Author Topic: maldives and dubai  (Read 33406 times)

Offline chuchem

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maldives and dubai
« on: June 27, 2011, 02:12:12 PM »
I have been 5 days in the maldives already and leaving on wednesday for dubai. Its stunning and i wish we could stay another week. We will spend 2 days in dubai and go home friday.
No I am not staying in the new park hyatt in the maldives!

I will write a tripreport when back, please feel free to post questions you have on dubai or the maldives, i will try to answer them in my trip report


Offline moish

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2011, 05:32:51 PM »
did they make any mention of the israeli stamps in your passport?

Offline aussiebochur

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2011, 05:58:06 PM »
did they make any mention of the israeli stamps in your passport?
When going to such countries, it is preferable to have a second passport without any Israeli stamps.
While they don't outright refuse entry to anyone with an Israeli stamp, officially you must go through an additional screening to get clearance.
Obviously, that's only if they see the stamp...

Offline moish

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2011, 06:13:19 PM »
lets talk specifically about dubai

Offline aussiebochur

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2011, 06:22:00 PM »
lets talk specifically about dubai
In general,
When going to such countries, it is preferable to have a second passport without any Israeli stamps.
In Dubai,
While they don't outright refuse entry to anyone with an Israeli stamp, officially you must go through an additional screening to get clearance.
Obviously, that's only if they see the stamp...

Offline damaxer91

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2011, 03:34:12 AM »
When going to such countries, it is preferable to have a second passport without any Israeli stamps.
While they don't outright refuse entry to anyone with an Israeli stamp, officially you must go through an additional screening to get clearance.
Obviously, that's only if they see the stamp...

Don't believe everything you hear. In DXB You can have 100+ Israeli stamps on your passport and they don't care

Offline aussiebochur

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2011, 04:05:17 AM »
Don't believe everything you hear. In DXB You can have 100+ Israeli stamps on your passport and they don't care
Hence I wrote "officially"...

Offline damaxer91

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2011, 04:20:57 AM »
Hence I wrote "officially"...


Where did you see that? When i called the UAE Embassy last year they didn't say anything about that

Offline aussiebochur

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2011, 06:22:48 AM »
Where did you see that? When i called the UAE Embassy last year they didn't say anything about that
Timatic, official passport control rules.

- Holders of passports containing an Israeli visa or stamp
  must obtain clearance through the C.I.D. (Crime
  Investigation Dept.) upon arrival.

Offline damaxer91

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2011, 07:35:59 AM »
Timatic, official passport control rules.

- Holders of passports containing an Israeli visa or stamp
  must obtain clearance through the C.I.D. (Crime
  Investigation Dept.) upon arrival.

Must be new procedure since the events of last year. Still wouldn't worry me

Offline chuchem

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #10 on: June 28, 2011, 01:35:29 PM »
i called the uae embassy and they said its no problem at all. I know people that went without issues a few weeks ago. I got new passports as we anyway had to renew soon.

Last night on the island, dubai tomorrow, good night guys

Offline Fan of Dan

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2011, 12:55:45 AM »
Is teffilin hard to bring in?

Offline andrew

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #12 on: July 06, 2011, 08:03:40 AM »
I will write a tripreport when back, please feel free to post questions you have on dubai or the maldives, i will try to answer them in my trip report
when can we expect a trip report?

Offline chuchem

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #13 on: July 06, 2011, 09:56:00 AM »
I just got back, i have alot of work to catch up. I am in middle of it. As soon, as I am done I will post it. Patience!!

Offline damaxer91

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #14 on: September 16, 2011, 04:36:34 AM »
I just got back, i have alot of work to catch up. I am in middle of it. As soon, as I am done I will post it. Patience!!

What happened to your trip report and photos?

Offline chuchem

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #15 on: September 16, 2011, 04:45:45 AM »
working on it... hopefully soon

Offline moish

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #16 on: September 16, 2011, 05:19:49 AM »
What happened to your trip report and photos?
of dubai or maldives?

Offline chuchem

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #17 on: September 16, 2011, 07:15:44 AM »
both

Offline chuchem

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #18 on: September 16, 2011, 09:25:59 AM »
As promised my tripreport

it was my dream to once visit the maldives. Our last trip to china was very nice, but not relaxing. There was always another market, a must do attraction. We got up early....
This time i wanted a vacation that will be: doing nothing!

My sister just came back from sem and was willing to watch the kids for 9 days, so this was our chance.

Some info on the maldives: its a country, that has 100's of little islands. Every hotel is build on its own island. Most hotelrooms in the maldives are private villas on the beach or over the water. The maldives is a expensive place, as well as hard to get to, as not to many airlines fly there. June is the wet season, so you could get alot of rain. I took this chance, as during the dry season, the nice resorts are way to expensive...b'h we got lucky and had 6 days sun with 3 quick showers, that lasted 20 minutes

Flight:
BA- was not a option for me, as they fly from gatwick and i can not fly from zuerich to gatwick, only lhr or lcy and i didnt want to transfer to a diffrent airport

Sq- shlep, as its not a direct route and good luck scoring 2 business seats sin-mle

So i decided to book a star alliance mix with emirates airlines. Continental was perfect for that, as they were partners with emirates. From dubai to the maldives i only had economy, but as i paid the business amount co promised to allow me to upgrade to business, as soon as it becomes available. At the end of march continental finished its partnership with emirates and was not able to upgrade me to business, as they had no way with communicating with emirates, so i cancelled the dxb-mle part and booked it with emirates miles. My ticket was the following:

Wed. Zrh-fra lh c.    10-11 am
Wed. Fra-dxb lh f.    3-11 pm
Thu.  Dxb-mle ek f.  3-9 am
Wed. Mle-dxb ek c.  10am-1pm
Fri.    Dxb-vie  os c.  2am-6am
Fri.    Vie-zrh.  os c.  7am-8am

i used 67500 co miles and 70000 ek miles a person. With these flights, i had a chance to try the first class terminal in Frankfurt and the new emirates first class lounge in dubai. I was actually planning on upgrading the return flight from dubai to f class as well, but lx and lh didnt release any seats, so i was stuck flying with austrian in business.

Hotel:
I was looking to stay in a overwater villa and wanted my own private pool on the porch. I  found the perfect hotel called halaveli. Big overwater villas, plunge pool, new resort and very small. Exactly what we wanted.

The outdoor porch on our villa:



Check out www.halaveli.com



The resort normally charges close to 1000 Dollars a night, they had a special buy 4 stay 6 promotion, a sale on the room and a 10% prepaid early booking promotion, so i got it down to 500 a night. I know you will think its expensive, but for that type of room a bargain in the maldives

Dubai has alot of nice hotels. the famous 7 star hotel burj al arab was 1000 dollars a night, so not within my budget. I booked the grand hyatt. I used a suite certificate to upgrade to a suite and as a diamond staying in a suite you get: free minibar, free pickup and drop to airport, free internet... I paid about 135 Dollars, that was a steal for a suite incl. all benefits.

Food:

You cant get any kosher food in the maldives, so i was planning on taking frozen bread, longlife milk and hermolis meals along and ask the hotel to warm them up for me. With a suitcase of nosh and other goodies we should be able to survive. I send the hotel a email, explaining to them what kosher is and asked them if they would help me out in storing food in the freezer and heating it up for me on a daily basis. They agreed... I spoke to a frum guy, that stayed at the conrad and he told me that they supplied him with kosher meals through kleins catering from australia. I contacted halaveli food and beverage manager and he said, they never did it, but anyway get once a week a shipment from australia. He was fine with me sending stuff along and gave me the number of their shipping agent. After a few phone calls around the world, the shipping company agreed to place a order bei kleins catering and also pick up kosher food items at a local grocery. The hotel told me, that they would add 80% to the cost price, so all expenses (shipping,customs...) are covered.
Kleins had a big selection of meals for 17 dollars, so i ended up paying 30 dollars for a good meal and didnt have to worry, that was worth it. I ordered challa,bread,milk,yoghurts,danishes,smoked salmon, ice cream and other food items and all was shipped to the resort.

I know i wrote alot about the planing, but for such a trip, especially to a such a place, its necessary, if you want to have a perfect trip.

Finally the big day arrives:


To be continued, a fellow dd member is planing a trip to the maldives, so I wanted to help by posting this already

Offline Dan

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Re: maldives and dubai
« Reply #19 on: September 16, 2011, 10:55:23 AM »
Awesome start!

Please post numbers about who you spoke to about ordering the meals, etc.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.