our Dubai-based flight did not leave until almost midnight. This gave us a whole day to revisit Dubai attractions, a.k.a. shopping malls. We first dropped off the bags at the airport luggage storage facility, and then headed back to the Dubai Mall. Here we spent time in the Shopping Avenue section, which was mostly filled with Arabic people in their traditional garbs, unlike the more casual athleisure-wearing crowd in the regular section. I also had very interesting lunch in the Chinatown part: fish soup with sauerkraut. It was actually very tasty but was also something I have never even imagined existed before. We then made our way back to the airport for a SwissAir flight with a layover in Zurich. That was such an interesting airport! First, one of the souvenir shops sells a whole assortment of Swiss-army knives. This is past security, and I didn't think that buying a knife to bring aboard your flight would be allowed. We also visited the SwissAir lounge. Wow! This one is in competition with Frankfurt's for the lead. While not offering as many food options, it contains a sleeping section, a lounging section, showers (which we took advantage of), and a another separate whiskey bar room. All the, perhaps 50 different, varieties were free to drink. They even featured some local Swiss whiskeys, which I did not even know existed.
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