Europe, with an Arctic cruise, a Balkan tour and bits of France and Malta

[tgh]

I thought was a bit "prepper syndrome-ish" when it comes to packing, but you gazump me...

 

[RooFlyer]

VA1323, dep HBA 12:50 arr MEL 1:05, a few mins early.

1A. Nice, wi-fi enabled flight. Hauling out of HBA. See you in a month.



Two salad-ish choices for lunch on the short flight. I chose the pasta with added chicken on top. Very nice.



First time I’ve been on VA with a checked bag in ages and they had the bag tracking thing. So at least I knew the bag had arrived in Melbourne and sure enough, it came out as one of the first bags.

Then an approx 500 m walk down to the Novotel.

I refuse to use check-in tablets so I waited for an agent to be ready. Just took a few extra minutes. I don’t think anyone else was interested in using the tablets either..



No upgrade and when I walked into my room, it was hot as Hades. A sunny afternoon in Melbourne but the window facing the west just means it’s a radiator. Aircon is absolutely useless. It’s one of those simplified ones where all you can actually adjust is the minimum temperature. Fans are automatic, the mode selector is on automatic and reaching up to feel the fan strength it was almost non-existent.

In spite of the heat it had a nice car park view but afraid that wasn’t good enough to save the room.







Got it changed and I’m now on the top floor on the other side of the hotel.




Accor platinum welcome amenity was a big bottle of water and a chokky creation which was nicely done.

 

[RooFlyer]

A 6 am start and a walk up to international check to check in. That was very quick as was security and immigration.

The SilverKris lounge in the dungeon wasn’t bad for breakfast.

At precisely 8 am an important task for me was to book a ticket to see Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in a couple of days. Tickets go on sale for the day and the following two days. You don’t need a ticket to enter but one gives you a guaranteed entry time and They get snapped up quickly.

8 am AEST is midnight in Paris so very good timing to get first exposure to the tickets for 2 days hence. When I had a look at 7:30 am both today and the next day were sold out and this is very common. So at 8 am I went into the app and started.

The first thing you’ll get is a waiting page. Obviously everyone’s jumping on and the app can only handle so many requests. It opens up in French and I would suggest not choosing the English option as I think it simply restarts the wait again. There is opportunity to go to English on the next page. The wait page gives you approximately wait time at the bottom. When I got on at 8 am exactly the wait was already five minutes. For some reason it blew out to 8 minutes but in the end I think it counted down fairly quickly and I was probably on wait for only about five minutes in.

The image below does not show the bottom where the countdown to your wait time shows.


So it loaded the actual booking page where you nominate the number of passengers and at this point my Internet clagged. I had tried the lounge Wi-Fi earlier and it was really slow so I was just using my mobile data which was working fine up to about 8:05am and then it completely stopped.

The Notre Dame app just stopped and I couldn’t load anything. In a bit of a panic, I went out of the lounge, went upstairs and stood by a window. Started a wait cycle again and got on after about another five minutes and this time I got through the booking OK but my Internet stopped again just as I hit the download button. Oh cough. No, it just wouldn’t load and allow me to download my ticket. I went in again and went to the booking process again but it wouldn’t let me proceed as I as you’re only allowed one booking session per day it seems. Fortunately I checked email and of course the PDF of the ticket was there.

Whew!

Of course relying on Internet at the airport is a bit fraught but I’ve actually never experienced it completely stopping before. But all good!

 

[RooFlyer]

SQ238, departed 9:30, arrived 3:30, B777-300ER, seat 12A.

This was an SQ award flight paid for with mainly velocity FF points transferred into KrisFlyer.

What you might call a fairly typical Singapore Airlines business class flight. The crew were lovely and efficient and the meals and drinks were very good. I don’t like the seat even for a daytime flight. The seatbelt came on a few times in response to some mild turbulence but didn’t stay on for long.






I booked the cook for lunch and had grilled prawns which came after a smoked salmon starter.





A nice Sth Australian Riesling to go with it and cheese for afters.



The lunch service started at about 11 am Melbourne time. At about 2 pm there was a snack and I chose the dim sum

 

[RooFlyer]

I had done my arrival card online two days ago so immigration was a breeze via the E-Gates. I guess one of the consequences of quick immigration is that the bags then seem to take ages to come out.

I decided to catch the MRT as I hadn’t done so in years. It was pretty crowded all the way. Got out at City Hall station and had a block to walk to the Fairmont where I’m staying the night courtesy of Accor’s free night for Platinums.

I got a room upgrade with a fantastic view out over Singapore.









The room

 

[SYD]

Arriving later at night, the MRT tends to be quieter and for the price and convenience now of being able to tap your CC/DC, you can’t go past the value if you don’t mind taking a little longer.

There is an internal walk from the MRT to the Fairmont (and Swissotel) but you need a decoder ring and magic compass if not familiar with the mall layout. Dammed if I could get it first go last time I did a cheeky LWE in Singas. I resorted to the un blokey thing and asked for directions after I passed the same Gucci shop three times…

 

[RooFlyer]

It’s going to be a Gojek back to the airport tomorrow .

I just checked the Notre Dame Cathedral ticket situation 12 hours after they opened and they’re now all sold out.

 

[Seat0B]

It’s going to be a Gojek back to the airport tomorrow .

I just checked the Notre Dame Cathedral ticket situation 12 hours after they opened and they’re now all sold out.

Good planning and a hit of luck that you have your ticket @RooFlyer

 

[RooFlyer]

Dinner last night was at the Asian Market Cafe a halal buffet within the hotel. S$45 quoted to me asa discount for hotel guests and when I asked about Accor plus discount they said it was already heavily discounted for hotel guests. She didn’t say no but I didn’t feel like arguing the toss.

A very large and varied spread but I only had a little as I wasn’t very hungry. Retired to an early night hoping to catch up on some sleep.



I dosed myself up with things to help me sleep but still only got 6 1/2 hours. Sleep has been my main concern heading out on this trip. The arthritis in my various spots has an impact on sleep and coupled with travel, I might struggle from time to time.

Anyway, showered and checked out by 7:20 am and got a Gojek out to the airport. I was going to set up a Grab account but forgot to do so before I left Australia. When I went to do it last night after putting my card in for payment, it wouldn’t complete. Tried multiple cards and even Wise. Gojek also wouldn’t do cards but did except Wise.

Checking in was a breeze as was E-Gates and of course security later.

I’m on Qatar to Doha through to CDG so it was up to the QR business lounge. Very easily competes with the QF first lounge except for the views. Quieter, with more private spaces. Breakfast has a self select pastries, juice, cereal etc and a QR scannable menu for hot items.







Not having much for dinner last night I was up for a good breakfast. Eggs Royale with sides hit the spot.

 

[RooFlyer]

At the gate security at Changi

Boarding pass and Passport inspected before entering the security area.

Boarding pass and Passport inspected again three steps on, before approaching the scanning belt.

Boarding pass and Passport inspected again when you step away from the security area.

All within 10 m.

Edit. They also wanted to see my passport when entering the QR lounge. Not just sighted, they noted something from it.

 

[RooFlyer]

On board and my selected seat 3A I just realised has been changed to 9K. This is an A350–1000 with -Q suites. Should be a nice day flight, notwithstanding the grizzling kid behind me.





Amenity kit a little disappointing the usual balms, socks, earplugs and Eau d’toilette



Menu looks pretty good. As usual, it’s true dine on demand.







Remains of PDB signature lemon and mint drink; Arabic coffee and dates.



As I write this, the safety video is going on and QR as usual has an execrable one. This time it looks like some American rapper who is actually yelling his way through the entire video.

Pushing back.

 

[zig]

Bum socks is conjuring up a variety of images
Have a good flight.

 

[RooFlyer]

Bum socks is conjuring up a variety of images
Have a good flight.

Just edited along with some other stuff in that post

 

[drron]

Satay with soya beans sauce doesn’t mean satays to me.

 

[tassie6]

SIN-DOH-CDG: Business, QR revenue flight, much cheaper per km leaving from SIN rather than Aust, plus my TA's corporate discount on QR. Not QSuites but all daytime flights.

Equipment change to the A350-1000 with Q suites?

 

[RooFlyer]

Equipment change to the A350-1000 with Q suites?

I just checked the final itinerary that my TA sent me. Says the A350; I must’ve been remembering from the original booking where it was definitely not QSuites as my travel agent asked if I wanted to choose another flight

G&T and nuts after takeoff



Here is lunch

Amuse bouche of salmon



Starter of seared tuna



Main of lobster



Yum.

 

[RooFlyer]

The rest of the flight was only eventful and we arrived in Doha an hour ahead of schedule. No bus bay! But we did de plane on the very furthest most gate in the new concourse.

680m to the premium transit security which was a breeze. Airport is not busy at this time of day and it’s a nice relief to be here now.

Mainly after security, you come to the new garden. Sort of like the Jewel at Singapore except Airside.



That the business lounge on the other side.





The lounge entrance was poorly sign posted which is an issue throughout Doha airport, I find. In the end there were four of us hunting for the lounge together.,

An elevator up and then a guy offered to give you an orientation of the lounge. It’s massive. First thing you see is the Louis Vuitton lounge which is pay extra. I didn’t think I needed that.



As for the rest of the lounge, you are kidding right? It’s absolutely massive - wrapping around 2 out of 3 sides of the garden thing.

That security over there



One wing of the lounge has comfortable seating, nibbles stations shower spa and all the rest.



They’re about 15 or 20 shower stalls for men and I imagine the same for women.



The other wing of the lounge has another spa and is given over to dining and drinking. Again it’s simply massive - à la carte dining off the menu or there’s also a buffet and several bars.





As well as tables, there are a number of bench type seating arrangements with everyone with an international plug.

 

[RooFlyer]

Here’s the à la carte menu.







The buffet



Bench seating



And the wifi

 

[RooFlyer]

The flight over was via Oman and then Abu Dhabi. There was a very bright light out in the desert. It was a solar farm. The glint was much more prominent than these photos show. It’s the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in the UAE. Check it out on Google Maps.





Over the top of Abu Dhabi airport



And the coast and then some islands in the gulf







Oh, here’s the coverage map for QR‘s Wi-Fi. There has been some debate about various coverages in other threads.

We had coverage all the way from Singapore except for India as the map shows

 

[Seat0B]

There was a very bright light out in the desert. It looked like an effect. It was a solar farm. The glint was much more prominent than these photos show. It’s the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in the UAE.

Oh I was just going to say it looks just like the one out in the desert near Dubai - probably because it is. It is truly spectacular.