This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Arrived at the airport in plenty of time, a nice easy run over the Pennines on a Sunday morning and headed straight to the empty PE desk as we'd actually made Silver after the offer at the end of last year and there was a queue at the economy bag drop. We were seen immediately by a lovely chatty lady who was kind enough to show us where there were available seats on the plane, if we wanted to move once we'd taken off. Bags dropped then and headed through security which appears to have had a bit of a revamp since November, but was still through in under 10 mins, so we then headed to Frankie & Benny's for a spot of breakfast.
The flight started boarding at about 10am, and was ready to leave just before 11am, when the captain said that there was an ATC stop on all departures from MAN & LGW, so there we sat for 30mins or so, before heading off. While we were waiting, at least we had access to the IFE, but at this point I noticed that the picture on the screen in 44G was very jumpy, so bad that it was impossible to watch. The FSM was passing so she said she would get a crew member to re-boot it, but it was still no better. Once in the air, the crew member came to check to see if it was better, and as it wasn't, she suggested we move seats further forward as the seat belt sign had just been turned off. So we packed up our things and moved to 35J/K, so at least I had a window seat now - not that there was much to see other than the Atlantic!
The flight headed south west over the southern tip of Ireland, and headed across the Atlantic, until we hit Florida, south of Melbourne.
Food was served within an hour of taking off, I opted for the chicken curry and hubby had the sausage & mash, both were fine, although the portions seem to have shrunk a bit from last year. Drinks were offered and the cabin crew were very cheery and pleasant in their service all though the flight.
Watched a couple of films and then thought, I'm getting peckish now, with 90 mins flight time left, there was still now sign of afternoon tea, so I was glad I'd picked up a snack in the airport. An hour from landing and afternoon tea arrived, and while the sandwhich was fine, the cupcake is now a banoffee style and I hate bananas!
Arrived into Orlando in a rainstorm (something wrong there), and saw the Glasgow VS, LGW VS and BA flights had all landed before us, so was not looking forward to immigration, but thankfully most of them had been processed and we only had about 45 mins wait. Then through to pick up the car from Alamo, which is so much easier thanks to OLCI for that too now. Headed off to our home for the next couple of weeks on US27 and encountered several heavy rainstorms on the way, but it was nice to get to the villa and relax.
So all in all, a good flight, good crew, and avoid 44G on G-VSXY if you want to watch IFE.
