Hi,
VS 27 LGW-MCO
18th April
Sch Dep 1115 Sch Arr 1525
Act Dep 1117 Act Arr 1505
Seat 8A ( Upper Class)

Check in
After arriving at Zone A at LGW South Terminal from the LGW Hilton around 8:15am for my VS15 @1230, the economy line was long , being a bank holiday and PE had a few people but only a couple in the UC queue.
At the document check prior to the check in desk, I was approached by a Virgin agent who asked me If I would mind taking the earlier flight ( VS27 @ 1115). I agreed and was escorted over to the ticket desk to get my new eticket receipt. After that it was back to the document check and I was asked by the security agent to follow him after check in for a random bag search. At check in I asked if Row 6 was available ( forward row in UC) but it was not but I got 8A(window). The bag was tagged, by boarding pass got the fastrack sticker and then I followed the security agent to a secured corner near the AA check in area where a random bag search was done. I opened up my case and they had a look through before closing it and taking it to the belt. It only took a few minutes.
Queues at security were longish but using fastrack was only 5-10minutes before I was through.

The lounge

As I had booked an appointment for a haircut using my later flight (haircut booked at 11am) I headed straight to the lounge. As I checked in with the front desk the agent reminded me to go to the vtouch salon which I thought was a nice touch. The vtouch salon was great and I was able to get a new appointment at 930am.
I had a light snack of cereal juice and coffee as I knew it would be non stop eating on board the flight!!
The lounge was busy with the MIA flights, two Caribbean and one MCO flight leaving at 1115 and the later MCO flight at 1230.
I was able to log on to one of the three pc’s to alert my transportation company at MCO to pick me up at the new time.
After the haircut ( great as usual) I had a shower-during the shower I realized that I had a pre order booked for my original flight. I went to the front desk and they were able to change the order to my return flight which was good of them.
The shoe shine is also back ( Wednesday to Sunday) and I had my shoes polished.
I went to the general departure lounge to do a little bit of shopping and it was busy as everyone was jetting off for easter.

The flight
( The LGW aircraft have the Recaro seats which are not the J2000 seats on the LHR aircraft, do not recline as far and do not have the inflight therapist area)
Around 1045am we were called for boarding so we took the lift to the tram to the satellite and headed to gate 34. I used the Upper class boarding line, got stopped for a random bag search then headed down the jetway and turned left and headed to Zone A in the nose of the aircraft.
The UC section is four rows of 2-2 in the nose section ahead of door 1( rows 6-7-8-9). There are two rows of 2-2-2 UC seats in Zone B behind door 1 but this was going to be the PE zone today. There were also around 3rows of economy seats ahead of the boarding door 2.
Shortly after seating I was served with a choice of champagne, orange juice or water, I chose champagne and very nice it was too. Our headsets were handed out and we also got our amenity kits and a bottle of water for the flight. All 16 UC seats were filled for this flight ( no children or babies in the UC cabin)
The new quarterly UC magazine Carlos was handed out and I read it during the flight ( I will post a review in my return flight segment) and it was quite good with the majority of articles and shorter pieces of interest.
We pushed back roughly on time and had a longish taxi to the easterly runway. As we rolled I could see the two Caribbean bound VS aircraft taxing out after us. It was a beautiful spring day, with sunshine and warm outside.
We took off towards the east before doing a 180 turning to the left to get us heading in the right direction and I could see LGW in the distance as we climbed.
We headed due westward so we had a good view of Southampton and the Isle of Wright before cruising over the Irish Sea and the mountains of west Ireland (they looked magnificent breaking out of the low clouds)
During the climb our cabin crew came round and took our drink orders. I chose a diet cola and crisps ( you could have had nuts also).
As we had our drinks, our lunch orders were taken.
I chose the;
Soup ( Salad was also an option)
Chicken Korma
Desert
Linen table cloths and napkins were handed out and the meals were on the usual china ( normal black plastic cutlery).
There was a choice of three red and three white wines. I chose the Red Chilean Pinot Noire which was excellent. Frequent refills were offered but I only had two glasses
The soup came with a choice of breads and I chose the garlic bread which was very good.

After the meal I chose a coffee with a small Bailey’s and Ice. As it was Good Friday , small chocolate easter eggs were given with the coffee rather than the normal chocolates. The Baileys came in a small glass (rather than the normal large glass tumbler ) and was excellent.

The Kid’s Flight

While cruising we heard on the PA that there was 106 kids on board so they would do a separate child meal service. There was also going to be two competitions on board. One for the tidiest tray handed in at the end of the meal ( in the Economy /PE Cabin) and a drawing competition with an easter theme.
There was a young girl who was dressed up in a FA uniform who was brought up to the UC cabin by the Purser and came round to our seats with the bowl of chocolates.

The cruise
After lunch we settled down and fully reclined our seats, extended the leg rests and watched the movies and listened to the music channels. I generally listed to Think Pink with Jackie Clune whose commentary was funny at times ( “We are going to have to make an unscheduled stop as I’m dying for a cigar with the Gibson brothers”-The song was Cuba!!, Here is another band with a song named after a tropical fruit drink –Rio by Duran Duran”, “Put down those maracas in row J!! There is no camp percussion allowed in Economy!! Although it would prevent Deep ( and extremely Vain) Thombosis)

There was a regular drinks service and the central bar area in the middle of the cabin at row 9 had fruit and nibbles together with harder liqueur.

We cruised over the coast of Labrador with still frozen land and sea with snow in many places and it was wonderful to see. We continued our cruise down the eastern seaboard ( generally over the sea and as it was cloudy we did not see too much of the land apart from Cape Cod.

About 90mins prior to landing the trolley came round with a bevy of calorie laden beauties ( the cakes!!- what did you think I meant?)

The Descent ( and a commentary from Sir Sean Connery) and Landing

With about 45mins to run our descent started, and then, suddenly over the PA came the voice of Sir Sean Connery with the safety information ( ie fasten seat belts open blinds etc). While it was impersonated by a male Cabin crew member it was very well done.
We crossed the Florida coast over Daytona Beach and out of my window I had a magnificent view of Daytona Speedway and Daytona airport. We approached MCO from the north east and landed in a southerly direction about 3pm. After a 5 minute taxi we were at our gate 83. On the taxi we saw a BA 777 ( with the Scottish tartan tail).
Soon we were disembarking and were at Immigration with no one in front of us so we were quickly processed. There were two baggage carrousels for our flight ( one for Upper Class). My bag was the second one off then headed to customs. I was asked by the customs inspector to follow him to the table and to open the bag. He was very friendly throughout and only had a brief look through the suitcase before thanking me and taking my customs form.
Then after putting the case on the belt for the main terminal, it was up the escalator.
One of my minor complaints about MCO ( but understandable given the layout) is that we have to clear security again to get to the main terminal as you are now airside. Fortunately there was no one in front of us and we were recommended in a friendly way by the TSA to remove our shoes.
Then it was a walk to catch the tram to the main terminal and down to bag reclaim 12 B where my FL tour driver was waiting for me . The bags came off a few minutes later and soon I was on my way to the Embassy Suites Jamaican Court for 1 night before WDW. Overall it was around 20 mins from leaving the aircraft to collecting the bags at the main terminal –very impressive.

Thanks for bearing with me so far.
The return flight will be posted later.

Regards

TBS