VS072 MCO-GLA 11 AUG 13 (Economy)
Posted: 16 Aug 2013, 12:43This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
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• A rare Glasgow trip report!
If you’re travelling with children/infant/babies, I go into more detail on my outbound trip report. See http://v-flyer.com/forum/index.php?f=6& ... =viewtopic
So after 2 weeks in the Land of Mouse, it was time to return. We hadn't bothered with the Downtown Disney check-in as we heard it was $10 per person to use it and we still needed the cases for things like the car seats. We also didn't bother with OLCI due to the infant on the ticket. I had booked the seats at T-90 days to obtain 38DEFG after once again requesting, and being denied, the bulkhead seats despite having an infant. We planned to be at the airport early to secure them.
We spent the morning packing (kids in the pool) to be at the airport for 1.30pm for 4.30pm flight, it was soon clear that even though our cases weren't full on the way out, due to exuberant shopping we would need an extra suitcase on the way back. Should have been more prepared in hindsight. So we left the villa late and stopped off at the Premium Outlets and picked up a nice quality case, and proceeded to the airport. By the time we’d dropped off the hire car (we took out the Gold package from VH/Alamo so handed it back empty without any worries) and moved the loose stuff and car booster seats into the newly purchased case it was 2.30pm and we were very late.
As usual found man in parking lot with trolley, gave him $15 to take our bags to check-in for us (still not sure if that’s the going rate). There was a queue at check-in for the later Manchester and Gatwick flights so I found a member of staff and explained we were on the Glasgow flight and were pretty late (by now it was 1.45pm, so 1.5 hours before take-off). He thankfully moved us over to the PE check-in so my apologies to all in the queue for the shameless queue jumping.
While the chap was checking us in I bubble-wrapped the toddler’s car seat and pram (much to the amazement of some in the queue who couldn't believe I brought Sellotape on holiday.) Then we hit a problem, the new suitcase was overweight at 30kg. The rest of the cases were underweight, but our hand luggage was perhaps taking the biscuit. I had previously heard on these forums about VS at Orlando charging for excess baggage and sure enough we got hit with a $50 fee. We had 4 cases at 17, 20, 23 & 30kg = 90kg total and were allowed 5x23kg allowance = 115kg so needless to say we are pretty unhappy about having to pay excess baggage when we’re 25kg underweight.
However we didn’t have time to distribute items between the cases and them are the rules, it’s probably and handling fee or something to pay for a new spine for the baggage handler so we’ll make sure we’re prepared in future.We’d done all the shopping we’d wanted to do (and didn’t quite have time) so didn’t bother with the shops in the airport, headed straight to security. There was only a short queue, only 10 mins to get to the monorail. We carried 2 bottles of full fat milk for the toddler, wasn’t a problem getting them through security. No time for a beer or lunch from the Outback Steakhouse, headed straight to the gate to see three Virgins all together (G-VKSS, G-VROY & G-VSXY). We would be on Beauty Queen.
Once boarding had been called we weren’t in any particular hurry to get on the plane, let the kids run about until the queue had gone down. As we were late to check in, and there were 5 (incredibly quiet) babies/toddlers on the flight, didn’t manage to get the bulkhead seats and were in the pre-arranged 38DEFG. 300 pax total so a bit busier than on the way out. Sunday Mail and Independent newspapers available at the gate which pleased me.
Plane took off early at 4.15pm, headed up the coast, goodbye Orlando hope it’s not going to be too long! As per the outbound trip, the Wee Man was happy on my knee for a bit and then we managed to squeeze 5 bums across 4 seats. I think 18 months is about the limit for having a toddler on your lap. I've flown with all my kids at around 18 months old and it’s never been an issue before as it was outside the school holidays so the flights were quieter and we had room to spread out. Since we’re now restricted to school dates I would definitely pay for an extra seat for an 18 month old (not that it’ll happen again unless I have a HUGE planning error…
) This of course was an option this time but we didn't pay in the hope of getting the elusive bulkhead seats giving him room to play.More of a relaxed flight on the way back. As it turned out, we were quite happy with the non-bulkhead seats, using the IFE and dinner was a lot easier with the fixed tray tables. The cabin crew kindly (without asking) found us 2 additional seats a couple of rows in front (34AC)
so the two older boys moved there and watched TV and played with their iPads giving the baby room to spread out and have a sleep. I even managed to watch Skyfall and some Family Guy, my preferred movie choice of Lincoln had now been removed from the list.As per my the outbound trip, the children’s TV and film choice was improved from last year although many of the IFE games are not suitable for under 10s and I reckon under 5s would struggle with the control interface.
Menus handed out for dinner, Waldorf salad to begin (which I quite liked, salad was pretty good), I had the beef casserole which wasn’t great and Mrs Fuzzy a Thai chicken curry with rice which looked better. For the boys they got a strange combination of chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese & broccoli. It was ok but after 2 weeks of American food something else would have been nice! I had the wee man on my lap for dinner and it worked out much better than on the way out. I kept my dinner aside until later to avoid any broccoli throwing incidents.
Breakfast was handed out an hour before landing, a cold breakfast box consisting of orange juice, a cereal bar and an oatmeal soft cookie thing. The kids didn’t bother eating theirs. Still disappointed they can’t stretch to bacon rolls!
As per the outbound flight, the cabin crew had a great attitude. Very friendly and chatty, one said he remembered our faces (and the kids) from last year which I couldn’t quite believe. Turns out I went to school with one and used to stay in the next street to another. They had no problem heating baby bottles for us and supplied us with extra milk as we were short.
Couldn’t quite believe when it was time to land, it seemed an incredibly short flight. The sun came up and we did the NW approach, possibly the most scenic piece of flying in the country, over the Western Isles, Loch Long, Loch Lomond, Trossachs, Campsies, and straight into Glasgow on runway 23, landing 30 minutes early at 4.55am local (midnight Florida time). Everybody still awake and not tired/grumpy, thankfully UK Border wasn’t that busy this time (unlike last year’s mess), once we got through, picked up the bags, got a taxi and were home in our beds for 6.30am!
So to explain my star ratings
4* Ground crew in Orlando, marked up for letting us check-in late, marked down for stupid excess baggage rules
3* Meals good Thai curry (for a plane), disappointing casserole and average breakfast, plenty of drink, overall average-to-good
5* Entertainment hardly saw the kids the whole flight and it passed very quickly…
4* Seats weren't the bulkhead seats we craved but they turned out to be very good even for my long legs, I would be happy to sit there again
5* Cabin Crew friendly, helpful, accommodating, nothing too much trouble for them
It was a bit strange at the end, both me and Mrs Fuzzy looked at each other thinking it went far too easy, long-haul with kids was meant to be more difficult than that. So after a few days back we’re already looking at flights for next year, no question about who will be flying us.
