I arrived in Chicago MDW Tuesday night in anticipation of the big event today. Curiosity got the best of me so I took a walk down to gate A17, and there it was--N8301.

This morning at 6AM, Southwest had free snacks and prizes in the gate area. They decorated and rolled out the red carpet for boarding, and gave each passenger a commemorative hat and first flight certificate suitable for framing. Many Southwest employees were on hand from Dallas includuding SWABrian and company employees representing blogsouthwest.com and Red Belly Radio. They made everyone feel welcome, including several first time Southwest flyers who randomly picked this flight without knownig this -800 series was anything different than the norm.

Once onboard, we were surprised how wide open the SKY Interior felt. Half of a front bulkhead is gone, giving a much better view of the front galley area. Headroom was much better--the new bin system makes a big difference. This is the first we saw the new Evolve seating. We were impressed at the seat material, flooring, contoured headrests. Even though these seats were thinner I could NOT feel anything but padding when I pushed back on the seat.

MDW Chief Captain Dutch and a copilot did a great job--very smooth takeoff and landing. Being that this was a full, heavy flight on a short runway, I wondered if they would need to throttle up the engines before takeoff roll, but they didn't need to and it seemed we used only an average portion of the runway before takeoff.

I swapped seats a few times to try out one of the TWO infinite legroom exit row seats (window), an aisle in row 5, and a middle in row 1.

At FLL we only had a few hours but it was time well spent. Upon landing we got a water salute from the fire department, and Southwest had a team cheering us into the gate as we deplaned.

The FLL Station manager allowed me to take photos from the tarmac. She also said they will be continuing filming for the upcoming TV series starting tomorrow--so expect to see the -800 on TV.

The only bittersweet part of the experience was seeing the beautiful -800 series aircraft push back for its return trip to MDW without us. The recently built -700 series that took us home a couple hours later is now my second choice. (Though with the Evolve seating upgrade happening at a rapid pace, the -700 series will look that much more like the newer fleet.) If I have a way of determining routing for the 800 series, I'll gladly add a connection to an otherwise nonstop route to be able to fly on the latest generation Southwest aircraft.

Other observations:
1 Front seats now have a fold up tray table at each seat (like what the one exit row seat has had for years)
2 Two lavs in the rear---one of which has a changing table (note: no changing table up front)
3 Similar to legacy airlines, drink carts obstruct pathways to the lavs. Knowing this ahead of time makes the front and back few rows more valuable.
4 FA's now have to do a weight and balance worksheet, based on three "Zones" front/middle/rear of the aircraft. If there is not a proportionate number of empty seats in each zone, the FAs will force passengers to be reseated. I was told this DID occur during the Ferry flight from DAL-MDW where only 60 or so passengers were onboard.