This is a Trip Report from the Economy cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
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Cabin Crew
With a lot of excitement, hubby and I got up early for the 6.15am cab taking us to Gatwick. We were on our way to Grenada! We absolutely loved St Lucia on our visit just over a year ago, so were very keen to see more of the Caribbean, especially at the time the UK is having weather warnings! We both had been pretty busy at work, so very much needed a break and some pampering.
Cab took less than 30 mins on the M25, with little traffic. Used PE check-in due to Ag status (EC check-in was pretty empty too) and the agent was very nice, and tagged our bags with the priority tags. Security wasn’t too bad, and we were in the No.1 Lounge before we knew it (after a quick trip to Superdry to get some flipflops for the hubby). We didn’t use fast track security as we weren’t expecting to be so early and to use the Lounge Club vouchers this time.
First impression of the No.1 Lounge at Gatwick South was that it is not as nice as the one at Heathrow T3! It’s quite a bit smaller, and over 2 levels, where the top level is somewhat isolated – all amenities are downstairs including food, bar, magazines, toilets and screen advising boarding etc. There were also huge queues at the toilets - not the most relaxing experience you could hope for at a lounge. No great issue though, we both managed a quick breakfast and a couple of drinks, before boarding was advertised for the VS89.
Today Miss Sunshine (G-VRAY) was taking us to Grenada via St Lucia. How appropriate
She is in good shape, and quite full, too. With 262 on-baord, 166 of which heading all the way to Grenada. This surprised me as last time I remember the majority of the pax got off at St Lucia (sounds like a bus eh?
)With it being a B&S route, I wasn’t expecting too much in Economy. The service was still slightly below par, especially from what I’ve come to expect from VS. The CC weren’t very friendly or engaging – they were ok, doing the necessary jobs, but it just didn’t seem like their hearts were in it.
We were in the second row of EC, so the people in front are in exit row seats, where their VERA screen is in the arms. However, when the lady in front opened his seat arm, it was completely empty with no screen in sight!!
Everyone was completely shocked, even the FSM said that they had never come across this before… The lady was offered a DVD player, which she declined. She ended up swapping seats with a chap from their group (I think there were quite a few of them travelling together, but dotted around in the cabin), who supposedly didn’t want/need to watch anything. As it turned out later that he had bigger dreams. 
Some of you may recall my issue with cheese on-board (long story, but I have BA to thank for this one)
. With VS this has never been an issue as there are always 3 main meals to choose from. The menu looked good – Spanish chicken with rice, beef stew with mustard mash and a veggie option. I liked the look of the chicken, so asked the crew member whether it contained cheese when she was handing them out. As it turned out she had no idea what chicken dish it was, and politely asked me to refer to the menu. The menu obviously wasn’t clear (otherwise I wouldn’t have asked) and she requested the ingredients list for the meals. After reviewing the list, she confirmed that no cheese was in the Spanish chicken dish. My well-trained hubby went for the beef stew, just in case. Imagine my surprise when I opened the foil wrapper and cheese was melted on top of the chicken! No real issue as the hubby happily swapped with me, and both enjoyed our meals, but really I think 1) the CC ought to know what meals are being served when handing them out and 2) the ingredient list must be doubled checked to ensure that it is correct.
The film selection was pretty decent, and hubby and I tried something new this time – watching the same film at the same time! We both bought the Klipsch headphones to enhance our “in-flight cinema experience” (mine in white and Mr W’s in black) and we must’ve looked either like an adorable pair of newly-weds, or a pair of sad losers. Neither of these is true, I hasten to add.
I went to the galley after a couple of films, as I wanted a drink (there hadn’t been a drinks round for quite a long while). The member of CC was standing idly in the galley, and watched me pour myself half a glass of orange juice. The carton ran out, and as he didn’t offer to give me a new one, I asked him. I was advised that they didn’t have any more orange juice left! He also suggested topping my orange juice up with apple juice… I am not that fussy (apart from the cheese thing), but this was one step too far
. I declined. At this point I also attempted to small talk with him to cheer him up, but with no avail. 
Afternoon tea came, and there were cheese sandwiches
. Thankfully I wasn’t very hungry. As it looked like they may not have managed to load the infants/children’s meals, I gave my sandwich (and hubby gave the rockyroad bar) to the parents diagonally in front on the off chance that it would be of help, which were gratefully received. In St Lucia we let off a few pax, with the remaining pax instructed to stay in seats, waiting for the CC switchover. Of course this was too difficult for some pax, and especially the poor chap in front of us who had clearly been bored out of his mind without being able to watch any entertainment for over 8 hours. He moved himself discretely to PE, and decided that that’s where he deserved to be for the next couple of hours. This has of course messed up new CC’s pax count, and it took a while before anyone realised what had happened. The gentleman was politely asked to go back to his seat again (with the CC making some jokes about how he was delaying us all
), but after the safety demonstrations, he ignored the seat belt sign and his prior warning and moved himself forward again! And he stayed there for the remainder of the flight. The second leg of the flight was nice and quick (only half an hour in the air), and with one quick round of water or squash, we were in Grenada almost an hour early! I love the feeling when you first step off the plane and are hit with the sun and the warm, humid air, and you just know that you are in paradise.
As we were quick getting off, we had a very good position in the queue for passport control, and within 10 minutes or so we were through. Looking at the rest of the queue, we realised that we must’ve been the youngest pax on that plane by over 20 years! In fact, one of the other pax even said to us “you must feel like teenagers here”. I must admit that I was pretty surprised by this, as I wasn’t aware of any particular characteristics about Grenada which attracted the “more mature” clientele. Why wouldn’t youngsters visit? I still cannot answer this question after our visit. It’s such a lovely place and would surely appeal to all? 
Anyway, I’ll write more about our trip in the return TR. The journey overall was fine – nothing special, and nothing too much to complain about, but as I said it was slightly below what I’ve come to expect from VS. Miss Sunshine got us safe and sound to the sunny and beautiful Grenada, which is the main thing.
Return TR to follow soon!
