Crown Princess Postcard #1 – The Journey to Sydney

Wednesday 23 October 2024

Our journey to Sydney started with a lift from a friend who took us and our cases in his car to the X1 bus stop at the bus Interchange, Alexandra Parade in Weston-Super-Mare, yes that’s right we went to Heathrow airport by bus. Was this a wise decision? I’m not so sure now we have done one way. 

So, after a 75-minute journey on the X1 double-decker bus, we arrived at Bristol Bus & Coach Station. It’s not the most ideal way to travel with 4 suitcases but we survived. We then had a 30-minute wait before boarding a National Express coach which took us non stop to Heathrow’s Central Bus station for terminals 2 & 3. The coach was busy with single travellers and we grabbed the last two seats next to each other that happened to be right at the back. Not ideal but the journey did seem to go quickly. I can’t really grumble too much given what we had paid as it worked out at almost a third of the price for parking so it was a no-brainer as far as we were concerned. Plus if you take into consideration the car park to terminal transfer at the airport, it worked out that the journey times were not that different.

We have the same trip in reverse on the way home and I can’t say I am looking forward to it straight off the back of two long haul flights. Upon our arrival at Heathrow it was a 10 minute walk to get to Terminal 3,  the Emirates check in was quick and efficient. However the security screening was another matter. There is a new system in operation which has slowed down things considerably instead of speeding it up. Phones and gadgets no longer need to be removed from your bags but toiletries do. The problem however is with the new scanners which seems to take forever to scan the trays, if there is anything suspicious, the trays go into a manual inspection channel which is where the logjam is created. There are nearly 4 times the amount of trays going down that channel and nothing moves down the green where the trays split lanes. 

We eventually made it through and went for something to eat prior to boarding our flight to Dubai (EK004). All of our flights for this trip are with Emirates in their newish Premium Economy cabin and I have to say, very comfortable it is too.

Given the time we were going to be in the air to get to Australia, we decided to pay a little more for the extra room and comfort. Boarding was efficiently done but our 20:40 departure was delayed and we eventually took off about 40 minutes late.

Thursday 24 October 2024

We landed in Dubai at 6:55 am local time and because we were Premium Economy passengers, we were first off the plane after Business and First Class. We are well drilled with Dubai Airport and were very quickly through security in the connections zone and on the train to gate B21 for the next flight (Emirates EK412). Such was the quickness of it all, we even found time for a quick drink at one of the bars.

You would think that boarding in Dubai at the Emirates hub would be more efficient but surprisingly we found the Heathrow experience a lot slicker. Anyway, we boarded the plane at 09:45 and departed over an hour after that at 10:50. It was this second flight that I had decided to try and get some sleep, so after lunch was served, I picked a film to watch and after, although feeling completely knackered, I probably only slept for about a couple of hours. As comfortable as it was, sleeping wasn’t going to happen so I thought another film might help kill the time but I couldn’t find anything that inspired me to watch it so I just had to sit it out.

Breakfast which was served 2 hours prior to landing brought a brief distraction.

One last note, the vegan meals that Nicole had on both flights were excellent. Big thumbs up for Emirates on that one.

Friday 25 October 2024

We arrived in Sydney at just before 7:00 local time and once again getting off the plane was quick.

I am going to sign off now and cover the rest of the day in my next post.