This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
As many of you may know from my previous posts, I am a rather nervous flyer as it is and wasn't looking forward to a 9hour flight over the pond. The night before Manchester had been covered in heavy snow (which had prevented me an easy journey home from work), so my girlfriend and I awoke Saturday morning and gingerly opened the curtains to see if we'd even be able to make it to the airport. I was delighted in particular to see clear blue, winter morning skies with no wind. Fingers crossed therefore for a smooth take-off. The roads were covered but luckily my dads car was able to make it through the snow covered roads to the airport with lots of time to spare.
In the airport
I had checked in online the day before and arrived at the check-in desk to a very neutral Virgin Employee. She didn't seem very talkative at first but she issued our boarding passes and check our bags in before wishing us a good flight.
5/10 so far. I checked the seats matched the ones I'd asked for online and they did so we made our way into the departure lounge area.
After some purchases of sweets, mags, drinks, my standard pre-flight meal and pint we were soon called for first boarding at 10:30. We made our way to the gate about 10mins later and we were met by happier staff on this side of the check-in desk
We boarded Beauty Queen (G-VSXY) which was already rather full.
We were directed towards our seats towards the rear of the plane, and I took the window seat with my girlfriend on the isle.
Link to pic:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/bobsy852/Florida%20Holiday/IMG_1820_zps9603d04d.jpg
This seat was directly above the cargo hold door and so was quite noisy while they loaded up the cargo beneath. The seat itself was quite comfy though and I felt it had enough room. I could stretch my legs under the seat infornt without any problems and my knees werent pressed up against the seat infront at all. My only complaint about it would be the backrest seemed very upright when in the upright position. It was almost uncomfortable.
Once I'd sat in it a while though I got used to it and it didn't give me any aches or pains as I left it in this position throughout the flight. My only comfort complaint would be how warm the plane was on board. Despite having both air ducts above directed at me I was still warm throughout the flight.The cargo hold door was closed though and we begun taxing to the runway right on time. We took off from runway 23R on schedule and we were now on our way to Orlando!
During the flight
The flight was smooth going pretty much all the way with only a few minor bumps as we left Ireland. And I mean minor, I tend to pick up the smallest bumps being so nervous but even I could barely tell.
I was surprised how long it took after take-off for the IFE to become available. It seemed like ages until we were able to select a movie to watch. I'm a huge comic book fan so was happy to see Avengers and Batman were still showing. Just as I was about to start the first we were asked if we'd like our first drinks. This put my film on hold but I didn't mind as I opened up my first can of lager. Tiger and Heiniken were the options on this flight and I tried both. Tiger was by far the better of the two.
My girlfriend asked for a vodka and orange and she said it was the perfect mix, not too strong. 10/10 for drinks.
Before we'd barely had time to finish these, the first meal was being served. I wasn't too hungry having had a meal on the ground before boarding but opted for the bangers and mash. I was really impressed with this, the mash was great, and the sausage, although cheap etc wasn't bad at all. I could eat it anyway. 9/10 for this meal.
My girlfriend had the chicken which I didn't try but she said it was good. Both came with a salad tub, bread roll, and a dessert. The only bit I didn't have was the dessert. The salad was fresh and quite nice, although a little too much tomato for my liking, and the bread was fresh and good also.
Again, not long after the meal the drinks were offered again, by this time they'd already run out of Heiniken which is what forced me to try a Tiger, and I'm glad I did as I mentioned before, it was much better. I thought it a bit odd that they'd already run out of one stock though and we weren't even half way into the flight yet. They had kept the service coming so far though and this impressed me. 7/10.
There were then trollies of duty free etc to follow and snacks also. I decided not to buy any as Id bought some on the ground, and so settled into my movies.
The In Flight Entertainment
These A330-300 planes use the VERA touch screen system which also has a little remote at the side (which can also be pulled out for a keyboard on the back). The selection of films, TV shows etc, etc, is a huge choice all with excellent up to date films, with a varied selection to suit all ages.
The hardware is what lets it down...A LOT on this flight.
The touch screen is terribly calibrated and very insensitive. It does allow you to scroll through the film choices by swiping across the screen but this didn't seem to work, so I pressed the arrows either side of the screen which worked a little better, but as you see your film approaching it would scroll randomly back to the start!
VERY ANNOYING. So I took to using the controller on the right with real buttons. Much more reliable. I started my first film, Batman, which if anyone who's seen it will know it's rather a dark film. This didn't work well on the poor contrasting VERA screen. I had to turn the brightness and contrast right up in the settings to make it even slightly viewable. Closing the window blind helped a little more but it wasn't great viewing. I hoped the Avengers film would work better but I'm afraid not. Plus I didn't want the blind closed as I wanted to look out the window as much as I could.
I finally decided to try message my friend in another seat on the plane (as we were flying with a few friends but hadn't booked together and weren't too bothered about sitting together). The message system on the VERA is VERY Poor. I thought I would be able to take the controller out of the chair infront, and use the QWERTY keyboard on the back to type on the screen. Well you can't and so you have to type on the touch screen which is terrible and doesn't select what you press easily at all. I soon gave up and just got up to go speak to him.
The system relies too much on the touch screen when the controller is much more reliable and effective, yet they seem to have disabled it. I really wasn't impressed with the system at all, the only good thing is the selection of films.
2/10 for the IFE.
Back to the flight
As we flew down the East coast of America the pilot came on to inform us that we had NY on the right, luckily I had picked the window seat on this side and we had a fantastic clear view of the city. I was really thankful for him pointing this out to us so we didn't miss it. As we flew further down the east coast we hit a few more bumps in the air, again hardly anything though. My girlfriend and I then decided we'd like some of the crisps/chips advertised in the magazine so I asked a FA at the back of the plane who said they'd sold out of them ALL!!!
Again couldn't believe this, every type had gone! I thoguht they would have stocked up a bit better for such a busy flight. Luckily it wasn't long before they brought us the final in-flight meal out of cheese and onion sandwhiches. These were fantastic. Their only let down was the size, I was epecting 2 half sandwhiches or something, instead you get 2 crustless finger sandwhiches. Annoying when they taste so good I just wanted more! haha.
I was a little dissapointed that the cabin crews seemed to hide out at the back of the plane between meals and services. It seemed odd that there was so much service in the first half of the flight with constant drink offers etc, and in the second half we just got the sandwhich fingers. We both agreed that the service could have been spread out through the flight better. I also wasn't sure if any extra drinks I asked for would be free or not?
I returned to my final movie and before we knew it the IFE had been turned off as we made our approach down into MCO. It was a great clear day and so a perfectly smooth landing was made by the pilot. Some of the PX applauded, not sure why but I was happy enough to be on the ground.
After the flight
It seemed to take forever for the doors to open and I was in no rush to get off the plane, depsite the horrors I'd heard about immigration in MCO. We were wished on our way by the still smiling cabin crew as we were some of the last off the plane (no surprise being sat this far back), but luckily we were the only flight arriving at this time so less than an hour and we were through immigration.
Conclusion
Overall I enjoyed the flight, the staff were very helpful and the food and drink was excellent. The seat was still comfy by the time we landed and I was at no point uncomfortable, apart from the temperature on board.
The service was helpful and always with a smile and cabin crew seemed very happy chatting away with other staff and passengers alike.
The pilots kept us updated through the flight etc and gave us a very smooth flight throughout.
The IFE was my biggest let down, the films etc were great, the hardware is terrible though.
Scrores
Ground staff - 5/10 - average
Cabin Crew - 8/10 friendly, happy and helpful, just seemed to cram the service into the first half of the flight.
The aircraft - 10/10 clean, comfortable, quiet and smooth
IFE - 2/10 terrible system
Seats - 8/10 comfy and spacious enough for Economy.
Food/drink - 5/10 all delicious, just very under-stocked.
Overall - 8/10
Next time I need to cross the pond, I'm choosing Virgin Atlantic.
EDIT/ADDITION:
I managed to get time last night to get the outbound flight pictures off my proper camera so I've uploaded these for you all to see as well:
Over the Atlantic (not much of a view):
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/bobsy852/Florida%20Holiday/DSCF0196_zps611643e5.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/bobsy852/Florida%20Holiday/DSCF0202_zpsce49d9a4.jpg
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/bobsy852/Florida%20Holiday/DSCF0195_zpsa30ae976.jpg
Then as we neared New York we flew fairly close to an American Ariline flight so I got some pics of that too:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/bobsy852/Florida%20Holiday/DSCF0207_zps14d6dad2.jpg
Zoomed in a bit:
http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb198/bobsy852/Florida%20Holiday/DSCF0208_zps5c614372.jpg
Last edited by bobsy852 on 08 Feb 2013, 13:34, edited 1 time in total.
