We have a late departure at 2pm, so we spend the morning sort of chilling, wandering about, having lunch and saying goodbye to everyone.  Its a sad, bittersweet little empty ship at this point. I’m trying not to cry!

At the appointed hour, we force ourselves off the ship and onto the bus waiting to take us to the airport.  Our flight isn’t until 7 pm, but they want to make sure we have plenty of time to get to the airport (not that it is an issue, we are there in under 45 minutes!), which we do, sitting about in the check in area, waiting for the counters to open for our Emirates flight.

Most of the disembarking crew are here as well, including Adi, our assistant waiter.  Seems like the bulk of this flight to Dubai are cruise ship related.  After sitting for a bit, we check the departure screen and have another minor heart attack:  The flight we are taking from Dubai to Zurich actually originates in Muscat, flight #243. We had chosen not to take that flight, having booked the segment on Emirates.  And good thing we did that, because the flight from Muscat to Dubai had been cancelled. Of course we panicked thinking the Dubai-Zurich portion of the flight might have been cancelled too. After ingratiating myself with the airport information guys, they finally called to their ground staff and asked about the flights, finding out that only this Muscat to Dubai segment was cancelled because, get this, as of midnight, Oman was no longer accepting any tourist visas.  Phew! That made us happy – we just squeaked in under the wire for our tourist visas AND our flight to Zurich was still scheduled.  I could have kissed that guy – but hey – this is Oman – I didn’t think that might be too appropriate!

After that, our flights went off pretty seamlessly.  We spent the 3 hours until our Dubai flight in the Muscat Premier lounge – holy cow! That is the best lounge, ever, bar none.  It is monstrous, architecturally beautiful with soaring ceilings, floor to ceiling windows and lots of great decorative dividers. There are 2 bars, 3 food stations, a game area with foosball, pool table, billiards and some other game table.  A spa.  Sleeping rooms.  Totally amazing.

The flight itself was nice too.  Quick, on time, including a sandwich snack.  Then on through Dubai passport control, luggage collection, flight check in and luggage re-check at Swiss – where we managed to strategically wait at the head of the line for the Swiss check in counter to open and were the first one through the line and out to security. Then we had hours to waste in the Lounge at Dubai, which was not anywhere near as nice as Muscat, but still more than acceptable.  The Zurich flight was on time and fairly packed, but comfortable enough. We spent our 3 hour layover in a lounge right above our gate, reading about all the horror stories people encountered with the health screenings in Dallas and Chicago.  This made us terribly fearful of Newark, and had us researching alternative flights to Charlotte and airport hotels at Newark, just in case the wait times were the same there and we missed our connecting flight. 

As instructed, we checked in at the transfer desk to answer questions about where we had traveled and show our passports, then we also decided to upgrade to Premium Plus seating so that a) we would have more comfy seats, but really b) we would be more forward in the plane and be able to get out and into the immigration/health screening lines faster.  The coach section was pretty packed, but the Premium Plus was virtually empty, as was the First class/business section.  Made for a great flight – we snoozed more comfortably, had better food (not that we needed it, I didn’t even eat the afternoon snack) and watched a bunch of movies (I finally saw Parasite and JoJo Rabbit, both fabulous! Ed watched Ford vs. Ferrari and something else.  We both started watching the Kominsky Method, thank you Maggi for that suggestion!).  All in all, it was a very pleasant flight.

When we boarded, we were handed a health questionnaire along with a customs form, and told to have it ready when we were to deplane (they’ve turned off Global Entry during this extraordinary period in time). But when we arrived and were all in the aisles waiting to get off, an airport representative came aboard and told us the health form had changed (in the 9 hours since we left Zurich!) and we had to fill out the new one before we could get off the plane. Everyone had to sit back down and fill out the form, but since we were up front, we were still one of the first off with the newly revised and completed form.

Once in the airport, the process was a model of efficiency.  We have no idea what changed, or if they just learned lessons from the other airports, but we were the only plane in the screening area, no one was in front of us as CBP officers checked our health forms, took our temperature, actually collected our health forms and ushered us to passport control where I got a huge hot flash while the CBP guy quizzed us on “you were where exactly?” In the background the officers organizing the passport line kept admonishing people not to get too close – yelling at them to move apart, stay 6 feet away.  Very nicely done!  And with that, poof, we were in baggage claim.  It could not have worked better.

We collected our bags, rode on the Air Train to terminal A, rechecked into our American flight to Charlotte, spent an hour or so in the bar by our gate (no lounge here) and managed to arrive in Charlotte mostly unscathed, if not really tired and wanting a hot shower.

The rental car was ready and waiting, we found a Food Lion near our hotel to grab snacks for our dinner (it was hammered by the way, just annihilated!), then hit the hotel, ate, drank, showered and blissfully fell asleep in their nice soft beds.  Success.  After all the aggravation and uncertainty, this was probably our easiest, best connected, if not really long, travel sequence yet.