VS400 LHR-DXB 19 Apr 07 (Upper)
Posted: 27 Apr 2007, 21:32This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
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Cabin Crew
We were then escorted by the lady who had checked us in at the car on foot through the Drive Thru building, past VS check-in. She wished us a great flight and left us by the lift which we took straight up to Departures. No queue at Fast Track so straight through. Has anyone worked out what the Shoe Circus is for after security? We walked right past it, but everyone else seemed to be having their shoes x-rayed. Spent half an hour or so picking up a few necessities and then straight up to the Clubhouse our home for the next four hours! We then enjoyed a drink with Nottingham Nick & Derby Dave who were off to NY for a long weekend.
After Nick & Dave headed off for their flight we ate in the CH restaurant. Steve had the salmon linguine as recommended earlier by Nick and I had two starters, one of which was crab cakes (delicious!) not wanting to fill up too much in advance of dinner later on the flight!
We both had 18:30 pre-booked treatments at the Cowshed which as always were great.
As we had so long in the CH we maximised our stay by trying out every area whether upstairs in the funky blue area, downstairs in the libraryyou name it, we were there. The CH still remains an amazing place, outshining lounges of other airlines well for time being rumour has it that BAs new lounge at T5 will be truly spectacular?
Time passed by and before we knew it the flight was called at 20:15 and off we went to Gate 5. By the time we got there it looked like most passengers had already boarded although there was still a queue of a couple of dozen people. No priority boarding was evident just a single queue. Once on board we settled into our seats 2K & 3K. Champagne was offered quickly by a very friendly female CSS. No sign of the FSM. UC on this flight was only half full although PE and Economy were pretty full as I found out later in the flight on a walkaround.
Pushed back a couple of minutes late, flight time as announced by the captain on this flight would be 6 hours 10 minutes. There were no personal introductions by the FSM prior to departure, nor into the flight itself . The previously mentioned CSS was the crew member who shone throughout the flight, especially later when Steve & I and a few other passengers spent a couple of hours at the bar after dinner! I should add at this point that the CSS confirmed we were flying on VOGE, Cover Girl. General condition of the UC cabin was excellent, our suites barely had a scuff mark on them.
Dinner orders were taken pretty quickly after take off. For starters I opted for Loch Fyne hot-smoked salmon with potato & horseradish salad and Steve went for the Mediterranean mezze selection a selection of cold appetizers including baba ghanouj, tabouleh, hummous and mozzarella. For mains I chose chicken tikka masala served with basmati rice, nan bread and mango chutney while Steve had vegetable salounah and couscous served with chive potatoes and grilled vegetables. For desserts we both went for the chocolate and pear posset served with raspberry sauce. Cheese choices were nice organic stilton, nettle wrapped Cornish yarg and Hereford Red.
The quality of food in UC has of course been the subject of many a posting on v-flyer. On this occasion Im pleased to report that we both really enjoyed the overall offering. My personal view is that, whilst the food was delicious, VS still let themselves down in presentation. Yes, my chicken tikka masala was lovely, but a dollop of rice and another dollop of tikka masala were the only items on the plate no garnish, nothing, not even a bit of chopped coriander! Surely to goodness people paying Ks for UC travel expect more than this? From experience I know that neither Emirates nor Qatar would serve up such a plain offering. Just to stress though, we did still enjoy our dinner!
We had a good social around the bar after dinner. For me this is the unique aspect of flying VS UC. To be away from your seat for an hour or two chatting with fellow passengers and the VS crew is just great. On this flight we got talking to a couple of bathroom fitter chaps who commute to DXB regularly. Before long we (and our friendly CSS) had got a load of recommendations for must go to bars & restaurants.
We converted our suites into beds and grabbed a couple of hours kip. With such a short flight time we really werent in the mood for breakfast. Had we been interested the offering consisted of a selection of breakfast cereals, toasted English muffin with preserves, seasonal fresh fruit with organic natural yoghurt, lamb sausage sandwich or scrambled eggs with turkey rashers and baked beans, saut_ed mushrooms and baked Roma tomato. I didnt go anywhere near V-Port in the whole flight.
The flight landed on time and during the taxi the captain made a point of referring to Virgins stand here at Dubai. He was emphasising that we would not be served by an airbridge and instead would be coached. From his choice of words it sounded like parking remotely at DXB is very much the norm for VS. Ill mention this again in my return TR as we learned something rather interesting on the return flight!
Being coached actually turned out better as UC pax had their own coach and we were sped direct to the terminal building within minutes of parking. On previous occasions when arriving at DXB we had always been greeted by transfer reps prior to immigration and this time was no exception. As soon as we were off the coach and into the terminal we were greeted by our rep who immediately whisked us to the immigration hall which was packed, and over to a vacant queue where tensor barriers were moved so we could be ushered straight through to a manned desk. Once through passport control our cases were among the first off. Throughout this time our rep was on his mobile phone, presumably co-ordinating with our driver. He continued escorting us, out of arrivals, over the road and towards a gleaming Mercedes. Within 20 minutes of aircraft parking we were en-route to our Summerhouse at Dar Al Masyaf, Madinat Jumeirah.
Overall a thoroughly enjoyable flight. If I had to offer up a quibble it would be the lack of FSM presence. Having had such outgoing and amiable FSMs on prior flights it was a bit of a let down not to experience the same this time round.
Hope this has been an OK read, I know I tend to ramble but it seems you all like detail! Ill post the return TR from our flight yesterday in the next day or two. That one will be accompanied by some photos. Ill also do a little write up on Madinat Jumeirah in the Hotels forum if youre into luxury then youll love this hotel!
Edit: Not sure what I've done wrong with the photo - tried to follow instructions in FAQ [:?]
Further edit: Photo sorted - needs square brackets, not curly ones!