Upon exiting the customs screening area at T1 we took the specific lane for Virgin Blue onward connections. Our inbound flight had been delayed so our connection time was reduced to under an hour. Virgin Blue have 3 check-in desks located within the international terminal, however they operate from T2 domestic which is on the opposite side of he airfield. Its a bus ride away so an hour to make this flight was to be very tight indeed. The check-in desks all had queues 10-12 passengers deep, great!!! We made a decision after 5 minutes to get the bus straight to T2 and to try and make check-in over there due to the lines at T1 International moving so slowly.
The check-in area at T1 were giving out free bus vouchers, we snapped a couple up and made the 10 minute trip round to T2. The bus driver certainly responded to our urgency, either that or he was a willing Alan Jones or Mark Webber wannabe. Virgin Blue shares this terminal with Jetstar and a couple of other small operators. On route, we passed the old Terminal that Virgin Blue used to use before the demise of Ansett. It reminded me of the dreaded CVT shed thats still in operation, this version is currently being used by DHL so its found itself a better tenant given the facilities available to us self loading freight!
By the time we had cleared the bus and entered the terminal it was 09.50 and our flight was due to leave at 10.15. We quickly found a ground agent who told us to use one of the Blue Check self service machines which I though was strange, anyway in a rush I didnt question her. The machine was very user friendly, it uses touch screen functions and prints your boarding cards in the format of your average Tesco shopping receipt. All was looking well, I had progressed to the last stage, selected seating and had selected print your boarding cards At this point, the machine duly crashed. Noooooo!
Mad dash followed back to the ground agent who told us the whole check-in computer system has been down for the last 25 minutes so all flights were to be delayed, thats why the self service machine failed. Why did you send us to one then!!!!!!!! We were instructed to join a line of 30 passengers who all turned out to be waiting for our flight. The system come back up 10 minutes later, check-in staff worked very quickly and we were checked in at 10.10, Instructions were given to go straight to the gate which we did, and we boarded immediately. Panic over as the ticket we had was non transferable and non refundable. Bags turned up shortly afterwards alongside the a/c (B738) and were loaded 2 under each arm at a time
First impressions of the cabin were good, seat pitch reasonable for my silly frame size Seats were all leather though and it didnt take long with the heat to get moulded to them.
Pushback and taxi were very swift and we were ready for take-off by 10.35, not bad at all given some of the previous problems. We were soon into the air off a very short roll and out over Botany Bay before making a turn westbound for Melbourne. VS aircraft had soon been moved onto a remote stand which we passed shortly before we rotated.
Flight time is only an hour so the crew were soon into confectionary store mode (a la FR/EZY) selling Pringles and muffins. Their service seemed pretty popular as they only just finished by the time we got to Melbourne.
Conditions had been cloudy at Sydney but soon cleared giving good views all the way. Our routing took us straight over Canberra and direct from there to Tullamarine. Shot of Canberra as we passed -
[img]http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r280/tallprawn/DSC00125.jpg[/img]
We made the stand just after schedule and disembarked via an air bridge into what can only be described as chaos. Virgin Blue seems to have significantly outgrown their facilities at Melbourne given the numbers of people crammed in and sitting on the floor. Baggage followed after 15-20 minutes, ours were as good as first off, live and learn please VS!!!!!! A rather rushed but pleasant experience duly ended.
We exited the terminal and picked up the Skybus to Spencer Street Station and onwards from there to our hotel on Southbank.
