PART ONE
Leeds Bradford-Venice Marco Polo
Tuesday 24th October 2006
G-CELV Boeing 737-377 Jet2 Amsterdam
We left out house at 3.30am to get to LBA for 5am to check-in (God I hate these early starts [:(!]). There were only a few people ahead of us at check-in for other Jet2 flights so it was a quick and easy affair after waiting for about 10 minutes for check-in attendants to open up. My parents decided to upgrade to extra legroom seats. I declined to be upgraded so I was sat in 8C.
We then went upstairs for breakfast before heading through security. By now it was busier but it was all over in 10 minutes.
Once airside I decided to lie down and try to get some sleep because I am not a morning person and was so very tired[|)]. Failing to get some sleep we were then called to Gate 6 to be put onto buses to be taken to our aircraft which was G-CELV.
When I was taking my seat I was taken aback at the sight of Jet2 adverts on the overhead lockers advertising their destinations like 'Jet2.com...Gevena Jet2.com...London Gatwick' etc. I was also taken aback at the state of the seats. They were leather but looked really worn and tired. Did they not think to refit the aircraft when they got them or is it more probably heavy wear and tear [:?]
On the backs of seats they were also advertising their 5 Meal Deal which consisted of...
Sandwich Hot drink Can of Pringles
We were all seated in time for take-off which was on time at 7.50am.
Todays routing was as follows...
Over Grimsby and Cleethorpes North Sea Amsterdam (right turn at this point) Cologne Frankfurt Stuttgart Innsbruck Austrian/Italian Alps Westerly approach into Venice
After the seat-belt sign was switched off the cabin crew proceeded through selling drinks and snacks. I decided to buy a bottle of water (1.50) and settled down to reading the paper and listening to some music on my MP3 player.
About half an hour later the crew came round again to sell Duty Free items. At this point I bought a 737-300 model to add to my collection. In between all this they came round collecting rubbish using this plastic orange bag which gave off a really foul smell which made me cough whenever they went by with it [:$]
The criusing altitude was 35,000ft and the time practically flew by on the short 2-hour hop to Venice.
We landed at around 11.15am local time 10 minutes behind schedule on Runway 4R. The taxi to the remote stand was bumpy and rapid and before we knew it the seat-belt sign was switched off and the cabin crew thanked us for flying with Jet2.
Disembarkation was quick and were swiftly through immigration and collecting our luggage. We then bought a 72hr waterbus pass to allow us to get a waterbus to Venice and to allow us to get around this fine city and its islands quickly. The journey between Marco Polo Airport and Piazza San Marco was 1h30 so I decided to fall asleep for the journey [|)]
PART TWO
Venice Marco Polo-Leeds Bradford
Friday 27th October
G-CELS Boeing 737-377 Jet2 Leeds Bradford
After having a nice break enjoying fine Italian wine, shopping, sightseeing, walking, eating pizza[:D] and laughing whenever Gondoliers were touting potential customers by saying 'Gondola, gondola!' it was time to head back home.
I did not have a comfortable night. I was in the middle of a nice dream involving a nice girl (not the one mentioned here) when I got woken up by this bloody mosquito in my room which seemed to come buzzing near me and only discovered about 2 hours ago it has left me with 7 BITES! [:(!]
Anyway we took the Gold Line waterbus to Marco Polo Airport and got there for 8.30am. We then headed down to the restaurant at the other end of the check-in hall for breakfast. Check-in opened at 10am but the queue was long and took 45 minutes. We then proceeded to security, before heading to Gate 26.
Boarding commenced at 11.30am and on the way to the aircraft noted the following jets...
US Airways B767 N252US heading to Philadelphia, then Los Angeles
Delta B767 N171DN heading to New York JFK
KLM B737 PH-BDW heading to Amsterdam
British Airways B737 G-GBTB heading to London Gatwick
Aeroflot A320 heading to Moscow but went tech...engine No.2 cowling open
Boarding was quick and I took my seat. The condition of this aircraft was different to the outbound one. Although the seats didnt look as worn I noticed that some of the interior panels were glued together using Polyfiller [:0]
We were delayed for half an hour because the radar at the airport had failed and there was localised fog (very common in Venice) and had to be escorted away from the remote stand by this 4x4 with a dot matrix display on the roof saying 'FOLLOW ME'.
We took off from runway 4R and climbed into the sky. A few minutes later the cabin crew put some water on to boil and forgot about it and it started overflowing from the kettle[B)] I saved them from further embarrasment by pushing the 'Cabin Crew Call' button and told them about it.
My seat was 1C but moved to 1F when I noticed the row was empty so that I could admire the Alps. Which reminds me here's todays routing...
Alps Switzerland/Austrian/German border Stuttgart German/French border Holland North Sea/London
Drinks and snacks service was started half an hour into the flight. I bought a bottle of water then settled down to listen to my MP3 player admiring the scenery. A point of note is that the window blind was broken for seat 1F and that the window frame was pushed inwards, yes INWARDS revealing a small black gap [:0]
The cruising altitude was 34,000ft and the top speed was 554mph. There was light to moderate turbulence throughout the flight but not strong enough to justify putting the seatbelt sign on.
We landed on runway 32 at LBA 35 minutes late and parked at an airbridge, which is just as well really because I hate buses literally.
We were the first off the plane and luggage was reclaimed quickly before heading to our car for the 2hr drive back to Wigan thanks to a busy M62 [n]
OVERVIEW
We decided to book with Jet2 because the price at the time was very good for 3 people (around 300 at time of booking in January) and the only other option was with Ryanair from Liverpool to Venice Treviso. Last year (2005) Jet2 and BA ran MAN-VCE which would've been really convenient for us (and me because I could've had longer in bed heheheh). For 2007 Jet2 have announced MAN-VCE starting in May which will be very convenient.
We have decided that we will not use Leeds-Bradford again as a first choice because it is a real pain to get to form the M62 and navigating through Bradford or Leeds.
Whether I personally will use Jet2 again I'm not sure. I was put off by the condition of the interior of the two different 737-300s I've been on. But I couldn't argue with the price and the crew on the return flight were a really friendly bunch. In fact the friendliest bunch I've ever seen apart from VS.
Venice is a beautiful city and I fully recommend it as a city break or for a weeks holiday even. The city has a good feel to it and the food is great.
I would finally like to thank you for taking the time to read my report and if anyone has any questions/comments they will be greatly appreciated [y]
