V-Flyer

Battled our way to Stansted from the Midlands early on Thursday morning, only to find no traffic on the A14 and were surprised to arrive far too early at Stansted's Pink Elephant parking. Hopped on the transfer bus and located Maxjet's check in desks next to the EOS ones. Unfortunately, they weren't open but we only had to wait 15 minutes before they did. Very thorough checks before we were even allowed near the check in desks. Thankfully, there were only a couple of people in front of us so it didn't take long at all. We were warned that the lounge would be fairly full due to the New York flight departing before the Vegas one so we decided to do a bit of shopping before transferring to Maxjet's lounge which is reached by a transit monorail. Can't fault the lounge (obviously no clubhouse) as there was plenty of seating (some comfy but mostly cafe style tables/chairs in beech wood. It was the usual fare of muffins, cake, nuts but later on there were some sandwiches and hot satays. Most types of alcohol was available except champagne.
The New York flight was called leaving the lounge very quiet but that soon changed when the Vegas people started filling up the lounge.
Flight called and boarding was done in row formation with the back rows first followed by the front rows. We had 1J&K so waited until the next batch were called. Bearing in mind the plane only holds 102 people, it wasn't very long to wait at all.
We were offered canapes of melon or beef and goats cheese with water or kir royale to drink. Bottles of Evian were handed out too.
Took off on time and settled into our seats with a round of drinks swiftly offered - the champagne wasn't too bad on this airline which makes a nice change. We were then issued with our inflight entertainment DigEplayers which have to be placed on the tray table to watch but at least it's video on demand. A fairly decent selection of about 20 films, 10 TV programmes and 10 cartoons so enough to keep you occupied.
Menus were already in the seat pockets so at least we knew what to expect. There were 2 meat dishes and a fish dish (Salmon Teryaki)which were nice. A salad and roll were initially offered and removed, then the main course was given out, followed by a separate dessert which I didn't bother with. A liqueur round of either Baileys or Amaretto were offered following the meal.
The flight attendants were all USA citizens (definitely of the older variety compared to the Virgin staff).
Nearer to the landing time, a snack was offered and we were advised we were arriving in LAS 30 minutes earlier than planned.
A very wobbly/shaky landing followed (if you were a little delicate of stomach, this landing would not have done you much good). However, we were not allowed to taxi to the gate due to the Virgin plane still being on the ground. We waited 30 minutes for the Virgin plane to go and then arrived at the gate. This delay unfortunately meant that we arrived at the same time as a plane from Mexico meaning the queues in immigration were longer than normal. At least it meant that our bags were waiting for us when we arrived.
Will report on the return journey later.