This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
We had 5 great nights at the Hilton Dubai Creek, highly recommended and the executive floor rooms are a must. I got a great deal on Expedia. It gives you access to the haven of the Exec lounge which serves complimentary breakfast, all day non alcoholic drinks, evening nibbles and free alcoholic drinks for certain hours. The nibbles were more than adequate for an evening meal - salads, cheese and biscuits, 2 hot selections - oddly fish fingers a couple of evenings, and middle eastern snacks, plus little desserts.
The rooftop pool was lovely and very refreshing in the mid 40s temperatures.
The Hilton served as a great base for our sightseeting to the Malls (Dubai Mall fountains were a disappointment compared to Bellagio), Burj Khalifa (awesome views) , the desert(exhilarating wadi bashing) and the creek of course.
We managed a trip to Ski Dubai to meet the penguins and even cuddle one - such fun and weird to go from 46 degrees to -4 !
For the following 5 nights we stayed at Atlantis on the palm. This was of course the highlight for us and especially our 7 year old son.
We were lucky in that our son gets 2 weeks off for half term so we arrived just as lots of UK holiday makers were heading back to the UK
It was busy but security is great as they keep the tourists away from lots of areas that are for staying guests only. We had a great room with a view over the palm. Housekeeping were fantastic and very friendly. We were supplied with plenty of bottled water which was great as its costs an arm and a leg in the restaurants and poolside. Pools were great and always found sunbeds. Aquaventure 'next door' was great fun too
We ate in several of the restaurants as we were on half board. All great and an amazing selection of food for every taste.
We did the Dolphin encounter - an experience we will never forget.
Anyway back to the business in hand, our return flight :
We grabbed a taxi from Atlantis at 7.20am and were at the airport just after 8am. We had to wait a few minutes for checkin to open at 08.10am.
We were checked in promptly at the PE desk and issued a lounge invite to the business class lounge (OH is FC Gold) - she did say that we might need an alternative method of getting us all into the lounge as there were 3 of us, but as it turns out the nice lady in the lounge was happy to allow us all in
We enjoyed a good breakfast and read a few magazines. It is no CH but perfectly acceptable and much nicer than the noisiness of the terminal.
It was soon time to board and we were allowed to walk straight on at the gate.
Again I won't go into too much detail but it was another great flight, food was good (chicken curry, lamb stew or pasta) Our son was given an odd looking minced chicken dinner but luckily I had plenty of chicken curry to make his a bit more tasty.
Lots of drinks runs, offers from the basket of delights (no wander wall on our aircraft).
A Mars bar icecream was offered mid flight and then later afternoon tea was cheese or beef sandwiches and a kit kat
I managed to watch a couple of movies - including Horrible bosses 2 -
Our son was quite upset for some of the flight as he was sad to leave Dubai, the cabin crew came over and had a chat with him which really helped. She was lovely and we also chatted about her job, the kind of things she has had to do recently - help deliver a baby recently apparently
She also stated that she was in her 50s and constantly felt like she was working with foetus's, lol.
Anyway she is a credit to VS, I wish I had remembered her name so that I could send a nice email to VS.
We landed at LHR pretty much on time and our luggage appeared quickly as it had been tagged UC
So the end of another fab holiday, and VS flights. Hopefully will be back on a plane next year for a trip west.
L2H
