Dubai airport

[dalliowner]

Does anybody know how long it takes to get to the airport from the ship ? the latest flight to London leaves at 09.20 with the ship docking at 0700 which looks a bit tight to me .

[SKP946]

Does anybody know how long it takes to get to the airport from the ship ? the latest flight to London leaves at 09.20 with the ship docking at 0700 which looks a bit tight to me .

I think that you might be better to spend some time in Dubai. Why ruin a nice cruise by worrying about catching a flight.

Apparently it's only about 20 minutes to the airport, BUT why risk it;) aren't you meant to be there 2 hours prior to your flight ? You have to go through security and then move through a very large airport to the gate, there are many more DXB- LHR flights daily than just the one BA.

Try flying Emirates, they have flights at 11.25 am; 2.15 pm and 3.45 pm; much better than BA

https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/showthread.php?t=1294637

[Able Seaman H]

Yes, it's about 20 minutes or so. We picked our daughter up from there when she joined us for the 2nd leg of our maiden Encore cruise Athens to Singapore. Traffic wise there was nothing too worrying.

 

 

I would also agree that Dubai is one of those cruise ports like Singapore which lends its self so well to spending a few days there before heading off. There's nothing worse than having to rush around all stressed out.

 

I presume that you are committed to flying BA from the times. Personally I wouldn't fly with them if they were the last airline in the skies. Their move to charge business class passengers an extra £200 EACH to sit next to each other was the final straw. Out of principal I wouldn't hand over £600 on top of what is already a premium fare for our family of 3 so BA responded by splitting us between upper and lower cabins with no way of moving between the two.

 

Emirates have a choice of direct flights with departure as late as 15.45hrs

 

Henry :)

Edited May 29, 2018 by Able Seaman H

[Jane21]

Last year we had an 11.15am Virgin Atlantic flight from Dubai to LHR.

Ship only started to allow people off at 8.30.

[herradura6]

It can take a little longer than 20 minutes depending on the time of day, the traffic and any roadworks.

 

One advantage of buying Seabourn air is that you can usually select your seats, even on BA business, soon after initial booking without an additional charge.

[secoma4]

Having travelled through Dubai Airport yesterday on our way home from the Ovation in Lisbon, my concern would be less about the time to get to the airport, and more about how long it will take you to be checked in by the airline, clear security, which is extremely vigilant in Dubai and get to the gate, to have yet another security search. The gate could be as far as Number 42, and it could take some time to walk there. The terminals are immense, and crowded. Dubai is one of the busiest airport in the world. All this is assuming you are taking your own luggage. On disembarking the Ovation, the luggage wasn’t all of the ship until after 8.45am.

[adoctor]

We were also delayed in departing from Dubai by an over zealous border official who didn't like my wife's passport.(No idea!)We were referred to a side room and had to wait for a more senior official to take a look at it. After about a 25 minute delay he arrived, took a quick look and waved us through.Fortunately we caught our flight.

[dalliowner]

Thanks everybody,

 

We are booking with Seabourn so I assume they will use the 1.30 am flight and book a day room for us.They cannot confim flights until middle of June

[Able Seaman H]

If you are booking with SB then it is not your concern. They will take all the strain and ensure you have plenty of time.

 

The last thing they want is to have you stranded.

 

I assumed you were arranging air travel independently.

 

You wouldn't get a day room for a 13.30hrs flight.

 

Henry :)

[Jane21]

I think he is meaning the early morning flight at 01.30

[ab21au]

Been to Dubai numerous times and there are hotels in and near the airport to stay in for exactly that scenario. On our way to Istanbul for SB cruise to Venice we stayed across the road at Le Meridien for the very early flight to Istanbul.

[Able Seaman H]

Sorry, missed the AM bit of 1.30 :)

 

I'm not sure I'd be too keen on that having been up at the crack of dawn to disembark ship.

 

Between them Virgin and Emirates have 4 direct flights available from 11.00hrs to 15.45hrs which deliver you to London's Heathrow airport. They would be a much better option than waiting around specifically for a dirty plane held together with duct tape and staff more interested in discussing their rotas / who they socialised with than flight safety or passenger comfort.

 

Flying back from Miami with BA I had to go into the toilet, get some damp tissues and set about cleaning my Club class space. The side locker had an interesting collection of food, some unknown dried liquid, pubic hairs and other stuff. Only after my spring clean did I feel comfortable stowing my blanket in there.

 

Henry :)

[SKP946]

Sorry, missed the AM bit of 1.30 :)

 

I'm not sure I'd be too keen on that having been up at the crack of dawn to disembark ship.

 

Between them Virgin and Emirates have 4 direct flights available from 11.00hrs to 15.45hrs which deliver you to London's Heathrow airport. They would be a much better option than waiting around specifically for a dirty plane held together with duct tape and staff more interested in discussing their rotas / who they socialised with than flight safety or passenger comfort.

 

Flying back from Miami with BA I had to go into the toilet, get some damp tissues and set about cleaning my Club class space. The side locker had an interesting collection of food, some unknown dried liquid, pubic hairs and other stuff. Only after my spring clean did I feel comfortable stowing my blanket in there.

 

Henry :)

Henry, I am getting the impression that you are not happy with BA ;)

Here in OZ the initials BA stand for Bl--dy Awful, and that is what I found when I first flew BA over 40 years ago, I have refused to fly with them since.

For the last 7 years we have flown to Europe and beyond with a ME airline whose name starts with Q ( no, not that Oz one) nice new aircraft, excellent service and tight connections through Doha (LHR to MEL in 20hrs 25 mins Elapsed ! ) we flew BOS to MEL in 2016 in 29 hours elapsed.

You have to wonder who is running BA:(

[dalliowner]

We came back BA from Miami in 2017 , terrible. Flew to Barbados this year , very good but came back from Lisbon after the crossing , terrible.

 

Consistency is not their strong point even between long haul and short haul.

[jozi]

We came back BA from Miami in 2017 , terrible. Flew to Barbados this year , very good but came back from Lisbon after the crossing , terrible.

 

Consistency is not their strong point even between long haul and short haul.

We recently took BA IAD-LHR, LHR-Dubai and ATH-LHR-IAD. The flights were on time and (club level) service was fine. Nevertheless, the club layout was ridiculous. The seats full lie down. However, when flat, instead of having to climb over (or be climbed over by) your traveling companion one was climbed over, stepped over by a stranger to reach the aisle. Or woken. We had decent seat neighbors but I’ve never seen such a set up on any other carrier. And yes, that seat selection surcharge.

[MalbecWine]

We avoid BA like the plague and fly Emirates a lot and a total different experience. Going to Asia you can’t beat Singapore or Cathay Pacific. BA was good in its day but they have cheapened the airline. LHR is one airport we also avoid. Going to meet any cruise we avoid several airlines.

 

You can google Skytrax and look at the ranking of the airlines.