why i did not go to this lounge when i passed through São Paulo (GRU) earlier this week, i don’t know. the TAM lounge [shower review] is chump change compared to this — and it’s just a couple doors down. i mean, this lounge has cupcakes — CUPCAKES!!! (p.s. the priority pass iphone app says no shower here, but there clearly is. now that i think of it, that’s probably why i didn’t go to this one.)
best of all, the shower is not a bathroom stall!
ease of access and location: way in the back of the lounge. follow the long wall past the food and up the ramp, make a U-turn at the end. hand your boarding pass to the attendant who will unlock a shower for you. there are three showers, one handicap and two regular. there was an attendant shift change and they were having a chat in Portuguese and one of them motioned to the smaller shower rooms and changed out my key from a small one to a large one as they were signing me in. maybe they weren’t clean, maybe they knew i started writing shower reviews, maybe they just thought i deserved a lil’ something extra. but after the not-so-pleasant experience down the hall at the other lounge, this was quite a nice change. plenty of room (because handicapped-access) (and a toilet)!
the goods: two bath towels, a pre-placed foot towel, several hand towels, and a bath mat in front of the sink in terms of soft things. no soap/shampoo dispensers but rather two H2O soaps and a toiletry kit filled with generic products for use during the shower (in addition to toothbrush/toothpaste, razor, brush/comb combo, etc.)
shower: nothing fancy, but more than adequate. there is a handheld shower head as well as a wall-mount. because this was the ADA (or whatever the Brazilian equivalent is) one, it was large and had a fold-down seat.
cleanliness and state of facilities: 5 out of 5. even the towels smelled nice.
overall rating: 4.5 out of 5. i don’t know how large the regular shower rooms are, but even still i wouldn’t think it would rate lower than a 4.
note: the lights flickered while i was in there, but when i finished i emerged to discover a powerful thunderstorm moved in, so i’m inclined to think it’s related to that and not the general state of the electricity at the lounge.