After a fantastic 2 weeks, it was time to come home & leave the sunshine.
Arrived at MCO & managed to find a very helpful porter who loaded our cases for us & helped us to the check-in. There was a separate check-in for Upper, although this seemed to be in use for Premium Economy as well. Only had to wait for a couple of minutes & then checked in for 8A & 8K again. Check-in staff were very friendly & polite. Not sure if they were checking in the Manchester flight too, as the lines for Economy were rather large[:0]
We were issued with our invites to the Crown Room, although we didn't use them & preferred to have a wander round the shops!
Before we knew it, it was time to wander through security & make our way to the gate (I think it was gate 83?). The lines were moving fairly quickly, & took me about 10 minutes.
Unfortunately, Paul had forgotten to take his rather large bottle of JD out of his carry on bag, so he got stopped & asked if he would like to check it in? Cue a rather long wait for him to re-appear back through (roughly 30 mins!)
Duty free is rather small there & it didn't have much in the way of choice, but still managed to find some perfume.
Made our way to the gate & found boarding was in progress. The priority boarding line was very slow, as everyone was trying to use it, due to the other queue being very long. Finally made our way onboard to 8A & K & then it was time to relax. Amenity kits were handed out - again, very basic but you could request extras if needed.
The flight should have left at 7.40pm, but we were slightly delayed on the ground due to a baggage issue, so we took off around 8.25pm.
The cabin crew were very different to our outbound flight - took them 25 minutes to ask if we would like a drink (before we had even departed). One member of the crew was solely interested in flirting with the businessmen in the cabin & was very surly[V] Everything seemed to be too much trouble for her. Unfortunately, she was the main person who ended up working the cabin, which was a shame, as her attitude left a lot to be desired.
We had a different menu for this flight & both opted for the Alaskan crab salad (delicious) & the pork tenderloin (too dry & chewy). Afterwards, Paul had the cheese selection & I had the pecan pie, which were both yummy.
About an hour after serving dinner, it became apparent that they wanted you to go to sleep - breakfast menus were collected, blinds pulled down without asking & if you were away from your seat, you returned to find it had already been converted into the bed.
Tried to watch Shrek 3 but ended up channel surfing as I'd missed the beginning & didn't want to wait until it started again.
We were both looking forward to grabbing some sleep on the way home & weren't disappointed with the suite (although 2 pillows would be nice[:p])
All too soon it was time for breakfast & we both wished that we hadn't bothered - the omelette was rather rubbery & was served with the tiniest sausage I'd ever seen. Also, the toast was too crumbly & broke apart in your fingers[:$]
Soon it was time to get ready for landing & we arrived back at Gatwick to the freezing cold!Immigration took around 40 minutes & our luggage came out fairly quickly, so pleasantly surprised that we didn't have to wait too long.
I'm not sure if overnight flights are a chance for crew to catch up on paperwork etc, but it would be nice if the attitude didn't come across solely as 'please take your seat & refrain from asking me for anything during this flight, as I'm too busy to help'
We will definately fly Upper again, although, V-Port on the LGW routes would be rather nice[:p]
I hope you enjoyed reading this & now it's time to start saving again.
Thanks,
Ang
