This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
"Not like anything you've ever experienced before" I tell him...
"Princess, there is no CH! There's a shared lounge"
Now if I was great with words I would describe the look on his face, I'm not, so... just think of Picasso's The Scream.
Our trip to Miami and key west was fantastic, we met some great people who we'll keep in touch with. We had so much fun and we drank way to much...even by our standards!
The plan for departure day was simple: check out at 3pm, have some food, get the car from the parking lot, fill the tank with "gas", drive to airport, check in, lounge (no booze), board (no champagne), have dinner, settle down for some sleep and no trip to the bar!
Failure to plan is planning to fail...so I tell simon...sometimes!
I really don't know why I bother!
At 3pm the heavens opened and unleashed a storm of biblical proportions, we checked out but food was out of the question as we couldn't walk out in that rain! My weave was not getting wet!
I waited until 16:15 and decided I had to get the car, Collins avenue was flooded in parts! I had to remove my shoes and wade through water almost up to my knees to access the parking lot! I drove to the hotel, picked simon up but the traffic was horrendous!
When I turned off to get petrol I got lost and it took so long after filling up to find my way I ended up getting charged for not having a full tank when I finally dropped the car off at 18:15!
My nerves and our relationship got stretched in those 2 hours, let me tell you.
Finally out of the car we headed to the monorail and onto concourse F to the virgin check in desks! DTCI this is not!
I've never been in such a dated airport, not a very nice place.
We headed to check in, there were 2 in front of us. Both passengers found it strange that porters took their bags after they were weighed! Luckily I have read TR's from MIA and knew what to expect.
Check in was fine, nothing to shout about. I got the feeling she wanted to be some place else. She handed our lounge invites to us and we made our way to security.
There was an American family in front of us, the father objected to everything security asked so it slowed the fast track down a bit.
Both me and simon had our shoes removed and the full body X-ray. First time for us!
Finally thro security we left the American family behind, by this time we had found out they were on our flight! As it turned out they were lovely, we spent some time at the bar drinking with them.
We made our way to the lounge. Not great.
Think back to the initial plan, no booze, but after the stress of the drive I had some wine. Bad idea because I hadn't eaten since breakfast! After 2 glasses I wandered down to duty free and bought 2 magnums of grey goose and some agave patron. Never shop when tipsy!
Back in the lounge the food offering was terrible but the wine was going down a treat! As soon as I heard priority boarding was in place I was up like a shot (8pm if I recall)
We made our way down where lots of passengers were trying to board, luckily the staff were very firm and moved everyone back. I didn't like the looks we got from others as we passed in front of them.
We picked up our drink just after the gate on our and made our way to 18&19A on tubular belle! (We didn't get moved this time!)
First impressions. Much cleaner and hardly any noticeable damage than on our previous flight. I was impressed given she is one of the oldest 747's.
The cabin itself has so much room and is very private! Feels very exclusive.
I settled into my surroundings and accepted no more than 2 glasses of champagne before take off!
Now you all know my love for the onesie and I desperately wanted one! So when my neighbour (17A) started talking to me she told me there were no sleep suits available today, just a onesie that doesn't fit!
I span around like the sugar plum fairy and grabbed the first passing crew:
"Have you got the onesie?"
"Yes"
My life complete, onesie in hand, I changed in the toilets!
I skipped back into the cabin in all my splendour feeling very proud...got lots of attention from the girl opposite who was also in the onesie! We helped each other out with photos...as you do.
Simon scoffed and said I looked ridiculous.
Then everyone in the A zone bar 5 ppl got up and changed!
Simon got up and said when in Rome, disappeared and came back in a onesie.
So now there were 10 of us in onesies!
18k looked at me and said "happy onesie day" and I couldn't agree more!
For those who didn't see the onesie from an earlier post, here's me and simon...
This set the tone for the flight!
We took off on time with 374 pax onboard.
Drink orders were taken and crips gladly received. I opted for a Cosmo no ice, simon a Moscow mule!
Our plans were well and truly out of the window!
Before dinner we both had 2 more glasses of champagne.
We sat together for dinner but 17A asked us to move because were "giggly"! I'm a 32 year old man and I don't giggle, neither does simon! Excitable little girls maybe, but not giggly!
Not to cause a problem we picked up our handbags and moved to 19A.
The CSM for upper was confused why we moved, so we explained. She was not happy. Then the FSM came around to make sure we were ok. I wasn't bothered but simon was riled by it all. The FSM came back round with wine. After all we had drunk and the little we had eaten, we had 2 Chardonnays to help fill us up.
Dinner was:
salmon rillette for me, lovely
Tomato soup for simon, he liked it
2 very full glasses of Chardonnay
2 beef with chive mash, best main meal I've had.
2 chocolate fondants, simon ate both.
Simon ate both because I started talking with 17A (she stood by us), I had a feeling she thought we were staff. She did! I quickly corrected her and told her we were on holiday, in seats paid out of our own pockets.
This isn't the first time we've been mistaken for staff.
The 3 of us had a nice chat, she went to her suite we went to the bar!
What plan you say?
I'm afraid to say we stayed at the bar for a long time, chatting with crew and pax and drinking lots of champagne.
The only rule at the bar was...you had to wear a onesie! At one point there was 6 pax and 2 crew. I really wish I had taken a picture but we were all having a great time I didn't even think!
As it was a night flight I was very aware that pax were trying to sleep so I made sure we kept the noise down.
I popped down the back to see some friends and deliver some champagne. I finally decided to call it a night!
Ok, so our plans didn't really work out but I did go to bed, just not in the right order!
I woke up 2 hours out of LHR, the crew saw I was awake and told me to go back to sleep, they gave me a large bottle of water and an oj and I managed to doze some more.
When I woke simon had missed breakfast and so did I, but we got a bacon sandwich 5 mins b4 the fasten seat belt sign was on.
The crew were fantastic they kept my coffee topped up for as long as they could!
It seemed like we were in a stack for ages but we finally arrived to a sunny Heathrow...just with cloudy heads!
No queues at security and bags were out within 5 mins.
Made our way to Revivals...full English was just what we needed! No showers or treatments, just food and them home!
So another fun flight with virgin. Not a bad thing to say about the crew they were all fantastic.
They are all looking forward to the new 787's and can't wait to get their sexy Vivienne Westwood uniforms. The collars on the female jackets look amazing!
The cabin was clean and maintained to a very high standard.
Entertainment system...I didn't bother with it. It was restarted and really slow throughout the flight.
This flight made us silver, I don't think We'll get to the heady heights of gold.
But, I do have a plan
so I'm planting the seed with simon...I know there's talk about virgin loosing "it" but we love flying virgin more and more every time!
We now look forward to our next adventure....
(God help that small cabin)
Thanks for reading
Darren
