V-Flyer

Hi Everyone, firstly a regular viewer of the site however this is my first trip report so apologies for any errors!.

To start off our holiday we decided to stay at the Radisson at Manchester Airport.The stay at the Radisson was a good one with the main plus of this hotel being the excellent breakfast and the covered walk way to terminal 2 which takes all of a 5-10 minute walk to get to the VS check-in desks.
We arrived at the check-in at about 10:30 am for our 13:45 flight and the queues were huge, we decided not to check-in online and this was justified by the even bigger queues for everyone who had checked-in online with everyone going to one desk whilst those who checked-in on the day got through much quicker with many more check-in desks being used, seemed to make the whole idea of checking in online a bit pointless. Very friendly elderly gentlemen on the check-in desk which made a change from the usual miserable souls.

After check-in decided to go and look around the shops and wait in the Observatory Bar for an hour or so until boarding was due to begin at 12:30. Everyone made their way to the gate for boarding and this is were the ground staff appeared to have a few problems. The ground staff called various names and families which got really messy as most people were not being called to board the flight so not sure what was happening, this turned into a good 45 minutes of waiting around doing nothing.

Finally boarded 'English Rose' and made our way in to our extra leg room seats and settled down for the flight, whereby the pilot informed us of a flight time of 8 hours 30 mins. As soon as the flight took off one women jumped up and demanded to sit in the extra leg room seats, felt really sorry for the cabin crew member concerned as his message that she had to pay clearly wasn't getting through.

Drinks service and entertainment started pretty quickly, followed by the dinner. Now I thought that there was absolutely no difference between the standard of the previous dinner and the new way of serving the dinner. The salad starter was served with no dressing so it was unbelievably bland, however my mother claimed the dinner service was 'much better' than last year.

Entertainment systems worked well for all of us which I believe is a rarity these days on some of the older LGW/MAN 747's, however looking forward to flying back on the Airbus with the extra entertainment choice. Further to this I only watched one film on the flight so not sure in the day of the iPad, laptops etc that the entertainment is as important as it used to be.

Arrived into Orlando on time at 17:45 and this is were we encountered a few problems, had to wait on the plane as the immigration hall was to busy. After a 20 minute wait we were allowed off into a packed hall, whereby we waited for an hour and 45 minutes. This is surely a major problem for MCO and I know we in Britain have a good moan about Heathrow but this was not even during what would be classed as 'peak season' at MCO.

On a positive note flight overall was a good one and once through security, who were very cheerful, which was not previously the case when arriving in the U.S!, we were quickly into our car which we had booked in two nights before our flight on the Alamo website, so we missed out all the queues at Alamo, straight to our vehicle and on our way for 2 weeks of relaxation in the Florida sun!

Overall sounds like a pretty good flight, immigration queues certainly not just an MCO problem, seems to be similar wherever I've flown in the states in past couple of years!! Thanks for the TR

Thanks for this really useful TR There is always great benefit in having Reports from the Economy Cabin as this helps with establishing a balanced view of the VS on board service.

I am the same as you when it comes to using a kiosk - why queue twice

Hope you enjoyed Florida

buns

Great TR and overall a good flight apart from the queues.

A fabulous first TR, thank you for posting I'm sure the 'elderly' gentleman at check in is delighted with that description Anyways, sounded like a good light with the ever increasing frustration of MCO immigration at the end

As for the lady who demanded an exit row set

Great TR well done, I thought if you don't use OLCI then you could lose your per booked seats. On the Radisson at Manchester Airport we are thinking of booking it, did you stay in a standard room or business room, there haven't been any really good reports on trip advisor lately

Thanks for the TR.

They are having a few problems with immigration currently. We were lucky yesterday, held for about 5 mins and then about a 40min queue to get through immigration, which wasn't too bad, although we were in the first 5 people off the a/c, so not quite as good for passenger number 453 off the a/c

Neil

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I think the main thing with the queues at MCO is the potential problems they will have when the summer flights are in full swing.

Wafren, we stayed in the business class rooms and paid £100 for the room and breakfast, the room was decent and the bed very comfortable, whilst the breakfast was superb, everything from sausages to smoked salmon!. I think the main selling point of the hotel is the location, our room was a stone's throw from the planes at terminal 2 and the walkway makes it a ten minute walk until you reach check-in. Negatives would be unless you arrive early then you won't use all the facilities e.g. leisure club, in-room extras etc, we arrived late so didn't use all facilities so it may be worth looking at other hotels depending on when you arrive , budget and your plans.
Hope that helps!