World Traveller 73 
The Emirates First Class Lounge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates is one of the flagship lounges in the global Emirates Lounge network. Thanks to its consistent First Class Cabins across it’s fleet, and the ability to connect to many worldwide destinations through its hub in Dubai, Emirates is well poised to offer an upscale first class experience. We tested out their Emirates First Class Lounge in Dubai Terminal Three “B” Concourse prior to our Emirates First Class Dubai – Los Angeles flight.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: The Emirates First Class Lounge – Dubai Terminal 3B, Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates
“The Emirates First Class Lounge offered a quiet, if not austere, place to relax prior to your flight in stark contrast to the busy Dubai Terminal Concourse”
After a few days of enjoyable heat, Jumeriah Beach time and some exploring to Al Ain, it was time again to leave Dubai and start the journey back to Vancouver, Canada.
We took the complimentary limousine transfer from The Grosvenor House to the Dubai International Airport Terminal 3. The hotel offered a brand new white Ford Expedition today, presumably because they had heard that MrsWT73 had a lot of luggage. It was about 30 minutes up the road and we were at the airport.
Checking into Emirates First Class:
Emirates offers a dedicated check in area for First and Business Class passengers for our upcoming Emirates First Class Dubai – Los Angeles flight. It wasn’t a very first class or exclusive experience. It was quite reminiscent of a bus terminal with streams of people checking in and line ups for the First Class check in desk. There was no swish-ness or elegance here, since there were literally hundreds of people streaming through. They weren’t on top of you, but you were sharing the space with all their business class travellers. Since Emirates has a global hub in Dubai, this was a lot of travellers.
Our check in agent had some trouble with the on line passport information system linkage and it took about 10 minutes to get the check in fully processed. We were able to get our boarding cards and checked bags processed all the way through to Seattle, including our connecting Alaska Airlines First Class Los Angeles – Seattle flight. Our check in agent provided no instructions on how to access the lounge so we figured we would just find it on our own.
After the check in, we headed down the long corridor towards the general exit immigration check points. There was no fast track offering and we queued with every other Emirates business class passenger departing in the morning.
Locating the Emirates First Class Lounge:
Dubai International Airport – Terminal 3 B
It is worth noting that there are several Emirates First Class Lounges at the Dubai International Airport. Emirates First Class lounges exist in Terminal 3 at Concourses “A”, “B” and “C”. Today’s visit was to Emirates First Class Lounge in Concourse “B”.
After the security screening and check point, a confusing set up directing passengers to either Terminal A or Terminal B & C. We headed up to the B Gate area as our flight was departing from B14. The First Class and Business Class check in deposits you directly into the middle of the airport. The Emirates First Class Lounge access is located in the middle of the “B” Gates Concourse.
It was my first time in the Dubai International Airport “B” concourse and what a crowded sea of traveling humanity it was. It was very similar to passing through the Istanbul Ataturk and the crowding that seems to happen there. It didn’t make for a relaxing travel experience.
I had hoped to see the large Emirates First Class Lounge in Terminal “A” that was supposed to be the largest in the world. Unfortunately, through a gap in my research, I didn’t get the opportunity to research this in advance and had assumed on arrival at the airport that it would be obvious which one was their flagship lounge. I asked Emirates ground staff and airport staff where the largest First Class Lounge was but despite asking two sets of people, none of the Emirates staff knew which one was the biggest and best. Nor, did we get any consistent direction or information about the locations of the First Class lounges.
After being mis directed by a staffer over to Terminal C for 25 minutes walk there and back, we ended up back at Terminal B First Class lounge. All in all it was a bit disappointing not to get to see the largest First Class Lounge in the world, but the old First Class Lounge near the B Gates was a nice and pleasant, if not a super remarkable space.
Accessing the Emirates First Class Lounge:
Emirates offers access to its first class lounge on a limited basis.
Entry to the Emirates First Class is complimentary for First Class passengers and eligible Emirates Skywards customers.
Emirates most frequent fliers in the Emirates Skywards Platinum category are afforded access to the Emirates First Class lounge, with 1 guest and 2 children also permitted to accompany them.
Most recently, Emirates is allowing paid access to the Emirates First Class Lounge for $300 USD per passenger, or a more reasonable upgrade from the Emirates Business Class Lounge to the Emirates First Class Lounge for $150 USD per person. These upgrade charges are also subject to the United Arab Emirates 5% local tax.
We had some more minor challenges getting into the lounge as the boarding cards did not permit automatic entry, but with some comments of “Alaska” the lounge dragon agents were able to figure out their work around’s. There was a prior issue of Alaska Airline reward tickets not being recognized in the Emirates computer system to afford lounge access. The staff cleared up that issue and we were granted entry courtesy of the first class cabin of our departing ticket.
It’s worth noting that despite having priority services as premium passengers, it took us approximately 1 hr and 20 minutes to get from the car drop off, through check in, baggage bag drop, exit customs, security and a 25 minute mis-direct walk. We arrived to the airport at 3 hours before the departure time of our flight, but this really didn’t leave us a lot of lounging or exploring time to check out anywhere else.
Inside the Emirates First Class Lounge:
Getting inside the Emirates First Class Lounge, it was a nice space inside. There were lots of spaces to sit, as can be expected for a First Class Lounge. The lounge itself was the most serene and peaceful part of the Emirates Dubai departure experience as everywhere else was just crowded!
One of the nicest features of the Emirates First Class Lounge Dubai was the amount of available seating space. The lounge covered a large portion of the floor above the regular departure concourse and had a lot of room. I found the place a little austere and not super exciting; moreover it was a pleasant place to hang out with many quiet corners.
The lounge had lots of different spaces; some spacious and some more confined. Some were opulent, whereas others were more functional. The Emirates First Class Lounge stretched on for what felt like miles, making it one of the more empty First Class Lounges I’ve had the opportunity to visit.
The shape of the Dubai International Airport windows also offered plenty of natural daylight into the lounge through giant triangular shaped windows.
I had some challenges getting connected to the Wifi, which didn’t particularly work very well. I was never actually able to connect to it.
There was a very small area where you could board direct from the lounge, although it didn’t appear that any flights were actively using this feature.
The Emirates First Class Dining Room:
Once we had orientated ourselves inside, we went for a table service breakfast. There was an ample breakfast menu was offered. The table service was prompt and attentive. There was also a small buffet available (not pictured), but why have buffet eggs when you can have fresh ones?
A Nicely Appointed Dining Space
I had soft poached eggs, a rarity on our Middle Eastern and African travels, paired with a cold glass of Moet and Chandon champagne. A fabulous bread basket was also offered. The ability to dine in the lounge with a proper breakfast has always been a terrific way to start a flight.
We enjoyed a great breakfast, which was probably the highlight of our lounge visit. In other food and beverage items, as we left, there were also some snack areas for the collection of fresh buffet styled food.
There was a small wine shop that was located inside the lounge. The prices were slightly better than street, but there were no great deals.
Given the distance between terminals, we were not able to get to any of the other lounges since they were about 20 minutes walk, or in some cases, 15 minutes away by train.
The Bottom Line: The Emirates First Class Lounge
All in all, Emirates First Class Terminal “B” was a mostly pleasant place to spend some time in, although there wasn’t much to do there. The lounge did feature lots of space, which was much nicer than the busier concourses below. Although I was really disappointed at the time for not getting to the flagship Emirates Terminal “A” First Class Lounge, the “B” lounge was pretty good, if not super memorable. If you’re through here, come for a pleasant breakfast and some quiet time before you head off around the world.
If you have visited the Emirates First Class Lounge, what is your favourite feature of the lounge ?
Instead of staying another day at Dubais’ beaches, we rented a car and headed out into the United Arab Emirates’ heartland. We headed to Al Ain to see one of the United Arab Emirates most historic sites at the Al Jahlili Fort. The fort used to be a summer residence belonging to the the ruling Sheikh’s of the United Arab Emirates and now stands as part of the countries fledging history.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Attraction: In the Heat at Al Jahlili Fort, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
“Our day off took us to the Shiekh’s summer residence at Al Jahlili Fort in Al Ain for an interesting walk down the United Arab Emirates’ history”
Since we’d visited the United Arab Emirates on several visits before, I was looking to explore a little bit more in the region. We had previously visited the Empty Quarter south of Abu Dhabi, the Shiekh Zayed Mosque and Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, along with several visits to Jumeriah Beach, the Burj Al Arab, the Burj Khalifi along with the dhow rides in old Dubai. It was time for something different a visit to the heartland. We rented a car for the day from the National in The Grosvenor House Hotel itself and drove ourselves to Al Ain.
Getting to Al Ain:
Al Ain was an easy 2 hours drive south of Dubai on E66. As with most roads in the United Arab Emirates, the highways were excellent. We departed The Grosvenor House hotel and had an easy drive to Al Ain. We passed by the entrance to the Al Maha resort on our way (not pictured).
Arriving to Al Ain:
We eventually arrived to Al Ain, even finding a mirrored Starbucks in the area to get ourselves a drink before we set out exploring. We parked near the Starbucks near the angle parking on the street and walked through the park to access Al – Jahlili. Most amusingly to me, there was a long line of Range Rovers in the drive through waiting for their coffees in intense desert heat.
The main purpose of visiting Al Ain is to visit the Al – Jahlili Fort. The fort holds a lot of history for the United Arab Emirates ruling family. At the end of the 19th century, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi was ruled by Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa. During summer, Abu Dhabi’s rulers left the intense humidity of the coast for the more temperate weather of Al Ain. Sheikh Zayed owned a farm in Al Ain, and he ordered construction of Al Jahili Fort to control the tribes who lived in the area. He also would use the fort as his summer residence. Work on the fort began in 1891 but it was not completed until 1898. When Sheikh Zayed died, his eldest son, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed died, chose not to become ruler of Abu Dhabi and instead remained in Al Ain. He lived in the fort with his family. In 1985, early restoration work was done on the fort, while in 2007-2008, the fort underwent a major rehabilitation project.
We crossed the park on foot as we approached the massive sand castle like structure.
Visiting Al – Jhalili Fort:
The Al-Jahlili fort looks like a large sandcastle on both the first impression and after continued observations. It was definitely one of the more interesting buildings that I’ve seen in my travels since the structure is very different looking.
I was glad that we picked up some bottled water at the Starbucks. The temperatures were a warm 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 Fahrenheight) as we were walking towards and around the fort. It seems that no one walks around in the heat and, I’m guessing, the area is more lively after the sun goes down.
The Al Jhalili fort was completely deserted and we were the only visitors during our time there. The inside was somewhat austere in its presentation.
The inside of the fort featured a photography exhibition from Sir Wilfred Thesigner, who crossed the Empty Quarter desert twice in the 1940’s. There were lots of photographs and stories of him, his camels and his guides.
All in all a peaceful and serene visit that was completely empty of any people. . .
Walking in the Peaceful Al Ain Oasis:
We continued with our self guided driving tour as led by the Lonely Planet guidebook. We drove a short distance into town and went to explore the Al Ain Oasis. The Al Ain Oasis is an area of over 150,000 date palms. The trees are irrigated by a unique canal system. There isn’t much else here, but we did take a 20 minute walk through the area in order to gain an appreciation for the place. It was, like the Al Jahlili Fort; completely deserted.
After our walk in the Oasis, we headed back towards the car with a brief walk through Al Ain. It was far less commercialized than Dubai, and gave a feeling of being in the midst of town. There was even a “contemporary mosque” with digital prayer timings in the minarets.
Trying to Locate the Camel Market:
One of the attractions of Al Ain is the camel market where you can see a traditional market where camels are sold and bartered. It was a little ways out of town on the south side. We passed by some photos and structures of the Sheikh’s on our way there.
Unfortunately, the camel market appears to have moved on from the version of the Lonely Planet that we had. I tried with google maps to find it, but instead we were led to a newer looking mall. We walked through the mall and it contained a variety of unexciting western stores. We did have a lunch at the mall before taking the drive home.
We filled up the car with gas. It cost 0.45 USD cents a liter or $1.72 a gallon for our trip and as a result, was a remarkably cheap way to get around.
My thoughts on our visit to Al Ain:
In closing, the day trip to Al Ain was interesting and a break from the usual commercial (and artificial) Dubai. It was a good break from the usual attractions of Dubai and gave us something different to look at. I found the history of it really interesting, although admittedly, it might not be for everyone.
If you’ve visited Al Ain in the middle of the UAE, did you find it worth the trip?
The Grosvenor House has been our go to property in the Dubai Marina. It’s excellent location steps from the Dubai Marina, upscale accommodations and a vast combination of room configurations makes this property a win in my playbook. Our third stay would have us upgraded to a Deluxe Suite, an upscale car transfer and access to a terrific lounge courtesy of Starwood / Marriott Platinum status.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: The Grosvenor House by Luxury Collection – Deluxe Suite, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
This is a review of what would end up being our third visit to the hotel, staying in a Deluxe Suite. For our first visit, please see our review of The Grosvenor House, and for our second visit, please see our visit in The Grosvenor House Apartment Suite.
“The reliable Grosvenor House welcomed our third visit to the property with a Suite Upgrade, a BMW 7 Series airport transfer and access to a wonderful lounge”
Booking The Grosvenor House Dubai:
We have stayed at The Grosvenor House Dubai on several occassions and have always been impressed with the property. Why mess with success? For our third trip to Dubai, it made sense to stay here and enjoy the hotel and the surrounding area in Dubai Marina, which we have come to enjoy.
I had booked our reservation in a base level room and applied a SPG Platinum Suite Night Award to it. We were upgraded well in advance at the seven 7 day mark into a Deluxe Suite. It’s usually reviewed and approved at the 5 day mark. The suite upgrade features included complimentary return limousine transfers from the Dubai International Airport to the hotel in the Dubai Marina both ways. I emailed the hotel with our arrival details and it was handled promptly.
We met our driver at the airport and he escorted us curb side to a waiting white BMW 7 series that was very nicely appointed. What a great deal as a perk for a Suite Night Award to get a ride in a car of this caliber included.
We took our car transfer to the hotel property. The Grosvenor House is located on the edge of the Dubai Marina making it very easy to access the restaurants in the area.
We arrived to the property. It’s our third stay here over 4 years and we’ve yet to be disappointed or let down.
On our visit, the lobby was decorated in orange flowers. The hardcore Starwood Preferred Guest loyalists will recognize the setting of the lobby as featured on the SPG TV loop in the Emirates Skywards Your World Rewards feature. Unfortunately, those days are long over and now it known for being among the many great hotel stay memories.
Our check in was handled promptly and professionally. We were assigned our Deluxe Suite as awarded through the Suite Night Award program. There was no further upgrade on the Suite Night Award, which was fairly consistent with my experiences with this particular property. The Starwood / Marriott Platinum & Titanium upgrades are possible, but not overly generous for elite level loyalty members.
The Room: A Deluxe Suite
Our deluxe suite of Suite #1110 was smaller than the apartment that we had on our last stay. I actually prefer the size of the apartment, and the fact that it comes with a proper kitchen and fridge. Unfortunately, the apartments at the Grosvenor House don’t seem to have many sea views, as many of them face the buildings and inwards toward land and the surrounding Dubai Marina.
It featured a medium sized living area and a reasonable but partially obstructed sea view.
A Living Room Space:
The Deluxe Suite offered a comfortable living and seating area. The seating area was more livable than many usual hotel room suites as it featured a spacious area consistent with a comfortable and proper living space.
The Bedroom:
The bedroom featured a large king sized bed. The bed had terrific and high quality thread count sheets. The bedroom also had a small desk suitable for charging devices, among other convenient storage spaces.
The Bathroom:
The bathroom was spacious- room enough for two. It featured the Bvlgari toiletries which are of reasonably good quality.
A Room with a View:
There was a small out door space. The room offered some nice ocean views, along with a small thin deck area. There were peek a boo views of the Palm Jumeriah, The Palm Atlantis in the far distance, and with a wrap around deck, you could look down at the Grosvenor House pool. Our view today was of the Grosvenor House Tower Two with obstructed views towards the water.
Level Five Lounge Privileges:
We had several opportunities to use the Level 5 lounge. The Lounge is located in Tower Two, which is one building over from Tower One.
The hotel offers SPG / Marriott Platinum’s and higher access to the lounge. In addition, if you book a Deluxe Suite or higher, you also get complimentary access. There is a terrific perk since lounge access isn’t guaranteed for SPG / Marriott Platinum’s in the Marriott Bonvoy Terms and Conditions for Luxury Collection resorts like this one. If one takes a strict interpretation of the Marriott Bonvoy Terms and Conditions, only Marriott’s, Sheratons and Westin’s are officially included for this benefit. In the era of cutbacks, it also may come a time when the hotel may cease to make it available. Until then, it’s a pretty nice place to visit and a nice perk to have in a property where food and alcohol are typically quite expensive.
We were able to take breakfast in the lounge, in addition to happy hours, on a few of the days of our stay. Service for alcohol is through a waiter, and a zero balance bill was presented. I don’t have many photos since the staff were very attentive and would approach you if you stopped anywhere for any reason. I actually got the feeling that I would have been told “no photographs” had I been caught taking any so I had to go the discreet route.
The lounge was very nicely decorated compared to other lounges in the system. The furnishings were of high quality and better than the usual hotel lounge in the Marriott / Starwood system.
Surprisingly, there was a religious holiday over part of our visit. During this time, service was alcohol was suspended. It was well posted in advance, but if you had your heart on de-compressing over a drink after you land, at times you may be disappointed.
Around the Hotel:
The Dubai Marina
The Dubai Marina is immediately outside the front doors of the hotel. It seems that there is always a Ferrari or Bentley parked here. More importantly, there is a great promenade where you can walk along the man made waterway through the marina. We’ve run along here in the early morning before the heat gets too much and it’s a neat area to take a run in.
My Thoughts on our Return to the Grosvenor House:
The Grosvenor House was super comfortable as always. We’ve stayed three times and every time it has been a pleasant experience. We enjoy the location of the property and the proximity to the subway, and to the beach at the sister Le Meridien property which is available for use. Having the Dubai Marina at your footsteps is also very convenient as well.
If you’ve based yourself at The Grosvenor House Dubai, have you returned time after time?
An Emirates First Class award is one of the most aspirational award redemptions in the world today. The Emirates Airbus 380 aircrafts feature shower suites, a stand up bar and an excellent first class experience. As one of the largest operators of the Airbus 380, it’s is available on many of its long haul international routes. We had the experience to test out this world class experience on their route between Mauritius and Dubai.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: Emirates First Class A380-8, Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Mauritius – Dubai International Terminal 3
“Emirates First Class is one of the most featured First Class products in the world today. It includes a stand up bar, shower suites and a five course meal with world class wines”
Booking the Ticket:
Our return travel back to North American from Africa was courtesy of the Alaska Mileage Plan’s partner award chart with Emirates. We booked a 100,000 point First Class Award with Emirates, which allowed us travel from Africa through the United Arab Emirates back home to Vancouver.
We found better award availability to and from Mauritius than to our departure points in Johannesburg or Cape Town in South Africa, so it made sense to take a short flight over to this island to connect to our flights home to experience a proper first class cabin. At the time of our travels, Emirates was operating a full Airbus 380-800 on the route between the United Arab Emirates and Mauritius. It would end up being a great use of Alaska Mileage Plan points.
Getting to the Airport:
We departed the St Regis Mauritius and headed back on the self drive back to the airport. It took an hour and about 40 minutes thanks to heavy rains, some debris on the road and a police road closure that needed a detour for some reason unknown to us.
We returned the rental car to Sixt. The attendant didn’t know how to add my AAdvantage number to the car rental account so I just left it at that. I wasn’t able to ever get credit after the fact due to some non existent customer service at Sixt.
Checking In to Emirates First Class:
We checked in at the Emirates First, Business and Platinum check in desks. In Mauritius, Emirates doesn’t offer a separate check in for first class. Instead, it lumps the premium check in together with their business class passengers. The check in was pretty empty, save one Indian family that was attempting to squeeze in the line a head of us. The ground staff were all wearing Air Mauritius uniforms. Our checked bags were pleasantly tagged and a manager confirmed that we wanted seats 2A and 3A, even though they were not seated side by side.
While we were checking in, we were provided with a lounge invitation for the Salon Amédée Maingard Lounge. We used the dedicated departure screening and business / first passport line, which was on the right of the departure zone. We were quickly stamped out of Mauritius and into the pleasant terminal.
The Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge:
We located the Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge. It was situated at the immediate right hand side of the concourse. I’ve previously reviewed the Air Mauritius Amédée Maingard Lounge, so I won’t be completely reviewing it again for this post. Instead, I’ll include a view brief photographs as a general overview for those wanting to know what to expect when travelling with Emirates on this route.
We attended to the lounge behind some very slow walking Europeans. We were directed upstairs as the downstairs portion was closed today. The downstairs was looking awfully dark as we passed by.
Heading upstairs, this is easily my favourite lounge in all of Africa. It’s a bright space that is nicely appointed with very good food and beverage. This includes real champagne available at the bar and a reasonable selection of food and beverage in a nice setting with lots of natural light.
Upstairs, the lounge was much busier than our last visit. It remained a very nicely catered lounge with hot and cold snacks. The bar was featuring Duval Leroy Champagne and some chippie chips as a snack.
This easily has to be my favourite lounge in Southern Africa by far. . . It’s a super pleasant area to hang out in, with a variety of seating areas to call your own for a few hours. It has great natural light, making a stay even more inviting.
Emirates
First Class
MRU-DXB (Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International – Dubai International Terminal 3)
EK 702
May 1, 2016
Booked: Airbus 380-800
Flown: Airbus 380-800
Departure: 4:20 PM
Arrival: 11:05 PM
We departed the lounge and walked to the other end of the terminal for boarding at gates 22 and 23. We passed by the Mauritius flight boards which have planes departing to a variety of exotic destinations.
The boarding was early and probably about 75% complete by the time of the first boarding time posted on our boarding card.
There was no delay and no line for the business / first class boarding jet bridge, with 3 jet bridges in use for the beautiful A380. We had an almost private jet bridge today as we headed to the upper deck.
Once we got to the door, we were handed off to a member of the first class flight crew who personally escorted us to the seats.
On Board Emirates First Class:
As we arrived on board, we were informed that there was only 1 other passenger in First today; seated in 2K. As a result, we were encouraged to run around like wild animals on the left hand side of the cabin and take pictures enjoy the experience.
The Emirates Airbus 380-8 First Class Cabin offers a 1-2-1 configuration. The suites offer private doors that close and a mini bar. The suites and overall cabin are some of the most interesting looking mix of wood and gold. You’ll never mistake yourself for being in a more discreet and understated Lufthansa First Class Cabin. The colour scheme on Emirates is over the top and like the beautiful Hollywood actress; it knows it.
The suite controls were controlled by a flat screen controller, that had touch surfaces on it. There was also an in flight wired remote for the entertainment.
Overall, MrsWT73 seemed to be quite pleased with the suite.
Pre Departure Services:
We had some captain announcements and a posted flight time of five hours and forty five minutes travel time from Mauritius to Dubai. We had a whole suite of pre-departure services which occurred after we had arrived on board.
We were offered a towel service, and the Arabic coffee from a traditional Arabic coffee dispenser and a date. We were also invited up to inspect and check out the shower suite and arrange a time for later.
We were also offered large Pyjamas and a men’s amenity kit were provided in the Emirates branded tote bag.
There is so much swag on these flights, Emirates gave us a bag to take it all with us.
We were also encouraged to take the writing kit and the vanity. It was essentially a dollar store give away.
A magazine offering was also made. I kept with the tradition and selected a middle eastern version of Conde Nast Traveller.
Continuing on with the pre-departure services, a glass of Laurent Perrier was offered as a pre-departure beverage on the ground with a promise of “the good stuff” in the air.
Departing Mauritius:
We had a quick departure and take off with short taxi way in Mauritius. We were next to an Air Seychelles A3w0 on pushback. It was a wet departure leaving Mauritius today.
I also located the neat forward facing camera on the Emirates ICE AVOD system. It’s always a neat view out the nose camera on the way down the runway.
We had a beautiful departure today with some excellent views of Mauritius and the coral east of the airport as we climbed to altitude. Mauritius is a place I’d really like to return to someday to spend time exploring for a more in depth experience. Before long, it was beautiful skies ahead.
There were 3 crew assigned to first to take care of us. As we levelled at cruising altitude, Dom Perignon 2006 champagne was brought around. We had two glasses with strong efforts by the staff to make sure that they did not go empty. The crew also delivered the individual snack basket, which was placed on the console by the television.
The On Board Bar:
We placed our dinner order “as it takes some time to warm up”. The Emirates Airbus 380-8 First and Business Class experience allows for a stand up bar at the rear of the top level of the upper deck.
We headed back to the bar where we had some funny photos and offers to take our photographs by the senior pursers. While at the bar, First Class passengers get access to the top level premium liquor and champagne. We took our First boarding cards with us and the purser pro-actively and discreetly bought down the bottle of Dom Perignon from the First Class area for us to enjoy. The bar was pretty quiet today with lots of opportunities for photographs.
In addition to the bar, the area offers snacks and canapés. It’s a great social way to kill time in a flight. There is also a large flat screen monitor that allows you to track your flight path.
While at the bar, I enjoyed a Marmalade martini while MrsWT73 had a Grey Goose Cosmopolitan.
We finished up our drinks and headed back to our seat. This is a quick shot of passing through business class on the Emirates A380-800.
The Meal: A Full Five Course Dinner
We settled into the seat and had a closer look at the menu and saw what food and beverage was on offe The Menus were presented in a very elaborate menu similar to a fine restaurant.
I have no idea what “job fish” was but it sounds interesting.
The wine list was super impressive. It had MrsWT73’s favourite Chateau de Tracy, which was an unexpected treat. It also had a solid Chateaux Margaux, which was excellent.
As they say, “show time”. We started with appetizers and canapés.
After the canapés were finished, the First Class table setting was prepared and set. It is a beautiful setting with a proper charger plate and simply looks luxurious.
I couldn’t pass up on caviar, so I had the order served with traditional garnishes paired with Dom Perignon 2006 champagne. The breadbasket was also served.
While I was enjoying the caviar, there were some outstanding African sunset views.
The caviar was followed by potato and leek soup.
Instead of the interesting job fish, I had the main as the Mauritius Curry Chicken with Rice, paired with the Condrieu wine
After dinner, I went for a little nap afterwards. I slept really well for 2 hours under an Emirates starred sky.
Towards the end of the flight, I was woken up for shower suite as requested. What a bespoke experience to be showering on board a plane at 39,000 feet. The water was nice and hot and the towels provided were almost 5 feet long with a heated floor. The shower itself was not too roomy and I felt almost guilty using up all 5 minutes of water but it was more than enough. I forgot to bring my camera to the shower suite so regretfully, there are no shower spa photos. Please see the next segment of Emirates First Class Dubai – Los Angeles for shower suite photos and a write up of the shower suite experience.
I returned to the suite and had a green tea after the shower, just like a real spa. I decided to have dessert and asked for the raspberry cheese cake although they had run out. They must cater light as they also had ran out of Arabic mezze as the other first class passenger whom we ended up chatting with in the immigration lines didn’t get any herself.
Instead, I had a pineapple dessert with a glass of the Bordeaux Margaux.
The fast track cards were also handed out while I had napped. I took some last cabin shots before we started the descent.
Landing at Dubai International Airport:
We landed quickly at D5 and took the train to the main terminal at Dubai Airport. I have to say it’s a shiny place! The bags were out fairly promptly. We also took a look at the Duty Free on arrival in the baggage hall. It’s well stocked with nice wine so if you need to grab some on landing in Dubai (flying Emirates only), it’s certainly an option as there isn’t any in the local store out on the street.
My Thoughts on the Emirates First Class Experience:
The Emirates First Class Mauritius to Dubai flight was a great way to test out the Emirates First Class product. Since we had the whole cabin (save one person) to ourselves, we had a really high level of service and attention. There is nothing like having access to a shower suite, a stand up bar and a terrific food and beverage menu to enhance your travel experience.
For once, MrsWT73 summed up her thoughts about the experience as: “I have nothing to complain about… …for once I am speechless. This makes Air Canada seem like Ryan Air.” This statement in itself is a tremendous rarity, so we’d have to give two thumbs up for this flight. Even though this version of the Emirates First Class suite is nearing the end of its life cycle, it’s still a pretty neat way to go.
If you have flown Emirates First Class on the Airbus 380, did you find that it lived up to your First Class travel expectations?
The St Regis Mauritius has been our “go to” property while visiting Mauritius. It has a a terrific location with the property set in the shadow of the giant Le Morne mountain in a peaceful corner of the island. We’d previously stayed at the property on our last trip to Mauritius. Unfortunately, there were some teething problems on that stay which continued on this stay.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: The St Regis Mauritius – Returning to a Beachfront Suite, Le Morne, Mauritius
This is a review of our second visit to this property. For the first visit, please see our Review: The St Regis Mauritius
“The St Regis Mauritius featured excellent hard product, but really seemed to be efforting hard on delivering on the soft product. ”
Booking The St Regis Mauritius:
We last stayed at The St Regis Mauritius in November 2013. This particular stay relates to our visit in November 2016. While I won’t make this review as comprehensive as our initial review, I thought it was worthwhile to outline our return experience. I never thought in my lifetime that I would be returning here, let alone twice within 3 years.
Like last time, we booked a cash and points rate at 10,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Points + $180 USD per night. The regular rate was well over 400 ($450 USD) so the discounted Cash and Points rate was of much better value. The hotel seemed to be playing around with the room categories that they applied the Cash and Points inventory to. I had seen the Junior Suite category in the Cash and Points pool at times and removed at other times. I ended up booking a Deluxe Garden View (lowest category), and then we re-booked into the Junior Suite rate category when it became available approximately 30 days before our stay.
I also applied Suite Night Awards for a St Regis beach suite. The Suite Night award failed to clear. I also noticed that the hotel was also changing the availability for the SNA inventory pool as they had offered a Manor Suite in the SNA Pool when I made the initial booking which was gone after I had re-booked it. I suppose, it is also possible that the manor suites were also fully occupied and not listed for an available upgrade.
In order to get to the property, we opted for another rental car from Sixt and a tourist map from the rental car company. I had Google directions printed and ready but as usual in the developing countries, they were just terrible. I was going to book a hotel car transfer but at $200 USD each way, I figured we’d just save $200 by renting a car instead and driving ourselves to the property. It was a much quicker experience at Sixt this time around as two ground staff were working and they had to complete all forms and paperwork by hand. I also had to provide a 17,000 Rupee ($480 USD) credit card deposit for the Suzuki Swift.
After arriving off a South African Airways Business Class Johannesburg – Mauritius flight, we collected the rental car. We followed the B9 route along the water to get to the Le Morne area. It was a much easier experience the second time around having visited previously. It took approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes to get from the airport to the St Regis driving in a spirited manner.
Checking Into the St Regis Mauritius:
On arrival at the resort we had a rather bizarre check in experience.
Our check in today at the St Regis Mauritius has now been moved to the individual butler pavilions at each pod of rooms. The area where the check in used to be in the main entry way by the front valet gate has now been converted to a concierge desk. In our case, we were sat down in the lobby bar where our passport information was taken by a concierge desk manager. While we were checking in, I asked about Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum upgrades but was told that the resort was at 90 % occupancy and that no upgrades were available. We were then passed over to a front end manager who gave us a “good news / bad news” story. The good news was that someone at the hotel had arranged for us to have our original and previous suite back (#273) “Your usual room Mr Bond / WT73?” The bad news was that the guest prior hadn’t checked out until 6 PM and that the room wasn’t ready. In the interim, we were offered #361, which was a lower level Junior Suite to freshen up in, or to stay in if we wanted for the first night or the duration.
We had our bags moved to #361. It was of the same configuration as our old room #273. However, the out door space was much smaller and it was set back quite a ways from the ocean, with absolutely no view at all. The ceilings were also low. It didn’t look super appealing based on what we remembered from our last stay. We opted for our better previous #273 room and were told to come back. The strange thing was that none of the staff seemed to recognize the SPG Platinum Status or the fact that we were returning guests, despite us being re-assigned to #273 (without directly asking for it). Loyalty status recognition is one of those things that you don’t really notice until it’s completely gone. The room assignment experience was more of a cattle hoarding experience of trying to get the guest over to the room and leave them there.
By about 9 PM on the date of our arrival, we were finally given keys to our #273 room. Our assigned butler, whom was very polite, had no idea that we were returning guests. This absence was also re-enforced throughout the welcome card and the welcome letter where these things are usually mentioned.
The Park Hyatt Maldives gets a lot of coverage around these forums as a bloggers paradise. Despite this, we’ve had better recognition as returning guests there with absolutely no status as members of the Park Hyatt Gold Passport Program (Base Gold Members on both visits). There we had received category room upgrades, complimentary leather luggage tags and encouragement and requests for us to return. We’ve even had better loyalty recognition at our recent stay as Fairmont Premier’s (mid tier) with the Fairmont Kea Lani in Maui, USA. Sadly, that recognition was missing from the St Regis Mauritius where it all seemed horribly disorganized. Despite giving approximately 86 nights a year to the Starwood Program, it make me think whether this was a wise endeavour, or perhaps simply an errant property.
The Room: A Beachfront Ocean Suite
As a review wouldn’t be complete without photographs of the room, here are some older pictures of the room #273 from our last stay.
The Beachfront Ocean Suite is about the size of a standard luxury hotel room. It doesn’t have a separate sitting area like a traditional suite might have. The room is slightly larger and is very comfortable to occupy. Instead, the Ocean Suite makes up for is a large deck space, outside of the room.
The room offered a fully featured bathroom with rain shower, massive tub and soap the size of hockey pucks.
The in room amenities included a beach bag, and fabulous view. In the past, the sandals made a great souvenir of our travels. Unfortunately, the St Regis disposable beach sandals have been retired permanently.
The room also featured a sliding glass wall that allowed the suite to be opened up to allow the ocean air in. This was easily the nicest feature of the room and the property.
A Room with a View:
There are solid views from the right rooms at this property. We appreciated being on the second level and slightly off the ground.
We enjoyed a day at the beach on our first day on loungers steps from our room. We had some excellent sunsets enjoyed from the room, and enjoyed a self catered bottle of wine or two from the outdoor space from the room.
A stay at the St Regis offers access to a complimentary white glove butler service. While we were on the beach for our second day, I called the butler to take advantage of the complimentary garment pressing for dinner. Unfortunately, the staff was unable to complete the pressing until the day of our departure; a wait of 48 hours! I ended up just using other shirts instead. After the day, we came back to some pretty spotting housecleaning. I don’t how you can miss all this glass wear on a house cleaning but, indeed they were left behind dirty and we had to go source some fresh stuff.
Around the Property:
The Beach
The St Regis Mauritius sits directly on the Le Morne peninsula and beach. The beach is good, although the sand is not super fine. You’ll want to bring sandals on any walk along the beach to avoid getting prickles on the feet. The resort grounds are reasonably nice, although there is not a lot of spare real estate to make it feel like a spacious area.
The St Regis Manor House Pool:
The main pool at the Manor House is impressive and has an opulent feel to it. The grounds were nicely landscaped and had a resort like feel to them.
The main hotel pool itself is a tremendously large sized. It was a place for families to gather, and as a result it was occasionally noisy. We found it a bit of a quieter experience out towards the lounge chairs along the beach.
Food and Beverage:
Despite the wonderful hard product and stellar sunsets, the teething problems at this property seemed to continue. There are 5 restaurants on the property. On the night of our arrival, the Floating Market (Asian inspired) was completely closed to to a private function, despite being totally empty at 7 PM. The Beach House was serving a mandatory 5 course Lobster menu at $140 USD per person, the Manor Restaurant was serving mandatory buffet with no a la carte offerings, leaving only the expensive Japanese and the Indian restaurants. We opted for Indian, which appeared to be quite disorganized, with staff not knowing what items came with what dish. Despite this, the kitchen manager came around and personally introduced himself. The combination of the inability to get a light dinner was prevalent during our visit.
The Floating Market:
That night, we attempted a dinner at the Floating Market restaurant. We arrived at 7:45 PM without a reservation and were told that they were full until 9 PM. “Maybe come back at 8:45 PM and we might be able to seat you?” The alternative Boathouse restaurant as another fixed price menu at $100 USD, we didn’t fancy Indian food, having had it the night before and the Manor House Restaurant was full of families. We eventually returned to the Floating Market at 8:35 PM and were seated. Keeping with with the odd stay experience, I happened to notice that there were 7 empty tables in the restaurant that had not been used or seated tonight. These tables were totally clean so they must have been short staffed.
Making some small talk with the supposed sommelier, we ended up asking for wine by the glass instead of a full bottle. The sommelier actually told me that I didn’t know a thing about wine since I was buying “by the glass” instead of an entire bottle, and that the wine by the glass ” were not so good”. I think this was intended to be a joke, but he was serious on his delivery.
While we were waiting for our meals, a younger couple at the table next to us broke out a pair of playing cards and started playing a card game during the meal service. I started laughing to myself about it since it took us 45 minutes to get seated. It turns out they may have been regular customers since it took us an 1hour and 5 minutes from order to delivery to get the mains / entrees out on the table. When they did arrive about 100 minutes into the service, the mains were totally overcooked. The duck was as white as pork chop and the Kaffir Lime Chicken was dry. We mentioned the dissatisfaction to the chef when he presented himself. The chef was very apologetic. He returned later and offered to fire up some sea bass and some prawns, even offering to send it to the room. As it was already 10 PM, we declined and just opted for the bill. The restaurant ended up comping us the meal and invited us back for a special table the next night. We indicated that we would think about it and let our butler know.
The Manor House:
On our third night, we went to the Manor house for dinner. I had walked up the beach to the Lux Resort during the day to see about other options since I wasn’t too impressed with the St Regis food (which is saying something). Finding only buffets on offer elsewhere, we ended up at the Manor house for dinner. We passed through the St Regis Bar, and the excellent library upstairs on the way to dinner.
We had a complimentary glass of rose from the supervisor as a welcome drink. I’m not sure if this was because of our last experience at the floating garden or what.
MrsWT73 had the crab cakes starter, which tasted surprisingly like canned tuna. It was a bit steep priced at $25 USD, since the portion size was pretty small.
I had the sea bass. It was well executed and the nicest meal that I had the entire stay. The spinach and ravioli with goat cheese had only 5 raviolis and frozen vegetables.
Similar to the Floating Market, there were several service oddities. We asked for butter to accompany the bread basket (the bread was tasty when we had some) but it was never delivered during course of the meal. I didn’t mind the meal, but MrsWT73 not overly impressed. When the bill arrived, it only included the wine. There was no explanation as to why it was the lessor amount. I suspect it was as a result of the long meal the night before at the Floating Market. However, it was strange since we management was kind enough to provide the Floating Market meal with compliments. It was a bizarre experience all up.
St Regis Champagne Sabering:
On our last visit, we did a free champagne sabering on a set night during the week with one glass. In that experience, we had the rest of the bottle given to us complimentary at a restaurant on the property. On this visit, I inquired about the champagne sabering with the butler. It turns out it can be arranged, but you must buy a bottle of champagne in order for it to happen. It seems to be no longer free for elite level loyalty members. We were invited to buy a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Posardin, Carte Jaune to accommodate this at 10,400 MUR ($300 USD) or a bottle of Mumm Cordon Rouge at 8,800 MUR ($251 USD) for this to occur. When we declined to do this, as a gesture, the butler later brought a small 375ml bottle (not for sabering) of Deutz champagne for us to enjoy later. It wasn’t really the point, but a nice gesture nevertheless.
Overall, it was a bizarre stay with lots of strange things happening around the stay experience. ON the housekeeping side, on the second day, MrsWT73 returned to the room from the beach to get some more sunscreen to find the room left insecure with the night latch between the door and the door frame. She thought house cleaning was inside. It turned out no one was inside and just she just walked in and out of our unlocked room unchallenged.
Departing the Property:
As we left the property on the next day, I asked for the manager’s card to follow up on some of these things. The stay was strange enough with lots of different service mis-steps that I thought I would write him to explain our experience compared to our last visit.
The manager did pro-actively come over within 7 minutes and we had a brief chat. In a telling point, our conversation was interrupted by some departing Russians who were also disappointed with some aspect of their stay. I bid the manager good bye, leaving him to the Russians, and followed up with a letter surrounding my concerns. I outlined the unlocked room, the 110 minute dinners, the lengthy garment pressing, the sommelier’s sense of humour, the missing housecleaning and our generally better experiences at other properties in this price point. The We were offered a very generous Starpoint compensation for the experiences.
My Thoughts on the St Regis Mauritius:
In conclusion, this post may make us sound like a rambling over entitled travellers. However, despite the excellent hard product and a fantastic location of the property under the shadow of Le Morne Mountain, I am less inclined to recommend this property for a full luxury experience. The hard product is excellent but the service shortcomings at this price point seem to relate to disinterested and inconsistent staff. While there was nothing glaring (despite the suite at one point was completely left unlocked and unattended with laptops and cameras left about in our room) it wasn’t a super enjoyable nice holiday. When you’re paying for the St Regis experience, you don’t expect Holiday Inn or Best Western treatment. Unfortunately, we got the Best Western experience on this visit. As a result, I’m hesitant to strongly recommend this place for a spectacular stay as it may lead to disappointment until they get things fully organized here. It’s too bad because I really want to like this property and location. It offers a spectacular setting if they ever get it right and the rooms and finishing are excellent.
Editors Note:
At the time of this report, this property is in the process of being re-flagged to a JW Marriott and will be branded as the JW Marriott Mauritius Resort
If you’ve stayed at the St Regis Mauritius, how did you find that it compared to your last stay at a luxury hotel like Fairmont, Ritz Carlton or Park Hyatt?
Of the choice of South African Airways or British Airways Comair flying between South Africa and Mauritius, after a careful examination, we ended up with South African Airways based on a reasonable price and the ability to earn miles in a Star Alliance frequent flyer reward program. Our flight was marked with some adventure, dis-organization and a side of mild chaos as we transitioned through departure and the flight itself, following with a conclusion of frequent flier miles chasing to round out the experience.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: South African Airways Business Class A340-6, OR Tambo International Airport Johannesburg – Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport Mauritius
“A Last Minute Upguage to a wide body Airbus 340-6 aircraft made for a better, if not wholly disorganized, international flight from South Africa to Mauritius”
Booking the Ticket:
We booked our positioning flight from South Africa to Mauritius on South African Airways. The objective was to link up with our reward ticket back to North American in Emirates First Class Mauritius – Dubai, then Emirates First Class Dubai – Los Angeles. We found better award availability to and from Mauritius than to our departure points in Johannesburg or Cape Town in South Africa, so it made sense to take a short flight over to this island to connect to our flights home.
For some reason, there were really good South African Airways Business Class fares departing Johannesburg of around $415 USD for full business class; one way. I found this to be a reasonable price for 4 1/2 hours of business class for an international flight. There were even lower fares on British Airways Comair Club Business Class in the Boeing 737 configuration, with these flights only operating on Saturdays one time a week during the dates of our trip. The British Airways Comair Club Business class was offered on a narrow body B737 in an economy styled seat with a blocked middle. As a result, the South African Airways better aircraft won out, and we booked on South African Airways, crediting our miles to Air Canada Aeroplan thanks to their participation in Star Alliance. Unfortunately, it was not the best performance out of South African Airways today; it was full of things going wrong that certainly wasn’t typical of our SAA flights past.
We departed the Hyatt Regency Rosebank Johannesburg after a brief Regency Club Executive Lounge Breakfast, which started at 06:30 AM. Checkout was all in order and promptly handled.
At the time of this report, South African Airways operated two daily flights to Mauritius using their Boeing 737 aircraft. The first flight, SA 190, typically departs at 8:40 AM, whereas the second flight that we were booked and ticketed on ,departed at 10:25 AM. On arrival to the airport at T-180, I happened to notice on the flight information boards that the first SA 190 flight was showing as cancelled.
We checked in at the SAA Premium Services Desk at O.R. Tambo International Airport. There was no line but we had a very surly check in agent. After a few minutes of tapping on the computer, she announced to us that our seats were not together. Having booked the flight 3 months earlier and having selected w 4A and 4C for the flight, I asked her what had happened to the seat assignment? She claimed that all passengers had already checked in, and that our seats were gone (despite being pre-assigned). MrsWT73 was moved back to 7H, where as I got 4C. The check in agent was unaware of the earlier SA190 flight cancellation until I brought it up with her. I asked her if it was possible to have seats together but she refused to budge on it; “I am sorry but the flight has checked in full” We were there at 3 hours before the flight. I challenged her on it, asking her what happened to the original seat assignments since the seat assignment is to “hold the seat”, indicating that they were paid tickets (and not upgrades or staff travel) but she was particularly unhelpful and didn’t do anything for us. It was similar to the Jerry Seinfeld scene where he describes how the car rental reservation is actually supposed to hold the car. We ended up leaving the counter with separate seats and no real resolution to the separated seating assignments.
We headed off to change MrsWT73’s Qatar baggage payout from South African Rand to US Dollars and through the departing security checkpoint. MrsWT73 did some souvenir shopping at her favourite “Out of Africa “store while I hit up The Big Five Duty Free with its excellent selection and representation of South African wines. We picked up a few wine bottles for Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates at prices that were almost as good as the cellar doors in Stellenbosch.
The Lounge: South African Airways Baobab International Lounge
After the duty free shopping was complete, we headed up to the South African Airways Baobab Lounge. We’ve previously visited the South African Airways Baobab International Lounge so I won’t go into tremendous detail reviewing it again. I invite you to read the previous review if you’re interested in seeing more about this lounge.
Access to the South African Airways Baobab Lounge is included with the purchase of a business class ticket. I’ve always been impressed with visiting flagship international lounges in the hub cities of carriers. Despite being recently renovated since our last visit, the SAA Baobab Lounge it seems that it is now only just an average place that has unfortunately been outclassed by its worldwide competition.
Since our last visit, there are new chairs and new natural stone treatments on the walls. It still has an odd layout that doesn’t make the best use of it’s space with a lot of flowing spaces that come at a cost of available seating.
The best part of the lounge were the large windows that offer terrific plane spotting opportunities. However, it seemed to come at a cost of air conditioning. The lounge was really warm today which made it a very hot experience.
The lounge also featured magazine racks which were also well stocked with papers and magazines.
Unfortunately, the food and catering in the lounge were really tired and looked like a cheap Bed and Breakfast operation, instead of a world class airline that they market themselves to be. Sadly, I didn’t get photographs to support that claim. Needless to say, things looked quite tired.
Regretfully, the South African Airways Baobab Lounge had fallen from among the better lounges in Southern Africa. The pace and offerings of the lounges around the world seem to be improving over the years and this place, isn’t keeping up as much as it should. I’m sad to report that if you are through here, the only advantages to visit this particular lounge are the plane spotting opportunities.
The Flight: Johannesburg – Mauritius
We headed down to the gate at about T-45, fully expecting a bus gate to the apron. Worried about the seat assignments, we had a slight hope that the gate agent might page the person in seat 4A so that we could get a swap with my wife’s assigned seat. Instead, we found a proper jet bridge gate and a proper holding area.
South African Airways
Business Class
JNB-MRU (OR Tambo International Airport – Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport)
SA
April 28, 2016
Booked: Boeing 737-800
Flown: Airbus 340-600
Departure: 10:25 AM
Arrival: 4:15 PM
On arrival to gate A9, it appeared that the plane was up-gauged from our initially booked Boeing 737 to an Airbus 340-600. The bad news is that the boarding area is a complete disaster with two lines leading towards the counters that were completely unmarked and unidentified. The counter agents appeared totally engaged, surrounded by a mass of children, elderly and other people needing attention with few staff available to help them all out.
We joined shorter line of the two until it was announced that all economy passengers from the longer line had to swap places with the shorter line for boarding. Through the crush of people, we ran over a few shoes (or a few rollies ran over our shoes) as we made out way through the crush of people onto the plane.
There was a segregated jet bridge on the opposite side of boarding with dual jet bridge boarding for today’s flight.
On Board South African Airways Business Class:
Getting on on board, sadly it was more chaos. The seat assignments must have gone completely out of the window with the aircraft swap. There were families traveling with 3 kids under the age of eight, spread about all over the business class cabin and elderly people needing assistance separated from their travel partners. As I got on the plane, I happened to see two people assigned the same seat, one with a hand written “1C” over top of boarding card over his original seat 45 H, the other one with the actual 1 C.
Despite assurances by the check in agent, that the flight was full and that we could not sit together, no one ever came for Seat 4A so MrsWT73 joined me while we were parked while still on the apron and all was well again. Well, at least until the 20-minute flight delay departure getting away from OR Tambo International Airport. There were apologies for the delay, and apologies for the combination of the SA 190 and SA 192 flights but no real reasons provided as to why the earlier flight was cancelled (mechanical or economies of scale by using a larger aircraft).
The seats are the same long haul seats used on their Johannesburg – New York routes and are in a 2 – 2 – 2 configuration. The seating arrangement is getting quite dated compared to the reverse herringbone seating, and the motorized seats when they are moved are now groaning like a Radio Shack transistor toy that is nearing the end of its life cycle. Despite the strange noises, its still an exceptionally comfortable hard product that does go fully flat. The cabin is showing a bit of wear. Despite a green light on the Empower seat plug at my seat, the power appeared to be burned out and non functioning.
The seats had substantial controls to allow different seating configurations. The seat controls also included a massage feature.
Pre-Departure Services:
A pre-departure beverage of cap classique sparkling was offered. This was presented in a rather elegant elongated flute.
The Meal: A Full Lunch
Menus were passed out once airborne. South African Airways has updated their menu format to a sleeker book design, as opposed to the long slender menu cards they used to hand out.
To start the meal service, a beverage and canapé service was also offered on separate plates.
The appetizer of sliced smoked duck was then offered, plated with the cheese offering and the dessert offering all at once.
South African Airways was offering celebrity chef menu items. During our flight, the chef on offer was Reuben Riffel. The Reuben chargrilled chicken breast, which actually didn’t seem to be grilled at all, was served, paired with the Nedeburg 56 Hundred Chenin Blanc 2015
There were no amenity kits offered on today’s flight. Instead of settling into a movie, I took a little 1 hour nap on the full flat seat with my landing card resting on my belly. I was able to see a little of eastern Madagascar when I woke up, as located on the very dated in flight video on demand system.
During the flight, we had a nice chat with the senior purser. It seems that generally SAA aircrew don’t particularly care too much for the Mauritius flight as they don’t lay over in Mauritius and immediately work the return flight back. This coupled with the smaller B737 and a party atmosphere apparently makes the flight more challenging than others for the crew.
Winding down the flight, we had a stormy approach into MRU airport, with a lot of grey in the skies.
We deplaned through door 2 L with the business class being given priority. We deplaned and headed off to our stay at the St Regis Mauritius via a rental car.
My Thoughts on the South African Airways Business Class Service to Mauritius:
Overall, the in flight service recovered the scrambled ground experience of disorganization and apathy. Still, it was a pretty good fare deal, aside from the mixups. As an separate note, it took 4 months of back and forth with Aeroplan trying to get frequent flier credit for this flight. It seems when your flight evaporates and is flown with a different flight number, it causes problems for automated systems. There were A whole lot of un needed hassles on this flight with South African Airways, so be prepared people!
If you have flown South African Airways, is disorganization usually the order of the day?
Our return to the Hyatt Regency Johannesburg had us staying in an excellent Regency Suite that we were able to upgrade into with World of Hyatt upgrade instruments. The Hyatt Regency is a very conveniently located hotel that is situated next to the Rosebank mall complex, and well situated next to the Gautrain, making for a convenient stay experience.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: Hyatt Regency Johannesburg – Regency Suite, Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa.
“Still a great choice in Rosebank, the Hyatt Regency offered a terrific suite with convenient and excellent lounge amenities”
Booking the Hyatt Regency Johannesburg:
Since it was impossible to fly commercially from Victoria Falls, or neighbouring Livingstone, Zambia, to Mauritius in the same day due to the flight schedules, we had to stay the night in Johannesburg.
We last stayed at the Hyatt Regency Johannesburg on our last visit. Since there haven’t been many changes at the property, please feel free to look through that report for more on the property features. Although it’s a dated property that’s probably well past its hay day as a Park Hyatt, we saw no real reason to change and try out a different hotel location. The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg hotel offers reasonably convenient access to OR Tambo International Airport via the Gautrain, has a reasonably nice executive lounge with lots of natural light, and convenient access to several restaurants and shops with the semi-attached Rosebank mall.
We booked on a Hyatt Gold Passport (now World of Hyatt) points and cash rate (4,000 points and $50 USD) and used a Hyatt Diamond Upgrade to confirm an upgrade into a Regency Suite at time of booking. It was a great value since the regular rates for a Regency Suite were over $400 USD. I was able to get Hyatt Diamond status for the year when they offered the status match as soon as the Marriott sale was announced. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to use Hyatt Diamond Status it as much as I would have liked, as it’s almost impossible to find Hyatt’s as a Canadian traveler since their brand isn’t very available in my regular travel patterns north of the 49th parallel.
After arriving off British Airways Club Business Victoria Falls – Johannesburg, we arrived using the usual Gautrain and had a prompt check in. Despite 90 minutes waiting at the Qatar Airways office at OR Tambo International Airport investigating and filing a report of lost luggage, we were still able to make the happy hour at the Hyatt Regency Club lounge between 6-8 PM. As a result, I find that this hotel is a reasonable alternative to O.R Tambo Johannesburg airport hotel accommodations.
The Room: A Regency Suite
The Regency Suite was exceptionally comfortable for an inner city hotel. It featured a proper separate seating area, two televisions, a private outdoor balcony with two chairs and table, and nice eastern facing views.
The Regency Suite bathroom was also reasonably spacious. It was darkly attired, consistent with other parts of the hotel.
MrsWT73 thoroughly endorsed the room; “I wish we were staying here a few days.” Uhh – we are in Johannesburg; one of the roughest looking cities in the world? Did you forget (laughing)?
Excellent Loyalty Recognition as a Hyatt Diamond:
The hotel offered a nice Hyatt Gold Passport / World of Hyatt Diamond Amenity of candies and a bottle of wine. We didn’t contact the hotel saying it was any special occasion or anything. If this is how Hyatt treats it’s Diamond’s, then it’s a lot nicer than the usual SPG / Marriott Platinum treatment experience that I’ve had.
In addition to this, there was a fruit platter, and Maynard Jelly Beans. What a welcome on behalf of Hyatt!
After arriving from our earlier British Airways Comair Club Victoria Falls – Johannesburg flight, we were feeling a little hungry so we went over to the lounge level. We went and enjoyed happy hour at the Regency Club. The club offers a nice setting with large windows and is perfect for a city where, frankly, you don’t want to be wandering the streets aimlessly at night.
We concluded happy hour and went down to the Rosebank Mall for dinner at the pizza point. We happened to come across the grand opening of Starbucks Johannesburg Rosebank where event security was set up and there was a line of approximately 50 people waiting to get into the restaurant. MrsWT73 queued up for the first ever Johannesburg Starbucks mug in the new format and the old South African Mug in the original series.
A quick view from the deck the next morning before we left.
Our Regency Suite was exceptionally comfortable for an inner city stay. We couldn’t have been happier with our stay. We ended up taking the Gautrain back to O.R. Tambo International Airport for our South African Airways Business Class Johannesburg – Mauritius flight, the next day.
My thoughts on our second stay at the Hyatt Regency Johannesburg:
The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg was a pleasant stay and we’d see no reason to change hotels or stay at the Intercontinental at the OR Tambo Airport. The Regency Club was very efficient and comfortable and the value of cash and points with a Diamond Suite upgrade was unbeatable. It was highly recommended once again.
If you’ve stayed in Johannesburg, is the Hyatt Regency your preferred hotel over another chain hotel?
British Airways operates a franchise in Comair in South Africa. Flights with Comair allow people to gain access to reward points through the distance based British Airways Avios program. With this strategy in mind, we redeemed British Avios Airways rewards points for our international flight from Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe to Johannesburg, South Africa. Our Business Class experience was simple and a little bit easier than flying in economy.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: British Airways Comair Club Business Class B737-4, Victoria Falls International Airport – O.R. Tambo International Airport Johannesburg
“British Airways Club Business Class is easily accessible through British Airways Avios and, thanks to it’s distance based reward chart, is a great value way of getting International Business Class around Southern Africa”
British Airways
Comair
Business Class
VFA-JNB (Victoria Falls International Airport – OR Tambo International Airport Johannesburg)
BA 6282
April 27, 2016
Booked: Boeing 737-400
Flown: Boeing 737-400
Departure: 1:55 PM
Arrival: 3:35 PM
I booked this ticket using British Airways Avios. At the time, I was underwater with work assignments and missed the reward availability in the early booking window at about 4 months prior to the departure date. There were previously 7 BA Avios Award seats available but they all disappeared by the time I was able to get my act together. I was able to find availability from neighbouring Livingstone, Zambia and marked that as “Plan B”. However, I kept my eyes on the flight and at about the 2 month mark, two additional reward seats opened up (when there were none before). I moved on them quick and booked us into Business for the terrific off peak rate of “7,500 British Airways Avios points and $50 USD” per passenger.
British Airways has decided not to offer seat assignments until 24 hours before the flight, even for business class passengers. In efforts to secure a better seat, I attempted on line check in. I received a message indicating that it was not possible and that I should “proceed to the airport” to check in for seat assignment.
We booked our transfer through the Victoria Falls Hotel to the Victoria Falls airport that was 20 kilometers out of town. We departed the next day for the airport and arrived at about T-160.
Checking Into British Airways Club:
As it seems with most of our experiences throughout Africa, it was a disaster at the airport. Although the Victoria Falls Airport is brand new, the logistics organization is at a melt down point. It’s almost amazing considering it’s an airport with only one other small flight leaving this hour. We joined an unmarked queue of about 150 persons; all waiting to be checked in. There was no marking or indications as to which carrier the line was for, and there were ground cosmetics indicating that it was for, at one time, Air Zimbabwe.
I held a place in line and sent MrsWT73 up to speak to a ground agent, who later identified an unmarked business class line up of 5 people towards the front of the large queue. Thankfully, we were able to scoot around and avoid a several hour wait.
Since British Airways Comair offers a 2-3 business class configuration, I attempted to get us assigned to the 2 side in seats A & C. The check in agent feigned the inability to change these; “We are working with a new computer system and it will not let me change them”. He pointed towards a cardboard sign on the counter that pled for patience as BA worked to “enhance customer service”. Meanwhile, at the nearby economy counters, the ground staff proceeded to soak the passengers for overweight bag charge fees, despite much protests from those travelling.
There was no announcement of a lounge invitation but I started to get excited once we got airside.
We ended up having beer at the local café instead. Perhaps there is no surprise that the Air Zimbabwe flight was cancelled.
The Victoria Falls Airport has improved itself considerably compared to the last time I was through here. It was a nicer than expected facility clearly designed to attract and increase tourism. It was nice and bright with enough to keep you entertained while awaiting your flight. If they would only fix their logistics issues on check in, it would be a better traveling experience.
On Board British Airways Club Business Class:
As was the usual African boarding experience, there was no priority boarding announcement, or any announcement at all for that matter as the crush to get on board began. We got slightly run over by a few elderly Germans who pushed their way past us.
On board, despite only two reward seats available, surprisingly there were only 4 persons travelling in Club Business Class; one being a dead heading second officer (that means another first officer in addition to the one flying the plane) and the other a passenger traveling onto Amsterdam and then to Seattle.
We ended up moving over to our preferred seats 2A and 2C. There was not a lot of room the the BA Club product and I can’t really see why you would fly BA Comair if given the choice between South African Airways and BA Comair.
The equipment is quite worn well past its due date and looks tired and saggy. This time, we were in leather seating as compared to our last flight which had fabric covered seats.
Pre-Departure Services:
We ended up waiting for about twenty minutes past the regular departure time for a poor couple who was stuck in the check in line and counter for what would have been about 3 hours. They were apologetic as they walked past to their seats, saying that their delays weren’t their fault. While we waited, a pre-departure beverage of sparkling was offered during this time.
As we eventually departed Victoria Falls on the climb to altitude, there were always interesting bush views of the landscape. I always find it completely amazing in contrast to Europe (which is highly dense and populated) and North America (which is usually covered in freeways).
The Meal: A Full Lunch
A lunch option was presented. The food was not that great and wasn’t all that interesting in its presentation.
The starter was a green salad with feta, cherry tomatoes and a multi grain bun.
This was followed by a similar dish to our British Airways Club Johannesburg – Cape Town flight earlier in the month.
There was pleasant service from the crew of one serving Club today, in addition to regular top ops of wine.
We had a quick landing to a non gate position in Johannesburg next to one of the more expensive rentals out there… =)
My Thoughts on British Airways Club:
The British Airways Comair Club Business Class, in my opinion, doesn’t measure up to the South African Airways Business Class equivalent. It does appear to be substantially cheaper (about 25% cheaper on paid fares compared to SAA) and much cheaper on reward miles. Aside from that, I doubt I would fly them again if price were no object as the whole process in our case seemed massively disorganized.
If you had the choice between the old South African Airways and British Airways Comair, which one was your preferred carrier?
The Victoria Falls straddling the countries of Zimbabwe and Zambia is a highlight of any travels across the Southern Sahara African Belt. The history and legacy of the Cape to Cairo Railway that founded the dreams of this town are constantly in the forefront of any visit. Our visit to Victoria Falls allowed for a great day of exploration surrounding this exotic attraction, along with plenty of opportunities to get wet.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Activity: Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, A Day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
“Victoria Falls is a must visit attraction for Southern African visitors to the region. It’s worth seeing this world famous attraction, at least once in your lifetime”
We started our day from a restful sleep at the Victoria Falls Hotel. After an included breakfast, we headed over to the falls. We walked over direct from the hotel to the Victoria Falls National Park. The Victoria Falls are located on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia and are situated towards the international border end of town.
The Victoria Falls Hotel has a semi – private direct path that leads directly to the falls. It’s situated at the back entrance of the hotel. The back entrance was also minded by a hotel security guard who walked with us acting as an escort to the falls.
The Victoria Falls Security Guard took us by the zip line center along the way, and we were able to get some nice photographs of the Zambezi River after the bridge.
Entering the Victoria Falls Park:
We arrived at the Victoria Falls park. Like my last visit, they still have two tiered pricing here, although now it’s evolved into a three tired pricing structure; one price for Zimbabwe, one for SADC (African) countries, and one for everyone else. It was $30 USD for us to get in with no “in and out” privileges. They have upped their game a bit here with better infrastructure and there is now a proper information stand, souvenir shop and café inside the park borders. On my last visit almost twenty years ago, it was a rudimentary experience with almost nothing.
The Victoria Falls Devil’s Cataract:
We started off at the Devil’s Cataract on the far left side. The months of March and April are the highest in water consumption flow for the park. It is said that in 3.5 days, the entire annual water consumption of the city of New York flows over the water falls. Travellers are usually forewarned that the high water levels generate a lot of spray. Despite the high water levels, there was some spray, but we were still able to see most of the water falls.
We walked along the ridge of the falls. We were able to get some great panoramic views of the falls in their full capacity.
We continued our self tour over to the Danger Point on the right hand side of the park towards Zambia, most of the spray made it too much to see a lot of the falls. We totally got drenched. I was happy to have brought my Ziploc Bag that I packed my toiletries in for the trip to protect my Nikon camera from the water falls spray. I also packed an umbrella from home and it was the best thing that I ever did.
Although there was spray, and it was recommended to take a helicopter flip, we decided that we got enough feel of the waterfalls based on what we had seen. We also did not go over to the Zambian side of the falls, as the past Canadian Government was not kind with its foreign policy and charged outrageous visa fees to all visitors to Canada. The other governments were kind enough to return these charges to Canadians visiting their host countries making it a bad deal for intrepid travellers like us. All in, this meant that it was a $75 USD for each entry into Zimbabwe and another $20 USD for a visit into Zambia. The Zimbabwe government does not offer double entry visas to Canadians and getting a single entry visa in advance through the Zimbabwe embassy in Ottawa was around $250 USD.
The Victoria Falls Bridge:
We did take a close up look at the bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia. There was no bungee jumping from the bridge during our visit this time. At one point, it was the highest bungee jump in Africa. There are also a few news articles floating around on the internet of the Australian that jumped and had her bungee cord break, somehow surviving the fall.
We took a last look at the falls on our way back. It’s truly a scenic wonder and by this point, we were savouring every last look after all the travel to get here.
Hanging Out in Victoria Falls:
After the waterfalls, we took a quick walk through town. Victoria Falls has cleaned up a little bit but it’s still a rough looking border town with little going for it.
We stopped and had a beer at the Shearwater Café, which was the nicest looking spot in town with free wifi and a large patio. The Shearwater Cafe is run by one of the largest tour operators around the Victoria Falls area. We didn’t personally use any of their services (other than the café) but the place was well kept and professionally run.
We generally felt safe walking around in Victoria Falls, although we kept to the compound living philosophy and didn’t leave the The Victoria Falls hotel at night.
My thoughts on our visit to Victoria Falls:
All in all, it was an excellent day and the Victoria Falls remain worthy of a trip. The last time that I saw the Falls were in low season in November 1998. They were completely different to see them at the peak of their water weight. MrsWT73 found the waterfalls to be worth a visit, and found our 2 day visit duration to be completely enough, if you knew what you were planning do to in advance.
If you’ve visited Victoria Falls, did you visit in the spring high season of water volume?
A Zambezi River Boat Sunset Cruise is a must do for when you visit Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. It’s been on my “must see” list everytime I come through town, as it’s away of getting on the water and possibly spotting hippopotamuses or other wildlife that you don’t have to travel great distances to get to see. We booked our water cruise today through the hotel and had a really great evening of sunsets and sights.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Activity: Spotting Hippopotamuses on a Zambezi Sunset River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
“A Zambezi Sunset River Cruise is a must do whenever you’re through Victoria Falls for the sunsets, wildlife and the atmosphere”
On the day of arrival, we opted to take the Royal Sundowner Signature Deck cruise. The Victoria Falls Hotel activity desk was able to book this on our behalf with only a few hours notice on the same day. We paid a slight premium to be on the top deck of the boat, but I found that it was money well spent thanks to the open air and the ability to get better views and photographs.
We were bussed out to the Zambezi Explorer, which is the largest boat on the Zambezi at the time of writing. The large size is a plus and a minus. It is large and comfortable, but as it is so big, you can’t get very close to wildlife on the shores that the smaller boats are able to see. There were a few warthogs grazing from the boat launch; always a treat to see in Africa.
One on board, there was a full bar, along. with a spacious deck for sipping and sun-gazing.
The staff kept us full of unlimited drinks and “doubles” at most occasions. Of course, being in a second world location, these were “local” spirits that were not the mid shelf brands found around the world. We were also fed some quality appetizers that included gazpacho, crocodile tenders, and some surprisingly good sushi.
Setting off on the River Cruise:
We chatted with a young couple that were in the Peace Corps in Malawi and were originally from Florida and Washington, USA that were traveling together before their return home; likely to separate parts of the USA.
We set out and happened to see the smoke from the falls.
We were also able to see the smaller river boats having the ability to get closer to some of the wildlife. Their maneuverability is a bit easier than the larger boats; which is something to consider when you book a Zambezi River Boat Cruise.
Spotting Hippopotamuses:
We also caught a glimpse of the hippos at the hippo pool. These were in water sighting and they were pretty neat to see these water animals. We weren’t headed off on any water safari this trip, so it was a treat for us to catch up with these fine creatures and see them in their local environment.
Sunset on the Zambezi River:
The sunsets were excellent as always and it was worthwhile to be on the top deck to get the full experience.
My thoughts on the Zambezi River Cruise:
MrsWT73 really enjoyed the sunset cruise and found it a nice experience on our arrival date to Victoria Falls. After the cruise, we retired back to the hotel and had dinner on Stanley’s Terrace. We each had fresh salads where we had nice salads topped with cilantro / coriander. It was such a treat to have fresh produce in this part of the world. . .
If you’ve visited Victoria Falls – Zimbabwe, is the Zambezi River Cruise an essential part of your Victoria Falls itinerary?
The Victoria Falls Hotel is one of Africa’s most famous hotels. Originally built to accompany the Cairo to Cape Town Railway, the hotel was initially the home to construction workers of the railway. The property has hosted guests since 1904 and has dazzled guests with its views, and proximity to Victoria Falls, providing a luxury experience to all guests who are fortunate enough to stay.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
“The Victoria Falls Hotel provides traditional and time tested luxury accommodations in palatial surroundings, a mere steps from the Victoria Falls; a must stay for any travellers seeking the traditional African holiday experience”
Booking The Victoria Falls Hotel:
I had last been to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe almost 19 years ago. At the time, they were even using the old Zim Dollars, along with a side of US currency on that last visit. As some may know, the Zim dollar had a one hundred trillion dollar note before it was delisted. The town has changed quite a lot since then, as has our income level.
On our stay this time, and to celebrate MrsWT73’s first visit, we opted for the convenience and elegance of The Victoria Falls Hotel. This is the arguably the nicest property to stay at while in town and a substantial upgrade from the Cresta Sprayview Lodge where I had stayed last time. For this stay, I found a better rate on Expedia than I did on the hotel website (by about $150 USD over two nights) and just booked with Expedia.
In terms of getting to the hotel, a private or shared van transfer was offered. We ended up arranging a shared van transfer through the hotel. Being the only flight arriving at that time, we were pretty much assured of being the only passengers on the van after we got off our Air Namibia Windhoek – Victoria Falls flight. We had the short 20 kilometer drive into town.
Arriving to the Victoria Falls Hotel:
The Victoria Falls Hotel has been in operation since 1904 and is one of the grand old colonial railway hotels on the Cape Town to Cairo railway. The railway was partially built but never finished. On arrival to the hotel, we were given a refreshing towel and welcome drink at check in.
On our arrival at noon, our room was not available, but they worked hard to get us a room by 2 PM. In the mean time, we walked the ground of the property. The grounds here are absolutely spectacular and the overall space is un-rivaled in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa.
The hotel offered peek a poo views of the railway bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia. The bridge covered the Zambezi River, spanning both countries.
Food and Beverage:
Stanley’s Terrace:
While we were waiting for our room to become available, we went out to pass the time by having lunch on the patio known as Stanley’s Terrace. A lovely and refreshing gin and tonic for me along with sandwiches and a small salad. A glass of South African white for MrsWT73 and a sandwich for her.
Around the Hotel:
After lunch, we headed though the lobby to find out our room assignment. The indoor lobby bar was similar to that of a regal hunting lodge. It had décor that was unique, yet completely with the period and look and feel of the hotel.
The formal dining room “The Livingstone Room”, also looked quite classy.
The Room: A Standard Room
Our assigned room #68, was a small but well appointed room. It contained bottled water, a nice bathroom, in room safes, slippers, chocolates on the bed during turn down service, fly screens over the bed an all the elegance one would expect from a regal hotel.
The room featured a small desk, along with a small storage space or closet for shirts or other suitcase storage.
There was a small bathroom, consistent with the era with a single vanity sink.
We enjoyed a solid two night stay in this room and had no complaints. While it was a smaller room, it wasn’t as small as I would have expected from a property that has been in existence since 1904.
Around the Property:
The property had a nice terrace, with a view of the Victoria Falls Bridge between Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The property also had a pleasant pool (by African standards). It was a little colonial styled, much like our past room at the Rambagh Palace in Jaipur. While it looked inviting, we ended up only enjoying some sun by the pool on occasion, and not actually a proper swimming dip. Still, it was among the nicest pools in Afrca that I’ve had the opportunity to spend time at.
There was also an outdoor dining area, that we didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy for dinner.
There were also several monkeys and warthogs roaming around the property at odd times. This was a great way of getting exposure to African wildlife without actually being on a proper safari.
Food and Beverage:
Breakfast at Jungle Junction:
During our stay, we had a full breakfast courtesy of the hotel at the Jungle Junction restaurant. The Jungle Junction is a partially covered outdoor setting that is situated by the pool. There was sparking Cap Classique, omelette stations and every type of food imaginable. The staff had to keep the monkeys away from the food areas by using cap guns that made loud noises at times.
The breakfast offering was more than expected and certainly allowed me to fill up for the day.
The Bottom Line on The Victoria Falls Hotel:
The Victoria Falls Hotel was a very comfortable place to stay. With it’s large estate grounds, we were really happy to have a well situated and relaxing place to call home. The hotel is well featured and with its nice gin and tonics’ on the Stanley Terrace, we had easily found the British outpost of years past was replicated immaculately.
If you’ve stayed at the Victoria Falls Hotel, did it compliment your visit to Victoria Falls?
Air Namibia was the national airline of Namibia and operated a small but interesting route network across the southern saharan African belt. Instead of routing ourselves through South Africa at time and expense, we opted for their direct service on their Embraer 135 regional jet, hopscotching across through Botswana to Zimbabwe.
This post is one chapter on our trip to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates. This trip was redeemed through American Airlines AAdvantage & Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.
If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.
Read More from This Trip
- Trip Introduction: South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates via Emirates First Class, South African Airways Business Class and Qatar Airlines Business Class
- American Airlines First Class: Vancouver – Los Angeles
- American Airlines AAdmirals Club: Los Angeles
- Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge: Los Angeles
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Los Angeles – Doha
- The Westin Hotel and Spa, Doha, Qatar
- Souq Wahif, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Al Mourjan Business Lounge, Doha, Qatar
- Qatar Airways Business Class: Doha – Johannesburg
- The Slow Lounge, O.R. Tambo Domestic, Johannesburg, South Africa
- British Airways Club Class: Johannesburg – Cape Town
- The Westin Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
- Winelands of Paarl, South Africa
- Shark Diving at Gaansbai, South Africa
- The Hermanus Coastal Walk, Hermanus, South Africa
- Returning to Stellenbosch & Franschoek, South Africa
- A Repeat Visit to the Test Kitchen, Cape Town, South Africa
- Air Namibia: Cape Town – Windhoek
- Overland Travel: Driving to the Desert; Windhoek – Sesriem
- The Sossus Dune Lodge, Sesriem, Namibia
- The Majestic Sand Dunes of Sossusvlei, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Sesriem – Walvis Bay, Namibia
- The Pelican Point Lodge, Walvis Bay, Namibia
- Overland Travel: Walvis Bay – Spittskope – Windhoek, Namibia
- The Hilton Windhoek, Namibia
- Air Namibia Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
- The Victoria Falls Hotel, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Stopping Hippopotamus on a Zambezi River Cruise, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- Feeling the Smoke that Thunders, a day at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
- British Airways Club Business Class: Victoria Falls – Johannesburg
- The Hyatt Regency Johannesburg
- South African Airways Business Class: Johannesburg – Mauritius
- The St Regis Mauritius, Le Morne, Mauritius
- Emirates First Class: Mauritius – Dubai
- The Grosvenor House, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- The Heat of the Desert at Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class Lounge Terminal “B” Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Emirates First Class: Dubai – Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines Board Room Lounge, Los Angeles
- Alaska Airlines First Class: Los Angeles – Seattle
- Delta Sky Club Lounge Seattle South Terminal
- Delta Airlines First Class: Seattle – Vancouver
Review: Air Namibia ERJ135, Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls
“Air Namibia, the flag carrier of Namibia, offered convenient regional jet service across South Africa in one of the most unique fifth freedom flights between Botswana and Zimbabwe”
We continued on from Namibia to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwae with the national flag air carrier Air Namibia. We had the flight option of getting to Victoria Falls via British Airways or South African Airways with a connection in Johannesburg. It was really out of the way for us to take the South African Airways or British Airways route and would have been about a 7 hour trip. It made much more sense for us to go direct on the 4x weekly flight from Windhoek – Maun – Victoria Falls, in about a 3 hour trip. It also put us into Victoria Falls just before lunch, allowing us to get more out of the rest of the day. As we had purchased a ticket from Cape Town to Victoria Falls (with a Windhoek stopvoer) the ticket was also reasonably priced.
Checking Into Air Namibia:
The Windhoek International Airport is approximately 40 km from the town of Windhoek. I don’t know what the rationale was behind putting the airport way out there, as there is heaps of available real estate around Windhoek proper. It took us about 30 minutes to drive out there from the Hilton Windhoek.
When we got there to return the rental car, Hertz did a close check over of the car. They loved the cleaning job (they didn’t say anything), and actually asked to see proof of the gas receipts despite the fuel gauge showing as full. Since we had received the car as full, but not super full, I had the assumption that filling up in Windhoek and driving the 40 km out to the airport was okay. The lot attendant didn’t tell us anything, other than indicate that everything was “OK” and we went inside to check in.
Returning our car at the Hertz counter, we asked for our contract to be officially closed out so that we could get our 127,241 NAD$ ($8,946.36 USD) First Amount Payable deposit refunded to our card. The manager indicated that the car wasn’t full of diesel and that another 55.17 NAD$ ($3.88 USD) in fuel had to be added to the tank to the contract being closed out. We ended up waiting another 10 minutes at the counter allowing for this to be completed. I challenged them about the car not being completely full, but they didn’t really have anything to say about it – nor did they budge from their position. Thankfully, there was no labor or administrative charge for the fuel.
We headed over to Air Namibia’s check in desks where there were huge lines. They had 3 flights departing, and only 3 staffed counter agents working including business class. At the time of this report, they didn’t offer online check in and it was a really slow process in comparison to our Cape Town quick and easy check in experience. There were no self service kiosks available. It took us approximately 30 minutes in line, in addition to the 10 minutes at the Hertz counter to get us shorted out. If you find yourselves departing from here, make sure you leave yourselves lots of extra time.
Our Embraer 135 flights advertised and included only one piece of checked baggage and only one carry on due to the small size of the aircraft. Despite being a few pounds over, and traveling with a carry on rolling suitcase, Air Namibia was not concerned about the bag weight or the rollies.
We headed through security and into the small holding area. The Windhoek airport does not have any gates and the boarding is all through walking across the apron onto your plane.
We ended up walking out to our Air Namibia Embraer 135, passing by a South African Airways Airlink Embraer 135 along with an Air Namibia A330 parked on the apron.
Air Namibia
Economy Class
WDH-MUB-VFA (Windhoek International Airport – Muan – Victoria Falls)
SW403
April 25, 2016
Booked: Embruaer 135
Flown: Embruaer 135
Departure: 8:15 AM
Arrival: 11:35 AM
On Board an Air Namibia Embraer 135:
We got on board the Air Namibia Embraer 135 . The cabin is a single class of service with no separate business class seating. We managed to get the rolliing suitcases under our seats after we thinned them out. They didn’t fit in the overheads as with other ERJ135’s of this type, which offer a compact slim briefcase storage capacity only.
Thankfully, there were only about 20 on board today out of 36 seat capacity and as a result, there were a lot of empty seats. The seat configuration was 1-2, similar to other ERJ135’s I have been on. It was quite a relief that we were able to get our bags onboard as we had 70 lbs baggage allowance and two bags on all our other flights on this trip except for our Air Namibia flights; making this the biggest baggage weight worry of the trip.
Unusual for old fashioned Africa, our pilots today were both women. We had a quick and straight departure eastwards towards Maun, Botswana. I still can’t get over how interesting the bush scenery is in this part of the world. There are miles and miles to be flown without much to look at on the ground.
The Meal: A Bunwich Breakfast
A bunwich breakfast was served, along with a tea and coffee service.
Our flight time was only a little over an hour with a +1 hour time change. There wasn’t much to look at along the way, with some pretty flat topography.
A Stopover in Maun, Botswana
We came in for a straight approach into Maun, Botswana. On the final approach, I had the opportunity to see some of the local square housing that residents lived in under the landing flight path.
Most of the plane’s passengers got off in Maun, Botswana leaving only 7 passengers (including ourselves) continuing onto Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I was relieved a bit that there wasn’t a flight cancellation due to low passenger numbers. The pilot announced a 35 minute technical stop period. We happened to arrive early, and not a lot happened during that technical stop. We didn’t take on any fuel, although the captian did proceed to do a walk around of the plane. The sole flight attendant also cleaned every single unoccupied seat and table with an alcohol spray. I’d never see that on United Airlines! I thought that we were waiting for additional passengers, although none ever showed up. We eventually got underway for a 35 minute flight to Victoria Falls.
After the stopover, we got underway for our second leg to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.
The Second Service: A Biltong Snack
There was a snack service between Maun and Victoria Falls. It was the first time I’d ever been served Biltong (cured meat) on board an aircraft as a snack. Biltong is a common cured meat snack found in South Africa and is a great tasty snack.
Arriving to Victoria Falls International Airport:
As we landed, those on the left side of the aircraft had a view of the Victoria Falls waterfall mist. It wasn’t a view worth writing home about, as it was quite a ways away. Yes that’s it with the faint horizon.
Arriving into Victoria Falls International Airport in Zimbabwe, there were some interesting aircraft on the ground. I was pretty sure Air Zimbabwe was insolvent after they stopped flying internationally to the United Kingdom but their air frames still appear to be still around. You can see one of their planes parked in front of the old Victoria Falls terminal building.
We got off the slick looking Air Namibia Embraer 135 and entered into the Victoria Falls International Airport.
The Victoria Falls Airport has under gone a vast improvement since the last time I had passed through there some 19 years ago. The airport has actual jet bridges now, although our plane was too short to use them. All seven of us unloaded on to the tarmac and headed for International Arrivals where our visas where processed. The US cash dollars for the Zimbabwe Visas were received and placed loosely into a drawer at the immigration booth. It was the first time I had ever traveled internationally and only had another 5 passengers to deal with at the immigration counters, similar to flying private.
My Thoughts on Air Namibia:
Air Namibia was generally great to deal with. There were no hassles and everyone that we dealt with, from check in, to the crew, to the pilots were pleasant and enthusiastic. The only minus was the lack of online check in and the queues at Windhoek airport that were quite long and slow. I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to fly them again in the future.
Unfortunately, as reported earlier, Air Namibia suffered as a result of years of government debt and insolvency. It ceased operations in February 2021. It’s service regionally is now filled by South African Airways Airlink and British Airways Comair.
World Traveller 73 
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