This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Arrived at ANU at around 4.30 pm for a 6.30 pm departure and waited for a couple of minutes at the joint UC/PE desk to check in. Check in was fast and friendly and I had a laugh when the agent tried to pronounce my home villiage name when confirming the address for my limo pick up in Gatwick, she compromised with A place in Swansea and left it at that. One nice point is that you can now pay your departure tax at the check in as opposed to having to go to a separate desk to pay the officials there, which saves a little time.
Now Virgin dont use the small 1694 club upstairs at the airport and thus I ended up with a certificate for 50EC (a little over Ten Pounds) to use at the nearby Sticky Wicket. That was fine and more than covered the cost of three Amstel Lights whilst I watched workmen dig up the cricket pitch there to install more drainage before putting a new pitch back in its place. Due to the heavy rains lately drainage had become an issue in many place on the rock but only the Stanford group of companies were doing anything about it, bless em.
Well my beery break over with I proceeded back to the airport forecourt (a one min walk) and went though the pre-flight emigration check and into departures. I had to purchase four large bottles of rum to take home as gifts as well as some Suzis hot sauce, Its odd how hard that sauce is to get sometimes when the make it in St Johns, ah well what can you do. Still the rum was plentiful.
I grabbed another light beer and waitied in the only air conditioned part of the lounge for the boarding call which came slightly late. The call was made at the gate by a young lady I used to work with and I joked with her that she sounded very professional as I went to check in.
We all duly tramped out to the aircraft (sorry cant remember which one but it was the usual LGW config) and I took my seat at 10A. I spent a champagne aided few minutes having a look around and the cabin felt very snug, I would have been surprised if anyone had used the bar the way it was positioned in the middle of the cabin and nobody didI would have felt a little self concious sitting there to be honest.
We pushed back a little late and after the seat belt signs went off the sleep suits were handed out and I took the opportunity to change immediately, the last Welsh Ninja duly returned to his seat, turned on the airmap and looked over the menu for dinner.
Sorry but I cant remember the options but I ended up with a tasteless Muligatawny soup, a very dry piece of Dorado fish and a few glasses of the white burgandy. The food wasnt bad, but neither was it good. The saving grace was the cheese plate which I washed down with a largeish port. In hindsight I could have asked for some lime from the bar for the fish but it didnt occur to me at the time.
On a final note about the food, I found it odd that when offered crackers for the cheese you were asked/allowed to help yourself (unhygenicly using your hands) to the selection yet when you are served bread the FA uses tongs to serve you.
Anyway that over with I watched some comedy aided with a vodka tonic (okay two vodka tonics) and giggled like a schoolgirl several times much to the amusment of the FA who was serving the drinks.
At this point, about three hours into the flight, I decided to get some sleep and the FA very kindly made up the bed. I lay down and was surprsied by the feeling of privacy you have, far better than BAs club world seat in that regard (although I have never flown in the window seats with BA due to the need to hop over other pax to get to the aisle).
So I lay there thinking to myself that I would never get off to sleep as it was way to early (about 10pm my time), all the reasons for not sleeping passed though my mind as I duly passed out a few minutes later only to be awakend by the noise and smells of the crew preparing breakfast about three hours later. Marvelous!!
Breakfast was promptly served and I had a bacon roll and tea, and more tea and more teavery moreish stuff that caffine when you rarely drink it. Anyway I jittered off to the washroom and changed back into my civillian clothes and freshened up ready for landing. Landing was smooth, on time and undertaken in pouring rain, ahh its nice to be home.
We deplaned after the lower PE cabin due to the layout of the cabins and due to the early hour of arrival (6.30am) the queue at passport control was minimal. I waited about 10 mins for my case and headed off to the Red customs zone to declare the five additional litres of booze I had with me. There was nobody there, I called out a few times into the offices behind the counter with no reply. I left my case there and walked back into the baggage hall (a ten yard walk) and there were no customs officers there.so I just took my belongings and walked out. Very odd if you ask me, anyway as Im not writing this from Parkhurst I guess Im not Britains most wanted man but how can you not have customs officers at a declaration station?
Wow! Isnt the limo service fantastic. From the arrivals hall to outside my door in Swansea in less than four hours, I cant fault that service and I will be definitely using Virgin for this run again if only for that perk alone.
All in all a good flight, with great service, a great bed, average food and a very impressive limo service. The only highlight about finising this short break next week is that I get to do it all over again.
All the best,
Adam
