This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Had a leisurely breakfast in the Radisson, then wandered down to T2 for check-in. I had done OLCI at T-24 and bagged Seq 1&2. Was checked in at the Upper Class desk in next to no time and then onto security. The fast lane was anything but fast, as anyone with special needs was being directed down the fast lane, so when you got to the front, there were people with wheelchairs etc. NB: No discrimination against special needs pax intended (it is great that they can fly) but it is obvious that they will take longer at security, so don’t send them down a lane that is intended to be fast!
Anyway, through security without being body-scanned (seemed you only got the body scanner if you pinged the normal metal detector), through duty free and up to the Escape Lounge. We were directed to the “Business Class Lounge” (the lounge on the right) by the dragon on reception.
Wandered down to gate 212 just ahead of the boarding time on the boarding cards and as we walked down, the flight status changed to “Go to gate” on the monitors, so you had 400 odd people heading for gate 212 where there is not a lot of seating. The MAN ground crew were pretty crap here, as they made no announcements as to when boarding would start. Eventually (i.e. after a good half hour of people milling around, including all the UC pax who had been sent down from the Escape Lounge) they started boarding. As with previous trips from MAN, the secondary “random” security screening before the jet-bridge is not random if you are in UC, as the screeners were given lists of the UC pax and told not to check them….!
Anyway, onboard Jersey Girl and to 9A/K. Seats in OK condition and reasonably clean. Sure there is some wear & tear around the IFE screen (the dim-screen & screen power button were completely missing off my screen, but it worked… some of the time (more later). The UC cabin was full, and we accepted the Champagne and the refill when offered. It was now starting to snow quite hard at Manchester – made us even happier to be heading to Orlando! Post take-off drinks+lunch orders were taken prior to takeoff.
The Captain came on the PA to advise of an 8h44m flight time & that departure would be delayed as the plane needed de-icing. He also advised that due to the weather conditions, when we got on the runway the engines would be spooled up to half power for about 30 seconds, which would seem like an eternity, then the takeoff roll would start. Pushed back from the gate about 40mins late and taxied out to 23R. When on the runway, the engines spooled up and gave the brakes a bit of a test for 30secs, then we were off.
So now airbourne, things started to go downhill. My IFE screen would only work randomly – if you pressed the Audio then Video button, it would wake it up for a bit, before dying again (good job I only wanted to watch the Skymap). The drinks service started with the pre-ordered drinks being delivered to everyone in the cabin, bar us. After it was obvious that they had missed us off & we were not being served last, we had to ask for the drinks and they got them wrong (lemon in the G&T’s despite the crew member writing lime on the sheet & there being a glass of lime pieces on the bar). No sign of the FSM in the UC cabin either.
Drinks progressed into lunch and the changes to the UC meal service are obvious. I like the new bread tray & knife – good to see that Orville & Wilbur were still present too… in fact they are on the table here in Florida now. The prawn cocktail to start was 3 large prawns, an oversized lettuce leaf and a small jug of Marie Rose sauce + a lemon wedge – good job I was not hungry! The beef main course was way overcooked. Passed on desert and went for the cheese – I don’t like the new UC meal service here. In the past with the cheese, you used to get a bowl of biscuits (probably 7-8 biscuits as a guess, i.e. plenty). Now the cheese and biscuits (all three of them) are delivered on one plate. So the bean-counters were clearly analyzing the wastage rate on Carrs water biscuits. Had coffee + after dinner drinks of Kahlua – the crew member commented that he could not remember when he had last been asked for Kahlua & that they had just had the memo saying it was being removed from the drinks offering soon.
After lunch I watched videos on my iPad which did not have the screen-blanking problems that the IFE screen did. There were a couple of ladies in the cabin who were clearly on their first UC trip and were knocking the champagne back like it was going out of fashion. Unfortunately, they took up residence at the bar and got quite loud (I am partially deaf too). The weather was kind though, as the last 3.5 hours of the flight was very turbulent with the seatbelt sign on most of the time, so they had so sit down, shut up, and carry on swigging champagne in their seats. Managed a reasonable amount of sleep on & off in the last few hours despite the turbulence.
Afternoon tea was served – we declined the food offering but asked for coffee. Got this just in time as they had just served the UC cabin hot drinks then a PA went out saying due to the turbulence hot drinks service was suspended. Managed to drink the coffees – just – inbetween the bouncing round. When the cups were collected we asked for apple juice… the request was acknowledged, but again, no drinks arrived, so a bit of self-service at the bar was done.
The cabin was then secured for landing and we had a very smooth landing in Orlando. Immigration was not too bad – the Lufthansa arrivals were still being dealt with, but we were through in about 15mins. Sorted the hire car and took the short drive to south I-Drive which will be our home for the next week. Oh, it’s nice and warm in Florida too – no snow!
I can only rate this flight as OK. There was nothing wrong as such, but a collection of little things like; poor ground crew at MAN, cabin crew not delivering drinks, so-so food, dodgy IFE screen (OK, it is Nova!), pax who had clearly had too much to drink being plied with more booze despite the announcements they make, absent FSM etc… all add up to a flight that is not worth writing home about.
Fingers crossed for a better return flight.
