May 12 – Dubai, UAE

Weather – 30º

our seats are right together

Steps – 6,718

Humidity – 40%

The beginning of this post is May 11, I'm not sure where one day will turn into the next, and which time zone I’ll be in when it does, so this post will be the end of May 11 in Houston, travelling to Dubai and arriving at the Dubai hotel on May 12.

As I mentioned a few days ago, I don’t have a bucket list. HOWEVER, if I had to drop things into a bucket, one at the top of the list is happening today…bellying

got our PJs on!

up to a bar in the SKY!!! IN THE SKY!!!!! Showering in the sky is still on my list. I could have done that on this flight, other people DID, but that requires us buying a significantly more costly ticket – nope, I’ll have to wait for that until another time.

Our flight is on an Emirates Airlines 15-hour flight from Houston to Dubai. Wikipedia describes the Airbus A380 as “a very large wide-body airliner, the world's largest passenger airliner and the only full-length double-decker jet airliner”. We’ve been on the top deck on a couple other planes in the past, but no full-length upper deck. I’ve loved the top deck in the past…there was more room and less

bar on a plane!

action due to the small cabin. There wasn’t a lack of action up there today. The fact that we are on the top deck isn’t obvious at all, there were no stairs to climb – we just boarded as we would board any other plane. I assume passengers on the bottom deck boarded from a gate downstairs in the airport. As we walked to the gate, we caught a glimpse of our plane…it is HUGE.

We selected seats right next to each other. These seats are definitely for people who are familiar with each other. They give you the same amount of room but are close to each other. There are 2 other seat positions that give more privacy from others.

refill please

Flying in Emirates business class is pretty great, but really as long as I can lie down, I’m happy. The food, drink and service were really good, but I’m not sure how worth it, it was. Westjet business is pretty good and has waaaaay more storage at your seat. The seats we were in, had virtually no storage (other than the overhead bin) which we found odd.

Getting PJs is nice but kinda makes everyone look like we’re in prison together. I’m surprised how many people actually put these on, including us. The flight was 15 hours overnight after all, so maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised. We also had a padded seat ‘mattress’ added to our seats just after takeoff which made things even more comfortable.

dips

I slept much more than I expected, so we only went to the bar once. Well, Chris went once when I was sleeping, but I only went once. I’m glad I experienced the bar on a plane thing, but it might be a one and done situation for me. It’s interesting for a change of scenery, but more of a novelty.

I selected the Arabic options – dips, cheeses, chicken with rice, olives each time it time to eat.

A pickup before the flight and a drop off after the flight is included in Emirates’ business and first-class fares. The rides to and from the airports were only about a 30-minute drive, but it’s just one less thing to worry about on the day of the flight – the time for this pickup was set months ago, so no Uber blowing us off at the last minute.

Arabic breakfast

safety video

Once in Dubai, the traffic wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected until we got to the Jumeirah Beach area where our hotel is. This is a beachy area full of hotels and other tourist friendly things – seems like the right area for us.

We had another lovely check in experience at the Ritz Carlton where we will be for the next 3 nights. Our room overlooks the pool, Persian Gulf, and some of downtown.

Since it was getting close to ‘normal’ bedtime (despite what time our bodies’ thought) we decided to unpack what little we would need for the next few days, have a glass of wine with some fruit and sweets from our welcome-to-the-hotel-package and try to get back to a ‘normal sleep schedule.