We weren't able to get first class award seats on the JFK to Hong Kong flight on the day we wanted, so we flew out of Toronto instead. Since we had a layover of a few hours, we booked a day room at the Sheraton Gateway Toronto that's attached to Terminal 3 of Pearson International Airport. It was so nice to be on-site, get a few hours sleep, grab drinks in the Club Lounge, and then check-in for our Cathay flight, which was taking off at 1:30am.
Cathay doesn't have its own lounge at the Toronto airport, but first class passengers do have access to the KLM lounge. The lounge is fine; nothing special. The staff seemed quite tired. When I asked for the wi-fi password, the receptionist handed me the tiniest slip of paper with a code on one side. She didn't say a word; just slid the paper (blank side up) across the desk to me. Odd.
Upon boarding Cathay's 777, we were pleasantly surprised by the six spacious first class suites. It was just us and one other passenger. We knew we'd be comfortable for the 15-hour flight. We also decided to try transition to Hong Kong time, so we stayed up and enjoyed a lovely meal.
The list of complimentary beverages was extensive:
Champagne
Krug Grand Cuvee Champagne
White Wines
Hardy's Heritage Reserve Bin Chardonnay 2008
Bouchard Pere & Fils Meusault Les Clous 2006
Red Wines
D'Arenberg The Galvo Garage Cabernet Blend 2008
Sebastiani Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Chateau Lynch Bages 2003
Port
Ramos Pinto Quinta da Ervamoira 10-Year-Old Tawny Port
Aperitifs and Cocktails
Campari • Martini Rosso • Martini Extra Dry • Tio Pepe Sherry • Harveys Bristol Cream Sweet Sherry • Gordons Dry Gin • Bacardi Rum • Absolut Vodka • Bloody Mary • Screwdriver
Whiskies
Chivas Regal 12 Years Old • Johnnie Walker Blue Label • Canadian Club • Gentleman Jack Bourbon • Glenfiddich Ancient Reserve Single Malt Whisky
Cognac
Tesseron Lot 76 XO Tradition
Liqueurs
Cointreau • Drambuie • Kahlua • Bailey's Irish Cream
Beer
International selection
CX Signature Drinks
Oriental Breeze—A sour-plum tea and cranberry juice based non-alcoholic drink with honey and fresh lemon juice and a hint of rose water.
Cloud Nine—A refreshing combination of vodka, Cointreau, and Sprite with a refreshing touch of lemon flavor.
Krug Grand Cuvee Champagne
White Wines
Hardy's Heritage Reserve Bin Chardonnay 2008
Bouchard Pere & Fils Meusault Les Clous 2006
Red Wines
D'Arenberg The Galvo Garage Cabernet Blend 2008
Sebastiani Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2006
Chateau Lynch Bages 2003
Port
Ramos Pinto Quinta da Ervamoira 10-Year-Old Tawny Port
Aperitifs and Cocktails
Campari • Martini Rosso • Martini Extra Dry • Tio Pepe Sherry • Harveys Bristol Cream Sweet Sherry • Gordons Dry Gin • Bacardi Rum • Absolut Vodka • Bloody Mary • Screwdriver
Whiskies
Chivas Regal 12 Years Old • Johnnie Walker Blue Label • Canadian Club • Gentleman Jack Bourbon • Glenfiddich Ancient Reserve Single Malt Whisky
Cognac
Tesseron Lot 76 XO Tradition
Liqueurs
Cointreau • Drambuie • Kahlua • Bailey's Irish Cream
Beer
International selection
CX Signature Drinks
Oriental Breeze—A sour-plum tea and cranberry juice based non-alcoholic drink with honey and fresh lemon juice and a hint of rose water.
Cloud Nine—A refreshing combination of vodka, Cointreau, and Sprite with a refreshing touch of lemon flavor.
Dinner itself was very good as well.
A couple can comfortably dine together in Cathay Pacific's 777 first class suites.
We skipped the first course of caviar and Balik salmon and the soup course (roasted red pepper) and instead began with a smoked duck breast over salad and...
...grilled prawns over salad.
The main entree, pan-fried U.S. beef tenderloin, was quite tasty.
The in-flight cheese course was surprisingly good...
...but dessert could have been better. The ice cream was rock solid and the chocolate lava cake was also colder than I would have wished. Perhaps Cathay should stick with something that's a bit easier to prepare at 30,000 feet?Once dinner was over, I got comfortable in the lie-flat bed and watched a few DVDs on my laptop before drifting off to sleep.
We arrived in Hong Kong at about 5 o'clock in the morning and were still groggy. We went directly to The Wing, Cathay's first class lounge, and headed for the showers. Once we felt a bit more human, we checked e-mail, made a few calls, had a traditional Chinese breakfast, and then boarded our next flight to Bali.
I was dead tired at this point and pretty much slept through the entire five-hour flight. When the flight attendants roused me for landing, I was feeling pretty punk. We had flown from New York to Toronto to Hong Kong and were finally nearing our destination of Jimbaran Bay, Bali. I don't know how anyone could make this trip in economy. I loved having the additional space to stretch out in first class and the priority access to the lounges and aircraft itself made a huge difference.
I had heard horror stories about DPS, but we sailed right through the airport...first getting our visitor's visa and then going through passport control.
Upon exiting the airport, our driver from the InterContinental Bali Resort was waiting for us with cold drinks and a nicely appointed—and air-conditioned—Mercedes. The transfer to the hotel took less than 20 minutes. As we drove up to the InterContinental Bali and past a gorgeous lily pond holding court in front of the hotel, we knew we had made the right decision about which accommodations to book. We were ushered to the Club Lounge, where we checked in and enjoyed a refreshing drink or two.We were in our room, a Club Duplex, within minutes. Our plan had been to stay up late in order to get our bodies on Bali time. We threw that plan right out the window since we were both so tired. We enjoyed a few more cocktails in the Club Lounge, along with some snacks and then headed back to our room where we fell into a wonderful night's sleep.
Stay tuned for the next blog post about our stay at the InterContinental Bali Resort on Jimbaran Bay.
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