Etihad - Dublin to Abu Dhabi

On Christmas Eve we got up at 5am to go to Dublin Airport for a flight to Abu Dhabi with Etihad.  

We always take the Aircoach to the airport.  The bus stop is at the top of our road and luckily a bus arrived just as we reached the stop.  We were greeted by the friendly bus driver and our holiday was off to a good start!

When we arrived at the airport we checked in promptly after getting there in less than half an hour as there was no traffic on the road.

Once we got through security we visited Duty Free where Ciaran bought some Chanel "Blue" aftershave while I bought some vodka.

When we arrived at our gate we saw that our flight was an hour late.  We wandered around and looked at some historical photos of Dublin Airport.

This is what the airport looked like in the 1960's! 

About the flight:

The plane was laid out in a 3-4-3 formation and looked to be full.  Ciaran sat in the aisle seat while I sat in the middle seat.  There were seatback TVs and we were given headphones which were of very good quality (very comfortable with heavy duty padding) and did a good job at cancelling out noise.

The film selection was very good with lots of new releases to choose from along with many newish popular films.  I watched  3 movies:

"Begin Again" starring Keira Knighley (surprisingly wasn't as annoying as she usually is) and Mark Ruffalo.

"Third Person" starring Liam Neeson which was a big load of watchable crap.

"One chance" starring James Corden which is the true story of opera singer Paul Potts who won Britain's Got Talent.

Obligatory Plane Selfie!

Food & Beverages:

I ordered a special seafood meal so I was given a Tuna Omelette which was passable.  

In regards to drinks there were no alcoholic beverages offered and when Ciaran asked for a beer he was told there was none and given no further explanation beyond this......all very strange and even stranger when a full compliment of alcohol was offered and served on the flight home.  I've emailed Etihad about this so hopefully I will receive a response that explains it.

On the way out to Abu Dhabi the Cabin Crew were wearing their uniforms which were grey and had a cream veil/scarf attached to their hats.  On the return flight, however, the crew were decked out in their new uniform.  Wow!  It is so nice!!
It is brown with dashes of purple.  There is no veil but they do wear a scarf jauntily around their neck along with a hat that has a badge that says Etihad on it.  I have to say that I do love a hat as part of an airline uniform and I do wish that Aer Lingus would introduce one in to their uniform.