wwnz

Thank you all for the comments, much appreciated

worldtraveller73

wwnz - great report like others have noted.

I found it interesting that, in my humble opinion, EK loaded lessor wines for the "first" experience between MEL - AKL, whereas on your other flights Europe to Middle East had the same wines as the long hauls.

I'd also be interested to hear if any compensation was offered for being stuck in the suite without the in flight entertainment. . .

A beautiful experience on this trip no doubt.

wwnz

It's interesting that you guys here on FT picked up the difference in the wine list. My partner and I are not wine connoisseurs in the least bit, and because the wines were of higher quality than what we're used to we really enjoyed the wine on all legs. We didn't know any different.

Compensation was not offered for the ICE crashing. I have to say the crew handled it pretty well and took it seriously, with lots of attempts at restarting the system. What was most annoying was not the fact that my partner couldn't use the ICE but that a lot of the suite functions went dead as a result, particularly the ability to open or close the suite door. We thought of writing to Emirates afterwards to seek compensation but decided not to in the end.

wwnz

If anyone is interested I have just completed the painstaking process of having first uploaded all 600 or so photos/scans then replacing each link in each post manually to point towards the new pics. I had noticed that the photos were showing quite horrid JPEG compression and dulling of the colours. It bugged me enough that I eventually worked out what the source was (photobucket was compressing all the pictures heavily) and have now sorted it out.

For those of you more photographically inclined you'll see that the vast majority of images, especially the ones in Geneva/Nice/Paris and the daytime Dubai-to-Geneva flight are a lot sharper and cleaner. Some of the night-time or low-light photos actually look slightly worse as the noise is more evident now. Menus are more readable now too. You could be well forgiven for not noticing any difference...it's mainly my obsession with the photos that makes it obvious to my eye.

I'm happy I replaced all the pictures as the original ones weren't doing them justice. That'll teach me to make sure I have things exactly how I want before uploading the entire TR haha.

GodAtum

Thanks for the photos I am quite worried about the breakfast. I really hope they have the waffles and breakfast grill options instead of the omelet!

sajgidda

As someone looking to learn more about photography, I hope to one day take pictures even half as good as some of the ones you've posted here, amazing work

wwnz

Having read your comment, my partner reminded me that the waffles he ordered for breakfast for the last MEL-AKL flight never arrived By the time he realised this on board it was too late to do anything about it. Disappointing? Yes. End of the world? No.

ANZ787900

Fantastic read, thanks for sharing! Great pictures as well. Did you have a choice of flying the A380 via SYD at all? The food you had in Paris looked amazing!

I'm surprised at the completely different offerings of wine between the trans Tasman flights and the other flights in/out of Dubai.

Looks like it took you a while to get it up seeing that the A380 has been on EK406/7 for quite a while already

wwnz

We were on a discounted first class fare so were not given the option of flying on the A380 as that's EK's top product.

I did have the bulk of the trip report written long ago but waited until I could get a hold of the menus which I had left behind to scan them and include them in the report. It would have been nice to have been on the A380 product and try the onboard shower but the small first class cabin of 777 certainly had an exclusive feel to it.

shanny71

As everyone else said, excellent TR, and fantastic photos - made me hungry

adampenrith

awesome tr - great pics

service is a subjective thing - I have found that EK is either outstanding or just not near good enough. A result of the airline expanding so rapidly, and inexperienced staff being role models for newer team members

food can vary depending on the moment, i frequently travel on GA and the last breakfast I had was inedible, but normally they are awesome.

i like the guide to the suite pics - if pic 3 were to great me into my EK suite, and look after my needs I'd fly EK more often.

All I can say is please do some more TR - as your pics and writing style is very readable and enjoyable, kia kaha maybe

FlyingTrojan

Just finished this report. Quite an excellent TR! Hats off to you.

mad_atta

Thanks for providing such a feast for the eyes - some really sensational photos! ^

Bizarrely enough, I recognize this bit of road in the photograph, on the Bulgarian coastline of the Black Sea, near Byala. It's one small bit of the 12,000 miles we drove from London to Mongolia in a tiny car last summer. Now that would have been a bit more comfortable in Emirates First Class

So when/where is the next trip?

wwnz

Thanks all for the kind comments. It gives us great pleasure to see that others have enjoyed reading through our report.

Mad_atta that trip report is amazing and your adventure looks far more epic than anything we've done, although like you said I don't think we'd like to emulate your actions and undertake such a massive drive!

As a result of last year's extravagant spending and not having as much time off this year we're only going to make a cheap trip to the pacific islands, which won't be anything to write home about. I'm trying to plan a return trip to Nice in J for next year, but it's going to be quite costly again.

debonairy

Thank you for sharing your wonerful trip report and amazing photos!