VS093 LGW-CUN 7 JUL 12 (Premium Economy)
Posted: 11 Jul 2012, 21:21This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
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I have organized this by day, with each day introduced by detail of ‘El Plan-o’!
El Plan-o Day One
0730 Arrive at Cancun VIP check-in desks
0915 Boarding for VS093 on Mustang Sally, G-VROC
1015 Flight departs
1435 Arrive Cancun T3, photo call on the tarmac (see VS Facebook for pictures)
Transfer to Royal Hideaway Playacar
1630 Arrive at hotel
1900 Party on the beach
So, we’re off, our car came for us at 6.30 am for the drive down to Gatwick – I haven’t flown on VS from Gatwick for maybe eleven years and I had no idea about the layout or anything but we quickly found the Cancun VIP check in area and discovered we were in PE and 33D&E for the outbound (not seats I would ever choose and I haven’t been in PE for five years!). But heck, let’s not be churlish, the only thing I paid for on this trip was the taxi to Gatwick and a massage at the hotel (and, as it turned out, I spent about 30 minutes in the seat because the flight out was one long UC bar party!).
After the inaugural check in desks, BP in hand we headed upstairs to the priority security which does put Heathrow to shame and quickly found the clubhouse to settle in with champagne followed by bookings for pedicures for the two of us. Lots of extra clubhouse staff to cope with the people, and I learned that there were around 160 guests on this trip, Cancun themed cocktails and snacks were doing the rounds, and we started to spot the ‘celeb’ guests on the trip who were:
Derren Brown
Richard Arnold
Alexandra Burke
Cleo Rocos
And someone else who’s on ‘Loose Women’ (oops, completely forgot), oh and the editor of Heat magazine (oh dear, am I going to be in it this week!).
I won’t comment more than this: Cleo worked hard, she clearly likes to be the centre of attention, but she was on the job constantly, Derren was lovely, shy but funny, Alex was someone I hadn’t previously followed but is clearly very talented and was quite humble.
The Gatwick clubhouse maybe smaller than Heathrow but it’s a lovely space and we were well looked after to the point of boarding from gate 13 I think, so a shortish walk, cabin crew in ponchos and sombreros, settled in to seat and as I knew courtesy of a previous poster (who I still do not know who they are) that Mustang Sally was our ship to Cancun.
The flight over can only be described a total wow, the pain of PE was obliterated by the party at the bar, which lasted from 30 minutes after take off to just before landing. VS had hired a company called Drake & Morgan to manage the bars for the whole trip and that included on board, and two of their team Kane and Giles were our barmen for the flight. They’d mixed a potent cocktail in a big punch bowl on the flight, and were serving like madmen … Cleo Rocos is apparently president of the tequila society and has her own brand of tequila hence the connection to the trip, what a lovely woman:
The bar was a huge draw, and if you need event suppliers go to Drake & Morgan, I cannot recommend them highly enough! At the bar we met two Alex’s too, they had won a competition to join the inaugural event, and they only found out last Thursday that they were flying on Saturday. One of the Alex’s is a manager at the Clarence in Whitehall, go there, if it’s half as good as Alex was it must be fantastic.
After five hours at the bar things became blurry, I can recall getting on a coach upon landing, but not actually exiting the airport … then the coach was a blur until we arrived at the Royal Hideaway in Playacar to check in to what was a gorgeous room, overlooking the beach, whereupon I immediately went to bed for three hours! Here are a couple of pics of the resort:
Waking at 7 pm somewhat soberer, I headed out to join the evening party, Derren Brown was the main feature of the evening and duly befuddled people, we all drank some more, but I headed for bed at about 11 pm whereas most people kept things going until late.
El Plan-o Day Two
0700 Breakfast
0800 Photo call on beach
0830 Press conference
1100 Excursion to XPLOR for ziplining and other activities
1300 Excursion to Tulum
1730 Return to hotel
1915 Coaches leave for main part
1930 Glam as you can party at Xcaret
0100 Party finishes, optional after party
So, Sunday came and it kicks off with the press conference, the Moscow announcement, and silliness on the beach. Here, if you can see it, is snow in Cancun!
As Sunday dawned and breakfast turned into a multi hour even of conversation while meeting the fellow frequent fliers (who, it turns out, made an outstanding group for the duration of our trip), we started to plot our day. I had previously booked to visit the Tulum site of ancient monuments but was persuaded to go zip lining instead and what a great choice that was. Here’s a video I found on You Tube that helps explain what it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_kpVBoYEg. Basically you climb up 120 ft tall towers to be strapped to cables and whizz over the jungle at speeds of up to 40 kmph and on lines as long as 900 metres … there are now fourteen zip lines. It is absolutely fantastic, although in 90 degree humid heat, it’s also really hard work! If anyone is planning on visiting Cancun then do try it: http://www.xplor.travel/.
After the zip lining we went driving through the jungle and then rafting underground in the caves.
Six hours later my group is back at the hotel for cold Corona’s (and it’s all inclusive too, the hotels in Cancun are largely all inclusive so just about everything is covered) before changing for the glam as you can main party and coaches to Xcaret, which is a sort of theme park covering Mayan culture, the landscape, history and more.
This being Mexico the first thing that happens off your coach is that you are presented with a tequila based drink … although we did manage to nab some of SRB’s secret champagne stash, before we took a tour of the place while eventually moving underground to an amazing cave theatre which we called the sauna batcave from hell for a bout of Mayan dancing and performances – it was so hot and humid everyone from SRB to little ole me was drenched! After the Mayan dancing was a performance by a band called Sway, look them up here: http://www.swaytheband.com/ they did a great warm up set, just brilliant … before Alexandra Burke came on. Now, I’d not considered myself a fan but heck did she put on a great show, a wonderful singer, we chatted a lot later and a really nice person too, the band were once again amazing and played songs from my generation, which made it even better. The obligatory speeches etc. but a great party upto midnight when we headed back to our hotel … albeit a bit starving since the party lacked food and so we as a group headed to one of the bars for red wine and club sandwiches at 1 am.
During the evening I spend a long time talking with one of the VS management team who looks after ops, about routes, frequent fliers schemes, partners, and all the things I was asked not to share, so I can’t. But there is more to come this year from VS.
A short note about my fellow frequent fliers, there were four of us plus our partners and I cannot describe a nicer, more social, more fun group of people. United only by our ability to amass 200 TPs or more a year, we gelled magnificently and were constant companions. New friends made!
El Plan-o Day Three
0700 Breakfast
0700 Optional excursion to Chichen Itza
0730 Optional excursion for whale shark swim
1000 Optional excursion for catamaran cruise and snorkeling
1730 Return to hotel
1900 Coach transfer to secret location
1930 White night party
0100 Party finishes; return to hotel or after party bar
Well, two days in and approximately one hour of rest my new group of friends decided to opt out of the excursions and chill by the pool and in the sea, and what a lovely day it was. All of those who went swimming with whales, or the Mayan ruins pronounced their days excellent, but reading and sunbathing was also of great order. This until the evening’s entertainment needed to be prepped for. With a theme of white, at a secret location, we were ready for another 30 minute coach trip at 7 pm. The drive was to the Mayakoba resort http://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/mayakoba/ which was stunning, if a little mosquito ridden due to its many waterways … our venue was Chloe’s Club, a beachside party room built by Sir Philip Green for his 60th birthday and his daughter Chloe’s 21st birthday in January this year. Yet another outstanding venue, a beautiful spot, fantastic grilled prawns and ribeye steak on the beach, fireworks, dancing, performances, and more. Here’s our group at our table:
The band Sway performed again, a chilled set, very jazzy, before Alex Burke came on again and wowed us all, then the beat moved up tempo and we danced until the early hours swigging Bacardi and cokes and having a fabulous time.
El Plan-o Day Four
0700 Breakfast
0800 Check-in for return flight
0930 Coach transfer to Cancun
1100 Day at Le Blanc Spa Resort in Cancun, lunch and day party
1600 Leave for airport
1804 VS094 departs Cancun T3
On our last day we left the Royal Hideaway a little early in the day for my liking after all the rum from last night … bumped into Derren Brown in the lobby and he’d lost his passport, which apparently is something he does often and when I joked with him about it he did say that the irony of that is not lost on him! Today we headed into Cancun proper, where there is a strip 30 km long of resorts along the beach … our destination was Le Blanc http://www.leblancsparesort.com/ where we had a party room and rooftop pool as well as access to the whole hotel. Very swish and near Cancun centre so some people went into the city – where the shopkeepers are very aggressive apparently.
I talked quite a bit with the VHols people and just three or four weeks into Cancun as a destination all of the flights in the next three months are near full and they told me they had 470 VHols customers arriving next week alone!
Eventually, it was time to head to the airport, I did ask Steve Ridgway for a pen but he didn’t have one, SRB had his bags searched and looked very bad tempered, but no lounge for us (too small apparently and not important enough!) and we were back on board Mustang Sally for the 8 hrs 20 mins flight back to London Gatwick. We had a superlative FSM who I won’t name because I didn’t ask, great crew, Kane and Giles were back behind the bar … and another party flight back to the UK. Just one sour note on the whole trip, being at the back of PE on this leg in 37D&E of course the food options had run out by the time it came to us and the PE meal really is poor… however we asked and the wonderful, totally awesome FSM for help and she came with some soup and pasta from UC so top marks to her!
Overall would I visit Cancun again, probably not because the humidity is too much for me, but it cannot be denied that it is a fantastic place, beautiful, simply stunning, lots to do, amazing resorts, the people are so, so lovely. Now we’re working on the Moscow inaugural, vodka and mink anyone?
We went to Cancun a few years ago and absolutely loved it, our best holiday yet.
. I (we) hired a (very) antiquated Hertz car and ( I) drove through (endless) hours of very boring vegetation to get there. Mr DL was dumbstruck ( as I was too). The guide we hired was fantastic and gave us a far more detailed tour than we expected . I (we) also drove down to Tullum too which was equally fabulous 
.
