How Honestly Would You Review This Flight?

Well Lucky, since you enjoyed the flight, i think that matter most than airline service procedures, and management should know that (I know, it's Emirates and they are really strict, but still...)
If what the crew did was a safety or security concern would be one thing, but from what i can see, these deviations made your expirence more enjoyable, so that would'nt be negative
Also, there is one really important matter to be addressed: the crew probably knew what they were doing providing you the service they did.
Let's say. If you weren't a frequent flier and if you hadn't been in so many Emirates flights would you be able to tell the diference?
If it weren't you and Ford on the flight, and in your places were other coustumers, would the crew have acted the same?
Airline crew tend to be excelent in reading their passengers, and sometimes they can tell pretty well how they would like to be treated, of course, keeping a balance between that and how they should be treated.
That said, i think that there would be no harm in sharing your whole experience, giving it was that enjoyable, and given that the airline already is aware something has happened. Just tell them that this "something" was great

In my view, if you had a great time on the flight even though the crew bent some of their employer's rules and seemed informal, then you shouldn't criticize them for breaking the rules. It might hurt you professionally ever so slightly to simply not write a review, but I suggest that the cost to you is low and therefore that is what you should do. But in the future, if you find yourself in a similar circumstance, I suggest you also exercise the option of silence without posting publically about it first.

Years ago (early to mid 2000's) I was flying a lot for my job and primarily used UA because they had the best schedules in and out of DEN.
I firmly believe that the primary job of the cabin crew is safety, safety and safety. UA was having a lot of problems with reliability, service and attitude but the reason I dropped them was being on 3 flights in the space of 60 days where the cabin crew failed to perform their safety duties properly. These were not simple errors, doors were not cross checked, passengers were not reminded to wear their seat belts, cabin checks were missed pre-takeoff and pre-landing, briefings were incorrect and there was a considerable lack of coordination between the crew.
I wrote a careful letter to the then president and got no response so moved to different carriers.
If there are no serious safety issues then I do not get too concerned but I do appreciate your perspective on service as that is an indicator of other potential problems.

It's interesting to me that despite all the incredible aspects of your once-in-a-lifetime flight, you weren't entirely satisfied. That has been my experience when flying Emirates. I've always been seated in Business Class - never First - and while the hard product and the inflight catering have impressed me, there has always been at least one flight attendant on each of my Emirates flights who has treated me with indifference, if not down-right rudeness. On each occasion my otherwise pleasant flight on Emirates was slightly spoiled by the way I was treated by one or more members of the crew.

As someone who for 30 years was both a flight attendant and a flight attendant supervisor, I'll admit to closely watching individual cabin crewmembers, and cabin crews as a whole. From experience I can tell when a crew 'gels' and enjoys working together, and that is something I seldom see on Emirates. While some of the flight attendants are fantastic, others seem to just be doing their own thing, and are as oblivious to their working partners as they are to their passengers.

Perhaps I've noticed service problems on Emirates because I normally fly Air France, where the cabin crews tend to be far more professional.

The only thing I can say that if you're in coach it's going to suck no matter what airline, what route. The only exception would be the rare empty flight in which you get a row to yourself. Or if you on a 321 ceo, in the exit row and have the middle seat empty.

If it's domestic first, business class or (true) first class it will be anything from "ok" (narrow body plane) to "good" to "great." Airline food doesn't do much for me and while I like my premium seat drink, time of day appropriate, I have desire to drink like I'm back in college just because it's free. Otherwise, a flat bed and no seat mate to contend with.

The better part of valor is discretion. Perhaps the crew on this mysterious unspecified flight (which none of your readers could possibly identify through inference) thought they had established a bond with the few passengers in their mostly-empty cabin and could let their hair down a little. Humans aren't robots and personally I appreciate seeing the human side of customer service as long as it doesn't materially detract from the delivery.

So maybe a flight attendant took a nap in an unoccupied First seat? Or slipped you an unopened bottle of Champagne to take home? With your large readership, sharing that type of... deviation could have consequences.

Write your review, focus on the product, and do what you've already done and say it was enjoyable but that there were some service misses. It's not necessary to put every single piece of information in a review, and you're acknowledging that service standards weren't met.

If you feel compelled to, bring those to the attention of the airline directly.

Ask yourself how you would want this handled if you were the employee, or the airline? Would you want a customer to write about it to a large readership, where the negative press is so intense that the only way out is to let the employee go? Or would you prefer a customer to tell management, so that you can be counseled and have an opportunity to improve?