Our adventures began Tuesday, 19 August, in JIA (Jacksonville International Airport). Rick, Archie, his wife, Cathy, Vinay, his wife, me and my family (Rufus, Cassie, Chris, Gabriel) met at the Delta desk prepared to get our boarding passes. Scott and Cebil had flown into Hyderabad a week earlier. After many tears on my family's part - mainly me, we left to go through security.
The first leg of our journey was from Jacksonville to NYC (JFK airport). We flew on a commuter plane, and remember that Archie is disabled and only gets around via crutches. Now, JFK is under construction. It's expanding. So, where do we land? Out in No Man's Land! We deplane about a half mile from the nearest terminal, walking down rickety, narrow steps, waiting for the airport folks to push another rickety platform to the plane so Archie can cling to the sides and slowly ride down to the ground.
From there, we ride two buses to the nearest terminal, which was terminal 2. Our next flight is not for 8 hours, and this takes us from NYC to Milan, Italy. Since this is an international flight, we have to go to terminal 4. So, we go to baggage pickup, get our hundreds of pieces of very large, very heavy luggage. [Each of us brought 2 large suitcases and 2 carry-ons.] A porter is assisting us as she is pushing Archie's wheelchair (airport wheelchair). So, Vinay, Cathy, Rick and I are now hauling 5 pieces of luggage each. We use the (very small) push carts that sometimes do and sometimes don't work. The porter walks us through terminal 2, out of the airport, across the street (passing the subway entrance for Queens and Brooklyn), into the next building, to the terminal train. We wait for what seems like an hour before making our way onto a relatively empty train. It's muggy, sunny, and we are sweating profusely.
Five minutes later we exit at terminal 4. Now we have to go up and down, around and around, and through several doors before we find the elevators that will take us up to the departures floor. We get there only to find out the Emirates desks aren't open for another hour.
Luckily, we are flying business class on Emirates. This means we can make use of the Business Class lounge. Once the desks are open and we check in, we are directed to the lounge. Heaven! Blessed air conditioning, drinks aplenty, showers, and anything else we want to ask for. Vinay and I head for the showers. What a wonderful feeling! To be so clean!
Now Emirates is a Middle Eastern airlines, so the food is primarily . . . Indian, Middle Eastern... basically spicy. What is our last meal in the United States? McDonald's! And what tasty McDonald's it was! I haven't eaten at McDonald's in ages, but it certainly hit the spot. And for the next several hours we chill, enjoy champagne and other alcoholic beverages, sample the cuisine, and rest.
Then it's time to board. We are flying a 777, and each Business Class seat is comfortably roomy. The overhead cubbies are gi-normous. And every seat comes with a plastic wrapped blanket, headphones, a bottled water, and a mid-sized pillow. The seat includes a display screen and controller from which we can play games, watch movies, or learn about our flight's progress. The leg room is incredible! I stretch out completely and I still can't touch the seat in front of me! I even have my own snake reading light! The stewardess comes around offering complementary champagne, juice or water. Naturally, I accept the champagne.
Twenty minutes later we are in the air, and round two of the stewardesses begins. This time it's dinner. It's 10:30PM, but we are being served a world class dinner. I select Arabic Mezza for the appetizer, Salad, Sea Bass for the main course, and a chocolate mousse with caramel sauce for dessert. This is accompanied by hot tea with milk, water, and a really good French red wine.
When this is cleared away, the stewardess offers, amazingly enough, a mattress for my comfort! The mattress is about 3 inches thick, and it makes laying down easier. And yes, I wrote Laying Down, because the seat extends and reclines all the way. I stay awake long enough to watch "Captain American: Winter Soldier" and then I'm drop off to sleep.
Sometime, during the seven hour flight, I am awoken to be asked whether I want breakfast. I'm so happily sleeping, I turn it down. I wake up about 30 minutes before we land in Milan, where we disembark at an actual gate. It only takes a few minutes, and we are on our way to the Business Class lounge. I get there only to realize I've left my phone on the plane. The lounge concierge quickly attends to the issue, and the phone is found and returned in 10 minutes.
This layover is short; about 2 hours. We stock up on water and more Arabic food before boarding the plane we just vacated. We are now ready for the third leg of our journey, Milan to Dubai.
The first leg of our journey was from Jacksonville to NYC (JFK airport). We flew on a commuter plane, and remember that Archie is disabled and only gets around via crutches. Now, JFK is under construction. It's expanding. So, where do we land? Out in No Man's Land! We deplane about a half mile from the nearest terminal, walking down rickety, narrow steps, waiting for the airport folks to push another rickety platform to the plane so Archie can cling to the sides and slowly ride down to the ground.
From there, we ride two buses to the nearest terminal, which was terminal 2. Our next flight is not for 8 hours, and this takes us from NYC to Milan, Italy. Since this is an international flight, we have to go to terminal 4. So, we go to baggage pickup, get our hundreds of pieces of very large, very heavy luggage. [Each of us brought 2 large suitcases and 2 carry-ons.] A porter is assisting us as she is pushing Archie's wheelchair (airport wheelchair). So, Vinay, Cathy, Rick and I are now hauling 5 pieces of luggage each. We use the (very small) push carts that sometimes do and sometimes don't work. The porter walks us through terminal 2, out of the airport, across the street (passing the subway entrance for Queens and Brooklyn), into the next building, to the terminal train. We wait for what seems like an hour before making our way onto a relatively empty train. It's muggy, sunny, and we are sweating profusely.
Five minutes later we exit at terminal 4. Now we have to go up and down, around and around, and through several doors before we find the elevators that will take us up to the departures floor. We get there only to find out the Emirates desks aren't open for another hour.
Luckily, we are flying business class on Emirates. This means we can make use of the Business Class lounge. Once the desks are open and we check in, we are directed to the lounge. Heaven! Blessed air conditioning, drinks aplenty, showers, and anything else we want to ask for. Vinay and I head for the showers. What a wonderful feeling! To be so clean!
Now Emirates is a Middle Eastern airlines, so the food is primarily . . . Indian, Middle Eastern... basically spicy. What is our last meal in the United States? McDonald's! And what tasty McDonald's it was! I haven't eaten at McDonald's in ages, but it certainly hit the spot. And for the next several hours we chill, enjoy champagne and other alcoholic beverages, sample the cuisine, and rest.
Then it's time to board. We are flying a 777, and each Business Class seat is comfortably roomy. The overhead cubbies are gi-normous. And every seat comes with a plastic wrapped blanket, headphones, a bottled water, and a mid-sized pillow. The seat includes a display screen and controller from which we can play games, watch movies, or learn about our flight's progress. The leg room is incredible! I stretch out completely and I still can't touch the seat in front of me! I even have my own snake reading light! The stewardess comes around offering complementary champagne, juice or water. Naturally, I accept the champagne.
Twenty minutes later we are in the air, and round two of the stewardesses begins. This time it's dinner. It's 10:30PM, but we are being served a world class dinner. I select Arabic Mezza for the appetizer, Salad, Sea Bass for the main course, and a chocolate mousse with caramel sauce for dessert. This is accompanied by hot tea with milk, water, and a really good French red wine.
When this is cleared away, the stewardess offers, amazingly enough, a mattress for my comfort! The mattress is about 3 inches thick, and it makes laying down easier. And yes, I wrote Laying Down, because the seat extends and reclines all the way. I stay awake long enough to watch "Captain American: Winter Soldier" and then I'm drop off to sleep.
Sometime, during the seven hour flight, I am awoken to be asked whether I want breakfast. I'm so happily sleeping, I turn it down. I wake up about 30 minutes before we land in Milan, where we disembark at an actual gate. It only takes a few minutes, and we are on our way to the Business Class lounge. I get there only to realize I've left my phone on the plane. The lounge concierge quickly attends to the issue, and the phone is found and returned in 10 minutes.
This layover is short; about 2 hours. We stock up on water and more Arabic food before boarding the plane we just vacated. We are now ready for the third leg of our journey, Milan to Dubai.
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