Emirates is currently one of only two airlines in the world offering a shower onboard some of its aircrafts, the other one being Etihad Airways. The showers are available in first class on the Airbus A380. There are two showers located in the first class cabin, on the upper deck at the very front of the cabin just by the staircase to the lower floor, one on each side.
I was very curious to give it a try on the evening flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok, which is a shorter fifth-freedom flight, but with a flight time of two hours and 15 minutes I thought there should be enough time for both a shower and to have dinner afterwards.
No one asked me if I wanted to have a shower, or introduced the option to me for that matter, but as one of the flight attendants passed I asked her about it. She said it should not be a problem and told me she would ask one of the colleagues to prepare the shower and then inform me when everything was ready.
A few minutes after the seatbelt sign had been switched off the flight attendant approached my seat and asked me to follow her. I was to use the shower room on the left hand side of the staircase. She asked me if I had used the shower on Emirates before and then gave me a brief introduction of how it worked as well as some safety regulations.
The shower room in Emirates is not really a shower room but rather a spacious and quite luxurious bathroom. I have even seen the word ‘spa’ being used in some descriptions.
Most of the bathroom was in wood with a ceiling showing the skyline of Dubai. The bathroom also works as a toilet, even though the toilet seat is rather well hidden.
The bathroom also has a washbasin and a large mirror.
And there were plenty of toiletries available, covering most things you may need. There was also a large towel waiting.
Each passenger gets five minutes of water and you can see the amount of water you have left on a small display inside the shower booth, so you do not risk running out of water with your hair full of shampoo. Five minutes is usually sufficient.
In order for the shower to work the door to the shower booth need to be both closed and locked, again this is for the safety of the person using the shower.
Overall it was a pleasant experience and after a day in a hot and very humid Hong Kong I very much enjoyed the shower. The water pressure was adequate even though the shower nozzle is of a smaller size. And the temperature of the water was perfect and of course you can adjust it to a higher or a lower temperature. I used up three minutes of water, of the five minutes I got.
Another cool feature is that they have underfloor heating in the bathroom, which is quite pleasant when you have finished your shower. There were also hangers for the clothes and a TV showing the flight map.
Final impression
A very pleasant experience. The first class bathroom is very spacious and you have absolutely everything you need in there and the shower itself worked perfectly. But do you need a shower onboard? Is this something more airlines should opt for? After a longhaul night flight I usually want to take a shower to freshen up, but to be honest I am more than happy to take the shower on the ground, in an arrivals lounge after landing. I was nice to give the shower a try and I very much enjoyed it, but I would not book Emirates (or Etihad for that matter) just because of the shower.
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