Travel day a story of flights, fancy and wheelchair seats

Look there is no way to avoid it 23 hours on an airplane is not a great experience.

However it is worth noting that after a 10 year hiatus flying with a premium carrier has its benefits.

Qatar do as much as possible to make you feel comfortable but no matter how you look at it even the most comfortable seat is still no bed.

The first flight took us from Manchester to the opulent surroundings of Doha airport, more about that later. The flight was 6 hours,. The good news was they found us a row of three seats for the pair of us the bad news was they were towards the rear which meant bit of a trek on the crutches for Deb and by the time they got to us they had run out of omelette the first choice of both Deb and myself. I settled for the pancakes with Chocolate, apple and cinnamon, Deb not fancying either the pancakes or the mushroom frittatas just had yogurt and both pastries.

Fed and watered the rest of the first leg passed without hassle, I watched the film Twisters which was aided my the turbulence making it a truely immersive experience while Deb watched Wicked between bouts of sleep.

As is usual when travelling with a disability you are first on but last off, although in fairness we were off fairly quickly and into the decedent surroundings of Doha Airport.

Doha airport

It’s no secret that Doha airport is competing with Singapore to have the nicest airport and we came out into the orchard a instagam worthy backdrop.

Whilst there, got our steps in as we marched to the other side of the airport to see the centre point of the airport the ‘lamp bear’ a monstrous work of art that is breathtaking, although Debs preferred the Koko wooden clown and the Harrods bear at the entrance to Harrods tea room (yes Harrods have a presence here) in fact you will find most of the high end brands here.

As we are now officially on holiday we treated ourselves to some of Harrods fancy fair and to be honest I was pleasantly surprised, Debs had the English breakfast tea and a milk cake while I had a chai tea with tiramisu. They were of excellent quality and the bill was surprisingly decent especially given how nice it was. For anyone on a tighter budget Costa coffee was everywhere however there was a great selection of other foods if you wanted to branch out of the usual.

Leg 2 Doha to Melbourne

This was the one I was dreading the most , 13 yes 13 hours flight , boarding wasn’t quite as smooth this time and they didn’t start to board Deb till others were boarding, Debs uses her crutches but is quite slow and this makes her self conscious, added to that she had quite a trek down the plane and needed to stop half way down. That said they managed to do some jiggling so that we had another row of three to ourselves so bravo.

Debs managed to sleep better than me , all day in a airplane seat was beginning to take its toll on my knees and back, it is also difficult when you are travelling with someone with a disability to get out and stretch your legs or pop to the galley for a drink, it’s always the little things people travelling without disability don’t get.

Luckily on both flights we were near the loos but far enough away for it not to be an issue.

The crew were attentive , a welcome drink and some salted rice crackers were soon followed by dinner which this time we managed to bag our first choice of chicken curry.

The lights were then dimmed. A few ours of very broken sleep for me followed until we were woken for tea and coffee and the strange choice of a chicken curry pasty. After about an hour we were given a refreshing fruit smoothie before the lights were once again dimmed. I suppose it’s easier for the crew if they can coax people into a slumber.

Melbourne

ok now don’t forget how tired I am , travelling with me is always an adventure

So here’s the story so far

1. Get through customs (eventful) narrowly avoiding an international incident by telling myself to not greet the friendly but severe looking border patrol with a hearty ‘G’day mate.

Gather the suitcases and make our way to the taxi rank

2. ⁠Taxi ride into the CBD ( central business district or city centre in old money) reasonably uneventful, polite conversation struck up however the drama started as we arrived at the Hotel and found out the driver lost Debs wheelchair seat

3. ⁠Fortunately the porters on the hotel door were ace and managed to talk the taxi driver to go back to airport to find it and bring it back.

4. ⁠Concierge found debs a replacement wheelchair to use in the hotel.

5. ⁠oh no more trouble , there is an issue with our room , it’s not ready. Nice lady on reception goes to talk to  her boss.

6. ⁠So we are offered a choice , a temp room till ours is ready or access to the club lounge with free drinks and canopies

7 Ten mins later manager shows to give us our room keys, which is now ready,  apologises and offers us complimentary room service for that night.

8 Me and Deb pray that cushion is found.

9 five mins Peter concierge pops into the lounge to let us know the cushion had been found and was on its way.

10 concierge takes us to our room and says if cushion returned by 9pm he will deliver it to room , 5 mins later knock on door and cushion delivered.

11 no more than 20 mins after that and we are enjoying room service

Welcome to Melbourne 😀