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Many passengers had cameras and camcorders and took pictures of just about everything on the plane, including the food.

Singapore Airlines flight SQ380 carried a mix of passengers representing 35 different nationalities, with the largest group being Australians (28 percent), then Singaporeans (14 percent), Britons (11 percent) and Americans (8 percent).

Four passengers from Norway came the farthest to fly on the jet.

Passengers included a U.S. college student who celebrated his 22nd birthday on the plane and a Swedish engineer who was on the first flight of the supersonic Concorde in 1976.

Francisco Miramontes, 43, of Mexico, collected signatures of the passengers in a special book.

He has flown over a million miles with Singapore Airlines and other airlines in the Star Alliance.

He bought roundtrip seats in economy for himself and his sister and a nephew. The A380 returns to Singapore on Friday morning.

"This is a special, unique occasion. Once in a lifetime," he said. "This is the new queen."

Friends Oscar Garcia and Chris Sloan came from Miami to be on the flight.

Garcia is a former 747 pilot for Cathay Pacific. He met Sloan some years ago when Sloan was allowed to visit the cockpit on a Cathay Pacific flight.

"He knew more about the 747 than I did," Garcia recalled.

Sloan, a TV producer, has a large collection of airline memorabilia and runs airchive.com.

During the flight, he and Sloan debated the merits of the A380 vs. Boeing's 747-8.

After the flight, they planned to go to a party at a bar in Sydney where the front end, or head, of a 747 was supposed to be chopped off in honor of the A380's arrival in Sydney.

Alykhan Virani, from Vancouver, B.C., got roundtrip economy seats on the plane for only $700 each.

He writes an aviation blog, planenation.com.

"It is quiet and spacious," Virani said of the A380, adding that he liked the cabin design over that of the lower deck of the 747.

"This does not feel like a big plane at all," he said.

Bulkheads on the upper and lower decks of the A380 break up the economy and business class cabins into smaller sections.

One passenger, Thomas Lee, was 17 years old in 1970 when his father bought tickets for the family to ride on the inaugural Pan Am 747 flight from New York to London.

On the A380 flight, Lee, a Southern California businessman, was the special guest of Singapore Airlines. But like his father had done 37 years ago, Lee bought tickets for his wife, Sally, and his daughter, Briana, 23, to fly with him. They were all seated next to each other in economy on the lower deck, though they spent much of the flight walking through the two decks and being interviewed by media.

Like many of the other passengers, Lee marveled at how quiet the A380 cabin was, from takeoff to landing.

"It's a leap forward," he said of the A380.

He especially liked the spacious upper deck.

Chew said the upper deck of the A380 is wider than the cabin of the 777. The airline has the same business class seats on its 777-300ERs as are on the A380, but those on the A380 are a little wider.

Chew presented Lee with framed side-by-side certificates of Lee's flight on the 747 in 1970 and Thursday's flight on the A380.

Business-class passenger Jason Speer had to fly a long way just to make the A380 flight. He came from Chicago.

Speer, 32, of Streamwood, Ill., is vice president of manufacturing for Quality Float Works. The company, family-owned since it was founded in Chicago in 1915, makes hollow metal balls and other devices for measuring levels.

Speer paid $9,250 for a seat on both legs of the A380 flight.

An aviation buff from childhood, Speer said he was prepared to pay more, as much as $15,000.

"This was an incredible opportunity to be on the first commercial flight of this enormous new plane," he said. "I was determined to be a part of it."

Speer flies about 150,000 miles a year on business, and used frequent flier miles on the flights from Chicago to Singapore via Los Angeles.

In an interview before the flight, Speer recalled all the talk that the A380 would be a "cruise ship of the sky" when Airbus first began developing the plane. There was talk of showers, gyms, lounges, duty-free shops and other passenger amenities, he recalled.

Speer said he would be disappointed if there was not something special to make the flying experience of the A380 unique. Otherwise, Speer said, he probably would not want to fly in such a huge plane, going through customs and getting baggage with nearly 500 fellow passengers.

Later, near the end of the flight, Speer said he was impressed with the A380 and liked the business-class seat he was in. But he did not believe it was worth the premium that Singapore Airlines will charge first and business-class passengers.

During the flight, Speer and the passenger seated next to him, Tony Mackay from Sydney, discussed whether they would want to fly in the A380 on a regular business trip. Mackay, managing director of Instinet, an electronic stock trading company, said he makes about 100 flights a year.

"You don't want to be the last person off this airplane," Mackay said. "Just the thought of 500 bags coming down a carousel ... ."

The arrival of the A380 at the Sydney airport was a huge event.

In early August, a large clock was placed at the airport to count down the days until the inaugural flight landed.

Australian newspapers ran countless stories about the A380, which will soon be a familiar sight in the country. Singapore, Qantas and Emirates all will be flying the plane in and out of Australia.

About 45 minutes before landing, Capt. Ting informed passengers that the plane would be making a low-level pass over Sydney's famous harbor. But a low cloud cover made that impossible and the plane landed at 5:23 p.m., two minutes early.

Before they left the plane, passengers were told that the baggage of first- and business-class passengers would be on a separate carousel from that of passengers in economy.

Getting through customs was fairly quick -- there were 22 customs stations to speed the process.

Baggage for first- and business-class passengers came down the carousel about 10 minutes before the bags from economy started showing up. Shortly after 6 p.m., some 30 minutes after the A380 arrived at the gate, economy-class passengers were taking their bags off the carousel, shaking hands with new friends from the plane ride and walking away.

"I wish all flights could be like that," said Brown, the passenger from Salt Lake City.