Dubai and Muaritius.....which hotels?

[sidicks]

Well after my post about holidays in the Caribbean etc, it looks as though we are now actually going to be doing Dubai and Mauritius instead and will hopefully be travelling with a couple of our good friends. Thanks to all of you who provided helpful comments for the other destinations - this might still be useful for next year!!

We are probably going to be spending 5 nights in Dubai and then a 7 days or so in Mauritius.

Hotels

After being recommended by a number of colleagues at work, I'm very likely to choose Le Touessrok in Mauritius, but am undecided about where to stay in Dubai. We went to Dubai a couple of years ago and then we stayed at the Burj al Arab (2 nights) and Jumeriah Beach (5 nights). Given the cost, I'm unlikely to stay at the Burj again (although it was an amazing experience!) but would consider Jumeirah Beach or maybe one of the hotels in the Madinat Jumeirah complex next door - does anyone have any experience of these (Mina Al Salam etc) ??

Flights:

There appears to be some special offers on business class upgrades with Emirates for the period we are looking at, basically making it roughly half the normal price. Has anyone any experience of Emirates business class - I note on their website that although they have some excellent facilities in business class, there is the usual caveat about 'not all facilities may be available on all aircraft' etc. I'd hope that the London-Dubai route would have the best facilities, if not the Dubai / Mauritius route??

Cheers for your help,

Sidicks

[Cupramax]

I've done the Dubai jaunt with Emirates onroute to Perth Aus a few times. The planes seem to be pretty random dependant on demand between 777-200's which are the old type with the older entertainment system and the new 777-300ER's which have the full monty ICE system whic is superb. Also note the better planes go from Heathrow and not Gatwick which use old Airbus A340's. Needless to say the new planes are a LOT better, admittedly I've only ever been cattle class but I would guess either are more than adequate business class. The Business seating is 2 x 3 x 2 with big reclining armchairs whereas normal is 3 x 4 x 3 which is not nice longhaul. Service on Emirates seemed very good to me but I'm only comparing it with the likes of Thomsonfly, Excel or Monarch.