There are a few notable features. For me the main one is the whole flight procedure for the A380 is simpler than for say an old Boeing 737. The checklists are laughably brief. In a Dash 8 with which I am most familiar, for instance, there are 119 checklist items from start up to shut down, excluding the call-outs for an instrument approach (which the autopilot conducted for them here, even though they were in visual conditions). The extraordinary fact is, tghe bigger the aeroplane, the bigger the pay packet, even though they are simpler to operate. The last I heard a Qantas 747 international flying captain was getting $250,000 pa. It would be a lot more now, and more again for an A380 driver.
The water washing was in fact a display welcoming the first A380 landing in San Francisco. It's a traditional celebration. They turned on one for my last landing in Tabubil, the base I was operating out of when I retired from PNG.

Nowhere near as spectacular, but very moving for me at the time that the locals chose to do it.