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#939678 by deep_south
19 Nov 2017, 12:41
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A one week holiday at Sandals South Coast, booked under their "2 for 1" sale back in the summer. Now that both my wife & I have taken early retirement, we can take advantage of the these deals as we are fully flexible.

We booked this in Economy as an experiment to see if was "bearable" - we always booked PE as I needed to come back overnight to be fit for work the day later, but that isn't needed now. The savings would mean an extra short break somewhere.

We were pleasantly suprised; VS65 was completely full, with a mix of around 2/3 locals going home, and 1/3 holiday makers. The seat was fine for such a long flight (10 hours). Service and food was fine with a few water runs. IFE was OK on the old-ish 747. So no issues on the flight at all.

We used the twilight checkin to drop the bags off around 5:30pm and there was a short queue, and stayed overnight at the Premier Inn - they have some really good prices at times, and it is so convenient.

Security the next morning was very quick; Sandals had given us priority access and the Number 1 lounge which was fairly quiet. We had breakfast at the Premier Inn which was good and hearty which was just as well; the bacon roll you can order in the No. 1 lounge is just a standard small bap with not much bacon.

Boarding was straightforward and well organised. Adequate space in the overheads, but some people didn't seem to understand the carry on limits, and the boarding staff didn't try to enforce them so late comers on board did have some issues.

We left just about on time; the flight didn't have much turbulence but the seat belt signs were on for 3 long-ish periods of about 45 minutes each even when there was no turbulence around....

We arrived into Mobay a few minutes early into a pretty empty airport - I guess one advantage of the early evening (5:30pm) arrival. As we were near the front of the Y section we got through immigration within about 10 minutes but the queue was building behind us.

The first case came out in about 15 minutes but the second case took around 45, and a lot of people were still milling around. We headed off to the Sandals lounge for a much needed drink and then waited for about 20 minutes for the shuttle which we shared with just one other couple so we had plenty of space which was just as well; the journey took 2 hours which wasn't fun - the Mobay rush hour was bad.

So made it at last; had some drinks, something to eat then then crashed out ready to start the vacation.
#939698 by hiljil
20 Nov 2017, 08:06
Thank you for your TR. it is pleasing to hear that your flight in economy proved to be successful so you can save for another mini break. Just a pity that the journey to Sandals itself wasn’t so pleasant ! However, I’m sure your stay there soon made you forget all about it :-D

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