This is a Trip Report from the Upper Class cabin
Ground Staff
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Cabin Crew
Had this holiday booked for almost a year now. Its flown by, although it seems like I've logged on to the Virgin Atlantic websit almost every day since just to try and bag some good seats (well, thats my excuse anyway... in reality I was just really excited and felt compelled to log in and look at my 2 prized "G"s as often as I could).
All that logging in did pay off however as one day 12A/K miraculously opened up and I nabbed them - perfect for my and the OH who has never been in any kind of premium cabin on any airline before (or been in a 747) and so was extremely excited about the experience. And I was chuffed to get the seats, although my stress levels actually increased from the time I managed to request them, convinced that some "operational" reason would crop up on the day that would steal them away from me... Should I really get so hung up about which seats I get? No. Do I anyway? Hell yes!
I checked in at T-24 but was a couple of minutes late to the party and only managed SEQ 4/5. Bah! Anyway they day arrived. I had used some miles to book a CDC in the morning. Not the best value for miles I know but its an hour and a half drive to LHR from my house and we had a lot of luggage between (an extra bag for our rollerblades) us so it was well worth it in my view. Plus the car and the DTCI was another little something for the OH to experience on the trip. Car picked us up on time, we arrived at the Upper Class Wing, which was deserted and bags dropped, we whisked through security and made for the lounge, after a very swift detour in duty free for a couple of bits and pieces (I even planned out what I wanted to get, just to save clubhouse time time... haha... the OH truly thinking I'm crazy at this point).
We made it to the lounge at around 8.45am. There was a passenger ahead of us that was apparently asking if he could pay to come in. The lady at the door said she was sorry and that occasionally they allowed paid access to the lounge if it was quiet, however it was quite busy today and so it would not be possible... he looked as though he was about to protest however I think the presence of a few people standing behind him probably made him think twice about having a diva-hissy-fit and he sloped off.
The clubhouse was busyish but not exactly packed. There were seats readily available and we settled down near to the bar (of course). As it was nearly 9, pretty busy and it was only going to be around 1.5 hours till the gate was up on the board we never even bothered trying for a treatment, and there was nothing we really wanted that badly anyway. The OH asked if it was too early for a cocktail. After I briefly explained "the rules" we ordered a couple of Virgin Red-heads - which were delish - and eggs benedict (x2 on each plate). Now I am a big fan of Eggs Benedict, making it myself fairly regularly (hollandaise from scratch, I hasten to add!). So I consider myself a connoisseur of sorts. I have flown BA First recently and made the mistake of ordering Eggs Benedict in the first lounge. It was truly disgusting. Tasteless soggy muffin, watery under-cooked egg and the blandest hollandaise I have ever tasted! Vile. So I was pleasantly surprised when Virgin's version showed up and was really tasty. Impressed! After a further drink (a couple of Cosmo's) I decided we should try to stay the right side of sober and we ordered a couple of coffee's before boarding.
We made our way down to gate 21 (I think it was) and the gate holding pen was completely rammed full of people. Fortunately boarding had just started as we walked in and we made our way almost immediately onto the aircraft. We were shown to 12A/K and the OH was beaming and very impressed with the look of the cabin and thrilled with the configuration of 12A/K. I was impressed too actually. Its been a couple of years since I flew UC on Virgin but the seats looked clean and not too tired at all, with everything apparently working as it should. I still wiped a few surfaces over with my hot towel - but hey, thats just me!
Offered a pre-flight drink...departure was on time and we were on our way. The FSM came and introduced herself to us early on, follwed by a member of crew shortly afterwards to take a drinks order and ask if we new what we wanted to eat. I chose the steak and mashed potato and OH selected prawn cocktail with Thai Curry and Noodles. My steak was awful - well lets say the steak was OK but everything else on the plate looked a bit pathetic... watery mash and a couple of rather sad looking veggies. Hey ho. The OH's meal on the other hand looked and tasted very nice by all accounts so the cullinary side of it ended up being a bit of a mixed bag really. I ended the meal with Sticky Toffee pudding with was very nice.
The cabin was busy and at one point we decided to go and check out the bar. It was packed, all seats taken and in fact nearly all available space taken by other people standing about chatting in the area so we made our way back to settle down with some IFE. Crew were very nice, chatty and smiley, which was great. My one complaint was the temperature in the nose. At one point it got up to 26 degrees at the front of the cabin where we were, despite all the air vents being turned on. It remained pretty hot throughout the flight. I guess on the bright side, it did get the climatisation process going for Florida.
Couple of dry old sandwiches in the afternoon - rescued however by a very tasty Scone, Jam and clotted cream to go with my tea. Another mixed bag... but my expectations are always realistic about these things. That said, I heard Virgin are about to take us into Space. So I do find it a little odd then that apparently the technology doesn't exist to keep a few sandwiches fresh for a few hours before consumption, lol.
Overall the flight was great though. Very smooth, landing at MIA on time.
Now this was the part I was dreading. Passort Control at Miami Intl Airport. Eeeek. I'd heard the horror stories! We'll in a bizzare twist of fate it seems that we actually benefited somewhat from this silly airport and its usually rubbish PassPort Control. Just before the normal Passport hall we were steered off into a smaller passport hall where we queued. It was explained to us that the main passport hall was so crowded (in fact completely full) that noone else would fit in there and this additional section was opened to try and handle the overflow. Now let me say that we did have to wait for an hour even in this extra passport area, however we know that in the main hall, those poor souls were queing for AT LEAST twice that amount of time. So we were very fortunate indeed, it seems not to have been kept on the plane to wait for the main hall queues to go down or worse - to have to join the back of those queues!
I thanked a couple of selected deities before hopping in a cab and heading off to South Beach!
CH first, fripperies such as Duty Free later.
Is there a bigger picture 
