Today is an exciting day! First, the Whitecaps are playing Miami in the MLS playoff which means an EARLY start for us as the game is beginning at 6 am here in Sydney, Australia! I thought I might be able to push the snooze button and let Andrew watch the game on his phone but technology requires my laptop so I got it going and VPN’d back to Canada to load the Telus Broadcast on TSN and we were able to watch it just fine! I think some snoozing took place on my part in between some exclamations from the other side of the bed about how the Whitecaps were playing or not passing the ball…
The MORE exciting thing for me, is we get to fly on an Airbus 380 which was my dream that came to reality when we had to leave New Zealand in a hurry in 2020 during COVID, however I did not get to fully appreciate the experience due to the rushed way we had to purchase the tickets and get to the airport to get onto the plane. Also from Christchurch to Sydney was a short flight. This time, I CHOSE to fly Singapore Airlines, which is always the top rated Airline in the world, to Changi Airport, the number 1 airport in the world – to see a new country which many people have told me is a great one to visit! Our/my original plans were to fly to Singapore today and then fly home to Vancouver on Thursday, December 11th, on Air Canada’s new SIN-YVR flight, on a Dreamliner, which is Air Canada’s now longest flight that they do. However plans change! Now we return to Vancouver after our side trip to Okinawa and we will be flying home to Vancouver through Tokyo, which we have done previously.
First though, breakfast! Let’s see what this Moxy offers us! In Europe, the buffets are pretty well all the same – cheese, meat, eggs, danish and GF bread. Here there is the addition of fruit, a pancake machine (did not work properly – only know as we sat next to it – not that I was trying it out), and the chef would cook you an omelette if you wanted along with I was told “take care of my GF needs”. So I ordered a vegetable omelette with no peppers (forgot my distaste of mushrooms) and what did I get? A mushroom with a few greens and cheese thrown in! After I unloaded all the mushrooms as there was not much room in my stomach for all of them, I had the remains of the omelette. They pointed out some GF banana bread that the chef had made, however it did not taste very good – it was very hard and dry so I passed on additional slices. The omelette came with a peanut butter cookie though which I have packed up for a future dining emergency! My purse that I got in Fiji is really coming in handy for my “emergency” dining stash when traveling!
We then headed back up to the hotel room taking pictures along the way. We spent some time optimizing the luggage as to what we needed on the plane and what we wanted to have checked along with phoning my parents and sister and then we took the shuttle to the Sydney Airport.
I had some VERY high expectations of Singapore Airlines. Some they exceeded and in other areas, I was disappointed. They check-in went pretty well however I did realize we had a lack of communication with regards to my walker. They yet again wanted it in the hold of the plane and as this is a HUGE plane, I wanted it in a closet in the passenger area of the plane. I realized that they were serious about putting it into the hold when they brought me a plastic bag to put it into when I got to the door of the plane (which funny enough in North America airlines charge for these bags). Thy kept my boarding pass as they said I needed wheelchair assistance through immigration, customs and to the lounge, so we sat down and WAITED. And WAITED. After about 30 minutes and the first person who was in line for transport had been taken already, I asked how much longer and they said they are not allowed to take people to the gate until 3 hours until the flight. I pointed out that it WAS 3 hours prior to the flight AND that we were going to the lounge instead. Then they said 10 minutes which stretched into 30 and finally a supervisor came and got me and took us through security, immigration, customs and up to the lounge. The other person who was also waiting for an escort, was taken at the same time, as he was also going to the lounge.
The lounge was really nice – we looked down on the 380 that was going to take us to Singapore and we had some snacks – including 2 GF bars that Andrew found for me! I also saw lots of foreign air carriers arrive (we saw the tail of Air Canada leaving when we were driven to the airport). As we are now leaving Australia, I decided it was time to go SHOPPING. So I did! I got some Aussie things for people (not going to say what they are as that is a SECRET) and made it back to the lounge in time to leave with the other gentleman being escorted to the flight.
At this point in time, I was pretty confused. I could see the jet way from where we sat in the lounge and I knew that we were going to be on the top floor of the 380 but the jet way did not seem that steep! I remember coming off the Emirates plane in Sydney when we landed from Christchurch in 2020, where I was taken by wheelchair as our transit time was in negative minutes to catch the Qantas flight to Japan, where I felt like I was going to fall out of the wheelchair as the ramp was so steep getting off the upper deck of that 380. This jet way seemed pretty flat to me and surprise – it was! The people who are flying Economy and Premium Economy at this jet way (or stand as they call it in Aussie and British lands) have to walk DOWN a ramp to get onto the plane! How different!
Now onto the plane I walked and they put my walker in the plastic bag and took it to the belly of the plane – there is a lack of “cabinets” or “wardrobes” on this plane! We were in 96 D and F – right at the BACK of the plane. Some really smart bunny in the Medical Department must have thought it was a good thing to put me SO FAR back on the plane instead of near the door where I normally sit! Very strange! And of course, based on our luck, it was the revenge of the screaming kids behind us!
Yes, this is the 1st weekend of the start of summer holidays down under and the plane was PACKED. The number of kids in Business Class was unreal (which I saw when I had to use the washroom and needed to walk forward) however most of them were behaved except the 3 year old behind us who did not understand why he had to be seat belted into his seat when the plane was taxing and taking off instead of his mother’s seat! BOTH Andrew and I agreed that the fact that noise reducing headphones are provided to Business Class passengers is wonderful! While I could still hear the screams and outbursts, they were MUCH muted!
It is also interesting sitting in the tail section of this giant marshmallow of a plane! Kind of freaky when you have been on about 5 flights in the last 4 weeks on 737 planes which take off rapidly and this one lumbers along to take off and the tail end is the last to get off the ground. Very different sensation – I do not often fly in the tails of airplanes!
The seats in theory were wonderful! Mine had a small issue going back into position, which required me to stand up and the flight attendant to fix, however considering I spent most of the flight reclined, it only had to be fixed twice – once for take off (I had reclined while everyone boarded the plane and that is when we figured out it was broken) and then when we came in for landing. Those flight attendants sure know how to manipulate the seats and to hammer them back into position! It was a completely lie flat seat, however there was not a lot of padding, like other air carriers. There was a duvet, mattress cover and blanket however I am not sure how well I would have done on an overnight flight. We had minor turbulence for about 75% of the flight (which is unusual) and light turbulence where the flight attendants had to sit down for about 45 minutes, along with the ascent took 45 minutes with light turbulence so the service did not start on time, however they also provide these large pillows at your seat and that helped me quite a bit from a positioning standpoint. It also helped that Andrew’s pillow somehow jumped onto my seat too! There is a divider that would have made us each have our own pod, however they put it down as Andrew and I were traveling together.
From a funny standpoint – I have ALWAYS seen on an air carrier the NO SMOKING and SEAT BELTS signs – on this plane it was a NO CELL PHONES and SEAT BELTS sign! I thought this was strange – as long as your phone was in airplane mode you could use it – so why was it lit up? No idea!
Dinner was good – I had a quinoa/mango salad which was delicious once I took the unidentified meat off the top! The chicken with broccoli and rice was good too (forgot to take a picture) and the lemon bar and dried fruit plate was a very nice touch! I paired this with as always and vintage Coke Zero! The little GF buns were hot and so cute! I then watched 3 movies – one that I had not heard of before but I found really interesting! It was called Audrey’s Children – which was about a doctor at a Philadelphia Hospital in the 60/70’s who pioneered cancer chemotherapy for children – that was what the write up on the screen indicated. However in watching it she was VERY ground breaking and actually started the Ronald McDonald Houses so that kids parents and families do not have to be burdened with the cost of staying with their child when they are at a hospital. While I do not like to give away endings – I was really impressed with this movie and surprised I had not heard of it or had been advertised more widely. Then I watched a Star is Born (sad) and then Top Gun – Mavrick movie to keep me awake as we were getting close to midnight Sydney time when we were landing!
Arrival in Singapore was awesome – the flight attendants were very respectful and came immediately to get me when the man showed up with a wheelchair and told me where my walker would be found – they were right! There it was in it’s plastic bag on the jet way half way down. We put my backpacks on it and we went through immigration (all electronic) and picked up our bags. At this point in time I was laughing and the gentleman who was pushing me thought I was really funny! Here were all the suitcases coming along on the carousel QUIETLY, not thumping down on top of each other from a chute, nicely arranged with the handles and tags out all in order! It was very robotic looking! I almost though perhaps a robot was putting them onto the carousel, however the escort said that no, baggage handlers do that. The escort went and got us a trolley while Andrew got our luggage and then we thanked the escort and found a taxi to take us to the Westin Hotel in Singapore.
Singapore, I knew was going to be a bright city. It was after 10 pm though so I was surprised it was still pretty bright as I had read that most of the “light attractions” shut down about 8 or 9 pm at night. We had a very pleasant drive in a taxi who had not one but 4 electronic devices in addition to the car’s dashboard, displayed! Two phones and 2 small tablets! The taxi was well outfitted with technology! I paid by credit card and it also worked on the first try! Amazing!
While Andrew was getting the suitcases out of the taxi I said I would go check into the hotel. I entered the lobby and was confused – I saw and elevator and two very tall escalators. I turned around and Andrew and the bellman said we needed to go to the 32nd floor to check in! I guess my jaw dropped. The bellman said – “the registration desk is the highest in Singapore”! Sure enough, we whizzed up to the 32nd floor in an express elevator and checked into the hotel! Beautiful hotel! It starts on the 32nd floor and goes up to the 47th floor. Our room is on the 44th floor! Wow! Pretty high! My mother would not like this!
Join us on our adventures tomorrow! We will be sleeping in though first…