Dad Finds Out Our Next Destination!

I’m presently taking my dad on a surprise round the world trip to celebrate his “round” birthday. Even now the trip remains a surprise, as he’s just finding out what we’re doing and where we’re going on a day-by-day basis.

Here are the previous posts about the trip:

• Planning My Dad’s Big Birthday Trip
• Update On My Dad’s Big Birthday Trip: A380s Around The World!
• Singapore Airlines Schedule Change: A380 Downgrade
• A Few More Months Till My Dad’s Big Trip
• How Should My Dad Document Our Round The World Trip?
• AND WE’RE OFF! Dad’s Surprise Round The World Birthday Trip Is Underway
• The Best Emirates Flight? Ever?
• Thanks Emirates For Leaving My Dad Speechless (Again)!
• My Dad Guesses Our Next Destination!

We’re wrapping up week one of my dad’s surprise round the world birthday trip, and I think it’s safe to say it has exceeded even my (very high) expectations.

We had a few amazing days in Dubai, which I’ll write more about in the actual trip report.

View from highest restaurant in the world at Burj Khalifa

Monday night we headed to Dubai Airport at around 9PM. My dad still had no clue where we were going, and I was content keeping it that way for as long as possible. In the last installment, my dad explained how he thought he knew our next destination, though I wasn’t about to confirm or deny.

Thanks to the cooperation of the people at check-in and in the lounge, they agreed to keep our destination from him.

When we finally got to the Emirates A380 First Class Lounge I first took him on a tour. It’s simply a ridiculous lounge, and spans the entire length of the terminal. It’s one level above the main concourse, and one level below the business class lounge.

Emirates A380 First Class Lounge Dubai

The lounge is so huge that it doesn’t actually look like a lounge, but rather just looks like a terminal. The world’s nicest terminal.

That’s because there are gates in the lounge, and you can board your flight from inside the lounge.

Emirates A380 First Class Lounge Dubai

Emirates A380 First Class Lounge Dubai

Upon entering the lounge, my dad was confused, as I was the first time I visited the lounge.

“Benny, vher is za lounge?”
“This is the lounge.”
“Vhat is?”
“This is the lounge.”
“Zhis can not be. Zhere are gate signs and duty vhree shops.”
“Welcome to the world’s largest first class lounge, where you can board your flight directly from the lounge.”
“VOW.”

So I spent about 25 minutes giving him a tour of the lounge, which is how long it takes to get from one end of the lounge to the other sprinting at a German pace. Hands down his favorite part was the cigar bar, which he was committed to spending as much time in as possible.

Then we had a seat so he could finally find out where we were going. I showed him his boarding pass, and he showed me where he had guessed. So, who guessed right? 😉

Sure enough, immediately after that we headed to the cigar bar, where my dad had a cigar and glass of red wine, while I sat working on my laptop with a Diet Coke. To say he liked the cigar bar would be the understatement of the year, as you can see in the below video…

After that we had spa treatments and then dinner, where the staff had prepared a lovely surprise for my dad.

Emirates A380 First Class Lounge Dubai Timeless Spa

Emirates A380 First Class Lounge Dubai dining room

Happy dad!

The ground staff generously managed to box up the massive birthday cake he was given, so he could share it with the crew onboard.

Our flight from Dubai to Singapore departed at the absolutely horrible hour of 3:15AM, also known as rush hour in Dubai. You’ve gotta love when you taxi out to the runway at 3:30AM and the captain comes on the PA to apologize for the delay due to congestion, “as is the norm here in Dubai at this hour of the night.”

Emirates A380 First Class Suite

We originally reserved seats 2E & 2F, though there was an Emirati couple on their honeymoon seated in front of us. The bride’s seat was apparently totally broken, so the purser asked if we wouldn’t mind taking two separate window seats so they could sit together. We were fine with that, and a bottle of Dom to go quickly followed.

Emirates airshow

Catering on Emirates’ 3AM departures is so damn confusing. They have a snack menu and a breakfast menu. Given that it’s 4AM before you’re airborne, are you supposed to eat a snack and then breakfast before landing, or breakfast and then a snack before landing?

I decided to have a snack first. Emirates has pretty lackluster menus on the late night/early morning departures. On this particular flight, the snack choices were between a vegetable pie, fried rice, noodles with prawns, and instant noodles. I had the vegetable pie and noodles with prawns, which were actually quite decent for what they were.

Emirates First Class snack

Then before landing I just had some granola and yogurt.

Emirates First Class breakfast

I spent most of the rest of my flight at the bar, where I was only accompanied by crew — everyone in business class seemed to be passed out the entire flight.

Somehow we got to talking about Etihad, and I mentioned how they’ve run out of food in first class on my two most recent flights.

“Yeah, you’re not the first person I’ve heard that from.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah, I read this blog from a guy that flies mostly first and business class, and he had the same thing happen.”
“Hmmm, just curious, which blog do you read?”
“It’s called One Mile…”
“Oh…”

Hah, I often run into blog readers while traveling, though this “situation” was a first for me.

While my dad slept most of the way, I only napped for a couple of hours, between the two meals and my time at the bar and in the shower — there’s a big agenda of things to get through on each Emirates flight. It’s tough work, but someone’s gotta do it! 😉

Emirates First Class bed

Eventually I did fall asleep, though I was woken up by the sound of a Polaroid camera. Hmmm, was I having a bad dream that took me back to 1994? Nope, the crew had just presented my dad with another onboard birthday cake (okay, this one I actually ordered), and they took a picture of him holding it, which they put in a beautiful Emirates display case.

Emirates Polaroid picture

I found the phrase on the front of the card to be especially appropriate — “Where will tomorrow take you?” I know my dad wishes he knew! 😀

Emirates Polaroid picture cover

Anyway, we’re having an awesome time, and it’s about to get even more fun!

And as always, thanks so much for all the nice comments. I’ve been reading them to my dad, and he just said “Benny, I don’t deserve zhis.”