The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) announced changes to the business hours of its services during the holy month of Ramadan. RTA services affected by the Ramadan timing include Customers’ Happiness centres, paid parking zones, public buses, Dubai Metro and Tram, marine transit modes, and service-provider centres (Technical Testing).
Dubai Ferry will be operating at Ghubaiba and Marina Stations at 11:00 am, 5:00 pm, and 6:30 pm. The Ferry will operate from Al Jaddaf Station to Dubai Water Canal Station at 5:30 pm and from Dubai Water Canal Station to Al Jaddaf Station at 7:35 pm.
This means that some sailings are being cancelled during Ramadan which are:
the 2:05pm sailing from Dubai Water Canal Station,
the midday sailing from Al Jadaf,
the circular trips from the Marina and Al Ghubaiba at 3pm
the one way trips between the Marina and Al Ghubaiba at 1pm.
The RTA runs ferry trips at New Year to see the fireworks in Dubai
New Years Eve
Every year the RTA run special ferry trips for New Years Eve (31st December) to enable passengers to get a good view of the festivities that are happening over the Emirate and in particular the fireworks at the various venues.
This year is no exception and the RTA has in fact increased the number of trips that it will be running for 31st December 2017 by laying on extra boats at additional locations.
Trip Details
The RTA has announced that the trips will run from Marina Mall Station (Dubai Marina), Ghubaiba Station, Dubai Festival City Station (Dubai Creek) and Sheikh Zayed Road Station (Dubai Water Canal). However, there is no ferry stop at Festival City so we are checking to see if this is actually from Al Jadaf.
The trips all commence at 9pm (with boarding from 8.30pm) and go on until 1.30am allowing passengers a full evening’s viewing of the festivities from the water.
Last year there was no seating on the ferry trips so this may well be the case this year too.
Tickets
Tickets for these New Year ferry trips often sell out very fast and we get many queries on this website about how and when people can buy tickets for New Years Eve in Dubai.
This year details have been announced earlier than usual which gives people more time to book.
Ticket prices are 300 AED for silver class tickets and 450 AED for gold class. Children between 2 and 10 years old pay half price and under 2s go free.
If you want to buy your tickets then you need to go to the relevant departure point where you wish to take the trip and book at the ticket office there.
There is no other way of booking at the moment. If you are not in the country at present then you will need to find someone to book for you.
You can get further information about the trips by calling the RTA on the toll free number 800 9090 or else use the mobile number 050 7932662.
This year is set to be bigger and better than ever!
Refreshments
UPDATE: There are refreshments available on board to purchase as there is a small refreshment bar on the Ferries. You can also bring your own small snacks and soft drinks with you. There is no meal included in the ticket price.
For those people who have an Emirates NBD Go4It Credit or Debit Card, you can avail of a free ride on the Dubai Ferry either from Al Ghubaiba or the Marina and the details are shown below.
This information is from the Emirates NBD Website and is subject to change so please check before you travel as this may not be the most up to date information.
There is also conflicting information about how many free tickets you can get and how often so please check with Emirates NBD.
The following information is from the Emirates NBD website:
Free rides on Dubai Ferry – as per Emirates NBD April 2022:
Your Go4it Card entitles you and one accompanying guest to a free ride on the Dubai Ferry. The Go4it Platinum provides a free ride in the Business class (Gold ticket). The Go4it Gold provides a free ride in the Economy class (Silver ticket).
The exclusive rides for Go4it Cardholders are as per below schedule.
Route
Description
Schedule*
F1
Round trip from Al Ghubaiba water transport station up to the area close to Burj Al Arab
2:30pm (for one hour), First Saturday of the month
Round trip from Al Ghubaiba water transport station up to the area close to Burj Al Arab
2:30pm (for one hour), Second Saturday of the month
F2
Round trip from Marina Mall water transport station up to the area close to Atlantis on Palm Jumeirah
2:30pm (for one hour), Third Saturday of the month
Round trip from Marina Mall water transport station up to the area close to Atlantis on Palm Jumeirah
2:30pm (for one hour), Fourth Saturday of the month
To avail of the benefit, you may arrive at the aforementioned station on any of the scheduled days. On presenting the Go4it Credit Card at the ticket counter the cardholder will be provided with the entry pass which needs to be presented prior to boarding the Dubai Ferry. The Dubai Ferry has a maximum capacity of 100 seats per trip (Economy 84, Business 14, Disabled 2). Additional guests will be charged as per the normal applicable rates of Dubai Ferry. Trip duration is approximately 1 hour. Ferry operation is subject to fair sea conditions. For details log on to www.rta.ae.
Terms and Conditions
*Ferry operation schedule is subject to changes without prior notice considering bad weather, summer months, etc. Emirates NBD reserves the right to cancel any trip due to unavoidable circumstances. All offers are made available on a best-effort basis and at the sole discretion of Emirates NBD. Emirates NBD makes no warranties and assumes no liability or responsibility in respect to the products and services provided by partner(s)/other entity(ies).
Obviously the trips are subject to weather conditions and unforeseen changes and may be withdrawn at any time.
You can also use your credit (and the debit) card as a Nol card to pay your transportation fares and parking tickets.
See the Emirates NBD website for more information on the free ferry rides.
The RTA has announced the timings for all means of public transport on the occasions of the Prophet Muhammed’s Birthday, Commemoration Day and National Day.
For the Dubai Ferry, there is no change to the normal daily timings and routes which are shown on the Routes page.
All routes run 7 days a week and are as shown on the routes page unless advised otherwise.
It is likely that on the occasion of the public holidays that the ferries will be busier than usual and some of the more popular trips may book up quicker than others (e.g. from the Marina).
People are advised to get to the ferry terminal with 30 minutes or so to spare so that they can purchase tickets at the relevant ticket office for their trip (no tickets can be bought online or in advance yet).
The trips from Al Jadaf have been less busy since they have been introduced and you can access the Marine Station very easily from Dubai Creek Metro Station.
2023 Update – this route no longer runs. Check the routes page for more info.
This is a spotlight post on Al Jadaf Ferry Terminal. This is the starting point for ferry trips that run up the Dubai Water Canal to the Marine Station there.
There is a comfortable waiting room at Al Jadaf with customer toilets.
Walk From the Metro
Al Jadaf Marine Station is only a short walk from the Creek Metro station. It takes only a couple of minutes to walk from the Metro station to the Marine Station. Upon arrival at the Marine Station there is an air conditioned waiting room with seats where you can await your ferry or abra trip.
From Al Jadaf Marine Station you can not only get a ferry trip up the canal, you can also get an abra trip over to Festival City, which only takes a few minutes and so is a good route over that way if you do not have a car.
The ferry leaves from Al Jadaf 3 times a day.
3 Trips
Ferries leave 3 times a day to go up the canal from Al Jadaf at 10am, 12pm and 5.30pm. The full trip takes around 1 hour and 45 minutes to Dubai Water Canal Station where you can link up with the ferries that go to Dubai marina and Al Ghubaiba.
You get a fabulous view on the 5.30pm ferry from Al Jadaf.
Sunset Trip
If you take the 5.30pm trip from Al Jadaf in the cooler months then you can see the sun set over the Burj Khalifa, so this is a lovely trip to take.
You could go as far as the Sheikh Zayed Road station (this is 4 stops and will cost 40 dirhams in silver class). Once you get there – it arrives at 6.55pm – you can wait for 5 minutes to see the spectacle of the colourful waterfall on the bridge over the canal.
The light show starts at 7pm on the Water Canal.
From here you can take a walk along the canal and go over any of the new bridges there, or you can walk to the nearest Metro station, Business Bay, which will take you about 15 minutes.
An evening trip on the ferry along the canal is a great trip to take if you have visitors staying with you in Dubai. It gives you a great view of some key sights in Dubai and is a nice relaxing journey. The 5.30pm trip also gives you time to get dinner at one of the nearby hotels. The W Hotel Dubai Al Habtoor City is just across the road from the Ferry Stop.
The RTA has announced details of all of the services that will run over the period of Eid al Adha 2017 for Dubai public transport services.
The Dubai Ferry will run all its standard services over the Eid period, with no changes to the schedule. You can see all of the routes and timings here.
The Eid al Adha holiday runs from Thursday 31st August until Sunday 3rd September 2017.
The ferries have a capacity of 100 people and may well get busy over the holiday period. Tickets can be purchased at ticket office at the relevant departure point but cannot be bought in advance.
It is advisable to get to the ferry terminal at least half an hour before the trip departs to ensure that you can get a ticket and get on board before the ferry departs.
All paid public parking in Dubai will be free over the holiday period (except multi storey car parks).
We recently reported the timings for the Dubai Ferry for the holiday of Eid al Fitr 017 (you can find the details here) where an additional ferry trip was announced by the RTA.
After further investigations it appears that this new route will be active after the end of Eid Al Fitr on an ongoing basis.
A ferry on Dubai Water Canal
Circular Route
The new route is a circular trip (ie it departs from and returns to the same station) from the Sheikh Zayed Road Marine Station which is on the Dubai Water Canal.
Duration
The trip will last an hour and there will be one ferry taking the trips between 6pm and midnight from that station.
Cost
The price for the trip is the same as the other circular trips – 50 dirhams for Silver Class tickets and 75 dirhams for Gold class tickets.
Children under 5 travel free and children over the age of 5 are charged at full adult price. Tickets can be bought from the Sheikh Zayed Road Marine Transport Station ahead of your particular trip.
The round trip will not stop at any other stations and will be a trip that gives you a 1 hour view of Dubai Water Canal.
Check out the Routes page for full details of all of the routes that Dubai Ferry runs.
The RTA has announced the timings for the Dubai Ferry for the holiday of Eid al Fitr 2017.
Normal Timings
The ferry services will all return to their normal timings after some of them were suspended for Ramadan and you can see the specific details of the timings and trips here.
Additional Trip
In addition to the standard trips, a new trip has been added for Eid al Fitr which is a round trip service from Sheikh Zayed Road Station that will operate between 6pm and Midnight.
The trip lasts around an hour and the cost is the same as the standard trips that run from the Marina and Al Ghubaiba – i.e. 50 dirhams for Silver class and 75 dirhams for Gold class. It is free for under 5s and full price for over 5s.
It is a round trip that departs and returns to Sheikh Zayed Road Station and does not stop at any other marine stations.
A summary of the trips running throughout Eid is shown below:
During the holy month of Ramadan the timings for the Dubai Ferry can change.
The RTA has announced the timings of the Dubai Ferry services for the holy month of Ramadan, which is expected to start on Saturday 27th May 2017.
Dubai Ferry will operate from Al Ghubaiba Station at 11am and 6:30pm and from the Marina station at 11am, 5pm and 6:30pm.
This means that the afternoon services will not take place – i.e. the 1pm one way trips between Al Ghubaiba and Dubai Marina, and the 3pm circular trips, plus the 5pm trip from Al Ghubaiba.
Timings for the Ferry services in the Dubai Water Canal will also be restricted to the morning and evening sailings.
The sailings at 2.05pm from the Water Canal and midday from Al Jadaf stations will not run during Ramadan.
