Connecting through Dubai was quick and easy, having access to the business class fast track we made it through transit and into the departures hall in no time. As the kids did not enjoy the food on the plane too much, we headed to McDonalds for a late evening meal, as we had a 3 hours stop-over in Dubai – just perfect amount of time for something to eat and to let the kids burn off some energy.
- Introduction – Christmas is Norway 2019
- Emirates Boeing 777ER Clark – Dubai business class
- Stopover in Dubai at Le Meridien
- Emirates Boeing 777ER Dubai – Oslo business class
- Christmas holiday in Norway
- Radisson Blu, Gardermoen, Norway
- Emirates Boeing 777ER Oslo – Dubai business class
- Emirates Boeing 777ER Dubai – Cebu business class
- Emirates Boeing 777ER Cebu – Clark business class
Boarding started about 1 hour before scheduled time of departure, and this time we found ourselves in the front of the business class cabin. The kids are really seasoned travellers on Emirates by now, and the directly found their seats and started watching movies.
Boarding was fairly efficient, but just before the crew was getting ready to close the doors, a couple of the passengers tried to sneak into business class from economy class, which the crew prevented them. They then started arguing loudly with the crew, claiming to be from connected families, and threatening to get the entire crew fired if they were not allowed to remain in business class. The crew invited the passengers to the galley for a chat, and after a few minutes two extremely large security guards came on board and escorted the passengers quite forcefully of the plane. I think this was very well handled by the crew, and I was glad to see that the threats did not work on them. We now of course was looking at a 30 minutes delay, to locate and offload the refused passengers bags.
The flight appeared to be about 80% full in business class, and almost 100% in economy.
We were airborne about 30 minutes behind schedule, and were given the menus for the flight. Departure time was 3 am, so I was interested to see what kind of meal service they would offer on this flight, as it is a bit awkward time to fly. I was disappointed to see that they offered just a breakfast and a lunch service – I was hoping for something more substantial, considering this is a 10 hour flight with a 90 minutes stopp-over in Cebu and then another 90 minutes flight to Clark. The menu read as follows:
As the menu didn’t look too tempting and we were already full after eating at McDonalds, I decided we should get some rest instead, and put the kids to bed after they finished watching their first movie. I must say having the possibility of a fully flat bed for each of the kids in business class makes travelling 100 times easier when we fly so far, and it’s definitely worth the money!
I had a good sleep as well, and woke up just as we passed over the coast of Vietnam, just in time to order my lunch for the day. I decided to go for the lentil soup and the braised veal cheeks. The soup was really nice, but the main course had lots of room for improvement…
After lunch was finished we started the approach into Cebu, and we landed just on scheduled time with no more incidents. From here it was a quick taxi to the stand, and passengers with destination Cebu disembarked, whereas those who were continuing to Clark got to remain on, and new passengers from Cebu to Dubai also came on board after a light cleaning of the cabins. It is worth noting though, that this route is not available as a domestic route, only passengers with destination Dubai can board in Cebu.