|
Back in March, I wrote about how to book partner award flights on Etihad Airways. We originally booked First Apartments both to Abu Dhabi from London and from Abu Dhabi back to London over the Thanksgiving holiday, but unfortunately, the airplane for our flight from London was switched from an A380 (which has First Apartments) to an A340 (which has Etihad's standard First Class). The airplane switch was somewhat devastating, but at least we will still experience the Apartments on our way home. We planned a whirlwind luxury long weekend in Dubai around these flights and I'll be covering all the details in upcoming posts. Review: British Airways Club World SFO - LHR Review: LHR Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge Review: Etihad Airways First Class LHR - AUH Review: Park Hyatt Dubai Review: Afternoon Tea at At.mosphere Burj Khalifa Review: Burj al Arab Part I: One Bedroom Suite Review: Burj al Arab Part II: Grounds and Amenities Review: AUH Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Review: Etihad Airways First Apartments AUH - LHR This is Part II of my Burj al Arab review. In Part I, I reviewed the room and hotel decor, as well as the service we received. Breakfast at Al Iwan Restaurant After our very expensive night of sleep, we headed for breakfast in the morning at Al Iwan Restaurant. We had the option to eat a breakfast buffet either at Junsui Restaurant or Al Iwan Restaurant from 7:00AM to 11:00AM, which was included in our rate. We were told when we checked in that Al Iwan offered more international cuisine, so we chose to have breakfast there. Al Iwan Restaurant is located on the main floor of the Burj and, in keeping with the design of the rest of the hotel, is completely over the top. There was gold and velvet and color everywhere and the buffet was honestly the most extensive I have seen. The buffet was located right inside the entrance of the restaurant, with two rooms for seating flanking either side. We were shown to a table near the window, which offered a beautiful view of the Arabian Gulf and offered tea or coffee to start. From there, we headed in to the buffet to check out what was on offer. We found that non-hotel guests can dine in Al Iwan for breakfast for the small sum of AED276, which is approximately $75 USD per person, so we decided we had better eat $75 worth of breakfast.  Al Iwan Restaurant  Al Iwan Restaurant  Al Iwan Restaurant As I mentioned, the buffet selection was one of the largest I've ever seen. There were tables and tables full of congee, fried rice, wok fried noodles, steak, sausages, bacon, pastries, breads, fruits, juices, smoothies, yogurts, Arabic specialties, hummus, dates, potatoes, tomatoes, salad, cheese, crackers, waffles, pancakes, French toast, an egg and omelette chef, and even camel milk. Needless to say, it was impossible not to find something (or 16 things) that you liked at the buffet. Chris even tried the camel milk!  Al Iwan Restaurant Breakfast Buffet
0 Comments
Back in March, I wrote about how to book partner award flights on Etihad Airways. We originally booked First Apartments both to Abu Dhabi from London and from Abu Dhabi back to London over the Thanksgiving holiday, but unfortunately, the airplane for our flight from London was switched from an A380 (which has First Apartments) to an A340 (which has Etihad's standard First Class). The airplane switch was somewhat devastating, but at least we will still experience the Apartments on our way home. We planned a whirlwind luxury long weekend in Dubai around these flights and I'll be covering all the details in upcoming posts. Review: British Airways Club World SFO - LHR Review: LHR Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge Review: Etihad Airways First Class LHR - AUH Review: Park Hyatt Dubai Review: Afternoon Tea at At.mosphere Burj Khalifa Review: Burj al Arab Part I: One Bedroom Suite Review: Burj al Arab Part II: Grounds and Amenities Review: AUH Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Review: Etihad Airways First Apartments AUH - LHR It was a "bucket list" item of Chris' to stay at the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai, so when we booked the Etihad flights, he decided we should stay for just one night to experience the "world's most luxurious hotel". There's pretty much no chance of getting a discount on the room rate and there's also no easy way to use points (unless you spend a lot of time in Jumeirah hotels and earn their loyalty points), so we paid the full cash rate for the night. In the interest of transparency, the room rate for the night was AED7990, which is approximately $2175 USD. After taxes and fees, the charge came to $2616.17 USD. Note: We realize this is outrageously expensive and fully accept that this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we will always remember. One thing we did make sure to do when booking was to book through American Express Fine Hotels and Resorts, which was approximately the same rate and allowed several benefits:
We arrived at the hotel from the Park Hyatt Dubai around 3 PM. The Burj is located on a private island accessible from a single road only with a reservation at the hotel or for one of the restaurants. In order to pass through security, they had to check our name off a list of guests. Once we pulled up to the hotel entrance, we were greeted immediately by a porter who grabbed our bags and put them on a luggage cart. He asked for the name on the reservation and assured us our bags would make it to the room shortly. A woman approached us and had already been told a last name, so she escorted us inside where we were presented with hot towels and dates and offered Arabic coffee. We declined the coffee and she began showing us around. She pointed out the front desk (which really isn't used) to the right of the door and the concierge desk to the left of the door and then led us up the escalator which runs along an elaborate jumping fountain and has fish tanks along the walls. She pointed out the restaurants available for breakfast and gave a detailed overview of the hotel's facilities while escorting us to our room on the 12th floor. The hotel is sail-shaped and has an open atrium nearly all the way to the top of the sail. Upon arriving at the top of the escalator, you'll see another gorgeous, colorful jumping fountain and will see multiple shops, including Chopard, Graff, and a shop called Rodeo Drive as well as a bank. One of the hotel's restaurants, Al Iwan, is also located among the shops, and a lounge and seating area is along the wall behind you. The decor is completely over the top. You'll find beautiful tile designs and intricate carpets on the floor, and looking up is absolutely breathtaking. Each floor is painted a slightly different color, so there is a gradient effect going from deep blue to bright yellow. Everything is accented with gold and I'd hazard a guess that it's almost all solid gold. We visited just before the UAE's national day, so there was also a UAE flag hanging along the entire length of the atrium in celebration.  Burj al Arab  Private Drive up to Burj al Arab  Burj al Arab Front Desk  Burj al Arab Concierge Desk  Entry Fountains  Another Fountain  Looking Up Back in March, I wrote about how to book partner award flights on Etihad Airways. We originally booked First Apartments both to Abu Dhabi from London and from Abu Dhabi back to London over the Thanksgiving holiday, but unfortunately, the airplane for our flight from London was switched from an A380 (which has First Apartments) to an A340 (which has Etihad's standard First Class). The airplane switch was somewhat devastating, but at least we will still experience the Apartments on our way home. We planned a whirlwind luxury long weekend in Dubai around these flights and I'll be covering all the details in upcoming posts. Review: British Airways Club World SFO - LHR Review: LHR Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge Review: Etihad Airways First Class LHR - AUH Review: Park Hyatt Dubai Review: Afternoon Tea at At.mosphere Burj Khalifa Review: Burj al Arab Part I: One Bedroom Suite Review: Burj al Arab Part II: Grounds and Amenities Review: AUH Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Review: Etihad Airways First Apartments AUH - LHR When we decided to go to Dubai, one of the first things we booked was afternoon tea at At.mosphere, which is located on the 122nd floor of the Burj Khalifa. If you want to see the views from the Burj Khalifa (currently the tallest building in the world), you can either pay AED 125 (~$34) per person to take an elevator to the observation deck on level 124 or you can pay AED 350 (~$95) per person to make it to level 148. We thought it was a better option to have afternoon tea at At.mosphere, which gets you essentially the same view as the lower observation deck, but there's no line and you can enjoy the view with wonderful food and drink.  Overlooking the Desert Afternoon tea at At.mosphere has two price tiers: AED 580 (~$158) per person for a window table or AED 530 (~$144) per person for a non-window table. It's certainly incredibly pricy and more than I've ever paid in my life for a meal, but it was definitely an experience that I couldn't pass up. Since we were already spending an exorbitant amount of money, we went for broke and spend the extra $14 to get a window table. Why not? The price includes an unlimited selection of hot and refreshing beverages, so come thirsty. Reservations for high tea are available between 12:00 and 4:30 PM daily and can only be made by emailing [email protected]. We decided to reserve the latest possible seating, which was at 2:30 PM since it was our last day in Dubai and we wanted to enjoy our morning at the Burj al Arab before check out and kill time before our red eye out of Abu Dhabi at around 1:00 AM. We took an Uber from the Burj al Arab and were a bit late for our reservation because it took a bit longer to check out than we anticipated. The Uber dropped us off at the Armani Hotel, which is at the base of the Burj Khalifa. We walked inside and asked a staff member where we needed to go to get to the elevator for At.mosphere and she escorted us through the lobby to an elevator. We then arrived at the reception desk for At.mosphere where they checked our reservation and directed us to the elevator that would take us to floor 123. From floor 123, there is a set of stairs down to the 122nd floor where the lounge is located.  Fancy Decor (As Expected)  Stairway from 123rd Floor Down to 122nd Despite being slightly late, we were promptly seated and had some time to gape at the view. Honestly, the view was incredible and I was really glad we were seated next to the window so I didn't have to awkwardly walk to the window to take photos or take photos with people in them. The one thing I was a bit disappointed by was the glare from the windows. You'd think a place that fancy would figure out how to reduce the glare, but I guess that hasn't been perfected yet. It also got REALLY hot sitting next to the windows in the afternoon sun (and we were there in the winter) so that's something to keep in mind.  The Famous Burj Khalifa Fountains  Dubai Views  Dubai Views  Hello  My Fancy Date At.mosphere is a curved room with a circular bar in the center of the room and all of the tables lining the windows in a crescent shape, which really works to capture the extensive floor to ceiling views of the desert. I was surprised to see that the bathroom also took advantage of the floor to ceiling windows, which was pretty incredible.  At.mosphere Bar  Other Tea Aficionados  Other Tea Aficionados  Great View While Washing Your Hands The tea menu was present on the table when we arrived and it was extensive. There were four full pages of tea selections (I missed a photo of one) and two more pages offering fruit juice blends and espresso drinks. Our "tea" was the "Luxurious Menu", which offered four courses along with the unlimited beverages.  At.mosphere Menu The tea started with an entire bottle of Pierlant Brut. Our server did a very fancy first pour and then continued refilling our glasses until the bottle was empty, which was honestly more than I would have liked because I wanted to sample some of the other drinks on the menu. Along with the Brut, the first course included berries and cream, which came garnished with gold leaf on top (of course). I didn't know what to make of the gold leaf, but I wanted my money's worth, so I ate it. It had a slight metallic taste (as expected), but didn't taste like much. The rest of the berries and cream however, were amazing. It was perfectly light and refreshing and a great way to start the afternoon.  Pouring the Champagne  Berries and Cream After the berries came the "Declinations", which were a selection of three finger sandwiches and three small bites. That's six items each, so not only do you need to come thirsty, but you better come hungry as well. The offering included salmon, foie gras, and a lobster salad along the top of the plate, then a roast beef and rocket sandwich, a tuna sandwich, and a chicken caesar sandwich. As expected, I passed the salmon and foie gras on to Chris and avoided the tuna sandwich, but the rest was truly excellent. We continued drinking our Brut through this course as well because we had the whole dang bottle to finish.  Declinations Next, it was time for the main course. At.mosphere offers both a vegetarian selection and a non-vegetarian selection for the tea and both had two choices for the main dish. True to form, Chris and I both selected the roast of the day rather than the catch of the day. The roast was fairly small and was served with mashed potatoes and garnished with a carrot and asparagus. As expected, it was excellent.  Main Course At this point, we had finally finished our champagne and were ready to order some tea to have with the next course, which included pastries, scones and mini cakes. This is where service really went downhill. Our server just disappeared for a long stretch and by the time he surfaced again, he had completely forgotten that we ordered tea (we had been waiting for it for 40 minutes at this point). I was really disappointed because I really wanted to sample some of the fruit juices, but we ended up with no time to do so. Luckily, the final course included no less than nine delectable items each, which led to me taking a bite out of every single one (classy, I know) and then deciding which to finish (I couldn't possibly finish all nine!).  A Tower of Desserts After we did what we could to the tower of dessert, we were brought the check and a small bag of housemade chocolates to take with us. By the time we finished, it was around 5:30 PM, so plan to spend quite some time for this experience. We loved that it took several hours, because we got to watch the beginning of the sunset, which was, of course, amazing.  Chocolates for the Road  Nice Sunset Overall, the tea was truly excellent. Everything we ate was so well-prepared and incredibly presented. Aside from the service blip, we both decided the experience was totally worth the cost. This isn't something we'd do regularly, but if you're doing a "once in a lifetime" sort of trip, this should definitely be on your list.
Back in March, I wrote about how to book partner award flights on Etihad Airways. We originally booked First Apartments both to Abu Dhabi from London and from Abu Dhabi back to London over the Thanksgiving holiday, but unfortunately, the airplane for our flight from London was switched from an A380 (which has First Apartments) to an A340 (which has Etihad's standard First Class). The airplane switch was somewhat devastating, but at least we will still experience the Apartments on our way home. We planned a whirlwind luxury long weekend in Dubai around these flights and I'll be covering all the details in upcoming posts. Review: British Airways Club World SFO - LHR Review: LHR Etihad Airways First & Business Class Lounge Review: Etihad Airways First Class LHR - AUH Review: Park Hyatt Dubai Review: Afternoon Tea at At.mosphere Burj Khalifa Review: Burj al Arab Part I: One Bedroom Suite Review: Burj al Arab Part II: Grounds and Amenities Review: AUH Etihad Airways Premium Lounge Review: Etihad Airways First Apartments AUH - LHR We arrived at the Park Hyatt Dubai at around 10 AM after a slightly disastrous chauffeur ride from Abu Dhabi following our Etihad First Class flight from London. The Park Hyatt Dubai is definitely tucked away and a bit tricky to find, since it's located in the Dubai Creek area, which is about 20-30 minutes away from downtown Dubai. However, it's very convenient if you fly in to DXB because it's located about 10 minutes away. I was ok with the fact that the hotel was located away from downtown because the area was very quiet (aside from an incident that I'll get into later and the fact that the Red Bull Flugtag was taking place across the creek on our second day) and beautiful. I can say without a doubt that the Park Hyatt Dubai is one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed. It's beautifully designed with amazing Arabian design accents throughout, which I was completely in love with. There is also beautiful tile work and wood accents throughout the hotel's design and it was really incredibly gorgeous.  Park Hyatt Dubai Entrance  Park Hyatt Dubai Entrance  Park Hyatt Dubai "Buggy"  Park Hyatt Dubai Lobby  Walkway to Guest Rooms We pulled up to the hotel and beelined straight for the front desk. It was definitely early in the morning and I didn't expect that our room was available, but I was so mad about our ridiculous chauffeur ride, I was hoping we could get in to our room ASAP since we had a lot we wanted to do that day. I had booked a Park King room, which came to 1,030 AED, (about $280) and was honestly a bit on the pricy side for me, but I applied one of my Diamond Suite Upgrades, so I figured it would be worth it. When we arrived, we were told we had been upgraded to a Park Terrace Suite, but the room would not be ready for another 15 minutes. One of the front desk associates escorted us down a hallway to The Lounge, which is a small cafe serving breakfast and light snacks throughout the day with a large seating area where we could wait for our room to be ready. They knew I was a bit upset upon our arrival and offered complimentary breakfast or drinks, but we weren't hungry or thirsty, so we just sat and waited. After about 30 minutes, someone came back and told us our room was available, so we were able to go to our room quite early, which was definitely appreciated.
The Park Hyatt Dubai is extremely spread out and honestly, very confusing to navigate. The hotel stretches across two wings which radiate out in opposite directions from the lobby. When walking to your room, you'll pass through multiple wings, which are connected by glass enclosed walkways and will likely either need to go up or down in the elevator to get to your floor. Because we had a Terrace Suite, our room was located on the ground floor, which meant we needed to take the elevator down to the ground floor from the lobby level. We found room 2108, which was located at the very end of the hallway at one of the farthest points of the hotel property. |
AboutJust a girl with a full-time job and a full-time obsession with traveling. It's best to LiveTraveled. Categories
All
Archives
March 2017
|
RSS Feed