Emirates Airlines takes the cake. This is the biggest and swankiest airplane that I have ever been on - it still has that "new plane" smell. When I saw it pull in I was afraid that it would never take off again much like the Spruce Goose - that's how freaking big it looks. It seats up to 517 passengers. The wing span is 80 meters, a bit more than the distance from Church & Lombard to Church & Adelaide.
The front facade view is reminiscent of a bottle nose dolphin with a big protruding forehead (that's where the 1st and business folks class sit.) If it were a cartoon character, it would be the evil Doctor Blowhole from the Penguins of Madagascar show. There is an upper AND lower gangway to load. I used the lower one, of course, as I'm in Zone E (it has ZONES!)
The stair up to level 2 (I only got a glimpse) is sleek chrome with real some-exotic-wood-burl trim - something like what you'd find on one of those over the top cruise ships only elegant. The same trim carries through on the window shade handles and window trim even in the lowly E-Zone. The overhead bins make a soft hydraulic hiss they lower in slow motion.
There was a little zippered pouch on my seat that I thought the lady in 55-I dropped (I'm in 55-K so, yup - 10 seats across here) but it turned out to be mine - an eyemask, ear plugs, a face cloth and toothbrush w/ mini tooth paste. It's been over a decade since I got even an eye mask on a night flight. Hot towels were distributed as we backed out. Even in steerage there are multiple perks.
It's the 1st time I've flown on an airline from a muslim country so I was curious to see what the attendants were wearing. Even though the Emirates are fairly modern there is still a conservative touch to the womens' uniforms. The have nice soft grey suits with a thin dark red pin stripes - pants or skirts - and they have a kind of flat red pill box hat with a white scarf fixed to the left side which hangs down and drapes over the right shoulder - quite attractive really. I guess it gives them flexiblility to cover up more with the scarf if they are flying into a more conservative country like Saudi Arabia or Yemen.
As we take off the pilot announces that they are pleased to serve us in several languages. He rhymes off at least two dozen including Tagalog and Maltese - top that Air Canada! It figures that each attendent must be fully trilingual.
The take off was smooth - helicopter smooth - and the plane seemed light as a feather in spite of it's behemoth appearance. It's quiet on board and almost hot - another two 1st's.
Sherree and I have been on big plane flights with exterior cameras hooked up to the tv screens but once again these guys take the cake. They have 3 dedicated channels on their entertainment system with a high tail cam facing forward, a nose cam and alternating wing cams. It was pretty cool seeing the tail view cam of the T.O. lights tilting as we took off and banked towards Hamilton. Right now all we can see on that channel is pitchblack with a dot of a moon and the running light lighing up the wings every 2 seconds. We'll see the rising sun soon though.
I was expecting dinner to be good but I didn't think I would ever consider asking for "the recipe" for an airplane meal which was a very tasty Lamb Ouzi with Saffron Couscous with perfectly grilled zucchini slices. Did I mention that I was in steerage? All drinks are comlimentary with the exception of champagne at $15UDS, so I couldn't resist asking for a brandy to go with the super sweet mousse desert. The answer was, "I'm sorry, we only have cognac." I accepted the apology.
I think "Skymall" is a dirty word onboard. Their on board shop mag is full of designer perfumes, watches and fine liquors. Prices start at around $90 USD and go up into the $1000s.
The entertainment system has over 1200 channels of music, tv and movies from around the world but what has really captivated me is the real time flight status system. It's a google world type view of the plane and path projected acros the globe with solid line for the completed path behind and dashed chevrons for the path ahead. The realtime nite/light sky with stars and moon projects shadows of the path line onto the surfaces below. The view zooms in and out and pans around the plane with a cloud of place names hovering in 3D space.
Hana and Alex might be intersted to know that as we passed over New Brunswick and took a left turn at Bathurst, "Antigonish" popped up in the distance. They don't stop at small university towns either, shipwrecks and and dates are also identified: Titanic 1912, Empress of Ireland 1914, Douro 1883. They cycle through a number of viewpoints with English tags and then repeat with Arabic. Dublin and London are straight ahead on the horizon with Reykjavik and Angmagssalik, Greenland to the left. Very cool.
Interesting that this opulent flying cruise ship was the cheapest way to get to one of the most so called "backwards" countries in southeast asia. Almost $400 cheaper than Air Canada depending how you look at it. What a contrast it is I suspect to what lies ahead. Here I am at 37,000 feet on the internet where in the country-formerly-known-as-Burma, one can't even count on electricity through the night. Right now I can see the arc at the edge of earth starting to light up on tail-cam. So why am I going you might ask? First, it's an architectural treasure trove of Buddhist temples and Nat shrines and, also first, it's a country that's untouched by modern development in a unique moment of history at the birth of democracy. Our now fellow (honorary) Canadian, Ang San Suu Kyi and her party lifted the tourism boycott in 2010 so I'm obliging them with a few tourist dollars.
Even though the drunk Russians in front of me are complaining about something inconsequetial I'm flying and it's amazing.
I'll leave you with this from comedian Lewis C.K.:
Flying is the worst one because people come back from flights and they tell you their story and it's like a horror story. It's, they act like their flight was like a cattle car in the 40's in Germany. (yeah) That's how bad they make it sound (right). They're like it was the worst day of my life. First of all we didn't board for 20 minutes (right) and then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the runway for 40 minutes. We had to sit there. Oh really, what happened next? Did you fly through the air incredibly like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight, you non-contributing zero? Wow, you're flying! It's amazing! Everybody on every plane should just constantly be going, oh my God, wow (yes) you're flying, you're, you're sitting in a chair in the sky (yes, yeah, yeah)
...and here's viseo version: http://vimeo.com/14975413
The front facade view is reminiscent of a bottle nose dolphin with a big protruding forehead (that's where the 1st and business folks class sit.) If it were a cartoon character, it would be the evil Doctor Blowhole from the Penguins of Madagascar show. There is an upper AND lower gangway to load. I used the lower one, of course, as I'm in Zone E (it has ZONES!)
The stair up to level 2 (I only got a glimpse) is sleek chrome with real some-exotic-wood-burl trim - something like what you'd find on one of those over the top cruise ships only elegant. The same trim carries through on the window shade handles and window trim even in the lowly E-Zone. The overhead bins make a soft hydraulic hiss they lower in slow motion.
There was a little zippered pouch on my seat that I thought the lady in 55-I dropped (I'm in 55-K so, yup - 10 seats across here) but it turned out to be mine - an eyemask, ear plugs, a face cloth and toothbrush w/ mini tooth paste. It's been over a decade since I got even an eye mask on a night flight. Hot towels were distributed as we backed out. Even in steerage there are multiple perks.
It's the 1st time I've flown on an airline from a muslim country so I was curious to see what the attendants were wearing. Even though the Emirates are fairly modern there is still a conservative touch to the womens' uniforms. The have nice soft grey suits with a thin dark red pin stripes - pants or skirts - and they have a kind of flat red pill box hat with a white scarf fixed to the left side which hangs down and drapes over the right shoulder - quite attractive really. I guess it gives them flexiblility to cover up more with the scarf if they are flying into a more conservative country like Saudi Arabia or Yemen.
As we take off the pilot announces that they are pleased to serve us in several languages. He rhymes off at least two dozen including Tagalog and Maltese - top that Air Canada! It figures that each attendent must be fully trilingual.
The take off was smooth - helicopter smooth - and the plane seemed light as a feather in spite of it's behemoth appearance. It's quiet on board and almost hot - another two 1st's.
Sherree and I have been on big plane flights with exterior cameras hooked up to the tv screens but once again these guys take the cake. They have 3 dedicated channels on their entertainment system with a high tail cam facing forward, a nose cam and alternating wing cams. It was pretty cool seeing the tail view cam of the T.O. lights tilting as we took off and banked towards Hamilton. Right now all we can see on that channel is pitchblack with a dot of a moon and the running light lighing up the wings every 2 seconds. We'll see the rising sun soon though.
I was expecting dinner to be good but I didn't think I would ever consider asking for "the recipe" for an airplane meal which was a very tasty Lamb Ouzi with Saffron Couscous with perfectly grilled zucchini slices. Did I mention that I was in steerage? All drinks are comlimentary with the exception of champagne at $15UDS, so I couldn't resist asking for a brandy to go with the super sweet mousse desert. The answer was, "I'm sorry, we only have cognac." I accepted the apology.
I think "Skymall" is a dirty word onboard. Their on board shop mag is full of designer perfumes, watches and fine liquors. Prices start at around $90 USD and go up into the $1000s.
The entertainment system has over 1200 channels of music, tv and movies from around the world but what has really captivated me is the real time flight status system. It's a google world type view of the plane and path projected acros the globe with solid line for the completed path behind and dashed chevrons for the path ahead. The realtime nite/light sky with stars and moon projects shadows of the path line onto the surfaces below. The view zooms in and out and pans around the plane with a cloud of place names hovering in 3D space.
Hana and Alex might be intersted to know that as we passed over New Brunswick and took a left turn at Bathurst, "Antigonish" popped up in the distance. They don't stop at small university towns either, shipwrecks and and dates are also identified: Titanic 1912, Empress of Ireland 1914, Douro 1883. They cycle through a number of viewpoints with English tags and then repeat with Arabic. Dublin and London are straight ahead on the horizon with Reykjavik and Angmagssalik, Greenland to the left. Very cool.
Interesting that this opulent flying cruise ship was the cheapest way to get to one of the most so called "backwards" countries in southeast asia. Almost $400 cheaper than Air Canada depending how you look at it. What a contrast it is I suspect to what lies ahead. Here I am at 37,000 feet on the internet where in the country-formerly-known-as-Burma, one can't even count on electricity through the night. Right now I can see the arc at the edge of earth starting to light up on tail-cam. So why am I going you might ask? First, it's an architectural treasure trove of Buddhist temples and Nat shrines and, also first, it's a country that's untouched by modern development in a unique moment of history at the birth of democracy. Our now fellow (honorary) Canadian, Ang San Suu Kyi and her party lifted the tourism boycott in 2010 so I'm obliging them with a few tourist dollars.
Even though the drunk Russians in front of me are complaining about something inconsequetial I'm flying and it's amazing.
I'll leave you with this from comedian Lewis C.K.:
Flying is the worst one because people come back from flights and they tell you their story and it's like a horror story. It's, they act like their flight was like a cattle car in the 40's in Germany. (yeah) That's how bad they make it sound (right). They're like it was the worst day of my life. First of all we didn't board for 20 minutes (right) and then we get on the plane and they made us sit there on the runway for 40 minutes. We had to sit there. Oh really, what happened next? Did you fly through the air incredibly like a bird? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight, you non-contributing zero? Wow, you're flying! It's amazing! Everybody on every plane should just constantly be going, oh my God, wow (yes) you're flying, you're, you're sitting in a chair in the sky (yes, yeah, yeah)
...and here's viseo version: http://vimeo.com/14975413
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