This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
The Crown Room is no Clubhouse but still much more desirable than the main gate areas at MCO, with the associated children running around. Free WiFi access was used in the Crown Room & we also took advantage of the bar service on a few occasions, why do I get the impression that a lot of people on here like bars?
The priority boarding call went out for the flight, so left my friend in the lounge and headed back to gate 85. I was onboard and seated with a glass of bubbly in hand within 5mins. One of the crew had also been on my outbound flight last week & she recognised me, addressed me by name & asked if Id had a good week in Florida. Wow I dont know if VS give their crew details of the UC pax outward flights or if she genuinely remembered whichever way, this was impressive given that it was only my second UC flight & Im only FC Red, so an easily forgettable passenger.
Sleep suits were handed out prior to departure. Once airborne the service started & the IFE system was booted up with the warning from the FSM that it can be slow if everyone tries to access it at once, so please be patient. Slow was not the word I would use to describe it I could not get the Skymap to work, it just kept on constantly rebooting itself. I never thought I would say it, but Nova IFE all is forgiven!
It has to be said that the general state of G-VAST / Ladybird is verging on the tatty side. The UC suites had more scuff marks etc than the outward flight. The movable armrest on 9K did not lock into place, so as soon as you leant on it, it moved. As the armrest would not lock in the up or down position, your shoulder space was limited when the seat was in bed mode (worth a letter to VS in view of their current ad campaign highlighting the 33inches of shoulder space?) The table on 9A would not release either, despite the crews attempts to jemmy it free with a safety card and a sharp thump. Both UC toilets on the aircraft are worn & showing their age.
The FSM came round & delivered a Scrooge Pack & personal greeting to each UC passenger, whilst offering a basket containing most of the extras that were probably contained in the previous amenity kit. I mentioned the lack of Skymap to the FSM & she said she would get back to me on this. Later in the flight she appeared & said they could not get it to work, but she told me where we were as of 5 mins ago, as per the flight deck.
Cannot remember what the starter was for dinner, but had lamb for the main course, followed by cheese & ice cream. The lamb was OK, but the best 2 courses were definitely the cheese & ice cream. Straight after dinner I headed off to change into the sleep suit while the crew converted my seat to a bed. Had a few hours of sleep the only problem was the armrest that would not lock in the down position, which really made a difference to the shoulder space offered by the suite. By the time I woke up, the problem with the Skymap had been sorted out.
The purple mood lighting was turned back on an hour out of Manchester for breakfast to be served. The breakfast was OK quite nice to have a bacon roll and coffee in bed on a flight.
We landed about half an hour early at MAN. Priority baggage worked very well the bags were through within 5mins of arrival in the baggage hall. I was through customs & in the car park within 10mins of getting off the aircraft.
This was another good UC flight, but the overall experience was slightly marred by the faulty suites & the general state of the aircraft. The crew were excellent & gave very good, friendly, service. I guess its time to start planning my next trip to the USA now ideally on a LHR route so I can really get the full UC experience.
As with the outward TR, hope this has not been too bad to read.
Thanks
James
