Sheraton Grand Da Nang: Hotel Review

After having had an almost 8 hour flight to Ho Chi Minh from Melbourne and then a connecting flight from Ho Chi Minh to Da Nang, a quick hour flight arriving at night time, I was very much looking forward to settling in to my accomodation, which is only 14 kilometres from Da Nang International Airport!.

Overview of the sprawling hotel !!

I have stayed at many Sheraton properties around the world and of course, my home country of Australia, but this was my first time to Vietnam and stayed at Sheraton Grand Da Nang, which is a very impressive looking property on the outside. On arrival, I was greeted by a very grand hotel lobby with flights of stairs on either side , Table 88 all day dining and the Tea Lounge, where you can enjoy high tea or simply a hot/cold beverage I was offered ginger tea and a warm towel by one of the many very friendly hotel employees!. Perfect way to kick off my stay!.

The grandest lobby if I ever saw one!

The elegance of the "Tea Lounge". It is almost straight out of the Great Gatsby!.

My room was on the 4th floor, in Hotel 1. It had partial ocean views and views of an extremely long pool, the biggest of the pools there. There is also Hotel 2 and 3 on the same site but in different buildings. One of the biggest selling points of the hotel is that it is located right on the beach with life guards on duty and water sports equipment available for hire, if you simply aren’t content by lounging by the pools.

The infinity pool looking out onto the South China Sea!

The inside of my room was very inviting with a wall mounted flat screen high definition TV, 2 Double Beds, marble furnishings on the floors and desk, decorative wallpapers on the wall, a balcony, ottoman by the beds and a lengthy bathroom .

My luxurious bed

Wall mounted flat screen with decorative wallpapers

Throughout my stay, I have noticed it is very quiet during the cooler season, and there a few perks to this. 1. You have more space and peace 2. Though it is supposed to be the cooler season, the reality is that during the day it is still very much pool or beach weather because of Vietnam’s (particularly the South’s) close proximity to the equator.

As if the hotel couldn’t already score brownie points already with its location , luxurious decor, several pools on offer, spa and attentive , welcoming staff, it is also very family friendly with dedicated play areas with a ball pit, slide, drawing area and PlayStation to keep little ones busy!.I found it extremely difficult to fault the Sheraton Grand Da Nang, which helped shape my stay to be a memorable one!. I will definitely be back again!.

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Rating: 5/5

Qantas Airways: Airbus A380-800 Economy Review

After an incredible trip abroad in Vietnam and Singapore, it was time for Qantas to take me home back to Melbourne(MEL/YMML)from Singapore Changi Airport (SIN/WSSS). My flight number QF36 was operated by the Airbus A380-842 aircraft which made me extremely excited, as the A380 offers a smoother and quiet ride, not to mention a rarity as it is the pretty much the sole latest aircraft to have four engines, as many airlines are retiring or have retired the Boeing 747-400 ER and Airbus A340 . Only a handful of airlines (not in Australia) operate the new Boeing 747-8i . The name of my plane was Hudson Fysh registered VH-OQB, the second A380 delivered to Qantas in 2008 and recently be repainted in the new Qantas “silver roo” livery.

My plane "Hudson Fysh"/VH-OQB, arriving in Singapore as QF35 from Melbourne

Boarding back around just after 7pm, my seat was 85A , (right at the back of the aircraft and a window seat which is my number 1 seat preference). Waiting for me on my seat was headsets, a nice pillow and blanket. I like the fact the seats were able to recline quite a bit back , considering it was economy. The TV screen was pretty sizeable and high quality, and the movie selection was respectable!. We pushed back around 5 minutes to 8pm , on time.

There were 3 meals served during the flight dinner, fruit halfway through the flight and breakfast under 2 hours before landing. Dinner was served around 2 hours into the flight, which there were three choices. I ordered the salad of roast chicken with quinoa, raisin, cherry tomatoes and citrus dressing but didn’t feel too hungry. There was nice mood lighting in the cabin changing into beautiful colours. I watched around 3 movies., all action, which I enjoy the most and I find passes time quickly!.

The menu

The mood lighting in the cabin

As it was a mainly night time flight, there wasn’t much to see outside, but entering Australia through the top of Western Australia , there was some storm activity which meant we did have to climb a bit to avoid them but was incredibly awesome to witness flying above them!. For the most part, the flight was smooth, and the A380 handled turbulence well. Halfway through the flight fruit was offered, but I declined. Finally, closer to Melbourne, breakfast was served (which I ate) and the mood lighting lightened to signal breakfast, which was a seasonal fruit salad with an apple cinnamon muffin and the choice of apple, orange juice, Dilma tea and Grinders coffee.

After 6 hours and 57 minutes of flying, my flight came to an end. There was a live camera located on the tail showing the aircraft landing which is definitely very impressive!. All in all I throughly enjoyed my experience flying on the A380 and appreciated the relative leg room on offer and the seating ergonomically designed the most.

15/10/2019. Landing into Melbourne very early at 6am

Rating 3.5/5 stars

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Vietnam Airlines:Airbus A350-900 Economy Review

My trip to Vietnam on the 2nd of January, had many firsts. My first time travelling for 2019, travelling to Vietnam, my first time travelling with Vietnam Airlines and travelling on the state of the art Airbus A350, flying economy!. My plane registered VNA895 , only one year old, awaited me at Terminal 2, Gate 14A in current livery. It operated as VN780 to Ho Chi Minh from Melbourne.

We had an on time departure , pushing back 10 minutes after scheduled departure at 11:35am. Entering the aircraft, economy was in 3-3-3 configuration. You could clearly see the interior was spacious, even for economy. When i settled in my seat 35H, i was quite impressed with how much leg room I had. The TV Screens were of decent size and of high quality, though i wish there was a broader movie selection!.

The airshow was pretty cool though and i loved checking the progress every couple of hours in between movies.

About 2 hours into the flight, we had lunch served, it was fresh vegetable salad with smoked salmon with either stir fried beef with black pepper sauce and steamed rice or Malaysian stir friend chicken with kway teow noodles (which i selected as my main) complimented with a dinner roll and a delicious ginger bread cake. Needless to say i scoffed my lunch down . The cabin crew did what they had to do but I do wish they were a bit more friendlier.

Overall, the biggest praise was for the aircraft itself!. It was spacious, especially very quiet, and thanks to its state of the art technology, did not arrive feeling exhausted/ jet lagged as associated with older aircraft. The airline itself was good for the most part, my only con being the half friendliness of the cabin crew.

After 7 hours and 48 minutes of flying, we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City.

Rating: 3.5/5

My plane at the gate in Melbourne. Vietnam Airlines Airbus A350-941 as VN780.

My seat. 35H.

The lunch menu for the flight!

Lunch!

Airshow showing us flying over Brunei!

Landing into Ho Chi Minh!