I'll cover our 13-hour layover in Dubai in the next post, but instead will jump to our next flight aboard the A380. The seats are actually the same and are located on the upper deck. It was a full house tonight which was interesting since it was a 3am departure from DXB to LHR. DXB really felt like a 24-hour airport as the departure board was full with 2am and 3am flights that departed around the same time as ours.
Since it's a sleeper flight, we were given the choice of eating immediately or before landing. I also knew that I wanted to shower (just for the novelty of it, as I had just showered an hour ago the lounge), but the best time slot they could give me was 3 hours prior to arrival. This would mean I'd only get about 3 hours of sleep before having to wake up for my shower. Instead, I decided to shower immediately, and then I could sleep for about 5 hours before waking up for breakfast. During the boarding process we also received and amenity kit, slippers, and pajamas which are my new favorites that I'm even wearing at this moment as I type this
About 30 minutes after take-off once we had leveled out, the flight attendant came by and invited me over to the shower spa. She showed me briefly how it worked, and after that I was left alone to enjoy the most unnecessary shower I've ever taken in my life. Nevertheless, it was fun and I was able to manage my 5 minutes of water to make sure I didn't walk out with a head still full of suds. After exiting, the bathroom attendant gave me a detox juice and some fruit. One thing I found very impressive was the fact that there is a dedicated bathroom attendant that cleans the two bathrooms after every use.
I returned to my suite with turndown service already completed, and was able to close the door and doze off for the next few hours. I woke up just an hour prior to landing and ate a unremarkable breakfast just before touching down in LHR.
Amenity kit
Shower spa
Sink/vanity area
Finished just in time
Final thoughts on Emirates - going in my expectation was that bling-air would be a lot more style than substance. But I really don't feel like that was the case as the seat, the IFE system (ICE) and the service were probably the best we have come across on our travels. Even with the shower aside which many feel is a gimmick, what other airline has a bathroom attendant that cleans after every use. The First Class Terminal at DXB is the best lounge we've ever been in, and chauffer service to/from DXB during our layover was a really nice touch as we didn't have to worry about transport at all.
The ONLY thing that we didn't like was...the food on board. And that's a big thing for us. We didn't get to experience a dinner service as we only had lunch and breakfast, but in both cases we were not impressed at all. So for those that are
keeping score, my wife cast her vote that SQ > EK and I would have to agree with her.