Thursday, 11 August 2011
Photos of the AmaVerde River Cruise Boat
Some of you have been asking what our boat was like. The AmaVerde was a new boat, only in use since March, and it was absolutely beautiful.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
Dubai to Christchurch - Monday 8 August/Tuesday 9 August
It was a case of 'gobble and go' for breakfast at the hotel this morning. None of us slept well, so fingers were crossed for some sort of sleep on the long flight. We were in a taxi by 7:40 am and at the airport 15 minutes later, faster and cheaper than the other night, with more cars on the road.
However, check-in was another story. We arrived more than 2 hours before departure, and spent the next 50 (yes 50!) minutes in total at the counter, and that was with NO queue ahead of us. Jan and Steve went to the counter for Silver and higher Skywards members and we went to Economy check-in. What a farce of a system. It took ages for them to check through regarding our 3 hour stopover in Sydney. I eventually left the counter, and we waited for Jan and Steve who were at the counter for a full 40 minutes. They were having a problem with the same matter, but the operator was taking a really long time trying to figure out how long the stopover would be. Crazy. Finally that was sorted, and then I realized that Steve had been issued with two boarding passes, one for each leg of the flight, whereas we only had a pass for the first leg to Sydney. So, back to the counter I went. They needed proof that Steve had the on-going pass, so he had to come too. Then the operator had to go down to her supervisor because the second boarding pass for us simply wouldn't print. It was sorted after another 10 minutes, and by then we had to get moving to our departure gate.
The sound system at the gate was not at all good, and only Steve picked up on the fact that our names were being called. We didn't hear where we were to go, but Jan slipped through the queue and found out that all four of us had been upgraded to Business Class using our Skywards travel miles. Halleluia! Steve had asked for upgrades but been told it was all booked up. Well done, Roger, our Travel Agent?! This was a new experience for us and it certainly was several steps up from Economy Class, but I'd never pay for it, and couldn't afford to anyway! David and I were seated next to each other at the back of the upstairs part of the plane, and the Barrows were together a little further ahead. The plane finally left about 40 minutes late but made up the time.
My eyes were on stalks, but I couldn't go to sleep till after dinner. I had expected that my Economy Class GF meal would be brought up to me, but no, they managed to put together something I'm guessing was much better, and the food was served with a tablecloth and plated up nicely instead of in containers. No dessert, but a beautiful cheese board and special dried fruit. The pre-dinner snack had been nuts, which of course I was delighted with because normally I can't eat the plane snacks on offer. I even got a couple of glasses of bubbly and a GF brand of gin. Yay!
Now, time to settle down for a sleep.... .... ... No such beep luck! There was a little girl on the plane (probably aged about 3) and she had a loud, piercing voice that moaned on and on, and penetrated the whole cabin. The minute her mother or father stopped doing something with her she was crying, grizzling or making a scene. This went on for over an hour. Finally I dropped off to sleep, only to be awoken 5 minutes later by the sound of her piercing voice squealing right beside our seats at the back of the cabin where there was a large space with a bar and snacks. Her father had taken her there to get her away from their neighbouring passengers, and she'd squealed right by me, just after I nodded off. Geez! And still she continued with her noise. She had that sound of a spoiled brat, just trying to get her way. David said there were a lot of people in the bar area complaining about the noise. This was a naughty, spoilt child, not one in genuine distress.
I made another attempt to get to sleep an hour or so later, only to be jolted alert by an angry conversation in the bar area behind me. David and I both listened in to the mother of the child, letting rip at one of the hostesses. She was carrying the child on her hip and getting really angry that none of the staff had made an effort to support her with this difficult child who was hungry and disturbing the other passengers, and she needed some food urgently blah blah blah. It was not nice to hear. Then the mother stalked off back to her seat without the child. Not sure what happened next, but I saw food heading their way shortly afterwards. The same child was screaming for her father all the way down the ramp out of the plane in Sydney later. I must say, I was wondering what the law on smacking would be on an airplane over the Indian Ocean!
The flight from Sydney was back in a 'regular' plane, not the more spacious Airbus 380. The row in front of us was empty so David and Steve grabbed it, leaving Jan and I with a full row too. My GF meal was another lactose and everything else free effort and made me feel even more grumpy after the severe lack of sleep. The meals seem to get worse, the closer to NZ we get. David gave me his cheese and chocolate. I managed to doze off for 20 minutes and was completely out to it when they announced about needing to fill in landing cards, and woke me up. Never mind, nearly home!
It was great to see the blue sky as we came in to land. We could feel the cooler temperature as we disembarked - brrrrr. While waiting to have passports checked, I found myself looking at the building structure and evaluating where I would stand if there was a quake...
It was great to have Simon picking us up and delivering us home. And Ross looked pleased to see us, and cooked dinner and cleaned up the dishes too. An early night for us, with lots of blankets to keep us warm! It was great to be home, and I'll be looking forward to a lie-in, and relaxing on Saturday! It's been a wonderful holiday, but there's no place like home sweet home!
However, check-in was another story. We arrived more than 2 hours before departure, and spent the next 50 (yes 50!) minutes in total at the counter, and that was with NO queue ahead of us. Jan and Steve went to the counter for Silver and higher Skywards members and we went to Economy check-in. What a farce of a system. It took ages for them to check through regarding our 3 hour stopover in Sydney. I eventually left the counter, and we waited for Jan and Steve who were at the counter for a full 40 minutes. They were having a problem with the same matter, but the operator was taking a really long time trying to figure out how long the stopover would be. Crazy. Finally that was sorted, and then I realized that Steve had been issued with two boarding passes, one for each leg of the flight, whereas we only had a pass for the first leg to Sydney. So, back to the counter I went. They needed proof that Steve had the on-going pass, so he had to come too. Then the operator had to go down to her supervisor because the second boarding pass for us simply wouldn't print. It was sorted after another 10 minutes, and by then we had to get moving to our departure gate.
The sound system at the gate was not at all good, and only Steve picked up on the fact that our names were being called. We didn't hear where we were to go, but Jan slipped through the queue and found out that all four of us had been upgraded to Business Class using our Skywards travel miles. Halleluia! Steve had asked for upgrades but been told it was all booked up. Well done, Roger, our Travel Agent?! This was a new experience for us and it certainly was several steps up from Economy Class, but I'd never pay for it, and couldn't afford to anyway! David and I were seated next to each other at the back of the upstairs part of the plane, and the Barrows were together a little further ahead. The plane finally left about 40 minutes late but made up the time.
My eyes were on stalks, but I couldn't go to sleep till after dinner. I had expected that my Economy Class GF meal would be brought up to me, but no, they managed to put together something I'm guessing was much better, and the food was served with a tablecloth and plated up nicely instead of in containers. No dessert, but a beautiful cheese board and special dried fruit. The pre-dinner snack had been nuts, which of course I was delighted with because normally I can't eat the plane snacks on offer. I even got a couple of glasses of bubbly and a GF brand of gin. Yay!
Now, time to settle down for a sleep.... .... ... No such beep luck! There was a little girl on the plane (probably aged about 3) and she had a loud, piercing voice that moaned on and on, and penetrated the whole cabin. The minute her mother or father stopped doing something with her she was crying, grizzling or making a scene. This went on for over an hour. Finally I dropped off to sleep, only to be awoken 5 minutes later by the sound of her piercing voice squealing right beside our seats at the back of the cabin where there was a large space with a bar and snacks. Her father had taken her there to get her away from their neighbouring passengers, and she'd squealed right by me, just after I nodded off. Geez! And still she continued with her noise. She had that sound of a spoiled brat, just trying to get her way. David said there were a lot of people in the bar area complaining about the noise. This was a naughty, spoilt child, not one in genuine distress.
I made another attempt to get to sleep an hour or so later, only to be jolted alert by an angry conversation in the bar area behind me. David and I both listened in to the mother of the child, letting rip at one of the hostesses. She was carrying the child on her hip and getting really angry that none of the staff had made an effort to support her with this difficult child who was hungry and disturbing the other passengers, and she needed some food urgently blah blah blah. It was not nice to hear. Then the mother stalked off back to her seat without the child. Not sure what happened next, but I saw food heading their way shortly afterwards. The same child was screaming for her father all the way down the ramp out of the plane in Sydney later. I must say, I was wondering what the law on smacking would be on an airplane over the Indian Ocean!
The flight from Sydney was back in a 'regular' plane, not the more spacious Airbus 380. The row in front of us was empty so David and Steve grabbed it, leaving Jan and I with a full row too. My GF meal was another lactose and everything else free effort and made me feel even more grumpy after the severe lack of sleep. The meals seem to get worse, the closer to NZ we get. David gave me his cheese and chocolate. I managed to doze off for 20 minutes and was completely out to it when they announced about needing to fill in landing cards, and woke me up. Never mind, nearly home!
It was great to see the blue sky as we came in to land. We could feel the cooler temperature as we disembarked - brrrrr. While waiting to have passports checked, I found myself looking at the building structure and evaluating where I would stand if there was a quake...
It was great to have Simon picking us up and delivering us home. And Ross looked pleased to see us, and cooked dinner and cleaned up the dishes too. An early night for us, with lots of blankets to keep us warm! It was great to be home, and I'll be looking forward to a lie-in, and relaxing on Saturday! It's been a wonderful holiday, but there's no place like home sweet home!
Sunday, 7 August 2011
Dubai
We slept in till 8:45 am this morning - the longest sleep in for the whole holiday! Just kidding - actually it was really 6:45 am Prague time that our bodies were working on :-(
The photo above shows the view from our hotel window, through the glass. The mist/murk/haze is all over the city so it was hard to get a clear photo.
The shower had us flummexed, Jan and Steve too. It was over a bath, and we had some hysterical laughter trying to turn it on without getting wet with cold water from above or from the side, or having water all over the floor. There was no way any of us could get it warmer than a coolish body temperature. The bathroom is behind a full glass wall, and so you can see whoever has gone to the toilet or who is having a shower, from the rest of the room. Seems to be a pattern or maybe a new fashion trend, because our room in Prague was similar, but on a smaller scale. Jan said it took them a while to realise that there is actually a blind that can be pulled down over the glass wall.
Never mind, we got up and found our way to the luxurious restaurant for the buffet breakfast. Staff were waiting to greet or help us from the moment we stepped out of the lift, to where we entered the restaurant, then waiting on our table, and helping at the buffet. There is always a friendly 'good day madam/sir', 'can I help you madam/sir', 'you're welcome madam/sir'. Actually, by the end of the day it was getting too much - it's not natural. Then Jan and Steve went to enquire about a short tour of Dubai, and ended up having their own 3 hour tour in the hotel limo with a hotel driver. They enjoyed that.
In the meantime we sussed out the 24th floor swimming pool area with fabulous views, then headed down to the 1st floor where we could walk straight into the huge Mall of the Emirates.
Everything was quiet at 10 am. The place is so clean and tidy, the floors are all tiled and shiny. The stores and staff are all immaculate and eager to help. There seemed like a lot of staff just standing around in shops. Anyway, we bought some Clarks sandals for me, and a couple of other bits and pieces and just generally looked around. We found the ski slope at one end of the mall! Interesting!
We were going to eat at the food court but discovered that, being Ramadan, most of them were shut, or open only with food not visible, and any food purchased had to be taken away and eaten in private. I got a salad and David got a steak roll and we headed back to our hotel room to eat and have a break. We had noticed that there is no seating at all throughout the mall areas, nothing. It must be a deliberate strategy to stop loitering. Very tiring for us though, but great that we didn't have far to get to our room.
We tried to do the online Check in for Emirates, but yet again I had problems with this and ended up having to give them a call. They couldn't solve the problem either. So we're just going to hope that showing up 2 hours before our flight (rather than 3) works out. David and I got partially checked in, but it wouldn't let us add the Barrows. We wasted an hour trying to sort it out, to no avail.
After lunch we headed back to check out the last small section of the mall that we hadn't covered earlier. Well! We walked into one particular shop and came out about 2 hours later! Jan and Steve caught up with us there, and had the same problem getting out :-) There was so much good stuff, and it was at the most reasonable prices we had seen at the mall. Michelle, I hope the S sizes I bought you aren't too big... Very tricky to know.
Dinner time approached and we ate in the 50s style booth area next to the main restaurant because we weren't wanting to eat an expensive meal at the buffet. They did a great gluten free meal for me, of steak, veges, béarnaise sauce and fries. The service was outstanding. David had an incredible grilled toasted sandwich that he wouldn't let me take a photo of (it looked gorgeous) but he says he'll be dieting from Wednesday...
We had to have a swim in that beautiful pool so at 9 pm we all headed upstairs and David, Steve and I relaxed in the pool for half an hour, and enjoyed the marvellous views of the city, all lit up.
Then it was back to our rooms to find space in our already chocka luggage for the new purchases... An early wake up call tomorrow for our long flights home...
The photo above shows the view from our hotel window, through the glass. The mist/murk/haze is all over the city so it was hard to get a clear photo.
The shower had us flummexed, Jan and Steve too. It was over a bath, and we had some hysterical laughter trying to turn it on without getting wet with cold water from above or from the side, or having water all over the floor. There was no way any of us could get it warmer than a coolish body temperature. The bathroom is behind a full glass wall, and so you can see whoever has gone to the toilet or who is having a shower, from the rest of the room. Seems to be a pattern or maybe a new fashion trend, because our room in Prague was similar, but on a smaller scale. Jan said it took them a while to realise that there is actually a blind that can be pulled down over the glass wall.Never mind, we got up and found our way to the luxurious restaurant for the buffet breakfast. Staff were waiting to greet or help us from the moment we stepped out of the lift, to where we entered the restaurant, then waiting on our table, and helping at the buffet. There is always a friendly 'good day madam/sir', 'can I help you madam/sir', 'you're welcome madam/sir'. Actually, by the end of the day it was getting too much - it's not natural. Then Jan and Steve went to enquire about a short tour of Dubai, and ended up having their own 3 hour tour in the hotel limo with a hotel driver. They enjoyed that.
In the meantime we sussed out the 24th floor swimming pool area with fabulous views, then headed down to the 1st floor where we could walk straight into the huge Mall of the Emirates.
Everything was quiet at 10 am. The place is so clean and tidy, the floors are all tiled and shiny. The stores and staff are all immaculate and eager to help. There seemed like a lot of staff just standing around in shops. Anyway, we bought some Clarks sandals for me, and a couple of other bits and pieces and just generally looked around. We found the ski slope at one end of the mall! Interesting!
We were going to eat at the food court but discovered that, being Ramadan, most of them were shut, or open only with food not visible, and any food purchased had to be taken away and eaten in private. I got a salad and David got a steak roll and we headed back to our hotel room to eat and have a break. We had noticed that there is no seating at all throughout the mall areas, nothing. It must be a deliberate strategy to stop loitering. Very tiring for us though, but great that we didn't have far to get to our room.
We tried to do the online Check in for Emirates, but yet again I had problems with this and ended up having to give them a call. They couldn't solve the problem either. So we're just going to hope that showing up 2 hours before our flight (rather than 3) works out. David and I got partially checked in, but it wouldn't let us add the Barrows. We wasted an hour trying to sort it out, to no avail.
After lunch we headed back to check out the last small section of the mall that we hadn't covered earlier. Well! We walked into one particular shop and came out about 2 hours later! Jan and Steve caught up with us there, and had the same problem getting out :-) There was so much good stuff, and it was at the most reasonable prices we had seen at the mall. Michelle, I hope the S sizes I bought you aren't too big... Very tricky to know.
Dinner time approached and we ate in the 50s style booth area next to the main restaurant because we weren't wanting to eat an expensive meal at the buffet. They did a great gluten free meal for me, of steak, veges, béarnaise sauce and fries. The service was outstanding. David had an incredible grilled toasted sandwich that he wouldn't let me take a photo of (it looked gorgeous) but he says he'll be dieting from Wednesday...
We had to have a swim in that beautiful pool so at 9 pm we all headed upstairs and David, Steve and I relaxed in the pool for half an hour, and enjoyed the marvellous views of the city, all lit up.
Then it was back to our rooms to find space in our already chocka luggage for the new purchases... An early wake up call tomorrow for our long flights home...
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