I think the biggest hurdle is for your family to get used to Dubai. You'll only spend half your time here anyway but your wife (that is if you have one) will spend ALL her time here. Take the family here for a couple of weeks vacation. I've met at least a couple of canucks who lost their wives back to Canada.
The miserable pilots I've met here at EK are the ones with unhappy wives. It's what they tell you here the first day, "Happy wife, happy life" There's the big secret to why some here thinks this is the worst airline in the industry and why some, like me, enjoy, not every moment, but most of this experience.