The alarm went off as expected at 4:15. I got up and ready before I woke everyone else up shortly after. They were tired and a little grumpy, but not too bad. We got dressed and packed the final few things just as the buggy arrived around 4:30. The driver took our luggage while we made a final check of things and boarded the buggy.
Checkout
At the lobby an agent processed our checkout. She gave us a copy of the bill and I noticed they had charged us for all 5 nights of full board. They corrected it immediately and we settled the bill. While this was going on another staff member was getting my wife her tea and arranging our take away breakfast.
With checkout complete, we had a few minutes before our ride was to arrive and they brought us a nice bag with our breakfast inside. It had 4 small containers of fresh fruit and a separate collection of croissants and pastries. It was really thoughtful and well done. We ate it in the lobby while we waited for the car.
Our car arrived shortly and we finished up what we could of our breakfast since we couldn’t eat it in the car. All the cars and taxis we had ridden in had a strict no food policy so we weren’t going to impose. We definitely appreciated the hotel’s thought and the execution of this free (because of my wife’s status) going away breakfast. It really left a positive vacation on an even more positive note.
Dubai Airport Experience
Our car to the airport was a BMW 5 series. It easily fit all our luggage and was a very comfortable ride. The driver was excellent and got us to the airport in about an hour giving us plenty of time to check in, get through security, find our gate, and hopefully find a lounge to grab some more food before our 14 hour flight home.
We were dropped off in our terminal and we found our way the the proper checkin area in the massive ticketing/checkin area. All US bound flights were directed to the same checkin area. I had checked in online hoping it would expedite the process as it had in Boston on the first leg. There was indeed a shorter line for people who had checked in online though it still moved relatively slowly. After about 20 minutes of waiting we had our bags checked, our boarding passes printed (I double checked the names this time) and ready to go through passport control and security. Five uneventful minutes later we were through security and in the terminal heading towards our gate.
I had checked on the Priority Pass app that there were two lounges in the part of the terminal we were in. Once was next to the gate we would be flying out of so we figured we’d try that one first. We quickly found our gate and then found the lounge.
The lounge was relatively busy and we had a tough time finding seats initially, but things opened up after just a couple minutes of waiting. They had a breakfast buffet and omelet station that my wife and Tomatico took advantage of. My youngest and I decided we were going to go get something in the terminal. We ended up at McDonalds which was serving breakfast as well as lunch food, even though it was only 7:00am. People were arriving at the airport from all over the world and all sorts of time zones. We weren’t the only ones ordering lunch food.
After eating we headed back to the lounge to see how they were doing. Tomatico was disappointed with his omelet. They added a bunch of things to it that he didn’t like in his first one. He ordered a second one but they put a massive amount of pepper on it that he didn’t care for so he only ate some of it. Not the best, but at least we didn’t pay for it and he had filled up on other things in the buffet.
It was getting close to the stated boarding time so we headed to the gate. As has been our experience with other flights to the US, there was an additional security and passport checkpoint we had to go through before getting to the boarding area. It took only a few minutes before we were through to a holding area where we were to wait to board.
Boarding time came and went with only an announcement (twice) that boarding would begin in 10 minutes. I checked an app I had and the plane had arrived late so that was the cause of the delay. We could see the plane at the gate so at least the plane was physically there, just not quite ready.
The boarding area was packed with people. It was nearly impossible to move around. About 40 minutes after boarding time they finally started boarding 1st and business class customers. We then boarded when they called for families with young children. They didn’t even scan our boarding passes, though I guess they had done that when we entered the security checkpoint.
We found the same seats as we did on our first leg, four seats in the middle. We settled in for the long flight home.
Endless Flight
While the flight to Dubai felt a lot shorter than we expected, we felt every second of the flight home. A lot of that was that the flight back was during the day while the outbound leg was overnight. While we didn’t sleep a ton on the way out, there was a lot more time spent zoned out on that leg than on the way home. That and the return flight was actually about an hour longer.
I lost count of how many movies I watched. I should have tried harder to take a nap. It also didn’t help that we ran out of snacks about 10 hours in, so the last 3+ hours we were really struggling. The airline food was inedible as we expected.
The flight home took a much more northerly route over Iran, Turkey, and just north of London. This was likely to try to avoid the strong headwinds that made our outgoing trip faster than normal.
The ride had some periods of turbulence but was generally smooth until final approach in Boston. It was really windy there and we felt it the last 10 minutes of the flight.
Back in Boston
We landed in Logan airport and quickly made our way to the gate. As we deplaned, I connected to the airport WiFi and brought up the Mobile Passport app. I checked us in and got the QR code ready. The lines for people without Global Entry was long. The line for Global Entry and Mobile Passport was relatively small. In fast there wasn’t anyone in front of us in the Mobile Passport line and we were through in less than 5 minutes.
Then we had to wait an hour at baggage claim to get our luggage. I’d rather wait there than in line going through passport control in case our bags came through, but it was not fun waiting for our bags.
We were all increasingly tired and hungry. My wife found some chairs and took the kids to sit there and wait. They were practical zombies and our youngest fell fast asleep.
Our bags FINALLY came through and we were off to get something to eat at the terminal. We ended up eating at the same place we ate ad before leaving. I had to make sure our youngest didn’t fall asleep in his food, though.
Back Home
After eating we took a Lyft back home. The evening rush hour was just starting, but traffic wasn’t too bad. It was definitely windy and we had to take a slight detour due to a downed tree in the road. The kids were fast asleep the entire ride.
When we got home, we noticed a tree had fallen onto our patio. Luckily it had not really damaged the house, though we saw it came really close to breaking two different windows, which would have been a bad scenario. We were lucky it not damaged some of our gutters.
Even though it was only 4:30 in the afternoon local time, we had been on the move for over 19 hours and the kids were begging to go to bed. I gladly let them and was in bed myself just after 5pm.
It was a long journey back from a fantastic trip. While it was great to be home, we already missed Dubai!
Tomatico Travels 
You must be logged in to post a comment.