Saturday, June 11, 2022

Click here to watch video recap.

I overslept! I had set my alarm to 3:00 a.m. I guess I hit the snooze/ignore button. I have an hour to get ready and meet the group in the lobby. The bus departs the hotel at 5:00 a.m.

I made it to the lobby in time! And I was NOT the last person. Definitely happy about that. It is bittersweet leaving Dubai. Just as I am getting acclimated it is time to depart.

Remy, our guide for the entire time we were in Dubai walked the group to check-in and made sure there were no issues. As we proceeded through customs Remy waved goodbye to us all. Let me tell you, he was a wonderful tour guide. Remy is from Egypt and has resided in Dubai for 20+ years I think. His knowledge of the country and its history is impeccable. He may know more about the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) than a native. 

I’m at the back back of the plane this time around. Just a few rows from the true back. My seat was adjacent to one of the flight attendant stations. I highly suggest NOT sitting next to that area because it can become very noisy with a lot of moment in that area. People were constantly coming to the station requesting drinks, etc. Plus the flight attendants could be very chatty with one another.

Across from my seat was a family with a baby in tow. The flight had a bassinet that could be attached to the wall/panel in front of the seat. The baby slept and resided in the bassinet for the duration of the trip. There was also a crying baby in the same area we sat. Ugh! From time-to-time I could hear the fuzzy baby. A thirteen hour flight was long for me so I know it was long for the babies and toddlers on the flight. 

We landed at JFK and went through customs. The custom’s line was long but it moved pretty fast. I ended up in a short line and thought I would breeze right through but the family ahead of me held up the line. The longer lines were getting individuals through faster as I stood in my assigned line stuck. Finally, the other lanes were empty so I proceeded to step into the lane next to me. As I was getting out of my lane to approach customs a couple moved swiftly in front of me. I was ticked but I didn’t raise a fuss. The customs officer saw that they had jumped in front of me and asked them to go back and advised I was next in line. How sweet! She told me it really ticked her off and that was not happening in her line. She looked at my passport and did not ask any questions and I proceeded to baggage claim.

So now the tricky part. We flew in on Emirates and now needed to check-in with Delta for the flight to Atlanta. Just outside of baggage claim was a Delta check-in counter. Thank goodness and how convenient! This means we did not have to figure out how to find Delta in this big airport in order to check-in.

JFK airport Terminal 4 has no good food options that I want to eat. I’m not vegan but I’m also not a big meat eater. My plane does not depart until 9:30 p.m. and I can feel my body get weak. Not sure if it’s because I’m tired or my body is getting re-acclimated to EST after being on GMT for eight days.
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I don’t want a salad. I don’t want pizza. I don’t want hamburgers. Nothing even peaks my interest. I go to this taco/burrito restaurant and ate one taco and threw the rest of it in the trash. It was setup similar to Chipotle but nasty. What a waste of money. I buy some chips and a drink and this will be my source of food for the rest of the day. We arrive at Hartsfield Jackson International late in the 11:00 hour. The busyness of the airport has slowed down as the the final planes arrive and leave. We pick up our luggage and attempt to figure out where to meet the shuttle. That was an agonizing process. Once at the car and ready to exit, the ticket reader could not read the ticket and we had to call for help. It’s close to 1:00 a.m. in the morning and we sit patiently waiting for someone to come and assist us. Finally a man drives up and directs us over to another book where he manually enters the tickets, we pay and proceed home!