How much do you know about Dubai? Perhaps, like us, you know that a visit there would provide spectacular skylines depicting opulent (oil) wealth, unaffordable (diamonds) shopping, maybe a little golf (like Tiger) and riding ATVs around sand dunes, if that’s your thing.
Okay, how about skiing? As in…snow skiing.
This was a revelation to us when, on a recent cruise, we met a young couple who told us it was, indeed, possible to strap on the boards and snowplow down the slopes of Dubai. They’d seen it, but not tried it, after disembarking from a Royal Caribbean cruise to the best-known city in the United Arab Emirates.
Now Royal Caribbean is expanding its operations in Dubai, and in the process making it easier to ski there, which by the way is something you do inside one of the shopping malls. Next year, the Brilliance of the Seas will be despatched to the UAE port, from which it is expected to sail itineraries ranging from 7 to 18 days through the spring of 2012. It will give passengers a chance to get a taste of countries like Egypt, India, Jordan and the UAE.
And a chance to ski.
As we write this, it’s 39 degrees Celsius in Dubai, or 102 degrees Fahrenheit. Perfect weather for skiing, right?