Answered · 9 minute read
Dhow cruise facilities are plainer than people expect and entirely adequate. Every Dubai dinner dhow has toilets aboard and an air-conditioned enclosed lower deck where the buffet is laid out. The upper deck is open and unconditioned, which is where you should sit for the view. The lower deck is for eating and for cooling down.
By Roshan Shriwastav · Published
Almost every Dubai dinner dhow is built the same way. The lower deck is enclosed, air-conditioned and holds the buffet and most of the seating. The upper deck is open to the sky, with seating along the rails and usually a canopy over part of it.
People instinctively take the first free table, which is usually downstairs, and then spend two hours looking at the Marina through a window. Go upstairs. The lower deck is where you go to eat and to cool down between courses.
Toilets are aboard on every boat, generally on the lower deck, and larger dhows carrying a hundred and fifty people usually have more than one. They are marine toilets on a working boat rather than restaurant washrooms. Clean, small and busiest immediately after the buffet opens.
There are no showers and no changing rooms. Dhow cruises are not swimming trips, so this rarely matters, but it catches people who have booked a dhow expecting something closer to a charter.
June to September, when even an 8pm sailing has an upper deck in the low thirties with high humidity. In those months the enclosed deck stops being a fallback and becomes where a lot of guests spend most of the cruise.
December to February the opposite is true: the upper deck is cool enough on the water that people ask for a layer, and the air-conditioned deck is the least appealing place on the boat. Bring a light jacket in those months and you will get the better half of the cruise.
Seating is assigned on arrival rather than chosen, and this is the single thing most worth understanding before you board. You are given a table, and on a busy sailing you may be sharing it with another party. Tables for two are rare on the shared boats; a couple will often be seated at a table of six.
The assignment usually fills the lower deck first, because that is where the buffet is and where the staff can serve most efficiently. If you want the upper deck, say so at the boarding desk rather than after you have sat down. It is almost always possible if you ask early and almost never possible once the boat is loaded.
On the newer Marina and Water Canal boats there is often a premium or upper-deck ticket at AED 30 to AED 50 more that guarantees the outside seating. On the Creek boats it is generally first come, which is a good argument for boarding at the start of the window rather than the end of it.
Beyond toilets and air conditioning, the facilities list on a dinner dhow is short and it is worth knowing what is genuinely there rather than assuming from the photographs.
This deserves a straight answer because the marketing rarely gives one. A dhow is a working wooden vessel and access is genuinely limited. Boarding is over a gangway that may be at a slope depending on the tide, the two decks are connected by a steep staircase with no lift, and the toilets are small and not adapted.
For a guest using a wheelchair, boarding is sometimes possible with help from the crew onto the lower deck, and the upper deck effectively is not. For a guest with limited mobility who can manage a gangway and prefers to stay put once seated, the lower deck works well.
Al Seef and the Water Canal boarding points are the easiest of the four: modern, level approaches with parking nearby. The Deira Creek jetties are the hardest. If access matters, ask about the specific vessel and the specific jetty rather than the route, and ask before you pay.
Knowing the shape of the evening tells you when to be where, which on a boat with a fixed route and a hundred and fifty people matters more than it would in a restaurant.
Boarding runs for about half an hour before departure and is the calmest part of the evening. The boat is alongside, the upper deck is empty, and it is the best chance for photographs without other people's tables in them. The lines come off at 20:00 on most routes and the first twenty minutes are the best of the cruise: moving, lit, and nobody has queued for anything yet.
The buffet opens around twenty minutes in and the lower deck fills. There is no advantage to being first; the counter runs for the best part of an hour and the food is replenished. The tanoura performance lands near the halfway point, usually on the lower deck, and lasts fifteen or twenty minutes. The last half hour is the run back in, which on the Marina and Canal routes is the most photogenic stretch of the whole evening.
Almost certainly not. All four Dubai dhow routes run in sheltered water (a creek, a canal or a marina channel), and the boats are heavy, slow and wide. There is no swell, and the sensation for most of the two hours is closer to a floating restaurant than a boat trip.
Guests who are anxious about seasickness on a yacht are the ones most often surprised by this, and it is one of the genuine advantages of a dhow over a charter for a group that includes elderly relatives or nervous passengers. Nobody needs a tablet for a dhow cruise.
The one exception is the Marina route on a windy evening, where the section past the breakwater towards Bluewaters can pick up a little movement. Even then it is slight, and it lasts a few minutes rather than the crossing.
Yes, on every dinner dhow, generally on the enclosed lower deck. Larger boats carrying 150 guests usually have more than one. They are marine toilets on a working boat rather than restaurant washrooms.
The lower deck is enclosed and air-conditioned; the upper deck is open air. That layout is standard across almost every Dubai dinner dhow.
The upper deck, for the view. From the lower deck you are looking through glass. Use the air-conditioned deck for the buffet and for cooling down, particularly between June and September.
It varies considerably by vessel and by boarding point, and the two decks are connected by a staircase rather than a lift. Ask about your specific sailing before booking rather than assuming.
Only in the toilets: there are no changing rooms or showers. Dhow cruises are dinner cruises rather than swimming trips, so it rarely comes up.
Seats are assigned on arrival, and on a busy sailing you may share a table. Ask for the upper deck at the boarding desk rather than after sitting down. Some Marina and Water Canal boats sell an upper-deck ticket for AED 30 to AED 50 more.
Almost never. All four routes run in sheltered water (a creek, a canal or a marina channel) on heavy, slow, wide boats. It feels closer to a floating restaurant than a boat trip, and nobody needs a tablet for it.
Generally no on both counts. Most dhows do not serve alcohol, and there is no wifi, no charging points and no shop. Unlimited soft drinks, water, tea and Arabic coffee are included and usually self-service.
Leave the date and roughly how many of you there are and we will come back with the boats that are free and what each costs. No deposit at this stage.
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