Flight from Sydney to Dubai delayed 18 hours due to a technical problem with the plane.

I was only given this choice piece of information at the departure gate!

Given that I had already spent 6 hours hanging around Sydney airport to catch the 9.00pm flight, I was not impressed and ground staff are not the best communicators - very confusing time.

I had to collect my bag off the carousel and go through customs. Must be the first time I've had nothing to declare. It was very strange going through passport control and customs when I hadn't even left the country yet.
 
Emirates put everyone up in Sydney hotels for the night and paid for dinner, breakfast and one international phone call as most passengers were using Dubai as a connection to elsewhere. Our flight would now be leaving Sydney at 3.00pm the next day (Sunday) and we were advised Emirates would be re-booking our connecting flights.

I used my free international phone call to contact the boat in Venice to advise them of what was happening and to find out where the boat would be docked on Day 2 as I was going to miss Day 1. Thank god the boat would be docked in Venice for 2 days or I would never have found it. The Uniworld staff on the boat were very sympathetic and of great assistance as I was going to miss my transfer from Marco Polo Airport to the boat; telling me which water bus (vaporetto) to catch and where to get off in relation to where the boat would be docked.