This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
I also quite like to see a bit of the country, although it is rather barren we saw goats and camels grazing (if that's what they do?!) and lots of local towns, shops, mosques etc. I really love the Middle East, the standards of service are fantastic. The food at the hotel was outstanding and I thought the whole holiday represented excellent value for money.
We did go back into Dubai for the day, we hired a car and driver for what they called a ten hour transfer. He picked us up, took us to the Atlantis Waterpark (which was great fun) then drove us to see various sights, then on to Karama for a little shopping. I managed to find a rather lovely handbag which looked a little like a Hermes Birkin
Anyway, the time came to take the return transfer back to the airport. Our car was due to pick us up at 0500.
So me being me, was up at 0400 generally flapping and panicking about having packed everything and doing my level best to make sure my Birkin didn't end up in an incinerator at Dubai airport police station.
Phone rang at 0420 - broken English, sorry ma'am, your car is going to be a little late.
Oh, oh dear, what a shame I got up at 0400 for what was now going to be a 0530 pick up.
Anyway the poor Emirati driver arrived at 0528 in a very flustered state with a broken fuel cap in his hand and proceeded to tell us at a thousand miles an hour how he had gone to fuel up and the electrics on the car had failed, he was then instructed by his boss to fuel the car by any means necessary, in this case, busting the fuel cap off. His boss ended the call by telling him that if his guests (us) were unhappy with the delay he should just bring the car back to the office and go home with his marching orders!
We reassured him that it really wasn't a problem and as it was we arrived at the airport at 0715 for the 1005 flight, so no issues at all. The driver was a lovely guy but he did insist on showing me photos of the royal family whilst travelling at 100kmph down the six lane highway. He had recently spotted a princess whilst out on his travels and had called out to her that he loved her, she called back she loved him too and then he duly took the photo which he is clearly going to cherish for eternity - very sweet.
Anyway, check in and security were a breeze. We then had a wander round the vast departures area before buying a few last minute souvenirs, we boarded Diamond Girl on time and again had the extra leg room seats. This time we had the touch screen entertainment system with gate to gate accessibility, this is excellent for getting the seven year old in my life settled and happy for the flight home. The captain gave the flight time as 7.5 hours.
This time the food was excellent, it really was very nice. I am afraid that I can't find the menu but from memory it was something like:
Greek salad
Chicken curry, pilau rice
Beef stew, mash and veg
Mushroom pasta
Berry mousse.
I had the beef stew which was lovely, the lady next to me had the chicken curry which looked (and smelled) delicious and my son and husband had the pasta which they said was very nice.
Now, it was a fairly uneventful flight apart from the amount of children vomiting!
I don't know whether it was just that I noticed it more being sat with more people in Y but it did seem to be rife, as we exited the plane a poor little soul threw up on the air bridge and as I looked around there were a couple of kids sat nursing paper bags. I didn't feel it was a particularly turbulent flight. Poor little things.
Our luggage came out quickly and we made the short walk to the valet parking pick up, we were out of the airport and on the M4 within 55 minutes of landing.
Now to get the washing done before our next jaunt to Cape Verde (on Thomsons - bluergh!) in seven weeks time.
