After enjoying some relaxation and internet time in the Marhaba lounge, headed down to the gate with plenty of time to spare. There were three airbridges set up to service the 380 - one to the upper deck and one to each of L1 and L2 for the main deck. I was expecting boarding to take an age with all those passengers getting on board but it wasn't actually too bad as the cabin is so spacious - definitely suits 10-across better than the 777 does!
Noticed lots of cubby holes in the cabin - offices for the purser, and a big crew rest area at the back of the main deck. All the materials and finishing in the cabin and the WCs appeared of high quality. What struck me was the size of the overhead bins - they were enormous. As the FAs were doing the cabin checks before departure, it took two of them to close one of the bins!
The breakfast service was OK but a little slow in coming - a consequence of so many pax I think. It seemed to take an absolute age from the first meals coming out (the special meals) to the trolleys coming through and then eventually the trays being cleared away. Seemed like a bit of an industrial and impersonal process - very production line.
Lunch was a 'german style potato salad' (hope the cucumbers weren't german!), a choice of 'grilled herb chicken' or 'mutton achari' followed up with coffee mousse and the usual cheese/biscuits and single small chocolate.
The EK A380 has their newest IFE onboard. Touch screen like the system in their older a/c but a larger widescreen display and a remote controller with a colour display. A lot how I imagine JAM to be like - I suspect the same underlying architecture. Lots of movies to watch - in my first EK TR I mentioned that the IFE didn't seem much better than V-Port. In retrospect, having fully explored the system, there does seem to be a lot more material on the EK system - I was just looking at the 'new movies' list before - there is a whole load of older stuff on there too.
Being in the middle of the cabin wasn't too bad - there seems to be more leg room than on VS Y - perhaps not as much crap stuffed into the seat back pocket on EK.
The tail camera and nose camera are a nice touch and even better than the cameras on the 777. This was a good flight, I bet it would have been better upstairs in J or F though. The Y cabin just seems to big and the service too impersonal. I'm not sure it would be an a/c suited to VS - except on maybe the MCO route where the service expectations in Y would probably match charter-flight standards.
I would hate to be on a high density Y A380 like UU have planned!
Disembarkation was quite smooth through L1, immigration queue about 10 minutes and baggage came off reasonably quickly. We had parked in the T1/T3 long stay parking lot and had hoped to walk back again to save time, but we were a little disorientated on leaving the terminal (rarely fly through MAN) and saw a shuttle bus at the stop so just hopped on it. The driver was excellent - helped everyone with their luggage at each stop, must get so bored of lugging huge cases about all day!
All in all, a very reasonable flight, would like to try the upstairs next time!
