Stormy Travels: Time to Adventure

Thursday (November 11) couldn't end soon enough! Hunter and I were both excited and ready to go go go. Everyone at my office is also so excited for me to visit Dubai and wants tons of pictures. It's so nice to have a work family since I'm so far from my family in Canada.

Thursday morning Hunter and I got up and went for Covid tests at 7am. The covid tests in the USA are free unless you go to a place that specifically charges. Hunter's parents were also in town so we had lunch with them at Super Chicks which was nice. In the afternoon, I was able to leave work early around 330pm which was great as I think my nerves were getting the best of me and making me feel unwell. I got home and finished packing with Hunter. We packed so well we kept feeling like we were forgetting things. Turns out I did forget my headphones, so I had to buy a pair at SLC. Thankfully they didn't charge an arm and a leg like I expected and we even got 10% off with Hunter's work ID.

In the evening I got a call from one of the engineers in my office asking if I completed a cost estimate for Panguitch airport pavement maintenance, which is one of my projects I am in charge of engineering. I hadn't, but I was able to finish it in 3 hours at home which is awesome because the last one I did took me about 2 days to finish since it was my first time working on a cost estimate and I had to learn a lot to complete it. It felt relieving to have everything I needed to have done completed before I left for my vacation and I didn't have to ask anyone to do my work for me while I was away.

After packing up Hunter and I looked at flight loads for Friday (November 12) morning and found that the St. George (SGU) flight to Salt Lake (SLC) was tight. We were 4 and 5 for 5 seats and didn't want to risk missing the flight, so we decided to leave from Cedar City (CDC). We also drove out the 4Runner to SGU the night before and grabbed an in n out milkshake, so we have multiple options for getting back home. Leaving from CDC also meant we got to wake up at a reasonable time as the flight left about 1.5 hours later. We had our suitcases by the door and travel clothes ready so we could wake up and go.

Flying out of CDC Friday morning was easy and the flight had plenty of space for us. It was a quick 44 minutes in the air. It took a bit longer leaving because we had to get deiced as it was frosty in CDC. When we got to SLC we went for breakfast at Cafe Rio. The airport Cafe Rio is the only one of their locations we found that does actual breakfast meals. We both had the huevos rancheros which hit the spot this time and finished booking all our flights while enjoying their refillable diet coke.

Leaving SGU for CDC

Checking loads for AMS to DXB

CRJ200

Cool shadow

A330

Cafe Rio

While we expected to fly directly to the UAE from JFK due to some Covid rules which seem to change daily, we decided instead to risk getting stuck and fly back to the center of the universe (Amsterdam, AMS) and while I never thought I'd be excited to go to AMS again, I'm extremely excited (possibly because we get a 10 hour first class flight in Delta One instead of a 12 hour economy flight). The best part is that it's SLC-AMS which before the Pandemic was impossible to get and we would always reposition ourselves to somewhere easier like PDX. This time we get a new line on our map and get to skip the hard work of flying around the US to find first to Europe.

We waited patiently in the airport constantly refreshing loads to ensure we would get Delta One otherwise find a new way to get to Dubai. As 2pm rolled around, we were so excited to find out we were cleared into Delta One seats 6C and 8C. We got settled in and before we knew it we were in the sky.

Hunter in Delta One

The flight (DL56) had a dinner and breakfast service as we would be arriving around 7am. The menu looked delicious and Delta is awesome by providing the menu via QR code now. Hunter had the Short Ribs and I had the Lasagna as I've been craving pasta for a while. Both were delicious.

The Menu

Delicious lasagna

Short Ribs

Over Canada

Breakfast

Sunrise out one of the windows

The flight went by quick and Hunter and I both got 3-4 hours of sleep. Before landing, we filled out our deceleration confirming we were Covid free. The EU countries that let us in with just vaccination all have some type of form like that they require. Thankfully we didn't need it as we didn't need to leave the non-Schengen area (a zone in the airport similar to international terminals). While we had a 6 hour layover, we got to visit the Aspire Lounge 41. It's a basic lounge with drinks and snacks. They also have showers, but sadly they were closed due to Covid. Thankfully, we were not feeling too stinky.

Hunter and I somehow managed to be very colour coordinated

Eating soup and snacks in the lounge

The view from the lounge windows

Here is our plane landing in AMS that will be taking us to DXB

As it turns out, going to Amsterdam has us arriving a full day early to Dubai. We planned on arriving the evening of November 14th, but instead, we were now arriving at 1am on the 14th. This meant we had to book another hotel room. The rates for hotels have all gone up and they couldn't extend out reservation for the same cost, so we looked at using points and it was actually a really good value of 20,000 points which is about $140 instead of paying $280 cash. We have about 200,000 points with Marriott from my work hotel stays this summer, so we splurged and used points. Arriving a full day earlier also means we will be able to sleep in a bit on the 14th without feeling like we are missing out on activities and acclimate better since the time change is 11 hours. 8pm back home is 7am in Dubai.

We left the lounge around 12:30 to head to the Emirates flight (EK148) gate and get checked in. This would be the first time in an A380 since Singapore and we were both excited to get back in the plane that's known among aviation geeks as "the whale" for its massive size and whale-like appearance. The transfer desk was closed so we had to make sure to check in with the gate agents around 90 minutes before the flight departed. We showed our negative PCR tests that came back 22 hours after taking the test Thursday morning thankfully and were assigned seats 76G and 76F. Check out the seat maps below to see where we were. Emirates A380s have two decks with the lower being all economy and the upper containing first and business class. Flying with a ZED agreement (staff/employee rate), we don't get business class. Even Emirates FAs and staff don't get first on their flights, but economy is almost like a high-end Premium cabin. The seats are wider than normal as the cabin is approved for 11 seats across and only has 10 and the pitch (legroom between seats) is larger than most airlines economy cabins. We also get a full meal included on this 6-hour flight, with options that sounded like things we got in Delta One. One super interesting fact about Emirates is that they are the largest Pepsi airline in the world, where most others provide Coke. As we boarded our half-empty flight, we asked the flight attendants if we could move to an empty window row rather than being in a middle row of 4 seats with a person on the other end of us. They had no issues as the flight was empty and the cabin was booked to just over 50%. We were now in seats 73H and 73K. After the safety announcements on the ICE system (in-seat entertainment) they provided some more information including that there were 26 flight attendants from 15 countries on board. It would be so cool to be a flight attendant for Emirates, but overall it's not that great of a gig and I like being an engineer on airports.

A380s are huge!

I gave the gate agents some chocolates, definitely not a bribe for better seats...

A lovely fish tank in the airport near our gate

Looking at the loads for the flight. 50% full in economy means we get to stretch out

Cleared onto EK148 AMS-DXB

Waiting to board the plane

In our seats

Safety announcement in Arabic

One of my favorite features of the A380s are the cameras. The aircraft has 3 cameras which we can watch from our seats. One on the tail looking out, one under the plane looking down, and one on the nose looking out. It was so fun to watch at we took off from all three views.

The roof of the plane looks like a stary night

Hunter and I were pretty much asleep within 20 minutes of taking off. We tried to stay awake a little longer since it was 6/7 pm in Dubai, but we failed. 45 minutes in though we were woken up for dinner service. I had the chicken and Hunter has the beef option. After dinner, we were back asleep for a few more hours. When we had 2 hours left, we were woken up for the arrival snack and beverage service. It included cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches. I had a diet Pepsi and Hunter had sparkling water.

Hunter eating the sandwich

The remainder of the flight went by fairly quick. We watched as we went around Iraq down their border with Iran. It is crazy to think about the amount of history we are flying over.

We arrived around 0030 November 14 and walked through the massive airport to immigration where they took our pictures, stamped our passports, and let us into Dubai at 1am. We found a SIM card place as we were leaving for Hunter's phone and then grabbed and Uber to the 2 night hotel and were checked in bed falling asleep around 230am.