The RTA has announced discounts of 5% on some of it’s marine services. The discount in terms of Dubai Ferry says that there will be a 5% discount on chartered trips (understood to be trips where you charter the whole ferry as a group to your own timetable), 5% discount for seniors (over 60) on scheduled trips (trips listed on the routes page) – you must bring evidence of age for this one, and the third 5% discount is for return trips between Dubai Marina and Al Ghubaiba – normally you would have to buy 2 tickets at 50 dirhams each for silver class or 75 dirhams each for gold class but buying a return trip for silver would be 95 dirhams and for gold class would be 142.50 AED.
This discount scheme is scheduled to run until the end of December. There are also 5% discounts available on other chartered marine services.
The Dubai Ferry, together with other forms of marine transport, is suspended due to the bad weather. Services will be reinstated when the bad weather subsides. This is due to rough seas and high waves and in order to maintain safety.
Contact the RTA on 800 9090 to check the running of the ferry services.
Plans are underway for new ferry terminals at Al Jadaf and Dubai Festival City, planned for completion in summer 2015.
These new routes are to expand on the current marine transport system for Dubai and provide not only more routes for tourist trips but also more services for Dubai residents.
This will increase the number of ferry terminals to 5 with the current terminals at Dubai Marina, Al Ghubaiba and the new terminal at Al Mamzar.
Details have now been announced on the Dubai Ferry trip for New Years Eve 2014 which will run at 10pm from the Dubai Marina station. Tickets will cost 200 dirhams for silver class and 300 dirhams for gold class and these can be bought in advance from the ferry terminal itself which is near Marina Mall. Tickets for under twos are free and children get a 50% discount.
The trip will last 3 hours and will anchor off the Burj al Arab in order to view the fireworks. Tickets are likely to sell out fast so it is advisable to book as soon as possible.
You can contact the RTA on their free number 800 9090 for more information.
If the Dubai Ferry is booked then it may be worth taking a trip on an abra – there will be trips running at 11pm from the Dubai Festival city abra station which last an hour and give you a view of the creek.
On 1 October 2014 the RTA launched a new route for the Dubai Ferry which is a round trip from Al Mamzar Marine Port. As with other trips, this route takes an hour and costs 75 dirhams for Gold Class and 50 Dirhams for Silver Class travel.
The route will start off on only Thursdays and Fridays with one trip per day at 4.30pm. No doubt the RTA will keep an eye on how popular this route is before they think about increasing the frequency.
Here is the promotional material advertising the service from the RTA:
According to Gulf Today, the RTA has announced that it is providing some family packages for trips on the Dubai Ferry during Dubai Summer Surprises. According to the report, the packages are for 2 adults and 2 children and reduced the cost of tickets by 10% from 225Dhs to 210Dhs for Gold Class and 150Dhs to 140Dhs for Silver class. You can find the report here.
Now, according to our mathematics that does not really equate to 10%! 10% off a 225 dirham package should go down to 202.5 dirhams and 10% off 150 dirhams goes down to 135 dirhams. So really it’s not a great saving but it’s better than nothing!
The RTA has said it will be deploying the Dubai Ferry shortly before the New Year’s Eve fireworks on the Palm this evening. This will enable people to get a good view of the world record attempt at the most fireworks that is happening on the Palm. However it is not clear whether reservations for these ferry services are being taken or whether it will be on a first come first served basis…
The ferries will depart from Al Saif and Dubai Marina.
It is now possible to hire the Dubai Ferry for your personal or corporate entertainment needs without any seats installed. In this way the ferry can be used as a kind of hall for your party or event venue.
The ferry can fit up to 100 people in so could even be used for weddings and is available for hire from either Dubai Marina or Al Ghubaiba ports.
For more info check out the report from Trade Arabia.
