Eat Drink Stay Dubai Newsletter 48/w37

Hi Dubai friends,

Welcome to Week 37, Edition 48

So here is this week’s digest of the ‘Dubai news worth knowing’, all in 10 minutes or less of your time.

👇 A few things worth knowing about Dubai this week 👇

🙌 Wynn 'casino' nabs Atlantis MD as its new COO.

🚨 Atlantis The Royal Club Lounge changes.

🌟 Dubai Garden Glow reopens.

🚕 Book taxis by WhatsApp

Tittle-Tattle: Anantara 11 year birthday deals. Metro station renames. Ladies Day, and Night, deals. Speakeasies and Sandpiercer.

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HOTEL NEWS

Atlantis MD Leaves to Join UAE’s ‘First Casino Resort’

Tom Roelens has left his role as Managing Direct of Atlantis Resort to take up a position as Chief Operating Officer at Wynn Al Marjan Island Resort, according to Arabian Business.

As regular readers will be aware, Wynn al Marjan Island Resort is widely expected to become the first legal casino resort in the UAE.

Here’s an interesting comment piece about whether Wynn may impacted should Dubai choose to join the race.

🔗 Wynn Al Marjan Island Resort

🔗 Arabian Business: Who Is Tom Roelens?

Al Maha Appoints New General Manager

Al Maha, a Luxury Collection Resort, has appointed a new General Manager, Tim Stanhope.

If you’re not aware of Al Maha, it’s the aspirational redemption opportunity in Dubai for Marriott Bonvoy. Whilst there are several excellent desert resorts around the Emirates, Al Maha is the one I’d suggest, especially as it has the edge on location being in Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve.

🔗 Al Maha, a Luxury Collection Resort

Anantara the Palm Resort Dubai Celebrates 11 Years

Anantara The Palm Resort Dubai celebrates 11 years of operations with 11 deals, inc 11% discount in all restaurants and up to 40% off rooms, from 09-20 Sep 24.

DUBAI TIPS

The Perils of Lounge Access, or Not?

In a previous feature on Club Lounges, I mentioned about how Atlantis The Royal Dubai was effectively offering a superb value proposition for drinkers, as they offered premium brands on an all day open lounge.

It appears, according to this thread on Trip Advisor, that the lounge will be closed from 09 Sep - 01 Oct 24, with a temporary relocation to Gastronomy restaurant.

Without taking sides, as there may be a genuine reason for the closure that was unavoidable, this is why I’d always recommend keeping in close contact with hotels ahead of a stay. Because if there’s going to be a significant change that may affect your potential experience, you want to be across it ASAP and also have the opportunity to speak with the hotel if you feel the wish to complain or amend your booking.

As it stands in this instance, taking away a lounge with its own ambiance and exclusivity, and only operating at lesser* hours, would - to me at least - be a marked reduction in experience and I would hope the hotel would do something proactively to make up for this.

Let’s see how this pans out, and ‘thoughts and prayers’ to all affected.

*Whilst the ‘temporary’ lounge is open for the same time as the lounge would have been, I’d suggest it’s likely to have an impact on service (drinks especially) , hence ‘lesser hours’ (in terms of drinking duration potential) if this is the case.

DUBAI

The Dubai Attractions That Are Open, or Re-Opening

With the news Dubai Garden Glow has reopened for Season 10, Time Out Dubai has done a roundup of other attractions and their opening dates.

There isn’t a date yet for Miracle Garden, so do keep an eye on the official site for announcements. Last year it opened on 29 Sep 23. 🚨Also, be wary to use the official site as there are a few ‘copycat’ sites with similar names 🚨

For Global Village, read all about it on DAMAC’s official page, as it lists all the different tickets, experiences, offers for when it opens on 16 Oct 24.

dubaigardenglow

View more on Instagram

EMIRATES

Emirates upgrades First Class Lounge Dining

If you’re lucky enough to be flying from Dubai and have access to Emirates First Class Lounge, you may notice some changes in the dining options, according to Executive Traveller.

Last Week Chocolate, This Week Fragrance

Emirates have paired up with the irish brand VOYA to furnish on-board First Class and Business Class washrooms with bespoke Eau du Toilette fragrances.

Emirates to Axe Fifth Freedom Route

Emirates have announced that they will be stopping one of their ‘Fifth Freedom’ routes, namely Melbourne to Singapore. No date has been set at time of press, but it’s a route that’s run since 1996.

DUBAI NEWS/TITTLE-TATTLE

You can now book Hala taxis using WhatsApp.

Hala Taxis are a joint venture between RTA and Careem.

Here’s a few tips from Hala about the best time to book taxis, as taxis bookings are up 25-30% this month from August.

🔗 How to book Hala taxis using WhatsApp

The best ladies day deals in Dubai, including the new location for Cove Beach.

Or if you prefer ladies nights, check out these new ones.

Ladies Nights can be well worth it, if you’re a drinker of course, as some offer bonkers-good deals. The really good ones soon change their rules though, as some of the Madinat Jumeirah bars used to offer either 3 hours free drinks or a wild number, such as 10 drinks per person!

Check out Gregory Porter (02 Nov 24 at The Agenda) or Will.i.am at Taste of SLS on 04 Oct 24.

The latter sounds particularly interesting, offering a ‘culinary journey’ around the hotel (which is stunning, BTW) and includes a live 120 kg bluefin tuna cutting. There you go.

🔗 Taste of SLS with will.i.am

Check out these pictures of Dubai Airport as it’s developed over the years.

Which airline do you think was the first flight? Clue: it wasn’t Emirates.

21 fun budget things to do this weekend in Dubai.

You should never need an excuse to try Top Golf, and Kite Beach, Ras al Khor Whildlife Sanctuary, Al Fahidi (abras, souks) and Alserkal Avenue all get a 👍

Mashreq Metro Station is now known as InsuranceMarket.

Dubai’s Metro stations are often available for sponsorship, which can often lead to confusing sounding names. Also, some of the names have no logical connection to the area that they are in, so be careful. Last but not least, they’re not always updated on Google Maps.

The old ‘Mashreq’ station, now InsuranceMarket, is ‘one down’ from Mall of Emirates as you head south or towards Abu Dhabi/Marina, and the ‘one before’ Internet City. It’s probably the one you would use if you were staying in Al Barsha.

This is where the ‘Sandpiercer’ is planned to cover by 2030.

In a city and country of big projects and even bigger ambition, the Etihad Rail stands out as one of the more imaginative. Known by its working title (or nickname) of ‘Sandpiercer’ (hopefully it’s not that like that movie or TV show, Snowpiercer!), its aim is to link all seven emirates by rail, and here is the planned route map.