This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Check in was a breeze and friendly and I was up the elevator and through Fast Track (it was fast track too) in no time. I thought I had escaped the vagaries of taking the shoes off before the screening equipment, but they save that pleasure for later in the journey, just when you think its safe.
Spent a good three hours in the Clubhouse and had breakfast followed by a haircut and bit of truly fresh air on the terrace upstairs. They call it a garden, but there were no flowers up there and if there had been, they would have been screaming to come in from the cold.
Departure was from gate 5 and there was no priority queue for UC passengers. Just stand there with everyone else and it was a busy flight. As I understand it is the Miami Music Convention on at the moment and there were all sorts of music sorts there. I saw no-one famous. Not even Steve Wright.
Flight was smooth and very attentive in terms of service. Id booked my favourite seat (9K), but on checking my boarding pass half way to the walk to the Clubhouse I noticed it said 12K so had asked for it to be changed. It turned out that my seat was broken. This seems a bit of a common theme at the moment, having read other trip reports. Built by the French and not the Germans me thinks. Id finally decided on 1K as I hadnt sat upstairs on Virgin. I was pleased with the choice. I liked it up there and that extra shelf next to the front two seat is very useful. No, really useful. I usually end up with all sorts of bits and pieces around me and fiddle with my carry on trying to keep things in order. The shelf enabled me to be much more organized.
Im not sure if it was the proximity to the loos, but there was a foul smell every so often about halfway through the flight and I got further wafts of it throughout the rest of the journey. If it wasnt the loos then someone in the cabin had really bad wind.
Food was pretty good. I had potato and double Gloucester cheese soup which had a peculiar taste, but the sausage and mash and chocolate mousse and raspberry sauce was very good as was the Bellini I had with it.
Crew were excellent. Friendly and chatty and attentive too. This is part of the reason why I enjoy Virgin so much. So far I have been very lucky with the crew. I generally find if you engage them in conversation and are friendly yourself, they reciprocate.
I got a bit of shut eye and we landed five minutes early, having taken off 15 or so minutes late. My fears of Miami immigration proved unfounded. Landing at 4.55pm I was off with my limo driver at 5.30pm thanks to being off first, a well staffed immigration control and my bags ready on the carousel when Id done the usual finger and face interrogation (done as it happens by a very polite and fun guy at immigration what a joy they are finally getting the message).
The cruise starts tomorrow and Im hoping for some better weather. Its breezy and showery here today. Glad I packed the sea sick pills.
Phil
