This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
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Cabin Crew
This started a few months ago as some of you may remember with me finding two elusive G's on the Orlando route. I had been looking for a little while as I had just about enough miles to do a M to G upgrade. One very quick phone call to the Flying Club and my E-Ticket arrived just seconds later - woop!
I selected my chosen seat - 10A promptly the day the new seating system went online. I would be flying with my parents on this trip too - they were in the premium cabin so forgive me if I refer to aspects of their trip too.
OLCI was done, as ever, on the dot at T minus 24. I was still in my chosen seat and I had scored another Seq 1. Holiday is going well so far!
We all went up the afternoon before to the Hilton. My parents had some HHonours miles to burn and so very kindly booked me a room too. I haven't stayed at the Hilton for several years, preferring the new Premier Inn next to the North Terminal. I must say, on reflection, I still find the Premier Inn better. My room at the Hilton wasn't very well sound proofed and just a little on the noisy side. I also thought that it wasn't really that close to the south terminal check in. I wish I could have done a conclusive test but I am almost certain that there is less time AND walking involved going from the Premier Inn than there was getting from the Hilton.
Anyhoo, on to check in. I was seen very promptly at the Upper Class check in the next day (no hint of being directed back to the economy queue!). It wasn't the warmest of welcomes, which I am now thinking is the norm for Gatwick and as per usual I had to ask to have a customs form. Just the usual "where are you going to, passport and boarding pass please, how many bags etc. I think I may have got a "have a nice flight". Nothing special but nothing wrong either.
Security was quite busy I thought. The priority lane wasn't really any quicker than the normal line but I still spent less than 10min waiting so nothing to get worried about. I appreciated the new signage for the Clubhouse that saves you being directed downstairs only to have to trek upstairs again!
The clubhouse welcome was lovely as usual. I had a favour to ask the gatekeepers this time too. I wanted to guest both my parents in. I knew I could have one guest on my ticket but would it be possible to pay for the other? Not a problem in the slightest....they were ever so helpful. So I left their names at the front desk and went into the sanctuary of the Clubhouse. Facial was booked and eggs florentine ordered along with a most welcome pot of tea. My parents arrived a short time later. Once again the clubhouse staff had excelled themselves in making them feel welcome too and they brought them over to where I was sitting. The simplest of touches but it really made them feel important - big thumbs up!
We all headed over to gate 19 a bit before the gate was called. The boarding process, I am afraid to say was a bit of a mess. No separate calls for special assistance, or any of the premium cabins, or even row numbers. The announcement was simply "would everyone please like to board". You can imagine the scramble!! Bearing in mind there was still over 330 people on this flight, I think a little bit of spacing out would have been justified! Luckily we did make it on quite quickly.
I was the first to arrive in the cabin and gratefully accepted a glass of champers. Refills were offered too (no sign of cutbacks here!). I have marked the cabin crew down slightly here as the CSS didn't actually introduce herself to me or say anything much more than to ask if I had flown in Upper before. I must have a thoroughly miserable face or something as I noticed other passengers in the cabin were greeted a lot more warmly than I. This was the case through the entire flight as some passengers had a lovely long chat over the meal choices/drinks etc, getting a bit of banter going where I was just asked what I wanted and that was it...no real interaction at all really. I can only describe it as being left with the feeling like I was the unpopular kid at school or something and no one wanted to talk to me! Maybe I should have said it was my first trip and then they may have spoken more to me...anyhoo first world problems and all, I'm over it! I think this is more my interpretation of the service rather than any specific problems, as I was never left wanting for anything drinks/food wise. Just a slight negative feeling I couldn't help being left with which I have not had before.
We pushed back on time and were promised a flight time of just under 9 hours with some turbulence expected off the eastern coast of the US later on.
Drinks were delivered along with crisps soon after take off. Movie was selected.....ahh I was settled in nicely. That seat is sooo comfy, I simply cannot rave enough about it! Menus were also handed out soon after and the meal order taken.
As has been mentioned before the options were:
Starter
Pea and mint soup
Mozarella and tomatoes
Warm chicken satay
Main
Lemon and thyme chicken
Keralan Curry
Seafood linguine
Chilled Thai beef salad
Pudding
Chocolate torte
Warm brioche and butter pudding
I had the mozarella which I can honestly say was one of the nicest starters I have ever had, never mind that it was served on an aeroplane! I also had the curry. I am a wimp when it comes to spicy food so promptly turned the colour of light under the ottoman after just a few mouthfuls! It was a very nice curry though and tasted lovely. The delicious chenin blanc I had helped to cool my mouth down a bit too! Pudding was the brioche and butter for me which was heavenly. I love, love, love bread and butter pudding so this was just perfect for me. I even saved some room for the cheese and biscuits and a glass of cognac which rounded off the meal perfectly.
I bedded down for a couple of hours after dinner - all that pudding and brandy makes one rather dozy!! I made sure to have an eye open for the ice cream though!!
The other CC made a real effort during the afternoon to come round and offer the light bites menu to everyone, this was a great touch as I am not sure if people would have asked for it otherwise. I explained that I was simply too full from the lovely lunch to need anything but thanked him. My mum came and found me when it was very quiet and perched on my ottoman for a couple of minutes (we were both very conscious not to disturb anyone so kept it brief). She also explained where the snacks were (I had noticed they weren't on the bar). These were behind the main UC cabin and available to PE passengers also. I think Virgin are rolling out the "Wander Wall" idea across the fleet, which is great, if you know it's there!! So breakfast bar in hand I went back to my seat.
Unfortunately the previously mentioned turbulence hit just as the afternoon tea service commenced (it must be rule that turbulence has to coincide with hot drinks
!). I just about managed to slurp my tea without spilling it! The sandwiches weren't as nice as I had on my previous fight. I found them a little bland and stale which was a shame. The scone was lovely though and went down a treat!The turbulence was quite rough for a while and meant that they flight crew were struggling to get the seat belts signs turned off for pax to use the restrooms before we made our final approach. This wasn't communicated very clearly from the CC though who just read the standard final announcement about using the restrooms now before the captain turned on the seatbelt sign for the final time. If the seatbelt sign is on and we are still rocking about quite lot...surely I can't/shouldn't use this opportunity to use the restroom right??!! I think there may have been a bit of confusion about whether the cabin was being secured for landing or whether we were in turbulence as I was told to stow my screen for landing before we had even started to descend with nearly an hour to go!!
We made it down more or less on time and more importantly about 5min ahead of the Manchester flight (I saw it come in to land as we were taxiing to the terminal)!! This meant we exited into a empty immigration hall and were seen quickly by a very friendly immigration officer. There was a bit of a queue for customs as a flight from Jamaica was just clearing through too. We just had the final fun at the car hire desk trying to convince the agent that the car we have booked will be plenty big enough for us three....as he shows us a picture of a Fiat 500....whilst perfectly keeping the look of disbelief/horror on his face that we dare think we could fit into anything so small!!! As usual we get to the garage to find no Fiat 500s even exist with a choice of Nissan Versas or Ford Fiestas - both more than adequate for all of us!! It's a fun tradition though - like riding Splash Mountain, just one of those things you must do on arrival to Orlando!
Overall this was a really great flight - it just perhaps didn't have the "wow" feel that my first fight last year did, maybe that's just me though. Now to enjoy the holiday!
Thanks for reading.
