Spa reception
It was now time to head over to the spa reception to check availability of the quiet rooms. This lounge features 12 quiet rooms, which are like hotel rooms with en-suite bathrooms which can be used for 6 hours at a time, supplementary time can be added for a fee. Some feature a single twin bed, others feature 2 twins. My plan was to get a room from midnight to 6am so I asked if I could reserve a room in advance. The receptionist informed me that the rooms were all occupied at the moment but that there were a few that would be vacant from 11pm. They don’t take reservations but I was advised to come back at 11pm to get a room for midnight.



Spa reception


Al Mourjan tour
At this point I decided to quickly head over to the Al Mourjan lounge, as I was curious as to how it compared to the Al Safwa and other business class lounges. Access to this lounge is also via an escalator from the main duty free area of the terminal, and after passing through the numerous checks at the bottom and top of the escalator (nobody noticed I was trying to enter the wrong lounge and send me back to Al Safwa as they printed my boarding pass on business class stock in SFO) I entered the Al Mourjan Business lounge. It featured plenty of seating and had its own water feature, in this case a huge body of water with small jets leaping from the surface at random intervals. This lounge was a lot more crowded but still very comfortable and there was never a struggle to find a seat as is often the case with competitors at their hub lounges. There is a spiral staircase with an impressive vertical chandelier leading to the upper floor which featured a restaurant. Besides the buffet I saw a sushi bar and servers roaming around with food on their trays so I suppose there is also an à la carte service. I didn’t take many photos as it was more crowded here but I felt that this lounge was quite a bit superior compared to most other business class lounges. I had a quick look at the other facilities, including the game room, family area, secondary restaurant/sandwich bar, quiet area and walked away with a very positive impression.



Spiral stairs next to leaping water feature and chandelier

Tall chandelier

Seating towards the back of the lounge

Restaurant- upstairs

More seating (same lamps as Al Safwa)

Game room

Seating area

Freud-style chaise longue

Back to Al Safwa…
Returning to the Al Safwa lounge, I was greeted this time by an employee in a suit roaming around (the equivalent to the personal assistant at the Lufthansa First Class Terminal?) who welcomed me and asked if there was anything he could do to help. This interaction was missing during my first entry so I proceeded to tell him of my plan to use the spa at one point and try to get a room at around midnight. He informed me that while rooms were not bookable in advance, he would take my details and inform the spa reception of my plans. I went over to the spa and asked about treatments and the jacuzzi. The spa is open until 1am (only in the Middle East!) but the therapist was busy at that moment so I decided to opt for the jacuzzi. Note that beauty treatments are to be paid, while the jacuzzi is available for no charge. There seemed to be only one therapist on duty so I was told to return in an hour, as the jacuzzi tub would be filled by the therapist once she was finished with her treatment.

I spent the next hour lounging around catching up on work and before I knew it the hour was up and I was now ready for my jacuzzi session!