This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Dropped bags at a quiet Disney Springs this morning, then headed off to Universal for some final rides. Got very lucky with the single riders lines and managed several rides on Mummy & Gringotts with zero wait. It was then time to head back to where we had been staying for a final shower and change before heading to MCO.
The VS check-in area at MCO is now all along the same wall (no longer the hidden Upper Class desk in the cubby-hole opposite). Dropped an additional checked bag at the UC desk then headed for security… first time with TSA-Pre thanks to Global Entry. The normal security lines were like they normally are on a Saturday afternoon (very long). Was through the TSA-Pre in about 3mins from the boarding pass & ID checkpoint. Even if I only end up using GE+TSA-Pre a couple of times a year in the 5yrs it’s valid for it’s definitely money well spent. Duty free has been purchased & up to the Delta Sky Club which is very quiet for a Saturday afternoon – loads of empty seats. In fact, I don’t think I can remember seeing the Sky Club this quiet in the 12 years I’ve been using it.
Boarding was called in the lounge so wandered down to gate 81 – the final few wheelchair / special needs passengers were being boarded, but Upper Class boarding was called within a few minutes. Picked up duty free and onboard Ruby Tuesday. As the Upper Class cabin started to fill up it’s clear this is a very US-passenger heavy flight – think there are only 4 UK passengers in Upper Class. The flight as a whole was not full – 353 pax & 16 crew.
A departure delay was announced due to baggage loading problems and the bar area started to become quite popular with a certain group of passengers. Must have been a good 5 or 6 bottles of champagne sunk prior to take-off (admittedly, we did our bit to help here). We took off about 45mins late and we’ve got a long-ish 7h15m back to Manchester, so will arrive about on-time at 7:30am all being well.
We’d only been airbourne for just over 5mins when the crew were released to start service. The US pax seemed to think this included them getting out of their seats and the FSM had to lay the law down. One pax hesitated and said he was fine standing thank you – a return to MCO was offered. Could be an eventful flight. The hot towels were handed out and some pax nearer the front are throwing them across the cabin at each other… Oh no.
Both the FSM and the CSS did the rounds with their tablet devices introducing themselves to passengers by name. The CSS took the drinks orders & the FSM chatted to each passenger. Welcomed back onboard & thanked for my loyalty to Virgin (as a Silver FC member) by the FSM. Clearly the tablet devices make identifying passengers by FC status much easier for the crew. It is good to see the Virgin have got rid of those god-awful rice style crisps that they used to serve after take-off ex-USA and reverted to normal kettle chips style crisps that are edible.
Meal orders have just been taken and the CSS is doing it by the book – going round the cabin by FC status order. I’ve opted for the beef, but offered to change to the curry if they were running low on beef and was told “No, you get your first choice”. I can see some people being disappointed when the beef runs out, which it doubtless will. The group of pax who will doubtless all want beef are being loud at the bar. Mr 12A was shouting across the cabin at Mr 12K during the taxi to the runway – I feel so much better for knowing he earns (or claims to) over $500k a year. Thank goodness for a bit of turbulence – the seatbelt sign goes on and the cabin quietens down as our loud friends at the bar have to return to their seats. Let’s hope it’s nice and bumpy all the way to Manchester.
Meal service was quiet thanks to the seatbelt sign. Passed on a starter and the beef was OK. The CSS claimed she thought the portion size was a bit small, but cannot say that I went hungry. Passed on dessert and had the cheese, as it’ll be breakfast time in not much over 4hrs time.
As the meal service was being cleared away from most of the cabin the seatbelt sign went off and one of the Mr & Mrs USA couples were quick to take up residence at the bar – not quietly either. Can see the FSM having to step in when the cabin gets shut down / blacked out for the couple of hours of sleep time shortly. This is one area where Emirates excel – their J/F class bar is separate of the passenger seating area of the cabin. Sure, the couple of rows nearest their bar may hear some noise, but nothing like what we’re currently enjoying. We’ve both just put Bose QC-20i’s on – they cancel out engine/flight noise, as well as American noise.
In the end the FSM did not intervene – she just killed all the lights in the UC cabin, including the ones above the bar. This did the trick as sitting at a darkened bar is not particularly appealing – especially when there is no crew member there to serve you. The cabin was now quiet for a few hours as people tried to sleep (every passenger had their seat flipped into bed mode). I managed a couple of hours sleep and woke up about 2hrs out of Manchester – my breakfast was served about an hour later, but I am sure I could have had it sooner if I’d asked as this crew were very obliging (unlike the crew on the outbound flight).
We landed at MAN 5mins ahead of schedule so were on-stand at T2 a few minutes late. I feel sorry for non-EU passport holders in T2 this morning, as Singapore, Qatar & Hainan had all arrived close together and the line for non-EU passports at immigration was very very long. We were through the E-Gates in no time and downstairs to the baggage hall. Reclaim belt 2 was just starting up, but it was 10-15mins before any bags appeared on it from our flight.
I know some people say bag-dropping at Disney Springs can be hit & miss for correct priority handling of baggage if in Upper / PE / FC Gold. Well today the bags we dropped at Disney Springs were about the 15 & 16th bags off the flight on the belt. The additional bag we dropped at MCO was the 2nd bag off the flight on the belt, so no complaints today about baggage handling.
All in all this was a solid VS flight from the factors within the control of Virgin. The crew were good and attentive and there were no shortfalls in the product offering. The only negative was, sorry, the loud American passengers.
As for the noisy passengers, perhaps returning from the big Cisco Conference? 
