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Aug 3, 2014, 12:34 pm

#31

TheFlyingDoctor

Join Date: Dec 2011

Location: EXT

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So I guess I have a new favourite type of trip report - one where a talented photographer documents a trip you were on for you! Thanks for putting in the time to share this. My own rather more limited coverage is here; just a handful of photos from the castle (which I managed to squeeze in a visit to on Sunday morning) and some tales from the budget perspective.

Aug 3, 2014, 1:06 pm

#32

Physci

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Quote:

Originally Posted by TheFlyingDoctor

Ah, someone else who did the Castle on Sunday morning - seems quite a few of us were there at various times

Aug 3, 2014, 1:24 pm

#33

aks120

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TheFlyingDoctor

Your report looks very posh - great pictures and I agree about the pork sandwich yummy!

aks120

Aug 3, 2014, 3:28 pm

#34

CMK10

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Enjoyable report with excellent photos, thanks for sharing it. I'd love to make it to a BA DO one of these days and this just reinforces that desire.

Aug 3, 2014, 3:34 pm

#35

Fruitcake

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Great report. ^

A few familiar faces there...

Aug 3, 2014, 4:16 pm

#36

Top of climb

Join Date: May 2010

Posts: 1,498

Nightlife = crashing the annual Jersey/Guernsey chess club tourney again?

It's nice to see you all managed to get outside on the terrace rather than everyone huddling round inside! Definitely a side benefit of having it in July rather than April.

Aug 9, 2014, 10:37 am

#37

Physci

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Quick thread bump whilst we wait for Matthandy to complete/post part 3

Aug 9, 2014, 10:39 am

#38

T8191

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Physci

Quick thread bump whilst we wait for Matthandy to complete/post part 3

I also feel the suspense, but recognise he has been abroad ... and Moderating

Aug 10, 2014, 5:17 am

#39

matthandy

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Quote:

Originally Posted by T8191

I also feel the suspense, but recognise he has been abroad ... and Moderating

Sorry everyone. I'm in Stockholm now. Back to Germany tomorrow too.

I'll try to finish the TR this week.

Aug 15, 2014, 4:31 am

#40

BA5E

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Enjoyed reading the Jersey meet up thread, and great photos as usual, look forward to reading the rest when you get back from MUC^

Aug 16, 2014, 7:42 am

#41

matthandy

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Part 3 – Going Home

I woke up at about 8pm, feeling quite refreshed. Sure I'd had at least a whole bottle of LP Rose to myself but it was spread out over a good view hours. I had a shower and got dressed before going down for breakfast. I bumped into another FTer and we agreed to go for a wander around the town after breakfast.

The town centre was only a short walk from the hotel. However, as lovely as St. Helier is, it is to our disappointment, almost completely closed on Sundays. Almost every shop was closed as was the market area too. It was still nice to wander around though and I noted a few places that I'd like to go back to on my next visit.

Jersey gets its own BA office!

Jersey residents will understand this - I didn't

The town centre

Steam clock

The harbour at low tide

On the way we bumped into where next and agreed to share a taxi to the airport together. We left the hotel at 11.45, which for me was a little early but everyone else seemed to want to do some shopping....

Arriving at the airport we found it pretty much deserted. The flight wasn't until 2.10pm which gave us a little under two hours to waste.

I took a photo of the check in desks but got given the 'stink eye' by one of the staff, oops. No harm intended! We then went through security which was very quick and then we were out into the main departure area. Here, those that wanted to shop could do with dairy based products seemingly popular.

I made my way to the lounge which wasn't easy to find as it wasn't sign posted. We had to go through a set of sliding doors to get there but before that I had a bit of an explore. A 'viewing deck' was signposted up some stairs so I went for a nosey.

We are here

Drop off

Check in

Rather nice departure area

What an odd little part of the airport it was. It looked a bit like some sort of overflow waiting area. There was even a play area for the kids. As for it being a viewing area, well, there wasn't much to see and the metal work all around made viewing anything quite difficult. I did manage to get a shot of the old hangar though.

After this we went through to the lounge. There is a rather imposing windowless locked-looking door which we had to go through. We were welcomed in to the lounge by a nice gentleman on the desk. First impressions, it's not very big, and it was rather hot! For some reason, the architects had the great idea of building a huge window in the ceiling of the lounge which meant that on a sunny day like it was, the lounge quickly heats up.

We found that we weren't the first ones in the lounge, despite arriving almost two hours before our flight was due to take off. There were a couple of other FTers who had beaten us to it!

Once we worked out where to sit it was time to take a look at the food and drink selection. There was a reasonable selection of wines and Prosecco, alas, no Champagne. I thought that it was a really nice touch that local products were available too although I wasn't in the right mood to try them simply because I'd had quite a lot to drink the day before.

One great thing going for the lounge was that it was so close to the tarmac. We got to see a few planes arriving, including our own.

Viewing gallery

Old hangar

Foreboding door

Lounge seating

The bar area

Wine selection

Prosecco

Local Jersey products

Snacks

Cakes

As this was an FT gathering we decided to at least have a glass of Prosecco. Unfortunately, we used up the last bottle! It was replenished before the next batch of FTers arrived though, luckily.

At around 1.20pm our aircraft arrived (for the 2.10pm flight). It was unsurprisingly, one of the Gatwick based ex. BMI aircraft. The noise as the aircraft arrived was rather loud but personally, I do like these close encounters. It makes flying that bit more exciting.

Lets have some Prosecco

Celebrating a lovely weekend

Here she comes

Gate neighbour

We sat in the lounge and waited until boarding was called. One great feature of this lounge is that there is a door that connects straight to the gate. When boarding was called at 13.45 the door was opened and we made our way into the gate area. Priority boarding was semi-enforced and we were in the second or first batch on board.

Jersey to London Gatwick – British Airways Club Europe

Flight: BA2773
Carrier: British Airways (BA)
Aircraft: Airbus A319 – G-DBCG (ex. BMI)
Scheduled Departure Time: 14:10
Scheduled Duration: 50m
Scheduled Arrival Time: 15:00
Travel Class: Club Europe
Seat: 1D (seat map)

I'd chosen to sit in 1D which was an aisle seat in the first row onboard. There was plenty of room although I kept getting brushed as people boarded which was quite annoying. Unlike the way out, there was plenty of room for my carry-on bag.

The Captain announced a flying time of 37 minutes which was very quick indeed. We took off a little bit early and where next who was seated next to me started his watch to time the flight.

The crew rushed into action as they needed to on this short sector. I have to say that I found this crew particularly unprofessional. The purser had to stop himself laughing during the safety briefing and when he was seated in the jump seat he kept talking over to his colleague who was sat in row 2. In fact, I thought that he was talking to me but instead of apologizing, he just laughed at me which I found rather rude and embarrassing.

This was an afternoon tea service which consisted of sandwiches and then warm scones which were great. The sandwiches themselves were fine. All in all it was more than I'd have probably expected on such a short flight.

Boarding

Mighty engine

A view of the wing

1D and 1F

A view into the cockpit from 1D

Legroom

Boarding complete

The Jersey coastline

Afternoon tea tray

Sandwiches

Scones – jam then cream, the proper way

Coming in over the Sussex coast

Baggage claim

On the train home

Aug 16, 2014, 8:42 am

#42

T8191

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matthandy ... massive thanks for your efforts in producing a lovely TR and a great advert for Jersey!

Sorry we close on Sundays ... its a traditional old place!

^

Aug 16, 2014, 8:49 am

#43

CMK10

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Thanks for finishing this! Hopefully next year I can get to one of these Dos

Aug 16, 2014, 10:38 am

#44

aks120

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matthandy

Thanks for reminding me what a good time I had over the weekend.

I too found the male cabin crew memeber very unprofessional - he was like a giggling schoolboy!

Great trip report as always.

Regards

aks120

Aug 17, 2014, 10:48 am

#45

FIRSTclstraveller

Join Date: Oct 2004

Location: JER

Programs: BA Silver

Posts: 354

Great finale to your excellent trip report and hopefully it will encourage others to visit our small but rather fine island!

Regarding the unprofessional behaviour of crew, I too have found that for some reason it's often during the safety announcement. Given this is surely the most important aspect of pre-flight procedures, it beggars believe to hear them having to pause during the announcement because they're laughing so much.

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