Chapter 1 - Day One - Miami to Dubai

First of all let me make a small introduction on who we are. I am the Carnivore, a Brazilian man who met the most beautiful Cuban American one can think of, and for my surprise at the beginning, a Vegetarian. After more than 3 years together we decided to finally get married and then go on the most epic trip together as our honeymoon. It was a small wedding for our most close friends, but that is not the interesting part.

So our adventure starts on Feb 11th, 2022.

Our flight was scheduled to leave Miami on the Friday night at 8:10pm and to arrive in Dubai at 7:20pm the next day. 

We had some luggage since we were going to be away for 2 weeks, and this is what we had.

We had booked at Emirates and a couple of days before our departure we got offered an upgrade for a fraction of the price and how glad i was we took it.

We arrived at MIA early, around 5:30PM, where we were dropped off by our friend Victor.

Checked in and headed to the gate where we anxiously awaited to board what would be a great adventure.

Once in the plane, a Boeing 777-300ER, capable of doing the 6000 miles trip non-stop.

We board the plane around 6:30pm and were amazed by the seats we had.

 

Fully reclinable seats that would become 90% flat to allow us a great night sleep to get to Dubai rested. The service Emirates offered on that flight for the business class was just amazing.  

The food, the beverages, the snacks, everything was amazing. Even the amenities kit was personalized for men and women. and from BVLGARI. 

We had dinner and went to sleep right after, since this was a 14 hour flight, we tried to spend most of it sleeping, because besides the long flight we also had a 9 hour time difference to account for.

After the long flight we finally arrived to Dubai. The flight was exactly on time and we were out of the immigration and customs in less than 30 minutes.

Not knowing anything about it, we decided to get a taxi from the airport to the hotel. We had done some research and we knew it should cost around DH60 to DH80 (Dirhams), about USD20 to USD 40 dollars.

I had exchanged some money at the airport so there we went. We got into the taxi, and the meter was saying  DH25 already, but not knowing , i thought that was the starting rate for the evening, later I learned that we got stiffed by the taxi driver, since the starting rate should be DH5.50, but, living and learning. Total cost for our ride was DH80.00 including tip, so inside our expectations.

We arrived at our hotel, the JW Marriott Marquis at the Business Bay in Dubai. What a sight. Two towers with more than 70 stories each, we learned later that the hotel has more than 1600 rooms. People everywhere. The check in also flawless, Mustafa from Turkey was amazing on helping us out and since we had communicated before that we would be on our honeymoon, they had prepared something for us in the room.

It was a little tacky, but the thought they put into it was amazing. We put our luggage down, took a quick shower and went to the only place open in Dubai on a Saturday night. The Dubai Mall. Considered one of the biggest Malls in the world, it has everything in it, and it sits right underneath the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. My wife had said that there was an amazing burger place there and that is where we went. It is called Black Tap Dubai Craft Burgers and Shakes. We ate and walked around to see the "Burj", but we were tired and ended up getting back to the hotel. The next day would be a busy one.