This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
As we live in Shepperton, we decided to use the twilight check-in 2 reasons.
1. Make the morning of the flight as painless as possible.
2. Try and get the unallocated seats on the upper deck, and sit together.
I must admit, I was shocked when we arrived. My last experience of twilight checking was excellent No-one waiting Well this time, when we arrived, there must have been 50 people in front of us! The queue seemed to move VERY slowly. Actually, almost every person before us seemed to have a special request, and took about 10 mins per person to get checked in.
After 45 mins, we made it to the front of the queue. The lady who served us was somewhat stressed after the last family we checked in, and pleaded with us to be a straight forward checkin. We only had one request. 2 seats together on the upper deck. The woman seemed over the moon at such a simple request, and allocated us 75 A&C, the emergency seats. More than happy, we accepted and were on our way in under 3 mins!
Drove home, had a few beers and hit the sack.
Next morning, Taxi arrived at 6:30 and took us to the airport. Breezed past security in under 2 mins, and made our way for a nice large fried breakfast. Usual last minute shopping, and gate 31 was displayed on the screens.
Arrived at the gate, and waited for about 20 mins, and the boarding process started. I have to admit, this was the MOST organized boarding I have EVERY seen for ANY airline. First, called for pax with special needs, then for people with kids under 2. Then for upper class and PE pax. When the UC and PE people moved forward, so did many others, who were in Y. They were simply asked to return to their seats, and wait for their row to be called! Excellent to see such orderly boarding!
Boarded G-VAST (Lady bird) and made our way up into the hump.Offered the usual drinks, and me and Mrs Danno had a glass of bucks fizz. Several announcements wer made about waiting for missing pax, and finally pushed back 40 mins late.
Once up in the air, belt signs were off, and round came the drink trolley. Had a vodka. 5 mins later, more drinks, and another vodka. Then came the lunch, which we declined as the breakfast was still sitting on the top of the last nights meal. Had another vodka, and then another after lunch. Then came the brandy. After all that booze, I decided to take 120 winks.
Woke up just as afternoon tea was being served. Chicken rolls with fruit and 2 nice (and well needed) cups of tea. The 2 cabin crew on the upper deck were A1. By far the best I have ever seen in PE, and they seemed to get on well, and worked well as a team!
I had wanted to watch a few films, but there was no time left for that!
Belts on for landing. Nice view of the island as we came down.
Nice and smooth landing, and a slow taxi to terminal.
The unloading process did not work too well for PE pax on the upper deck. UC was off and clear first, but somehow, lots of Y pax managed to get off the plane before PE on the upper deck were off loaded. When we got to passport control, there must have been about 100 pax off the virgin flight in front of us, most of them with the virgin plastic bag over their shoulder.
All in all, one of my best PE flights with VS, although that might just have been the fact we left the kids home with my parents [}:)]
We picked up the car, and made our way to the Hilton. If anyone is planning to visit Barbados in the near future, and has not picked a hotel, I can REALLY REALLY REALLY recommend the Hilton. The hotel is new, the staff are keen and helpful, but not over the top. We had an exec room, which has access to the exec lounge. This includes a free comp breakfast every morning. Comp afternoon teas, evening cocktails and brandy nightcaps. Every room has a sea view, aircon and a balcony. The maid service is great, with an evening change of towels and turn down service.
So, enough from me Back to the beach to chill some more!
