Terminal let-down in Dubai

As well as being the latest hotspot cruise destination, Dubai must be one of the biggest building sites on the planet.
So it comes as a bit of a surprise to realise that facilities for passengers embarking on and disembarking from cruise ships in Port Rashid are rudimentary to say the least.
Though thinking back, I recall that there was nothing more than a couple of marquees on the quayside when I disembarked from the Queen Mary 2 in Dubai last year.
Costa Cruises have two ships operating out of the port this winter, and they will be joined by a third in 2010. Costa chairman Pier Luigi Foschi has now expressed his own concerns about the inadequate facilities.
At the moment they amount to a few tents, to be replaced next year by a temporary structure. A planned cruise centre, which tourism boss Hamad bin Mejren says will be as good as, if not better, than any in the world, is not scheduled for completion until 2012.
Odd, that. They can build the world’s first seven-star luxury hotel and the world’s tallest tower, but they can’t finish a cruise terminal for another four years.
Perhaps they can learn from their neighbours in Muscat, who have responded to the increase in cruise ship calls at Port Sultan Qaboos by building a new terminal which is scheduled for completion next year.