We flew Emirates to Dubai and that was really excellent. Bigger seats, more legroom, great infotainment system, very large seat screen, really good food, great flight attendants, huge overhead lockers, clean, new, modern, smooth quiet. Loved the A380-800 we went on. Without question the shortest 7 hour flight I have ever done and we would have happily spent another 7 hours playing poker and watching the movies on board, eating, wandering about the plane etc. My recommendation for this cruise is to stay on the plane if you can.
We were cruise virgins and were recommended this holiday by our agent having given the brief to find a holiday in a sunny location with some class and things to do. The holiday for the weeks cruise wasn't inexpensive. Unfortunately Royal Caribbean and their ship The Vision [Prison] of the Seas didn't in any way live up to our expectations.
Firstly the Arabian Adventures "private transfer" from the airport to our hotel for the night before was a beaten up grubby Toyota mini van driven by a chap of Pakistani origin who thought it hilarious to tell us that he had tried to get entry into the UK but had been refused because he was on a terrorist watch list, ha ha ha. We weren't laughing. Both of the other AA transfers were late to arrive, the last back to Dubai airport at the end of the holiday so late we just got on a bus also bound for the airport.
The cabin looked like a Travel Lodge room, not the new ones, the ones in bad need of a refit some years ago and nothing like the website. Tired, badly worn, scruffy and dingy. I can imagine a higher class of room staying at Her Majesty's Pleasure, hence they should rename the ship the Prison of the Seas.