V-Flyer

Well, Ive experienced it all now, by the end of the week, large part of central florida was declared in a state of emergency, 18 of rain in Orlando, thank god wed not gone to Daytona , which was basically underwater 30 rain in 5 days! [n]

Wed over packed as usual and were gloating whilst we waded through flooded car parks in our assorted breathable wet weather gear, much to the envious glances of the poncho wearing masses. Between the two Sundays we saw 2 days of dry weather, with only the day of return involving sunshine.. gutted. However mini nh had a whale of a time (no pun intended).

Highlights being: Surprise Star Wars characters at Disney studios (Mrs. NH meeting the real Darth Maul, who ever he is, in full method acting style and make-up, apparently quite unnerving).

A fab long lingering dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Millennia, as a way of avoiding the storms. Highly recommend the Tuna.
The new Manta ride at Seaworld, opened the week we were there, very impressive. [:o]

Before long the week drew to an end, and Sunday dawned on us with blue sky, typical! Mrs NH slung damp clothes into bags, whilst I was sent on a mission to the drive thru Starbucks (we need more of these!), debagged all the shopping, and dumped hand luggage with concierge whilst we nipped to Downtown Disney to remove the main cases.

Yet again another opportunity to entice silver card holders missed.. having to pay for the privilege. It saves a lot of hassle when traveling with ankle bitters and would think this could be a nice touch incentive to wave this charge to silver holders.
Check-in was painless, very chirpy lady and bit of a laugh and seats sorted. We keep one for check-in at MCO to allow the rest of the day split between downtown and back at the pool.

A pleasant swim, shower and change in to newly acquired Buzz light-year outfit and load car up to ditch back at Alamo. Uneventful and soon the automatic doors open into the VS check-in area. Oh my god, were back in those flash back scenes from a UN shelter food queue. Utter chaos, Y queue snakes round various z loops and disappears around the corner interspersed with lobster pink armed, freshly Reebokd individuals clambering out for a final smoke.[B)]

Found the UC/PE queue, which thankful was very short and moved well. The remaining bag discharged and big bag for pram taken, then off for a bite to eat and head to security, where I was expecting a slight delay due to my outfit and headgear.

No queues and passed through quickly except forgetting to remove DVD player from bag..oops, as yet again mrs nh gets carted off into the fish tank for her own take on a Damien Hurst exhibit whilst bag searched, much to my amusement. [}:)]

Delayed this move as long as we could, knowing the very limited facilities down at the gate. Head for duty free to stock up on Tanquary, however I appeared to the only one not taking up the 3-4-2 deal on L&B fags. US service yet again showing its decline with very slow check-out, only two tills open, over 20 mins before sorted.

Boarding then arrives, we get hurried along, pram removed, my space helmet stored in the hold and down the ramp. I queue for the Duty free whilst mrs & mini NH run off onto the a/c (ladybird) in anticipation of the now changed Somerfield cava.
PE was full, as was most of the rest of the a/c. we split across the aisle, mrs nh taking the short straw with mini nh to allow me some shut eye for the drive home on arrival. Id packed my collapsible sundial & divining rods in the case, so not much chance of anticipating the start of any of the movies, so slip off oversized antigravity boots, ipod and G&T seemed the order of the day.

This is where things start to go a bit Pete Tong;

Meal service, starts upstairs, gets just past the first exit point to row 76, they run out of Beef, so its fluorescent chicken sat on some baby puree or some weird veggie thing[n]

Dispensed underwhelming meal, with some red, and settle down with headphones, whilst mrs nh wrestles with the overtired beast. Its not till people settle down and go into recline, that you appreciate how knackered these cabins are. As seen from the posted pictures.
Mrs nh settled the beast, and got comfy whilst the seat back in front approached, stealth like, to a pre-crushing position against her legs. We call over CC who advise, well there is a fair bit of play in these seats and if you have a larger gentleman in the seat they will get more recline!! mini NHs on the other hand would not retain any recline---must feed her more burgers [:?]

I manage a few hrs nap, refresh with orange juice and coffee, note a very close KLM 747 out of the window just below, good to see VS pilots had opted for the higher octane fuel back at MCO as we leave them in our trial of shredded customer satisfaction slips.

Landing approaches and get organized, nothing major to note and taxi towards the gate, and just as the engines turn off, mini nh erupts into vomfeast[:$] ! so we are left upstairs as the rest depart clearing up the assorted messto be fair the CC guy helped out supplying quantities of towels, bags etc.. we finally force our way through the departing Y cabin, with some vigour, as they were not for letting us off the bottom step..

Turns out wed not missed much as then got stuck into mid Y queue for immigration, through to baggage reclaim, which still hadnt arrived- well at least half of the PE lot hadnt. So much for priority offloads. Pram this time sealed properly and waiting for us, tears of joy as the metre wide buzz helmet survives and quickly reinstalled on head to unnerve fellow pax [:o)].

Outside to glorious Manchester sunshine (typical), mine car arrives, load up and off across the hill, via M62 Costa coffee stop to avoid a detour on to some intercity train line [:I]

Letter is going into VS about these seats

Thanks for the TR[y][y]

As I mentioned in my response to Sunshine, I take my hat off to the VS Groundcrew at MCO[oo] They seem to take storms, strikes (lightening and other[}:)]) and the deluge of Disney laden passengers not looking forward to going home in their stride.

To misquote that Disney Movie 'Some day my Prince seat will come' and I agree that although the PE seats are very comfortable, once the current credit crunch has subsided then VS should act to entice pax like you back.

One last point Buzz Lightyear[:?][:0][:D]

buns

A great TR, thanks for taking the time to post it. Looks like you arrived in Florida the day I left - when the bad weather started, hope it did not affect your holiday too much.

Like the OP & buns have said (& others have said before), the MCO ground crew work hard & well to get anything up to 5 747's & their pax (so close on 2000 pax) and all their extra luggage off each day. Despite the number of pax they handle, they manage extras like a member of staff to escort the UC passengers from the Crown Room lounge to the gate when boarding time arrives.

Have to agree about Manta at SeaWorld too - it was soft-opening when I was there and we managed quite a few goes on it - it's great!

James

Another great TR, thanks NH.

Sorry the weather wasn't great, we had one day of heavy rain last Easter and that was bad enough, so I really feel for you having nearly a full week of it, at least it didn't spoil the fun for mini-NH.

I think one of the biggest issues facing MCO ground crew at chk-in is space.

Its a very restricted area, shame they can't be moved to a area with more ground space, which would reduce the cramped, tripping over each other feel.

Excellent read, thanks. Very measured in tone, too, given your experience. Not much can be done about the weather - except go equipped and prepared to enjoy, which you evidently did - but the VS 'estate' (as our sales chaps would term it) sounds like a let down. Unless they alter such plans as they have, though, I'll not be happy when the day arrives and PE in the bubble is nor more, purple leather seats or no.

I find a can of Red Bull a necessary accompaniment to the post flight drive home....

Paul

Thanks for the great TR![y][y]

Shame about the weather, when are we going to see the pics of the 'Buzz Lightyear' travelling attire?[}:)][}:)]

Any pics of Darth Maul?

Fantastic TR - thanks for posting.

Hoping your next travels fare better with the weather and realling looking forward to reading more of your entertaining TR's !

Regards,

Hackneyguy

Great TR. SOrry about the weather. Not that its much consolation by my parents informed me that it was most out of the blue!

quote:Originally posted by northernhenry

whilst I was sent on a mission to the drive thru Starbucks (we need more of these!),

I orignally thought they were a great idea. Sadly at my parents local starbucks in Florida, it seems to take just as long to do drive thru as it does to park the car, walk inside, order and wait for your drink in the air conditioned shop. Not quicker in anyway IMHO, or maybe the staff at this particular starbucks are just stupidly slow. [:?]



quote:
Delayed this move as long as we could, knowing the very limited facilities down at the gate. Head for duty free to stock up on Tanquary, however I appeared to the only one not taking up the 3-4-2 deal on L&B fags. US service yet again showing its decline with very slow check-out, only two tills open, over 20 mins before sorted.


The problem with the duty free at MCO is that:
1. The store is dead space during other times of the day when no international flights are departing. Therefore MCO authorities will be reluctant to increase its size.

2. The store was not designed for the large number of flights that now use MCO. During the height of the summer there are now 5 VS 744's, 2 BA 777's, 1 LH 343/6 (or 744 during June!) and 1 TAM 330. All these flights depart in a slot time of about 3 hours. The shop was not designed for this number of people.

3. American airports don't do duty free per se (which is a good thing IMHO as it stop terminals looking more like Westfeld WHite City). Therefore they don't really want to give up as much space.

4. The operation is understaffed. Especially as staff have to whizz the duty free goods down to the aircraft every 30 mins or so when a flight is about to board.

quote:
I think one of the biggest issues facing MCO ground crew at chk-in is space.

Its a very restricted area, shame they can't be moved to a area with more ground space, which would reduce the cramped, tripping over each other feel.


Well it was only increased last year with the terminal move.

Personally I think the issue is that when MCO was designed it was designed with US domestic flights in mind and very much pre 9/11 when the TSA stood for nothing and security was non-existant. As we all know, you can take everything on a US Domestic flight as hand luggage, including ones kitchen sink.

Therefore they viewed check in as the sort of place that one would only spend a couple of minutes in. This works fine for US domestic flights, especially if you do curb side check in. With the increase in self check in at computer screens, for domestic flights, the check in area has become less important. If you walked down to JetBlue or United you would soon see what I mean, it is often empty and the only real lines (predictably) are at VS.

What they need to start doing is installing self check in and having the machines dotted around the check in area, including the 'walkways' through to the atrium (and possibly outside for the smokers!). VS also need to push online check in a lot more. Lots of people travel with laptops now or can access the internet via hotels. I am always shocked at how little bag drop is used at MCO. VS will find it hard to be given extra check in space by the authorities because the hours of utilisation of the VS desks are so limited (remember UA, B6, DL etc) are using their space pretty much from 4am-midnight.

Thanks for the funny TR...I think I'll get you to write my one next time!!

I'm glad you had a good time with the family despite the weather..it was so relentless. I was marooned for a while when the road to my building flooded.

I usually don't bother with duty free at MCO anymore because of the chaos...if there are many others like me they must lose out on a lot of business.

I will join you in writing about the seats in PE. On my way out the seat in front of me was broken into a recline too and the poor guy in it kept getting told off by different CC's for not having his seat in upright position.[?]

Sunshine

Great TR, sorry the weather wa sooooo bad! But a very funny and entertaining TR.
The duty free shop is a shambles i agree, when we were there the VS girls were let through so they could get us all on board in time, it is NO fun waiting in a queue in that heat with NO room! We will give it a MISS next time for sure. Sounds like your seat was a nightmare, hope you have a better experience next time.

The duty free issue revolved round one issue---Staff, two of the four check-outs shut at a known peak period... crazy and lost revenue for them
similarly the VS girls and variety of Pilots let through, which is a commonsense idea, shame they can't see the advantage opening the other two desks, instead of people with a basket load of stuff, seeing the chaos and taking it back to the shelves..?

Great TR, the weather sounded truly awful - did you remember to pack a dingy as well? Hope you get more than the standard customer service response to your letter.