Some will recall the journey south was slightly marred by the vomiting child; no such issues on this one. We left the villa at just after 8am for the 10:30 flight. We stayed at Highlands Reserve, just of Highway 27 for those that know the area. Not the closest to the attractions but easy enough to get to and from everywhere. Packing was very last minute – didn’t do as much shopping this time, (oh, I suppose the MacBook Air I'm typing on now probably counts. For reference it cost £666 as opposed to £867 in the UK – bargain I reckon.)
Still had plenty of fuel left in the Jeep – I averaged less than 22mpg during the fortnight. In an effort to us as much up as possible before returning I drove fairly quickly to MCO – hate giving them any fuel back! Alamo we pretty good though – my receipt indicates that 1000 FC miles will be on their way at some point, fingers crossed.
MCO was quiet – go there at about 0900. Did the whole up, down, under, up again trip to get to JB Check-in. One thing; Bag Drop Off was significantly busier than general check-in. I hadn’t checked us in online; didn’t really fancy it as not confident with their system yet. Not a long wait – 15mins? They had a fair number of flights going out – to all manner of destinations. Fairly efficient though – the chap was really relaxed about the extra bag we intended to carry-on. Given what we saw on the southbound leg – people taking on luggage that I couldn’t carry – we thought it would be OK.
Wandered through to security – again really quiet. This may be useful info for those who usually fly direct to LGW; less flights out in the morning, (or at least smaller aircraft), so less hassle. Late afternoon/early evening has up to 4 VA flights leaving so potentially really busy.
Got some seats at the gate (7 I think) they announced that the flight was completely full so we should be sensible with the boarding – fat chance thought I – there were already people queueing!
Still they boarded Even More Legroom Seats first – I had booked these for us online at $30 each, each way. I highly recommend this option. Priority boarding is really useful on these flights due to the ridiculous amount of carry on our friends across pond enjoy. Also, some of the seats are right at the front so swift disembarkation is possible. And the leg room is massive; I had about a foot between my knees and the seat in front – although I'm only 5'10”. I'm typing this on VS46 in PE and there is more legroom, by far, in the JB Even More seats. We had the window and middle seat. Not ideal – I volunteered for the middle so had to share an arm rest with an American chappy. Which was fine, although whenever he changed channel via the armrest controls his ridiculously hairy arms kept brushing my arm -not the end of the world but I'm not a big fan of too much contact with strangers – but that's the 3 – 3 config for you.
Brilliant TV again – on from the moment you get onboard – take you own headphones though as they charge $2 for theirs. Managed to watch Benjamin Netanyaho's speech to the US Congress, (one minute I'm with the Palestinians – living in slums, generally looking repressed and downtrodden 2nd rate citizens, the next I'm for the Israelis – surrounded by peoples who hate them, deny the holocaust, and are trying to get nuclear weapons. Still, Tony Blair's on the case so that'll be sorted in a couple of weeks...)
The live TV thing really is brilliant though – although our XM radio wasn’t working on this flight. (I wanted to listen to Real Radio which is on 104.1FM in Orlando and XM satellite 165 – really funny stuff as you drive around Orlando – try it. Monsters in the Morning, the BS at lunch time, The Phillips Phile from 3-7 and SKB from 7 onwards. Been tuning in for years, every visit – we take longer routes to the Malls just to listen – sad really...
Anyways... flight time was only just over two ours; had the blue crisps again which were really good and a Dunkin' Donuts coffee – really good also. The Americans really do better coffee I think. Mrs Monster went for the tea which was good but hotter than the surface of the sun!
Smooth flight, landing was good – flew over some nice looking 'pads' and a load of golf course during the approach – some of them were borderline mansions! Anyone know if this is an area favoured by the rich and famous?
Off promptly, but had a fairly long wait for the luggage. And this is another thing that properly winds me up – carousel etiquette. I tend to stand back, look out for our luggage, jump in and grab it. Of course, I'm aided by being able to remember what my own luggage looks like, which given what I see at most luggage carousels, must make me some kind of genius. How many times have I seen people take luggage off, turn it over, really look at it before realising it isn't theirs – did they pack blindfolded?? Then you've got the whole family that stand in a row blocking the carousel for anyone else – including the kids who haven’t a hope in help of lifting anything. On this occasion we had the two college girls who walked right in front of me, blocking my access – thanks for that. Then we had the girl behind who rushed to get her case, (which was bigger than her), who tried to get it one handed while chatting on her phone! Some kind of chivalry grabbed me and I hauled it off for her – everyone else ignored her attempts and didn’t attempt to move out of the way. Ours were off before long – no-one moved when I hauled them off – not my problem then if a 20kg bag clouts you in the leg...sue me. Rant over.
Longish walk to the sky train but only one stop to T4 so really easy. Elevators aplenty so no problems moving heavy luggage around – really quick arriving at T4.
Overall then the JB experience to MCO is excellent. Our standard return tickets were only £130 each – plus the $30 each, each way upgrades. Planes are clean and fairly new, (Airbus A320). The JB terminal at JFK is great – Free WiFi is superb, loads of eating options. And it seems to make the MCO experience better – getting there later means that it's quiet, ditto leaving earlier. And the last day in Florida is always a bit sombre – we just want to crack on with getting home, which is doable with a 1030 departure. The only issue is timing; we could've taken the VS4 back at 1815 which means less waiting at JFK but one of our tickets was a reward so you take what you're offered!
Total plane time should be around 8 hours, (2 for the JB plus 6 for the VS46), so comparable to the MCO – LGW direct.
I would urge people to give this a try – especially if you're looking for reward or MPM seats – many more options for JFK. Plus I prefer the more 'cosmopolitan' feel of the JFK flights. It's all screaming kids and 'knees up mother brown' on the MCO -LGW flights. I'm not gong to comment on the IFE from LGW, (excluding the new A330) – I haven’t even switched on the V-Port and I'm gonna try to get some shut-eye now.
Right – just save this ready to paste into the V-Flyer website tomorrow. I'll do the VS46 TR at the same time.
Thanks for reading again.
Craig.
. I'll sound like a fogey but peoples' manners really are going down hill!
Why wasn't I so organised 
