VS073 MAN-MCO 3 DEC 11 (Economy)

This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin

Ground Staff

Food & Drink

Entertainment

Seat

Cabin Crew

Have been making the annual trip to Orlando for many years now - several of those with Virgin. This, however, is my first trip report.

It starts a couple of days before our flight. After months of obsessively checking to make sure my carefully selected seats had not been "tampered" with, I log on with less than 48 hours to go, only to find we have been shunted round the plane. For a self-confessed control freak like myself, this was cause to reach for the nearest paper bag & start breathing deeply!! I made a call to Cust Services, who said the reason for this was the flight was less than half full & everyone had been put together for load balance etc. Phew.

At around 10am, we arrived at the bag-drop at MAN, having checked in online, securing seq 1,2 & 3 . The check in staff were cheerful & there were no other passengers in front of us.
We then wandered up to the escape lounge, (well worth the money) to grab some food & relax until boarding.

We boarded Ladybird on time & the Cust Service person was indeed right, the flight was fairly empty. We ended up with Master-F in 25abc, Mr-F in 26abc & myself in 27abc. The cabin crew were round very quickly with menus & headsets and lunch quickly followed. I have to say, I am NOT a fan of VS food, but this was ok. Mr-F & I had the beef. Master-F had the chicken. The cabin crew cleared away immediately we had finished & then Master-F settled down with his I-pad, Mr-F had a flick through the IFE and I, after reading a couple of "sad mags" went to sleep....well with 3 seats to stretch out on, it would have been rude not to!

I apparently slept through the afternoon tea service, so when I woke Mr-F went & asked for some sandwiches for me, which they kindly provided.

Soon after, we came into land. Immigration was the worst I have ever seen! It took us well over an hour just to get through & out of the baggage hall.

Picking up our car was a breeze & we were soon heading along the 528 to our hotel for 3 weeks of R&R.

Return trip report to follow.

[Darren Wheeler]

Hi and welcome to V-Flyer.

Looks like you had a very good flight and you make an interesting point about seat changes, especially when quiet.

Looking forward to the return.

Welcome to vflyer

Thanks for your interesting trip report very much enjoyed it.

Alex

[buns]

Hi Mrs F and welcome to V-Flyer

Thanks for your inaugural Trip Report . It is always helpful to provide the experience of the Economy Cabin - especially on the Orlando routes - as many visit V-Flyer to gain information for that first trip of a lifetime to Florida

Look forward to your return TR

buns

Thanks for the TR, Mrs F. Great result snagging 3 seats each - a much more restful way to travel Making my first flight in VS73 - usually take the 75 around 10-ish having availed myself on the Escape Lounge first. What sort of food/snack choice was available during your visit? Normally, as you would expect, it's cereals, toast, bagels etc for our usual morning visit.

Hi Mrs F and again welcome to V-Flyer. I hope you had a great 3 weeks in MCo and look forward to your return TR

Thanks for the TR, Mrs F. Great result snagging 3 seats each - a much more restful way to travel Making my first flight in VS73 - usually take the 75 around 10-ish having availed myself on the Escape Lounge first. What sort of food/snack choice was available during your visit? Normally, as you would expect, it's cereals, toast, bagels etc for our usual morning visit.

When we arrived, we had some very nice bacon rolls, along with the odd danish pastry & toast. Around 11.30, there were assorted sandwiches laid out, as well as cakes & biscuits. Crisps were also available. Not a massive selection, but nice all the same.

Thank you for the TR, great to read the bit about the seat changes as this has happened to me for todays flight to EWR, I got really fed up when I did OLCI yesterday and saw that my seat had been changed, but after blogging on here, I was advised that the flight is showing as not very busy, so fingers crossed I can blag me a few seats to myself after Take off, I will report if this is the case later

Hi Mrs F, thanks for the trip report. Our friends were on the flight with you yesterday, (as said earlier they had originally booked the earlier 75 flight, but everyone was moved up to the 73 afternoon slot) we haven`t heard from them yet, but you may have done, Steve gets VERY sickly after an hours flight, don`t know how he coped on this 9hr+ one, if you heard a 6`5" chap making funny noises all flight - that was them. Enjoy your 3 weeks away, look forward to seeing your trip report for the return.

Thank you for the TR.