A Platinum Experience.

So, when you go to the movies in Dubai, you have two options:

1) Buy a normal ticket (for AED 30, or about $8 USD) and sit in the normal seats. Not unexpectedly, however, 'normal' in Dubai constitutes large cushy slightly reclining stadium seats which are conveniently pre-assigned -- you get to pick your seat when you buy your tickets. It's fantastic because you don't have to show up an hour early to snag good seats for a new release as you do back home... [and we were always the designated seat-savers for all our friends too, so I've done my fair share of waiting in line at movie theaters for inordinate amounts of time, but I digress.]
OR
2) Go Platinum! As with all things in Dubai, there is always the option to upgrade and gain VIP status (I mean there is a First "Gold" Class on the metro for god's sake). So you pay AED 120 (or about $32 bucks) for the "Platinum" seats, which of course come with all sorts of bells and whistles.

We've always thought that paying $32 to see a movie is a huge ripoff and so had never done the whole platinum thing before. Plus, it also buys into the whole Dubai classist thing, which we try to reject. But, we figured it was something that we definitely needed to try once while living here. We decided that time had come with the release of the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, which is 2+ hours long.. If you're paying that much for a movie, we theorized, it better be a long one.

So, upon arrival to the movies if you are a 'platinum' ticket holder, you get escorted to a private lounge where you can relax before the movie starts. Since there is waiter service in the movie though we didn't want to fill up before so bypassed the lounge. Once we got into the platinum suite, we were ushered to our seats which were plush leather Laz-E-Boy recliners. The chairs are set up in groups of two with a little table in between with a button to press for the personal butler service throughout the movie. And while we were settling in, the 'butler' immediately came over and asked if we would like blankets and pillows (Yes, please!) and also handed us the menu. I am not one to usually order anything but popcorn and soda at a movie (I mean, who wants a burger while watching a movie?), but we figured since this was our one foray into the platinum life, we needed to live it up. So we ordered waaay too much food: nachos, popcorn chicken, real popcorn, and a giant troth of soda each. Needless to say, it doesn't do much for your self-image (or digestion) to eat junk food in a reclined position under a blanket. Oh, but how fun!

We thoroughly enjoyed our platinum experience, while blowing our whole weekend budget going to the movies... Yet another uniquely Dubai occasion.