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#939608 by Trax
15 Nov 2017, 19:51
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Well, back from our holiday at DisneyLand, so thought I better get the outbound trip report in.

As per my wave from the CH, the start was great, with a nice breakfast, although hard to manage on the small tables we had - sat at the end of the long seating section, facing the pool table, near the kids play area. The big bonus was a photo with Max Verstappen, who sat next to us with his girlfriend, (they had a breakfast with juice), and was on his way to Vegas. I did wait until he was leaving to ask for a photo, so hopefully I didn't let the side down....

Breakfast was finished with a Sweeny Todd and free back massage, the wife had nails done, so did Rain.

We then headed down to the gate en-mass, well about 6 or so of us when boarding was announced. They all seemed a friendly lot, and we ambled into the nose, squeezing past the PE lot who looked like they were all on. The UC cabin was full on the flight, which I think was pretty full all throughout.

We had the three front seats, 6A&K and 7A, which gave us a nice little snug area, especially with our 4 year old (Rain), who had pride of place in 6A. The Champagne was accepted, plus orange juice for Rain, although as I had took part in what I thought was a challenge to complete the cocktail list in the CH, I probably didn't require any more..........

Shortly after take off, menus were delivered and drinks offered. We had selected a child's meal for Rain, so she had pasta, and we had the steak. It was some soup for starter, I can't remember what it was, but it was green. It was great to be sat at a table and a have a meal with Rain in the seat opposite me (footstool), whilst drinking a decent red - cant remember which one, but it was the middle option.

After a while, we asked the cabin crew to turn Rains seat to a bed, which was very easy to do, and she settled down to watch TV. She never really slept for the flight, until about 30 mins before landing, so obviously we never did....

After an hour or so of film watching, we ordered some burgers from the graze menu, which were very nice, and started a chain reaction, though I do believe the flight crew did later ask around if anyone wanted food from it. After a bit of brandy, I tried to get a sleep, but Rain was up and about, so I didn't really get a chance. Though it was very easy to turn the seats into beds, and they were surprisingly comfy.

There was one other child in the the cabin, who was at crawling age, so Rain did have a little play/follow her around the cabin, which occupied her a little.

No one really sat/stood at the bar section for the flight, but it had two seats, and drinks set up at the back. I am sorry I didn't get the aircrafts name, but it was the seven seats either side in the nose configuration. The entertainment screens were touch screen.

Overall, we had a great flight, and would definitely fly UC again. As per usual I guess, immigration was an absolute nightmare at MCO. We stood for about an hour to get to a machine, which scanned the passport and took a photo, to then stand for another hour to see a real person, who did the same. Not very good, in what didn't appear to be a not air-conditioned room, stood in queues for a few hours.

Whats worse, is when we collected our (lots) of luggage into two carts, which weren't on the carousel, but had been dumped to the side, we walked about 50 yards to be met by an escalator, and told no carts, and carry 7 cases, plus hand luggage up the escalator, then onto a monorail on our own, with a 4 year old.

We would have would have been totally buggered had it not been for a very nice elderly American gentleman who helped us once we had struggled up the escalator, all the way to the AVIS car rental.

That glitch aside, our first experience in UC was fantastic, and I could, and probably will get very used to it.

Cheers

Jonathan.
#939612 by Trax
15 Nov 2017, 23:28
SlimpyJones wrote:Thanks very much Jonathan, sounds like a great trip. Hope your holiday followed suit :)


Thanks, the holiday itself was fantastic, as you can imagine with a 4 year old, lost of princess visits, and she loved Thunder Mountain and the Seven Dwarves train ride. She also made me of on Tower of Terror, 3 times on the trot....
#939613 by hiljil
16 Nov 2017, 08:42
Thank you for the TR. So pleased you enjoyed your UC experience but oh the horrors of immigration with a 4 year old :-O . Fortunately it sounds as though the holiday itself banished most of that negative start. Hope the return flight was good too.
#939617 by julmops
16 Nov 2017, 15:49
Great enjoyable TR to read !
However, the Disney fan in me can't help making a little remark ...
Disneyland is in California and is the original Disney park.
The Florida Disney resort is called Disney World ;)
I still have to experience the UC on the 747, maybe next time we're off to MCO.
#939618 by Trax
16 Nov 2017, 19:18
julmops wrote:Great enjoyable TR to read !
However, the Disney fan in me can't help making a little remark ...
Disneyland is in California and is the original Disney park.
The Florida Disney resort is called Disney World ;)
I still have to experience the UC on the 747, maybe next time we're off to MCO.


Thats really bad of me, I make a real effort to call it DisneyWorld as well, as I know the difference, I will blame it on a few drinks after the first day back at work....

As an aside to that, we had to queue at customer services at one of the parks, as my wife had left her magic band in the room. The guy behind us in the queue was explaining how stupid he was, as he had bought a day ticket online that morning - for DisneyLand, not World lol

You will love it in UC, and on balance if you can only do one way, I would go for outbound, as I think we got more out of it.

One of the gripes I forgot to mention about the UC experience, is that there is no overhead lockers for the first two seats either side.
#939633 by buns
17 Nov 2017, 17:43
Jonathan

Thanks for the super TR (albeit it has prompted me to try and get mine done :blush: ) and you and the family had such a good experience in the Clubhouse and on board.

Yes, the arrival into MCO can sometimes be a bit of a lottery, so much so that we now opt to have transport to take us to our hotel for the first night.

Thanks once again

buns
#939635 by Hev60
17 Nov 2017, 18:38
buns wrote:....
Yes, the arrival into MCO can sometimes be a bit of a lottery, so much so that we now opt to have transport to take us to our hotel for the first night.
buns


Buns, May I ask is that pre-booked transport or just going outside and hailing taxi service?

The reports about Orlando immigration is making me dread out arrival next June. Over recent years we have cleared immigration at a hub airport but coz of booking via VH have opted to go direct :-( I had planned to book a limo service to first hotel but how can we judge the times bearing in mind the 'lottery' of MCO these days?

I am interested to read how your arrival erxperience was recently, Hev
#939644 by buns
17 Nov 2017, 20:25
Hev60 wrote:
buns wrote:....
Yes, the arrival into MCO can sometimes be a bit of a lottery, so much so that we now opt to have transport to take us to our hotel for the first night.
buns


Buns, May I ask is that pre-booked transport or just going outside and hailing taxi service?

The reports about Orlando immigration is making me dread out arrival next June. Over recent years we have cleared immigration at a hub airport but coz of booking via VH have opted to go direct :-( I had planned to book a limo service to first hotel but how can we judge the times bearing in mind the 'lottery' of MCO these days?

I am interested to read how your arrival erxperience was recently, Hev


Hev
Mrs Buns and i have always opted for the VS15, so this is the last VS flight to arrive at MCO. As you will see from my TR, this time we were through surprisingly quickly (30 minutes) but we were the first off the aircraft. The "lottery" does result from a number of different factors, such as the number of Immigration Officers working and more importantly, if a preceeding flight was from a non english speaking country.

What I will say is the improvement works in Immigration Hall are nearly finished nearly finished and if fully manned, ought to speed things up.

This time we used Mears who are the company who provide the UC CDC service. Costs are comaparable to companies like Quicksilver . Both meet you opposite Carousel 8A (on the lower floor where bags are delivered if you choose not to take them yourselves after customs and near the Car Hire Desk.

These Companies are used to picking up passengers and do not charge extra if you take a long time to get through Customs. Indeed the VS27 passengers took 3 hours to get through on the day we arrived!! Hope this helps

buns
#939650 by Hev60
17 Nov 2017, 22:02
buns wrote:These Companies are used to picking up passengers and do not charge extra if you take a long time to get through Customs. Indeed the VS27 passengers took 3 hours to get through on the day we arrived!! Hope this helps
buns


Thanks for your reply Buns and I felt quite positive until your last sentence but then my heart sank ;-)

We are on the VS 27 ! Hev
#939665 by declansmith
18 Nov 2017, 15:48
Shame to hear you had to struggle with your bags.

Just to the left of the escalators are two Bagggage belts.. you place your bags back on them and you can collect them at corousel 8A right opposite the car rental counters.

Something to consider next time.
#939809 by Trax
22 Nov 2017, 19:21
declansmith wrote:Shame to hear you had to struggle with your bags.

Just to the left of the escalators are two Bagggage belts.. you place your bags back on them and you can collect them at corousel 8A right opposite the car rental counters.

Something to consider next time.


I did see the conveyors but the guys/porters telling people what to do said he would help us up the escalators, and we would then be OK, which obviously wasn't the case, as then we had the monorail and some walk to make after that. If he had said we could have sent the luggage on, that would have been better. At least we will know next time.

The other issue we had, was we went to the different Avis desk (Terminal B not A - or other way round). We only realised this after trying to find the Virgin Rep (next to carousel 8A) to collect my $200 spending money we got as part of the Virgin Holidays deal. Had to go up a lift across and back down to collect this, then back to the other side again to get the car. I did leave the family whilst I did this of course.

Ta
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