After a delightful and unexpected pleasant 3 night stay in Doha, we headed out to Australia on the next leg of our journey. We had flown Qatar Airways and wanted to see Qatar, so we stopped over for 3 nights, and definitely got a feel for the local culture and lifestyle. We especially liked Doha, as unlike Dubai, it was not in your face flashy or ostentatious, but still maintains a charm of itself as it attempts to grow bigger via tourism. Many of the big skyscrapers have been added since 2014, so hopefully it won’t get overgrown too quickly in the process of adding more infrastructure.
As our flight to Melbourne wasn’t until 8:50pm, Steve (DOS) and I had the day in Doha to pack, take walks outside, and even visit the shopping center across the street from the hotel.
We got a late checkout of 4pm from the Grand Hyatt where we had been staying, at which time our driver to the airport picked us up at the hotel.
Once at the Doha International Airport, check-in was a breeze, no doubt because we were flying in Business Class, and had an entirely separate section of the airport to drop off our luggage and obtain our boarding passes.
As the airport was so large, DOS had arranged for a wheelchair pickup for me, which was a huge help navigating outbound immigration, security screening, and ultimately the Qatar Business Class Lounge, which was a far distance in the new terminal. Qatar has two huge Business Class Lounges, and we went to the newer and more opulent one in the North Terminal, which overlooks the indoor “Garden”. While we waited a few minutes for our wheelchair escort, I remained comfortably seating in the living room-like Business Class area, adjacent to the ticket counter.
We were under the impression no alcohol would be served in the Business Class Lounge, (as it was not allowed at the hotel temporarily), since it’s during the month of Ramadan, however alcoholic beverages were freely available in the Business Class Lounge (not sure about the other parts of the airport though). I guess technically by the time we got to the lounge we were “outside the country” as we had to go thru departure immigration and security prior to accessing the Lounge. I ended up having some nice Bordeaux and a wine and cheese charcuterie platter while Steve (DOS) got a fruit plate and an Asian meal while we waited in the lounge for our flight.
Attached at the end of this post is a gallery of some of the photos from our flight from Doha to Melbourne, and lots of photos of the spectacular North Terminal at Doha International Airport with the indoor Garden and Business Class Lounge. Once aboard, the Q-Suite is very similar on the Boeing 777 to the Airbus 350-1000 we had flown to Doha on, however DOS and I both agreed we preferred the new Airbus 350 to this older version Boeing 777 aircraft, which was a bit weathered from the years in places.
Finally included area a few photos landing in Melbourne after the 12 1/2 hour flight. As we had a wheelchair agent meet us at the gate, the walk/ride to the immigration/luggage/customs area was very quick and efficient. A nice lady name Carmella assisted us from the gate all the way to our driver outside the international arrivals area.
We checked into the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne Australia around 7:30pm, and just had enough time to grab a quick bite and brewski in the Concierge Lounge before it closed at 8pm. While we got sleep on the flight, we were both tired out from the long trip so had an early night to bed.
Welcome to Melbourne!
