The Boyfriend’s Surprise Birthday Party – FAIL

I have been planning the party since late December of last year, thinking of something different that we could do. I’m not really a fan of giving material things as a gift since i have very bad taste and notion of what men wants (because i’m not a man contrary to what you might have heard). I’m a travel agent and I must say, pretty good at what I do so why not use my expertise on that field instead?

For his birthday last year, I gave him the Formula 1 driving experience at Dubai Autodrome using my (aherm!) staff discount and combining it with an Entertainer voucher that I have for karting. Driving an authentic F1 car must be every guy’s dream so I know for sure that he’ll love it – I was right.

This year, I was torn between a desert safari, an aerial tour of Dubai on a seaplane, a house party and a sunset cruise on a yacht. The boyfriend isn’t that too keen for any “touristy” kind of things so that ruled out the desert safari. An aerial tour of Dubai is too expensive for me (nyahaha!). A house party is boring so that left me with the sunset cruise on a yacht.

I’ve been scouting for a yacht company as early as December, asking for quotations, the inclusions and what kind of yacht they will be using for the tour. With the help of my friend who’s an expert in the field of yacht cruising, I’ve narrowed down the companies to 5 – those with reasonable prices, good quality of the yacht, the maximum number of people allowed and the inclusions. BUT with the boyfriend’s schedule, I couldn’t make any reservations just yet until I’ve confirmed from him which weekend he will be in Dubai for (they don’t get every weekends off, poor!) and by the time D got his confirmation that he’s coming to Dubai this weekend, most of the yacht companies were already full (3 days before the weekend, most of the yacht cruises gets booked out, a good advice for those planning to do a yacht cruise in Dubai during winter). I panicked, fearing that I may not be able to pull it off. I really do get stressed out for any last minute changes for something that I have been planning for a long time. Yes! I’m OC like that.

After much research, I found the offer of Marine Concept of almost the same price (maybe even cheaper than the one i’m planning to book) and they were available for the Friday that I was planning to go for. I booked and paid the deposit within 4 hours that I received the confirmation.

So now, the only problem that I have to face was if the weather will permit us to go for the cruise which was not really a problem for me last Friday morning. It was sunny and not very cold compared to the previous winter days in Dubai so I felt all giddy and excited in the morning. At 2pm, it was an apocalypse! Billboards along Sheikh Zayed road were being torn down by the strong winds, lose cable wires were everywhere and the visibility on the road was close to none. This is probably the worst sandstorm I’ve ever seen while living in Dubai and trust me, it’s not a very good thing for me to see just when we’re about to cruise. All the things that I had to go thru planning this day to be perfect came flashing in my mind when I heard the dreaded words the captain told me: “the weather is too bad, I can’t compromise on your safety. We can just postpone it for another day…” (Yes, I’m being a drama queen).

Well, some things really are out of our hands…. the very nice captain allowed us to stay in a much bigger yacht for awhile to see if the weather will somehow calm down, which was slightly a good thing about this failure – we get to be inside one of their luxurious yachts. :p

My heart is still broken, I know that we can still do it some other time but it just lost the essence of the surprise party that I have planned. I got surprised instead of the boyfriend. It’s not going to be the same as I have originally planned it. Well, that’s just me… I get really stressed out when something that I have planned did not push thru the way I have played it in my mind.

On a brighter side, we still had a good time taking photos inside the bigger yacht.

Love,

the very sad and disappointed organizer who officially hates sandstorms!