OK, so here's the lowdown. I just got back last night and I wanted to give a good report from a computer with a real keyboard, rather than from my phone when I was over there. Luggage weight restrictions meant the laptop was a casualty of D8's 10kg restriction. So here goes.

The good: It's a new aircraft and the ride both ways was extremely smooth. Didn't feel rickety or give off the chewing-gum-and-bailing-wire feel I've had on other charter type airplanes.
The not so good:

• No WiFi.
• Extremely limited and quite dated IFE options
• The moving map was 1980s-level rudimentary, and only updated every 4 or 5 minutes, it seemed.
• No blankets.
• No pillows.
• No flight deck announcements other than "cabin crew prepare for takeoff/approach/landing." Nothing else. No updates on destination WX or ETA. Not even a message with the local time at arrival.
• 2-4-2 config was OK, but bulkhead seats were indeed narrower. Seat pitch narrow and cusions unconfortable after 4-5 hours for anybody with bigger proportions. More on the seats in a bit.

One big issue for me on these two flights were the Spanish speaking FAs, While nice people and competent, they spoke almost no English at all, and had trouble reading the announcements off their iPads (I was watching this happen from 1D on the way over and 1C on the way back). While annoying when trying to order a snack—she understood the words "coffee" and "tea" but had no idea how to say the words describing the snack options on the cart she was serving from—this might be far more of a problem if their safety skills were required. Their heavily-accented English was virtually impossible to understand in the usual inflight messages, but if Something Happened that required detailed instructions to passengers, that could be problematic on this route. It would be understandable when ferrying Spanish speaking passengers to and from BCN or MAD, but when serving on a route from one unilingual-English speaking nation to another, it is an issue. There were a total of 9 FAs on the flight, based in two stations; 5 up-front and 4 amidships. Two of them were actual D8 employees, and seven were Evelop crew. The flight deck crew was Evelop.

Seat specifics. 1D over. 1D and 1H, on paper, look great. At SWF you board from door L1, I sat down and could stretch my feet out no problem. I thought I had scored the best seat on the airplane. Well...no. After takeoff, the FAs close off the curtain between their compartment between the flight deck and the cabin, and keep the florescent lights on the whole time. So a thin sliver of bright white light shines out RIGHT IN YOUR FACE from the slit between the curtain and bulkhead. What's more, the compartment for their luggage is behind the 1C bulkhead, so first row port side pax will constantly find the FAs going into that compartment to access their luggage. The noise from the service prep is annoying, but that's to be expected, I guess, but what was NOT expected was the fact they didn't shut up the entire flight, from takeoff to landing, they were talking--LOUDLY--amongst themselves. It appeared to be the same in the section between rows 12 and 13 from what I could tell on my few walks back to stretch my legs. On the day return flight this wasn't so bad, but on an overnight flight where everybody was trying to sleep it was VERY annoying.

I would say there were a total of 8 good seats on this entire flight. 12 A/B, 12 H/J (or whatever the starboard pair are called), and 33 A/B H/J. Unlimited legroom, no loud FAs or light beams in your face. I didn't get a good look at the over-wing exit seats so no comment there.

Note that in Dublin, you board/disembark through L2, not L1; the opposite from SWF.

I did not order a meal, and that was a good decision. What they served was a very small portion and definitely not worth $30 or whatever they were selling it for. Fill up before boarding and you'll be grand. They do offer beer and wine purchases, but here's the thing. They only made two passes through the cabin on the way over (first for meals, then for drinks, one immediately after the other, around 1.5 or 2 hours after T/O). Nothing for the rest of the flight. On the way back they made a third pass for snacks/drinks with about 2 hours left in the air. That was appreciated.

I would fly that aircraft again only if I could get row 12 or 33 left or right sides,or overwing exit rows, and only if I couldn't get a seat on a comparable mainstream airline within a couple of hundred dollars.I'm normally a Premium-economy traveler for longhaul (or at least more legroom or exit row seat), so this was an unpleasant experience for me. For what I paid, I guess it was acceptable, and if you're a smaller person who can fit in a regular seat you'll probably do well.