This is a Trip Report from the Premium Economy cabin
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My sister and I were travelling in the PE cabin with the parents lurking somewhere back in Y (nothing personal!). Seats were requested in the bubble for all of us at 90 days before. OLCI was, as ever, done promptly at T minus 24 with me securing SEQ 1 (beating my sister who got No 2!).
We all stayed at the new Premier Inn at North Terminal the night before. This is a really nice, good value hotel and so convenient for getting on the shuttle to the south terminal.
We were all up around 0700 to take advantage of the Upper Class check in courtesy of the gold card. All of of our bags were marked as upper with all boarding cards marked with the Premium Securuty stickers (fantastic!!). It was then that my sister and I parted ways with the parents as they went back to the hotel for brekkie and we headed off the Clubhouse.
I have never been to the clubhouse before (I have only ever peeked down the corridor longingly!). We were welcomed by the ladies at the front desk and were given a brief tour of the facilities as this was our first visit. Spa treatments were promptly booked and then we sat down for a spot of brekkie. I had the toast which was lovely (not sure how they can make a plate of toast and a pot of tea look so elegant but somehow they managed to!!). The service from the cloubhouse was fantastic, everyone was really friendly. We had barely finished our first drinks before the server came round to offer us some more. Class of champagne? Well it's not even 0800 yet but....why not!! I had the facial as my treatment which was very relaxing. My sister had her nails done which she enjoyed - they looked fantastic afterwards! We both really loved the clubhouse, it was a brillant start to the holiday.
Soon our time was up and we trundled off to gate 17 where the Orlando flight was already boarding. We took out seats upstairs (saying hello to Parents in row 79 on the way) and were soon settled with a drink. There is so much room in the PE cabin upstairs for all your gear. The side bins are massive and means that there is no question of the overhead bins getting full.
Push back was perfectly on time and we joined a short queue at the runway ready for our projected flight time of 8hr33min to Orlando. The new gate to gate entertainment is very good. I just had the sky map on for take off and landing which was good.
Drinks were ofered soon after takeoff with the lunch menus following. Both my sister and I had pre ordered a veggie meal. I was glad we did. It's not the choice of mains for the PE meal offerering but the starter that's the problem for me - smoked fish. Sorry but that's a big yuck from me!! Anyhoo the veggie meals were lovely. We had a plain salad for starters and a pesto pasta for the main with some kind of apple crumble for pudding. Bread rolls were also brought round with water and wine. I have to say this was probably the nicest meal I have had on a flight in as long as I can remember. I ate the lot!!
Service wasn't particularly overwhelming on this flight. Not one of the crew serving us were particularly friendly (I don't expect them to be my best friend but a few smiles are aways nice). I wouldn't have minded this as much but I have marked down the service as it took me three requests and over an hour to get my post dinner brandy with no particular apology for having been forgotton several times. Still the brandy was a generous portion and very nice stuff when it did arrive!
There was just the one juice/water run during the afternoon with ice cream following soon afternoon. Well I say ice cream - what happened to the Haagen Daas???? Skinny cow is NOT ice cream!!
High tea was served under 2 hours before landing. Half a cheese and pickle sandwich with a small cupcake. Quite nice don't get me wrong, but the cupcake seems to have shrunk since last year ......
We landed around 1500LT in Orlando and were very quickly on to the stand. We were amongst the first 30 or so people off the plane but alas I had feared, the Manchester flight had beaten us to it so immigration was another 30min wait as we were caught at the tail end of that flight. I felt sorry for the people further back (and the Glasgow flight and BA flight that also arrived shortly after us). There only seemed to be a few desks open so the queue wasnt moving spectacularly quickly either. I would expect that meant a wait of well over an hour for those people.
Our luggage was already waiting for us as we cleared immigration (we saw it going round as we were in the queue!) so it was quickly through customs and on to the monorail to pick up the car. All very efficient in all and a very enjoyabe trip!
I would say that at no point was the fact I had a gold card acknowleged, either getting onto or when I was sat on the plane (my FC number was printed on the boarding card). I know I have read on here that it is very rare for it to be so I wasnt expecting anything. I think this could be better. To get a gold card (if you are not lucky enough to win one!) means that you have to spend an awful lot of money (to me) flying Virgin. Surely this should be acknowledged in some way. A simple "welcome back" or "thank you for flying with us" doesn't cost anything but means a lot. Anyway, that's just my opinion.
All in all this was a great experience from beginning to end
. The clubhouse is absolutely fantastic and made the trip that much more special. I cant wait to go there again in January (I still have yet to try a Redhead!!)Thanks for reading.
Amo
