adampenrith

awesome trip report - looking forward to the remainder of your return trip.

choice photos

GOONER87

loving this TR, awesome pictures of Nice, Monoco and Paris!!!

Cheers

wwnz

Airline: Emirates
Route: Dubai-Melbourne
Flight number: EK406
Duration: 13 hours 30 min
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seats: 2E and 2F





Boarding was easy and it looked like the cabin would be full for our flight. We declined any drinks as we wanted to get to sleep as soon as possible. There was a bit of a delay of departure and problems with the safety demonstration video which meant the safety demonstration had to be done manually by the crew. It didn’t help that the PA system kept cutting out through this, but the crew put on a good show.

Slightly different amenity kit




Lining up

wwnz

It was a while before the seatbelt sign went off and we were allowed to put our seats into bed mode. Three hours of sleep later and feeling slightly less out of it we ordered some lunch.

wwnz

On this leg of the trip we encountered the same turbulence that we flew through on the way up. Lunch consisted of hot canapes, caviar, a prawn and scallops starter, kung pao chicken which was the best of the bunch, a mixed grilled because I wasn’t feeling overly full, and petit fours for dessert. This was accompanied by an excellent Australian Chardonnay which went down a treat.

Canapes


I can’t work out what this was…


Excellent Australian Chardonnay


Kung Pao chicken


Mixed grill


Selection of petit fours


Chocolates


Here’s the last photosynth panorama that I made:

Panorama of suite

Following lunch the ICE system was acting up so they had to reset the entire thing on the plane. When my partner’s system booted up again it wouldn’t work at all and simply said “we’re sorry, ICE is not available at the moment”. After a few more resets of the system for his suite they gave up. The wireless controller which is the only way to control the motorised suite doors is integrated into ICE, so this wasn’t working either and we couldn’t get the doors to close for his suite. This was a fairly disappointing failure of the hard product but we just put up with it for the rest of the flight and managed some more sleep.

Uh oh..


Attempting reboot…


“ICE is not available” – was stuck like this for the rest of the flight, that also means you can’t open or close your suite doors


Breakfast started with a plate of fresh fruit, followed by a prawn curry. I decided to have another serving of caviar if there was anything left as it would be the last opportunity to do so on this trip, and it’s not every day that you get to have caviar at 38000 feet. Fortunately for me a number of other passengers had declined their serving of caviar so there was some left, but the flight attendant explained that it was not their usual policy to provide a second serving of caviar as they load only enough for one serving per passenger. I was more than grateful that they let me have a second serving.

Breakfast fruits


Prawn curry thing


Caviar


The flight was feeling like a fairly protracted ordeal at this point, and eventually we descended into a slumbering Melbourne shrouded in darkness. The view from the front facing camera is a real treat to watch during the landing.

wwnz

Melbourne Emirates Lounge stopover

Another long walk to the lounge and a quick shower to freshen up. The breakfast offerings were excellent, as opposed to the disappointing dinner at the start of the trip. We passed the time in front of a view of a Qantas and Singapore airlines A380 parked side by side whilst the sun did its thing and brought in a new day.

Qantas A380


Singapore A380


Much better food options for breakfast


Nearly home...

wwnz

Airline: Emirates
Route: Melbourne-Auckland
Flight number: Continuation of EK406
Duration:
Aircraft: Boeing 777-300ER
Seats: 2E and 2F

Boarding for the final time, it was only three of us in the cabin, all continuing from Dubai. The problems with the ICE system seemed to have been fixed as it working correctly and responsive now. The crew on this flight was probably the most energetic, freshest and friendliest bunch out of all six segments. I was getting slightly homesick at this point so was looking forward to the relatively short hop across the Tasman. The sunrise from 1A was a welcome sight as it felt like an eternity since we had seen one.

This might be a better idea for a pre-departure drink…was entering zombie mode myself at this point




This looks more familiar! A sure sign we are close to home














Lovely warm sun

wwnz

wwnz

Breakfast was a short affair with a fruit platter and mixed grill for myself. I took the opportunity to claim as much sleep as possible for the remainder of the flight, and was woken a few hours later by the announcement from the crew for landing preparations. Back to seat 1A to catch the first glimpse of our wonderful home country and a few bumps later we were back on the ground.

Breakfast fruits


Breakfast grill






First glimpse of home!






Flying over Auckland




Home is where the heart lies




A dying breed




Conclusion

In hindsight we are very happy that we left caution to the wind and went ahead with his trip. It is certainly an experience that will not escape our memories anytime soon. The hard product is excellent, apart from a few hiccups with the suite’s electronics and the missing pyjamas. The ability to close your suite doors and create a private space is wonderful. A lie flat bed of that width was also a welcomed treat. Service on the whole was efficient and did the job. There wasn’t too much of the personal interaction that we are more used to with Air NZ’s staff but it wasn’t something to fuss over. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our trip and hope this will be useful for those looking to fly on the 777 product.

wwnz

Seat guide

wwnz

Phew! That took a bit of effort but totally worth it. Thank you all for your lovely comments. It's a bonus for us that we can look at our pics and have a record of our trip in this format now. I didn't ever have enough motivation to write something like this for our previous trips but I thought for this trip the opportunity was too good to pass.

johnnie69

Hi WWNZ, thourougly enjoyed this and the pictures are great. I'm a BA loyalist but may be tempted to try this out in the future
Thanks again for making the effort to post ^

GodAtum

Thanks for the trip report. I might be flying Emirates F to KUL this year if I'm lucky! Was the food generally good or was the breakfast a bit hit and miss?

gav0106

Great trip, I think you were right to treat yourselves to the 1st class Excellent photos as well

TWA4Me

Wow. This trip report is a marvelous read. Just excellent.