ease of access and location: based on first impressions, this lounge is noice. big and airy and lots of space and not very crowded (at least on a Sunday morning). it’s a bit hard to find, though, as the airport signage really is lacking. if i’m not mistaken, it’s around where the C gates start, but don’t quote me on that. in any case, there are lots of shower rooms available and all you have to do is exchange your boarding pass for a key at the front desk. showers are located straight back through the hallway past the main seating area; make two rights.
and this is when my anticipation quickly faded. IT LOOKS LIKE A GYM SHOWER. how can this lounge, full of Scandinavian design, have showers that look like this? adequate room, but i would imagine that with a rollaboard this could get quite cramped.
the goods: one smaller towel and one larger towel hanging on the wall, kind of rough (they clearly skimp on the fabric softener, but at least they were sort of thick). three boxes, one containing a shaving kit, another with cotton swabs and cotton pads, and the last with a toothbrush kit. (speaking of which, i should have nabbed for use after my upcoming long-haul. oh well.) there were one and a half small bottles of lotion. not sure why they didn’t just throw away the used bottle. i mean, this isn’t Latvia (sorry, i had to).
shower: ridiculously good water pressure and hot water. i normally run showers at full blast but this one i had to turn down to half volume. there is a soap/shampoo dispenser — adequate, but nothing special. the bad part is that it totally feels like a gym shower — so utilitarian, especially that shower head! the worst part is that the door does not close flush (ha! flush!), so lots of water ends up outside. hint: don’t put the smaller towel down until after you’re out of the shower, or it’ll be wet and blech.
cleanliness and state of facilities: maybe it was the lighting, maybe it was the disappointment that it didn’t match up to the quality of the rest of the lounge, or maybe it just was meh — i was not impressed. it seemed clean enough (no odd smells or stains), but why did they leave half a bottle of lotion? and it would behoove them to just replace that shower door with a curtain — easier to maintain and less water spillage. on the bright side, it was surprisingly well-ventilated for such a small room.
overall rating: 2.5 out of 5. yes, a let-down for a European hub airport. i don’t know the financial state of SAS (i hear it’s not that rosy), but if they have a couple extra million kronor lying around, it wouldn’t hurt to give these showers a little face lift. actually, i think it’d be simple: replace the door with a shower curtain, replace the recessed fluorescent lighting fixture with a little something from IKEA, add some light-colored wood and you’d be well on your way. to make it even better, full-on amenity kit and combine two shower rooms into one, but that’s probably stretching it. i did appreciate, though, that they at least had the toothbrush and shaving sets.