Hi,

As promised my return flight from MCO to LGW on Virgin Atlantic Upper Class.

VS 28 MCO-LGW
22nd April
Sch Dep 1735 Arr 0640
Act Dep 1731 Arr 0615
Seat 6A Upper Class
Aircraft Name Jersey Girl.

After being picked up from the WDW Hilton by my FL tours driver just after 1pm ( any later check out and I would have to pay a late check out fee of $30 to the hotel) , and a hassle free drive we arrived at Terminal B shortly after 1330 .
There was a small queue of maybe 10-15 people in the Economy check in but no one in UC.
I was addressed by name at UC check in and I asked politely if Row 6 was available ( I was booked in row 7K). The check in agent phoned up someone ( airport reservations ) and mentioned my gold card and seat 6A was released ( I was told 6K was a baby with her parent in 6 H).By this time 140 people had checked in and they were expecting the rush of passengers at 1500. I got the UC invitation to the Delta crown room.
I walked about landside for a little while ,looking at the bookshop and the theme park shops ( I had an early lunch at the Hilton before leaving) then headed to security. After a short wait then remove the shoes and belt ( the female TSA agent was polite and mentioned that you could keep your belt/shoes on if you wanted secondary screening as the detector was beeping all morning, so I took no risks. After clearing the detector I was thanked for my corporation.
I did my exercise routine after getting to the gate 60-99 complex by tram by walking up and down all three piers. I saw a Delta B777 pushing Back form ATL ( it is a big aircraft from close up ).
After buying a few thinks from the candy/newspaper shop I headed to the Delta Crown room just beside the tram arrival point, headed up stairs and handed the invitation to the front desk and headed in.

The Delta Lounge

The lounge itself is nice , spacious, well lit and generally quiet. There are two internet pc’s plus more spaces to plug in your own pc’s. The bar is served with free drinks and some snacks ( the waffle biscuits were nice) with friendly staff. It is a great place to relax compared to the general area but it does not compare with the facilities at the VS clubhouses
Around 1645 the preboard call for VS 28 came. I gathered my stuff and headed to gate 85 where there was a lot of people sitting around.

The flight
A couple of minutes later, the boarding call for UC pax was made and we headed down the jetway ,boarded the aircraft and turned left. Seat 6A is right at the front of the nose section with only the closet infront of you in the middle of the aisle. There did seem to be slightly more room than in the other UC seats in the section. My seating companion arrived ( he was continuing on to Dubai on Emirates from LGW). Our cabin crew came and I chose champagne. The amenity kits were handed out and shortly afterwards the sleep suit ( I chose the medium) was handed out- surprisingly not every UC passenger requested one.
The magazines were placed in the containers attached to the side wall and these also had a bottle of water and our earphones.
Again the UC section was full but this time with several children on board.( Oh great I thought, but to be fare after take off all of them fell asleep quickly and it was a quiet cabin.)
Out of our right hand side windows I saw the BA 777 ( Tartan tail) taxi out and take off around 1715.
The Captain came on the PA and gave us his spiel with a scheduled flying time of 8hours. A few minutes ahead of schedule the doors were closed and we were pushed back.
After the Safety video the cabin crew took our duvets ( which we had placed at our feet) and put them in the overheads as we needed to keep the space in front of us clear for take off and landing. We taxied southwards to the start of rway 35 and held before joining the rway as a Delta MD11 landed. Soon we turned onto 35 and started rolling.

During the take off roll we occasionally heard the thump-thump-thump of the nose wheel rolling over the centre line lights.
As we climbed , it was a little too hazy to make out WDW but I could just make out the Downtown Orlando.

It was very quiet in the nose section compared to other parts of the 747-400 even on take off.
Our routing took us on a similar routing to our outbound flight. The eastern seaboard had a lot of cloud cover but this offered a fantastic sun set as the sun turned red as it went through a thin layer of cloud above the horizon before setting completely

The bar area at the rear of the UC cabin had all the drinks and nibbles layed out for our delectation during the flight.

Zone B of UC ( rows 11-12) was full of PE passengers with PE service and blankets.

Our drink orders were taken shortly afterwards, I chose a diet coke and vegetable chips ( nuts were also available). After the drinks were served, our dinner orders were taken. I handed my Duty free pre order forms and we were asked if we wanted to be woken up 90 minutes prior to landing for breakfast.( which I did)
For dinner I chose the;

Sweet Potato Soup,
Fillet of Beet with potatoes,
Cranberry and apple pie.

The soup came with several helpings of bread and butter, a good selection of wine ( I chose the Chilean Pinot Noir again with sparkling water all served on china dishes and linen table cloths and napkins.

After dinner I had a decaffeinated coffee and a Drambuie with ice which was very nice. I chatted briefly to the crew in the galley area who mentioned that a new UC seat was coming soon. I then changed into my sleep suit ( in the toilet) and fully reclined my seat and extended the leg rest while listening to the music channels and occasionally watching Solaris with George Clooney ( I had seen it on my earlier MCO-LGW flight) .The flight was very smooth with no noticeable bumps whatsoever and it was a perfectly clear night outside as we cruised in mid Atlantic.

Movies ( on the outbound flight to MCO)

25th Hour; Brown Sugar; Catch me if you can; Punch-drunk love; 8 mile; Blue crush; Lilo & Stich and the v tv channel ( two hour cycles) plus the sky map and the audio channels

Inbound to LGW

Narc; Two Weeks notice; Live Forever; Solaris; Igby goes down; Analyze that; The Country Bears and the v tv channel ( two hour cycles) plus the sky map and the audio channels

I did like the vtravel documentary on the Residensea apartment ship ( if only I had that sort of money ).

My duty free was delivered to my seat and I put in in the overhead locker. The fuji camera which I had ordered on the original outbound flight had not been loaded but I got the camera from the general duty free stock with apologies.
Around 90 minutes prior to landing Zoe came round and too our orders for breakfast.
I chose the;
Fruit Plate
Cereal ( Special K)
All night breakfast ( hot)
Coffee
Orange Juice

The orange juice was excellent with just a bit of pulp.

My neighbour in 6C had the breakfast pastries ( I think three different ones were served) with butter and jam that looked very good.

Shortly after everyone had finished breakfast , the lights came on and I headed into the toilet to freshen up, change out of the sleep suit and slap on some moisturizer from the bottle provided in the toilet.

We cruised just to the south of the Irish coast and over south western England before commencing our descent. The IFE was switched off and our headsets and menus collected. We had no major holds and soon we were on final approach to the Easterly LGW runway.

Being in the nose there is some noise when the nose wheel is lowered and a couple of minutes after that we were on the ground around 25mins ahead of schedule. As we left the runway I spotted a Tartan tailed BA 777 ( likely to be the same one that left MCO around 20mins ahead of us so we caught up some time.

Soon we were being guided into our stand with the marshall on the ground being at the side of the aircraft with the bats rather than at the front as would be more usual.( I bet the captain would be stretching his neck form the flight deck rather than staring forward)

We collected our belongings and we left the aircraft having thanked the crew and deposited the charity envelope in the bag provided at the exit door.

There was only one tram to take us from the satellite building ( Gates 31-38) to the main building but being one of the first ones off the plane it not hold us up too much.

Gatwick was empty at 630am on this Wednesday morning ( we were the first VS aircraft at the gate) and soon we were in baggage reclaim with the UC bags amongst the first ones off. As there was only one other flight at baggage reclaim it was announced to speed up baggage reclaim the two adjacent reclaim belts would be used.

I used my BAA Worldcard for a free upgrade to First class on the Gatwick Express checked in at Paddington for my Bmi flight to EDI then again a first class upgrade on the Heathrow Express to LHR where I headed to the revivals lounge. The newer trains on the Gatwick express are very nice and better value than the Heathrow Express and it is good of the BAA worldcard to offer the free upgrade facility ( 30mim journey)

There I had a refreshing shower, had my trousers pressed and had a late brunch together with a sensational shave which was fantastic although I did have to wait a while as the therapist was on a break and several people were also looking for the therapist but I was seen first as I was first in. I signed the Comments book noticing Richard Mannion’s complimentary comments on the previous page. I also caught up with the papers and used the computers briefly before heading back to T1 at noon where I cleared security and used my UK Amex Plat card for the bmi lounge.


Thanks for reading.

Next trip : 7th June 2003 LHR-SFO ( for Vegas baby!! ) in VS PE ( or will it be UC?)

Regards

TBS