Christmas 2016 Cruise to India Onboard the Constellation

[GeorgeCharlie]

Some comments regarding the earlier parts of our trip.

 

We're not much for shopping, but we did briefly visit some malls in Dubai and Al Ain. We found them to be very similar to North American malls in layout and with many of the same stores.

 

Although, as expected, there were some outlets catering to local apparel needs.

 

There were numerous stores devoted to Muslim and/or Arab dress codes.

 

 

 

A caution sign on escalators which you wouldn't expect to see in most western malls.

 

 

For fellow Canadians - we were surprised at the number of "Timmy's" in UAE - both in malls and on-street locations.

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

Missed this one in my previous comments regarding Muscat, Oman.

 

The famous Incense Burner outlook tower built to celebrate Oman's 20th. anniversary of independence.

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

We were in Abu Dhabi for a couple of days before the cruise departed and found getting around to see the sights by taxi to be a more convenient way then using the HOHO bus. Plus, it was a way lot cheaper !!

 

The HOHO would of cost almost 1000AED for the time we were there and using taxis only cost us 140AED - and we got to go where we wanted, when we wanted.

 

A few of the places we visited.

 

Abu Dhabi Golf Club.

 

 

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.

 

 

UAE Heritage Village which was set up to display life styles and crafts from UAE's past.

 

 

Mountain People House.

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

More from the UAE Heritage Village.

 

Metal working view 1.

 

Metal working view 2.

 

Glass blowing.

 

Leather.

 

Weaving.

 

They even had their own small souk.

 

[bludevil]

so cool to re-live the cruise through your pics. I'm stealing your pic of the Oman flag guys for my photo book! I never had my camera ready fast enough!

[tweetylori]

I am LOVING your report and pics...hope you have more coming, thank you!!!

[GeorgeCharlie]

so cool to re-live the cruise through your pics. I'm stealing your pic of the Oman flag guys for my photo book! I never had my camera ready fast enough!

 

I can send you higher res copies if you're interested.

[GeorgeCharlie]

The evening before the cruise departed, eleven of us went on a "desert safari".

 

Overall, it was a success - especially as far as getting to know some of our fellow travelers.

 

Although, we found trying to cram six adults into a Toyota Landcruiser is not a very practical idea - and they say it will seat eight (driver and seven passengers). All I can say we ended up in the 3rd row "kid's" seat and even though we're both fairly short, we found the experience very uncomfortable.

 

Some of what was included in the "safari".

 

After about an hour of driving time, we arrived a the first event of where they had some camels.

 

 

Then we went on the "dune bashing part - and for ones of us crunched up in the back, it was more of a "passenger bashing" ride!!

 

 

Included stop for picture taking.

 

 

Then we carried on to the venue where they were holding the main evening events.

 

 

The events included free camel rides.

 

 

Getting to hold a falcon - which cost 10AED - and they managed to talk one yahoo into paying the 10AED, so they could get pictures of the falcon.

 

There's always one sucker in every crowd!!

[GeorgeCharlie]

The main event was the belly dancer. Belly dancing is not part of UAE's history, but I guess tourists expect to see it.

 

 

The dancer was apparently from Russia and was very "energetic" - to say the least!

Edited January 20, 2017 by GeorgeCharlie

[GeorgeCharlie]

As I mentioned before - this review will be somewhat haphazard in nature, as I find things to post while reviewing our pictures.

 

This is one of Dubai's special license plates, which are normally purchased by way of auction. Apparently the number 5 has some significance in Dubai with the single digit 5 plate selling for over US$9 million, so one would think even a four digit plate would likely sell for 10's of thousands of dollars. This vehicle was in a government parking lot next to our hotel in Dubai.

 

Edited January 20, 2017 by GeorgeCharlie

[easyboy]

Very nice photos.

[GeorgeCharlie]

The cruise covered the Christmas and New Year's festive season. Overall we did not notice Celebrity going out of their way to emphasis the occasion. From what we'd seen they had a brief singing of carols Christmas eve, along with a scattering of decorations in various parts of the ship, such as what was in the Grand Foyer.

 

 

Some passengers did a better job in getting the Christmas spirit displayed!

 

 

For Christmas/New Year's 2015 we were on a HAL cruise in SE Asia - which is another area of the world where the festive season is not celebrated very much. But they still did an excellent job in keeping the spirit alive on the ship. They had something going on every day/evening, including bringing a couple dozen kids from an orphanage aboard in one of the ports. The kids got a full tour of the ship, lunch and a visit from Santa - each kid got a very nice gift which had been chosen for them - as each gift had their individual name on it.

 

Holland America also had a special Christmas dinner - the menu was:

 

 

Whereas, Celebrity had just their regular menu for Christmas and New Year's.

 

Needless to say - we found Celebrity to be a big letdown in "celebrating" the season - pun intended!!

[GeorgeCharlie]

The malls and hotels in UAE, Oman & India on average did a good job in displaying the festive season.

 

Most of them had some kind of gingerbread house.

 

From the small.

 

 

To the large.

 

 

 

And some of the workers assembling them were not sure what they were building, as they'd never seen one before. With one of them saying it was bigger then the house he grew up in!

 

 

The one at Delhi's airport was in the form of the Taj Mahal.

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

Some of the mall/hotel Christmas trees.

 

Mall of the Emirates

 

 

The Emirate's Palace Hotel.

 

 

Abu Dhabi Merina Mall

 

 

Christmas tree on our Abu Dhabi hotel's beach.

 

 

Mumbai Mall

[GeorgeCharlie]

Found it interesting that a couple of the ports in India each had their own unique Santa to greet passengers.

 

Cochin.

 

 

 

Goa

[GeorgeCharlie]

Somewhat out of order, but it does have a Christmas scene.

 

Our guide in Mangalore was a business student at St. Aloysius College and took us to see the famous St. Aloysius Chapel.

 

 

It is noted for it's fabulous ceiling paintings

 

 

 

It had it's own manger scene.

 

 

 

 

Our guide said he would be continuing to work towards getting an MBA and then he was hoping to be able to be a professional guide - as it was one of the highest paying jobs available!!

Edited January 21, 2017 by GeorgeCharlie

[comcox]

Which hotel did you stay at in Abu Dhabi as beach looks quite nice.

 

Did you do private tour in Mangalore or use ship's tour? If a private tour, which company did you use?

 

Sorry for all the questions but it's great to get info.

[Jothma]

Hi. Love all the Christmas trees.

 

In India did you use dollars or rupees??

 

Thanks

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[easyboy]

It's nice to see how the other countries celebrate the Christmas season.

[GeorgeCharlie]

Which hotel did you stay at in Abu Dhabi as beach looks quite nice.

 

Did you do private tour in Mangalore or use ship's tour? If a private tour, which company did you use?

 

Sorry for all the questions but it's great to get info.

 

In Abu Dhabi we stayed at the Traders Hotel, which is part of the Qaryat Al Beri Complex by Shangri-La. This is a complex of hotels, shops, etc., which was created along an inland waterway in the area of the Grand Mosque - about halfways between the main airport and downtown. We chose it because it was away from the hustle & bustle of the main downtown area and found it to be very nice - evening walks along the walkways beside the beach were very relaxing. Taxis are fairly cheap - about $10-15 to get to the main tourist areas, with the cruise terminal being the farthest and costing only about $20.

 

In South India - Mangalore, Cochin & Goa - we booked small group private tours with Lijo Jose of Muziris Heritage-Day Tours: mail@muzirisheritagetourism.com

 

Lijo is not the tour guide, but contracts out to local guides. Overall the tour guides were good, but confused as to what places they were to take us to see. Lijo would list several variances of a similar tour - as such, when we'd get on the bus, we would find out people were expecting to see some different things. Frustrating, as everybody ended up not getting to see something they were looking forward to. The guides did a good job trying to satisfy the people - most likely due to it being a common problem with Lijo's tours.

 

Another problem was the number of people included in the tour - which was supposed to be limited to a maximum of 10 - but were actually 14-16. Plus, with the houseboat tour in Cochin we ended up having to delay our departure on the boat cruise for about a 1/2 hour (which in turn shorten the overall cruise), while we waited for another couple to join us. With a half a dozen extra passengers, the boat became somewhat crowded - e.g. they had a nice table and chairs setup to eat the meal at, but with the extra people they had to cram the chairs up tight to the table, as such there was no way people could easily sit at the table to eat. Other then the crowding, I think everyone enjoyed the boat tour.

 

Rather meager meal for 16 people, when you were planning for 10!!

 

 

After running into similar confusion with the Mangalore tour, we decided to cancel our tour with Lijo for Goa. Although, from what I heard from other people, is that such confusion/overcrowding is common for most group tours in India.

[GeorgeCharlie]

In India did you use dollars or rupees??

 

 

Both - the tour guides wanted US$ (but they had to be crisp new bills), but most of the small shops expected to deal in rupees and any exchange rates they would quote was ridiculous - half or less of the going rate.

 

Payment of entry fees (e.g. Taj Mahal) had to be in rupees. Rupees were easy to get via ATM's.

Edited January 22, 2017 by GeorgeCharlie

[GeorgeCharlie]

Oh - I have to include the sax playing Santa which was outside restaurant in a small shopping centre (or souk as they call them) near our hotel in Abu Dhabi.

 

[GeorgeCharlie]

As I mentioned previously, we decided not to take a tour in Goa. Partially because of some lingering frustration with our two previous India tours, but also because we knew starting the next day we'd be embarking on four long travel/touring days and could likely do with a rest first.

 

I went out on the dock to walk around a bit. It is a commercial dock with no tourist related facilities - not even anyone hawking souvenirs. Goa town site is some distance away and, although the ship had a shuttle bus, we decided not to do even a short look around.

 

The Goa tourist bureau had set up a couple of information booths and I had a nice chat with some of the people staffing them.

 

As you can see - a rather bleak introduction to Goa.

 

 

It was also the hottest day of the cruise (38-40C) with very high humidity. Talking to some of them who did go on tours and they enjoyed themselves, but also commented that it didn't differ all that much from Mangalore - other then there was far more walking around out in the hot sun.

[GeorgeCharlie]

Found it interesting some of the malls in UAE have skating rinks and one has a sky hill.

 

Picture from the Bawadi Mall in Al Ain. Being open to the main mall area likely helps with air-conditioning. The rink at the Dubai Mall and the sky hill at the Mall of the Emirates, are both in enclosed areas.

 

But, I suppose it's no different then West Edmonton Mall (which a lot of people view as being in the middle of the frozen north!) having the world's largest indoor wave pool - which they keep at a steady 31C (88F) year-around.

 

Picture taken from the Internet.

[GeorgeCharlie]

Now back to Mangalore.

 

Rather then taking us on the planned visit to the cashew factory, our guide took us to a government developed heritage park where they are in the process of creating a demonstration centre of showing how various crafts were made.

 

Although I think it will eventually become a tourist attraction, right now it is too underdeveloped to be of much interest - especially when you consider the amount of time it takes to get out to it and back.

 

Again, as we found with Lijo's tours, some of the tours did go to the preferred cashew factory and they found it quite interesting, plus without having to take the long drive out to the heritage centre, they had more time to shop in the markets.

 

The demonstrations at the heritage centre.

 

Rice production.

 

 

 

 

Wicker furniture manufacturing.

 

 

 

Pottery.

 

 

 

Grinding seeds for oil.

 

Edited January 23, 2017 by GeorgeCharlie