Airline review: Emirates A380 economy class, Dubai to Mauritius

First time on a Whale Jet - my review of Emirates A380-800 economy class, Dubai to Mauritius
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01. Trip report introduction
02. Emirates B777 economy class, Stockholm to Dubai
03. Emirates A380 economy class, Dubai to Mauritius
04. Friday Attitude Hotel, Trou d'Eau Douce
05. What Mauritius was like
06. Emirates A380 economy class, Mauritius to Dubai
07. Emirates B777 economy class, Dubai to Stockholm
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Dubai (DXB) to Mauritius (MRU)

Date: 2018-07-05
Flight number: EK701
Aircraft: Airbus A380-800
Registration: A6-EUV
Age of aircraft: 1 year
Duration of flight: 6:37 (gate to gate)
Seat: 48B (economy class, lower deck)

Seat map of the lower deck with my seat (48B) in red. Courtesy of Seatguru.com

First of all, apologies for the bad photos are in order. As I mentioned in this post, night time flights and great photos do not go hand in hand. Some of the photos did turn out OK, but the A380 is such a magnificent bird that I would have liked to share dozens of more photos with you. Unfortunately, the return flight to DXB was also a night time flight, so... Oh well, it will have to do. But note to self: try to make it a day time flight if I fly the A380 again!

This leg started with a four hour transit at DXB. While I'm not a huge fan of this airport, it is still large, and there are lots of things to do and look at to pass the time. I had read before our trip that during this summer, Emirates had some ice cream carts in their terminals where they handed out free ice cream. Our first mission was therefore to look for the red and white carts. It only took a couple of minutes. When it comes to ice cream (and cats), my radar works pretty well ;)

They had 4-5 different tastes, and I went for the "arabic coffee with dates". It was delicious! After finishing the ice cream, it was time to grab something to eat. I know - first things first... I was afraid that they would run out of ice cream during our "slot" (they only rolled the ice cream carts out a couple of times per day), so we started with the ice cream, and then grabbed a salad.

Free ice cream - after last flight, this was enough to win me over again - Emirates are great ;)

Lots of exciting destinations from DXB!

After a while, it was finally turn to board the aircraft. I had really been looking forward to this part of the trip, as this was the first time for me on board the biggest passenger jet in the world. Boarding started a few minutes late, but it was kind of smooth, since they have different doors to board through (in different classes, but still). However, the flight attendant who stood at our door pointed us in the wrong direction, as he pointed us to the right. I suspected he was wrong, but I didn't want to argue, and assumed he was right anyway. But no, we had to turn back through the aisle and manage our way through the crowds that had boarded behind us. First time I get to make a left turn on an airplane, and the staff points us to the right anyway... Oh well, we got to our seats soon enough.

This is exciting!

It seems like we get to fly on Emirates' 100th A380! They are the world's biggest A380 operator 

This looks very promising, although this is not where we'll sit. The FA pointed us in the wrong direction...

The cabin felt very spacious overall, and we could even stand without crouching as we moved into our row, below the overhead compartment. Talk about good headroom! The seats were also a lot better than on the previous flight. Kind of obvious, since this plane was only a year old, but still. The seats had better recline, better headrests and better storage room underneath the seats in front. The in-flight entertainment screens were also a lot bigger. They were HUGE on this aircraft!

This is where we'll sit. Look at that golden frame around the windows!

Very good legroom, and lots of space underneath the seat in front

I was able to stand without crouching even as we were below the overhead bins - how great is that? Emirates' A380 is extremely spacious, even in economy class!

Seat detail

Look at that screen! This is almost bigger than our TV at home...

Control to the IFE system

Some reading before taking off

Going to a new country and a new continent, on board my first A380

As the boarding process was coming to an end, the captain (one Amos from Malawi - I think it's cool how international the staff is at Emirates - not that the pilots usually say where they're from, but I think this was my first flight with a Malawian captain...) informed us about our flight, and then we pushed back only one minute behind schedule. Take off was extremely silent. I've read that the A380:s are very silent, but it was almost ridiculous considering the size of this thing - how can it not make any sound with four giant engines blasting away as the plane thunders down the runway and up in the air?

On this flight, there were two meal services. First a cajun chicken sandwich, and then a breakfast meal closer to landing. The sandwich was alright, albeit a little bland. After that, we tried to get some sleep, although it eluded me for most of this flight. It was nice to be able to watch the sunrise behind the huge engines though!

Menus were handed out in the beginning of the flight

Probably the most boring food on our four EK flights on this trip

Hello, sun! We meet again!

The biggest perk of having a window seat (although my wife was sitting here - thanks for taking this photo!)

Somewhere above the Seychelles it started to get bumpy. I'm not a fan of turbulence when flying (who is?), but on the A380, I didn't find it nearly as scary as on other planes. After it had subsided, I went for a short walk to check out the stairs (how cool is that on an airplane!?) and visit the lavatory. There were three lavatories in the front of the cabin, and the one that I used was enormous by economy class standards. It was also very fresh considering the fact that there were a few hundred people on this plane. Well done, cabin crew!

Not only do they have stairs on this plane, but a bar as well... There was a rope here though, preventing us mere mortals from venturing up to first and business class...

Probably the biggest airplane lavatory I've ever been in...

...and a quite fancy one at that!

It rubs the lotion on its skin (yes, I'm a film buff)

I didn't eat anything of the breakfast as I wasn't feeling too well by then. Travelling for quite some time (without the possibility to move about the cabin whenever I pleased) and not getting much sleep was finally taking its toll. I removed the cover from the plate, but the smell of the omelette was enough to make me feel nauseated. It didn't look that appealing either. 

Mauritius!

Four minutes ahead of schedule, we touched down on Mauritius, and deplaning was also smooth, as we made our way to immigration. What wasn't smooth, however, was waiting for our bags. There were a lot of bags on this gigantic plane, and our bags were among the last to appear on the carousel. I didn't check the time, but I'd say it took about an hour. The ground crew at Arlanda would be proud...

Looking back on my first ever A380

Thanks for this ride, A6-EUV!