This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Naturally uplifted by this we made our way to the Clubhouse and went for the full American. For me this was a mistake - I'm not a big fan of the anaemic American sausage nor the greasy potato hash and fatty bacon. Still the poached eggs were only slightly overdone. Whilst Mrs D caught up on the papers I browsed v-Flyer and tried to book an Addison Lee pickup - failing in this endeavour because the Mac browser and the Addision Lee website don't get on. Still you can't go far wrong with a telephone booking.
Off through security where we were fast tracked - a welcome surprise. Shoes, belt, laptop all removed and scanned and then a brisk walk to gate 26 where Priority Boarding was being slowed down by the insistence of the security officer that all boarding passes have contact details annotated. Presented myself to the check in lady and awaited the upgrade 'bing' but no such luck. Mrs D and I explained that we'd been told to expect an upgrade and were referred to the supervisor who handed over the precious purple to me but had no record of an upgrade for Mrs D! She was stoically accepting of this (afterwards telling me she would have insisted on swapping seats if she was left in PE) but the station supervisor made the wise decision and instructed the ground crew to 'just issue it'.
On board to seats 6 and 7K and usual ritual ensued. Several of the staff are familiar today and we had a good old chin wag with the SCC. Take off provided nicely panoramic views of New York and once airborne the IFBT came to my seat for a nice nail tidy up. Galley FM seems convinced of the likelihood of a Toronto routing and we had a good goss about the joys of frequent flying and V-Flyer! She also kindly provided a card with contact numbers for the Club Houses.
Whilst I was being treated the FSM dropped by and greeting Mrs D by name he welcomed her back on board - asking how New York had been.
v:Port had the following films
Adrift, Always - Sunset on Third Street, An Inconvenient Truth, The Ant Bully, Barnyard, The BReak-Up, Cars, Chup Chup Ke, Clerks II, Click, The Da Vinci Code, The Devil Wears Prada, Elf, Gangster, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, The Host, Ice Age 2:The Meltdown, John Tucker Must Die, Little Manhattan, Little Miss Sunshijne, Look Both Ways, Malik W Kitaba, Mischief Night, Miami Vice, Mission Impossible III, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Nacho Libre, New Police Story, The Bight Listener, The Notorious Bettie Page, The Omen, Over The Hedge, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, The Polar Express, Poseidon, The Promise, The Queen, Red Road, A Scanner Darkly, The Sentinel, Severance, The Shoe Fairy, Snakes on a Plane, Star Reformers, Stormbreaker, Superman Returns, Talldega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Trick 2, Tristan & Isolde, Trust the Man, X-Men: The Last Stand, You, Me and Dupree, The Wicker Man.
The menu (VS 18/26 Autumn 2006) was as follows :-
Breakfast
Selection of breakfast cereals - Cornflakes, Weetabix, Fruit 'n' Fibre, Special K
Warm bagels served with cream cheese
Butter Croissants and blueberry muffins served with a sleection of preserves, marmalade, honey, strawberry and blackcurrant jams
Seasonal fresh fruit served with natural yoghurt
Bacon roll served with either tomato ketchup or brown sauce
Cheese omelette served with smoked bacon, saut_ed new potatoes and Roma tomato
Lunch
Starters
Seasonal leaf salad with smoked duck, blue cheese, grapes and cranberry and orange vinaigrette
Tomato bisque served with a choice of warm breads
Main Courses
Crusted lamb served with parsnip fries, green beans and merlot & thyme sauce
Poached salmon with vegetable julieenne, red bliss potatoes and Napa Valley Chardonnay sauce
Thai green vegetable curry served with jasmine rice and toasted coconut
Cheese
Buttermilk blue - a creamy blue veined cheese wiytrich burttermilk flavours
Aged Cheddar - semi-hard mature cheddar, sarp to taste
Double Cream Brie - soft textured cheese, mild and creamy in taste witha bloomy white rind
Cheeses are served with organic assorted crackers and grapes
Dessert
Fresh autumn berry sponge served with mascarpone cheeses
Dulce de leche ice cream served with chocolate sauce and crushed Crunchie pieces
I had the bacon roll (yummmm) the salad (tasty), the salmon (OK
) and the cheese (yumm again).Champagne - Laurent Perrier Brut nv
Prosecco di Valdobbiadene, Trevisol & Figli nv, Veneto, Italy
White Wines
Domaine de Coudoulet Chardonnay 2005, Languedoc, France
Sauvignon Ormoz Jerusalem 2005, Slovenia
Pinot Grigio 'Nec Otium', Veneto, Italy
Red Wines
Corbieres 2004, Chateua du Tour Grande Moulin, France
Bardolini 2005, Monte del Fra, Italy
Berrys' own selection Rioja 2001, Bodegas Amezola de la Mora, Spain
Each wine featuring its own hagiography though to be honest a description of 'This is redolent of its birthplace,sturdy, not pretty but clearly impressive and a little wild' almost seems to be challenging you to dare to drink it. Regretfully I didn't get the chance as the cork broke in all of the Riojas and the Corbiere was in short supply so Bardolini it was.
Having watched some more of Morgan Spurlock's '30 days' documentaries I got chatting to another crew member who frequents this board. Mrs D and I chatted away happily for a while before she returned to her duties. This had to be one of the more exciting aspects of the trip as it's not often you meet a staff V-Flyer!
All too soon we were arriving at LHR to enter a holding pattern for 20 minutes. As we left the FSM bade us farewell - again by name. What a classy end to a trip!
We still managed to deplane 20 minutes early though and the long trek from Gate 36 took us back to immigration. Iris worked immediately for me but Mrs D was torn between the machine's instructions and those of the immigration official who helpfully offered contradictory instructions. Eventually she was let through and we made our way to belt 6 so that we could stand and watch the Y pax collect their luggage
. Oh well, 30 minutes+ later we had our luggage and were out and homeward bound... settled back in Ealing our only regret from a fantastic weekend is that our central heating packed up while we were away.
