First Oneworld J RTW Trip - 2 for the price of 1!
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I have returned to Melbourne now and will start writing a detailed report about the trip on the weekend, on a high level Qatar Airways business class are excellent, while unfortunately the same cannot be said for Thai Business class, I will try to make my report fairly detailed so it might take me several weeks to finish them all, happy to take suggestions on the way about the reports.
Time to get started! Before putting on your seat belts for takeoff, this trip report will be done in chronological order and will cover everything, from flights, hotels and main attractions. I hope everyone get something out of it and it is also a way for me to relive my honeymoon trip.
In terms of status, I have VA Gold (not relevant for this trip), Marriott Gold and Hilton Gold.
Where are we going for this trip? I am glad you asked, there are 12 flights, 6 countries and 9 cities that we will visit on this trip:
Now it's time for the trip! Let's head to the Melbourne Airport. What is this? Seems like there are some sort of special exhibition at Melbourne Airport going on.
Something weird happened on check-in, for some reason the agent wanted to weigh our carry on bags when it's just a typical backpack that you carries when you go to school, it's the only time that happened during the whole trip. Nothing major but thought it's strange as normally they are quite relaxed about carry on bags in business class.
It's getting late at night and we haven't had dinner yet, thankfully Priority Pass saved the day and the food we got at the restaurant was amazing:
After dinner it's time to head to the Qantas International J lounge to chill out before the flight, I agree with other's assessment that the lounge is below par, thankfully we don't have to stay long before boarding the plane. It will be interesting to see how well the new Amex lounge in Melbourne will compare against the Qantas lounge when it opens later this month. Before going to the gate I decided to get a hot chocolate just to try out something from the lounge.
Today I will finish here for now, next up will be the MEL-DOH flight on QR with the A380, this flight is probably the flight I most look forward to, as I never been on an A380 before, let alone in J!
In terms of status, I have VA Gold (not relevant for this trip), Marriott Gold and Hilton Gold.
Where are we going for this trip? I am glad you asked, there are 12 flights, 6 countries and 9 cities that we will visit on this trip:
Now it's time for the trip! Let's head to the Melbourne Airport. What is this? Seems like there are some sort of special exhibition at Melbourne Airport going on.
Something weird happened on check-in, for some reason the agent wanted to weigh our carry on bags when it's just a typical backpack that you carries when you go to school, it's the only time that happened during the whole trip. Nothing major but thought it's strange as normally they are quite relaxed about carry on bags in business class.
It's getting late at night and we haven't had dinner yet, thankfully Priority Pass saved the day and the food we got at the restaurant was amazing:
After dinner it's time to head to the Qantas International J lounge to chill out before the flight, I agree with other's assessment that the lounge is below par, thankfully we don't have to stay long before boarding the plane. It will be interesting to see how well the new Amex lounge in Melbourne will compare against the Qantas lounge when it opens later this month. Before going to the gate I decided to get a hot chocolate just to try out something from the lounge.
Today I will finish here for now, next up will be the MEL-DOH flight on QR with the A380, this flight is probably the flight I most look forward to, as I never been on an A380 before, let alone in J!
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It's time for boarding, so we left the Qantas J lounge and made our way to the gate. We were then greeted with the A380 jumbo along with a huge business class cabin:
We were greeted when we boarded the plane and we got our amenity kit + our pre-flight drinks (I only ordered water as I was still really full from the dinner I got at the Airport restaurant.
This is the food options for this flight along with the (first 2 pages) of the wine list:
Notice we are still parked at the gate.
The cabin crew came to take our dinner and breakfast order, the dine on demand concept for Qatar is great for a flight this long as you can customise exactly when you want to have food. For us we decided to have supper 2 hours after departure as we are still very full from the dinner, I note that most passengers chose to have food as soon as after takeoff to maximize the sleep time.
We are finally airborne:
It's time for supper, I ordered the classic Arabic mezze and the grilled beef fillet (I know, brave of me to order beef fillet on an airplane).
The Arabic mezze was excellent, beef fillet was only so so but the vegetables was great and the beef is still edible.
I had to finish my post here due to the 10 image size limit per post, to be continued!
We were greeted when we boarded the plane and we got our amenity kit + our pre-flight drinks (I only ordered water as I was still really full from the dinner I got at the Airport restaurant.
This is the food options for this flight along with the (first 2 pages) of the wine list:
Notice we are still parked at the gate.
The cabin crew came to take our dinner and breakfast order, the dine on demand concept for Qatar is great for a flight this long as you can customise exactly when you want to have food. For us we decided to have supper 2 hours after departure as we are still very full from the dinner, I note that most passengers chose to have food as soon as after takeoff to maximize the sleep time.
We are finally airborne:
It's time for supper, I ordered the classic Arabic mezze and the grilled beef fillet (I know, brave of me to order beef fillet on an airplane).
The Arabic mezze was excellent, beef fillet was only so so but the vegetables was great and the beef is still edible.
I had to finish my post here due to the 10 image size limit per post, to be continued!
Lastly we finished our supper with the wonderful fruit platter.
We also visited the A380 bar and it's amazing, the space is huge and great for anyone who still feel claustrophobic in an A380.
After several hours of sleep it's time for breakfast, I ordered the Cheddar cheese omelette with grilled chicken sausage.
It's time to change out of the pyjamas for landing, the bathroom was maintained very well despite the long flight and a relatively full load in J.
And this was the bed, as I found out later they only provide the bedding for 10+ hour flights, so this is the only proper bed we had on all Qatar flights.
After this it's time to bid farewell to the amazing crew on the A380, it's sad to leave the airplane but also very happy to finally be on solid ground again (albeit for only a few hours).
How do we know we are in Qatar and didn't end up in the wrong airport? The giant teddy bear!
After taking a few photos of the teddy bear, we make our way to the business lounge and was promptly admitted after a scan of the boarding pass. The lounge was huge and we are immediately greeted with a large pool (no, you can't swim in it
)
The lounge is massive, there doesn't seems to be that many people in it so it have a great atmosphere, there's also an xbox in the game room if anyone fancy missing their flight by playing video games....
We will wrap up here for now as I am hitting the photo limit again, the next flight will be from Doha to Venice on Qatar's A330.
We also visited the A380 bar and it's amazing, the space is huge and great for anyone who still feel claustrophobic in an A380.
After several hours of sleep it's time for breakfast, I ordered the Cheddar cheese omelette with grilled chicken sausage.
It's time to change out of the pyjamas for landing, the bathroom was maintained very well despite the long flight and a relatively full load in J.
And this was the bed, as I found out later they only provide the bedding for 10+ hour flights, so this is the only proper bed we had on all Qatar flights.
After this it's time to bid farewell to the amazing crew on the A380, it's sad to leave the airplane but also very happy to finally be on solid ground again (albeit for only a few hours).
How do we know we are in Qatar and didn't end up in the wrong airport? The giant teddy bear!
After taking a few photos of the teddy bear, we make our way to the business lounge and was promptly admitted after a scan of the boarding pass. The lounge was huge and we are immediately greeted with a large pool (no, you can't swim in it
) The lounge is massive, there doesn't seems to be that many people in it so it have a great atmosphere, there's also an xbox in the game room if anyone fancy missing their flight by playing video games....
We will wrap up here for now as I am hitting the photo limit again, the next flight will be from Doha to Venice on Qatar's A330.
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Great TR so far. QR is my favourite J class - have a couple of legs with them next month .
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Enjoying your report. Looking forward to the rest of your travels.
Thanks for the encouragement, let's go to Venice!
We boarded the DOH-VCE flight and the first thing we noticed is how small the business class cabin is on the A330 compared to A380, there's only a few rows for business class on A330.
Other than that the seats look exactly the same as A380, and the service is just as good.
Settling into our seat for the next 6 hours.
Time for breakfast round 2, I ordered the fruit platter (you can see a pattern here) + an egg omelette, they are both really good.
Finally, we have arrived in Venice!
Even though we arrived in the low season, there are still lots of tourist in the main area:
By co-incidence we arrived on Valentine's day, so we booked the Valentine Day dinner on a Galleon around Venice. We haven't slept after arriving in Venice so we ended up just about falling asleep by dinner time, so if you see anyone nodding off on the Galleon during the Valentine Day dinner, that would be us.
The galleon we will be on:
This is the menu for tonight.
Only got a few pictures for the food, let's just say we are paying for the view and the experience of eating on a Galleon while cruising around Venice, as the food is certainly not up to par, but the atmosphere was great.
After that we made a beeline back to the hotel and fell asleep in record time. This brings us to the topic about accommodation, for this trip all the hotels in Italy was boutique hotels, while everywhere else we are booked with chain hotels in either Marriott or Hilton.
In Venice we stayed in the Carnival Palace Hotel and the rooms are modern and clean, although it's a bit far from the man train/bus station, so we had quite a bit of fun dragging 4 piece of luggage through Venice to the hotel.
Breakfast aren't included so we did some grocery shopping, and we discover the wonderful world of Salmon and Tuna pate, that's one thing I really missed in Melbourne.
I will wrap up this post here, next post will be about the secret itinerary in Doge's Palace and Clock Tower tour.
We boarded the DOH-VCE flight and the first thing we noticed is how small the business class cabin is on the A330 compared to A380, there's only a few rows for business class on A330.
Other than that the seats look exactly the same as A380, and the service is just as good.
Settling into our seat for the next 6 hours.
Time for breakfast round 2, I ordered the fruit platter (you can see a pattern here) + an egg omelette, they are both really good.
Finally, we have arrived in Venice!
Even though we arrived in the low season, there are still lots of tourist in the main area:
By co-incidence we arrived on Valentine's day, so we booked the Valentine Day dinner on a Galleon around Venice. We haven't slept after arriving in Venice so we ended up just about falling asleep by dinner time, so if you see anyone nodding off on the Galleon during the Valentine Day dinner, that would be us
.The galleon we will be on:
This is the menu for tonight.
Only got a few pictures for the food, let's just say we are paying for the view and the experience of eating on a Galleon while cruising around Venice, as the food is certainly not up to par, but the atmosphere was great.
After that we made a beeline back to the hotel and fell asleep in record time. This brings us to the topic about accommodation, for this trip all the hotels in Italy was boutique hotels, while everywhere else we are booked with chain hotels in either Marriott or Hilton.
In Venice we stayed in the Carnival Palace Hotel and the rooms are modern and clean, although it's a bit far from the man train/bus station, so we had quite a bit of fun dragging 4 piece of luggage through Venice to the hotel.
Breakfast aren't included so we did some grocery shopping, and we discover the wonderful world of Salmon and Tuna pate, that's one thing I really missed in Melbourne.
I will wrap up this post here, next post will be about the secret itinerary in Doge's Palace and Clock Tower tour.
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Good point, I must have taken the picture of the wrong plane!
Second day in Venice.
We booked 2 tours for the day (Secret Itinerary at Doge's Palace and Clock Tower) + dinner at CoVino, we have high expectation for the day and we weren't disappointed.
First, let's look at our main type of transportation around Venice (hint: not suitable for people who have seasickness):
This is another option if you need to go somewhere in a hurry:
We learned two things from the Secret Itinerary, first is don't mess with the Doge or become an enemy of the Venetian Republic, or you will end up in one of these:
Second thing is how wealthy Venetian Republic is, some areas of the Doge's Palace is breathtaking.
It's time for lunch, what's better than some Seafood Risotto?
It's time to march on for our second tour of the day, the Clock Tower. First, this is how it looks from the outside.
Then it's a decent climb to the top, but the view was worth it.
We then visited Saint Mark's Basilica which is right opposite to the Clock Tower, unfortunately no photos are allowed inside so this will have to do.
Lastly, we have booked CoVino for dinner based on flyertalk's recommendation. CoVino is a very small restaurant so reservation is essential if you want a table, their menu also change each day depends on what they can buy from the market, so you always going in without knowing exactly what you are going to get.
Thankfully CoVino has lived up to its reputation, the dinner is really nice and I would highly recommend you to go there if you visit Venice. The price is also very good and it easily has the best price/quality ratio of the food we had in Venice.
Our Entree (Cold cut platter):
Our main (Fish with squid ink):
I will wrap up here for today, next up will be the Murano Island with its famous glass demonstration.
We booked 2 tours for the day (Secret Itinerary at Doge's Palace and Clock Tower) + dinner at CoVino, we have high expectation for the day and we weren't disappointed.
First, let's look at our main type of transportation around Venice (hint: not suitable for people who have seasickness):
This is another option if you need to go somewhere in a hurry:
We learned two things from the Secret Itinerary, first is don't mess with the Doge or become an enemy of the Venetian Republic, or you will end up in one of these:
Second thing is how wealthy Venetian Republic is, some areas of the Doge's Palace is breathtaking.
It's time for lunch, what's better than some Seafood Risotto?
It's time to march on for our second tour of the day, the Clock Tower. First, this is how it looks from the outside.
Then it's a decent climb to the top, but the view was worth it.
We then visited Saint Mark's Basilica which is right opposite to the Clock Tower, unfortunately no photos are allowed inside so this will have to do.
Lastly, we have booked CoVino for dinner based on flyertalk's recommendation. CoVino is a very small restaurant so reservation is essential if you want a table, their menu also change each day depends on what they can buy from the market, so you always going in without knowing exactly what you are going to get.
Thankfully CoVino has lived up to its reputation, the dinner is really nice and I would highly recommend you to go there if you visit Venice. The price is also very good and it easily has the best price/quality ratio of the food we had in Venice.
Our Entree (Cold cut platter):
Our main (Fish with squid ink):
I will wrap up here for today, next up will be the Murano Island with its famous glass demonstration.
I won't be able to update during the long weekend as I am flying to Perth, how did everyone find the trip report so far? Should I skip the activities I did in each city and focus on just the flights and accommodations?
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Everything. It's not a TR otherwise, IMHO .
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Flying_man
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This report slow for updating my friend.
Sorry, my laptop was broken and is under repair, so I can't continue the trip report until it is fixed, rest assured it will be updated as soon as I got the laptop back
Offtopic, Dell have my laptop for 2 weeks now and they still haven't even assigned someone to inspect my laptop....
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