janni-chan
10-09-2005, 01:04 AM
CPH-LGW| 22nd of September 2005
Preflight:
Kaddyuk had invited me to New York the second he got to know that my trip to Tokyo had been cancelled, and I happily accepted- I had been looking forwards to this trip ever since returning from Turkey with my family a week before, and finally, the day had come. My flight wasn't before 1800, so I figured I could sleep in late as I wouldn't have to catch the train before 1400. Unfortunately, at 6 AM, my cat decided to give birth to the kittens that I weren't expecting before returning from New York, so I had to give up that idea ;) She gave birth to three kittens, all healthy and loud and everything was once again peaceful around 10 o'clock. By then, Kevin called me to confirm that everything was fine and dandy, and after this, I decided that going to bed again would be a waste of time and I decided to pack the rest of my stuff and get ready to leave.
At 1400, I caught the bus to the airport. I met a couple of old classmates on the bus, and they didn't even bother asking where I was going- I always seem to run into these people when I'm going somewhere :lol: The bus ride to the trainstation takes approximately 10 minutes, and I was there well in time for the train that'd leave at 14:42. Basically, i just got a sandwich, picked up my ticket and sat back on a bench on the platform, listening to my iPod. The train arrived a couple of minutes prior to departure, I found a seat pretty fast and sat back, getting ready to enjoy the 1.5 hour trip to Copenhagen Central Station.
The ride went smooth and the change to the Oresund train that would take me to the airport went fine as well. I absolutely love these trains- the first time I stepped into 2nd class, I thought I was in 1st :) I just love them.
The 10 minute ride to the airport was uneventful, though I always enjoy it- it's always quite an interesting ride :) It took a while to disembark at CPH as there were so many people heading to the airport that day. Once I was off, I quickly headed into T3 and checked which desk I had to check in at before dashing off towards this desk-
Only to find out there was a MASSIVE line at check in. Turned out that Maersk had decided to take three or four flights and let all the passengers check in at 2 desks. Quite smart. Not. I was in front of a couple with a baby who constantly forgot their bags which conviniently blocked the entire queue from moving until they decided to run back and take their luggage with them. The poor Maersk employees at check-in did their best to serve the passengers as fast as possible, and after 20 minutes in the queue, I was through. I checked in my bag and asked for a window seat. I was lucky enough to get 17A, which is just behind the wing.
Off I went to security, which ALSO had a massive line. By then, it was around 1700 o'clock, and with boarding commencing at 1730, there wouldn't be much time to just sit and watch the planes roll by AND get the travel adapters I had decided to get.
Security went good, and I was only in the queue for around 5 minutes, thanks to the fastworking staff.
Once I got through security, I had another surprise: the flight was delayed until 1850. I texted Kaddy and told him so. However, this gave me more time to just skip around in departures for a bit, shopping around. I texted my friend a little, and we had a laugh at the expense of a poor waiter at Gino's pasta who dropped an immense amount of plates on the floor. I kept checking the screens for a gate, but none came up. Around 1810, well after the flight's scheduled departure, I checked the screens again- the plane was now delayed until 1910. I decided to get a sandwich at the incredibly overpriced Karen Blixen's Café and was almost killed as I found out it contained jalapenos :p I had a good outlook to a screen as well, but no gate showed up for ages. Finally, at 1835, a gate showed up with the nice message "togate" beside it. Off I went, still chuffing down my chicken and bacon (now without jalapenos) baguette.
Boarding & flight:
AIRLINE: Maersk Air
FLIGHT: DM117
A/C: 737-700 (OY-MRL)
S.T.D: 1800
A.T.D: 1920
S.T.A: 18:55
A.T.A: n/a
CLASS: economy ("small")
SEAT: 17A
DURATION 1:55 hr
Boarding commenced at gate A11 at 1900. I was standing in front of some nice british people who apparently had no idea what airline they were flying (and were making fun of my haircolor before they found out I was actually capable of speaking - and understanding - english ;)). At least, they knew their flight was going to London Gatwick which was good I suppose :lol:. Onboard the aircraft, I had a good breath of that aircraft smell and finally sat down in my seat after the 1 hour 20 minutes delay- something I wasn't quite pleased about. Shoving that aside, it was the first time a maersk flight I was on had been delayed, so I suppose it wasn't that bad.
Finally, we started taxiing, and I sat back, watching the planes we left at the gate (which included a heap of SAS MD80's as always). At 19:20, the 737 accellerated, and before most of the cabin even knew, we took to the skies, with me, glued to the window- it was mostly cloudless, and watching copenhagen disappear was just beautiful- it always is.
The services commenced quite fast- the seatbelt sign had barely turned off before the familiar smell of coffee spread in the cabin and a flight attendant appeared from the galley behind the trolley. Free coffee and tea is something I've always loved Maersk for- not many carriers do this anymore on shorthauls sadly. I got my cup of coffee, turned on my iPod and looked out of the window while the music played.
Maersk cabins are mainly grey aside from the ever present white. It might sound quite boring, but it actually looks pretty good. The atmosphere has always been nice in my opinion and this flight was no exception. There was this funny almost sad feeling about it though- I knew this would probably be my last flight (other than the flight home) on a plane in the Maersk livery as Sterling has taken over and the fleet is now being repainted in Sterling colors. I've always loved Maersk's scheme and it was like saying goodbye to an old friend. There was no change to the service received from the cabin crew though- they were nice, happy to refill my cup with more coffee and they made sure every passenger in the aircraft was comfortable.
Economy class on maersk is called "small"- there's a reason for this. The legroom really is small, and I can imagine that anyone over 5.9 would have a very uncomfortable flight. I've never had a problem with the legroom however, and it's quite cheap to upgrade to "medium" and "large" as Maersk is low-cost, so I can still praise Maersk.
At 2015, the captain Petersen spoke to the cabin. By then, we were at 40.000 feet, flying over Amsterdam. It was still cloudless, so the lights were clearly visible- it was simply beautiful! Since my first visit to Amsterdam in April, I've loved this city and it's very special to me- watching it from 40.000 feet above was certainly special as well! The flight had been smooth apart from some minor turbulence and it was all fine. Another nice (but delayed) maersk flight.
Around 2020, I felt the familiar crackle in my ears- we had started descending. Descend was smooth and there was absolutely nothing to complain about- the fasten seatbelt sign lit up around 2040 and the captain announced that we had started our descend into London.
At 21something, we slammed down onto the runway- and I MEAN slammed- the kids in front of me let out a squeal and as the 737 slowed down, most people had to press their hands against the seat in front of them as it felt like captain petersen had simply slammed the break and the little machine was making skidmarks along the runway :lol:
The aerobridge was quickly connected and disembarking went pretty fast, having in mind the flight was completely full. I was through passport control at 2130, and made my way into South Terminal... where Kevin called me and told him to meet him in North Terminal, meaning I had to take a train :p
Kevin quickly found me in the North Terminal (turned out he was on a different floor than I was) and after buying some coffee for his mom, we walked out to meet his parents that were coming to pick us up. So they did, and we headed off to Kevin's place where we had to get ready for little sleep and to get up at 4 AM the next morning to head off to Heathrow for our flight to JFK.
LHR-JFK.| 23rd of September 2005
Preflight:
Waking up at 4 was... well, hard to say the least. I think most of the group was in a zombie-like state of mind while getting ready to leave. But we got ready. We were picked up by a cab and dropped off at Gatwick airport where we had to wait for the crewbus to Heathrow. The wait was quite amusing with several jokes made by kaddy about a speed cushion trial that was going on in the area. It was pretty cold, and I was stupid enough to not bring a jacket, but it went pretty fast. The crewbus arrived, we boarded and finally headed towards Heathrow. Most of the trip went with Kevin's mother and I just relaxing and Kevin and his dad talking about Virgin and other airlines (surprisingly, neh? ;)). It was a decently long drive, but we got to heathrow with oceans and oceans of time to spare. Kevin got the tickets, but as we checked in for the flight, we were informed that our upgrades had been messed up and Kevin would have to call the staff travel center at 7:30. We went up into departures and sat down and waited for 7:30, talking about just about everything.
At 7:35 Kevin got through to staff travel, and got our upgrades sorted out. Finally, we could check-in and get rid of our bags.
Going through security was quite a hassle- I ended up in a far shorter line than Kevin + family, so I got through around 5 minutes before them, resulting in me, getting seperated from them. I thought they had already gone through but I couldn't find them, so i was just standing, looking at the massive amount of lines in front of the x-ray machines for a while until I finally saw someone waving at me from one of the lines :p Also, it turned out that Kevin's dad had attempted to call my cellphone when they thought i was lost, but it was tugged away in my backpack so I had neither heard nor felt it ring :lol:
Everyone got through security though, and we headed to a newspaper and bookshop (don't remember which one) before finally heading to the gate. It was a nice walk where Kevin informed me about most of the aircraft we passed and we got to the gate well in time for boarding. Our boarding passes were still for economy, so kevin went to sort it out with the gate agent while his parents and I sat down, watching our aircraft- G-VGOA, an A340-600.
The other passengers started boarding before us, and we were pretty much the only ones left as Kevin returned with the tickets- kevin and I had been upgraded to Premium Economy while his parents had to remain in economy.. quite a shame we had to be split up like that, but off we went...
Flight:
AIRLINE: Virgin Atlantic.
FLIGHT: VS45
A/C: A346 (G-VGOA Indian Princess)
S.T.D: 9:30
A.T.D: 9:30
S.T.A: 12:10
A.T.A: 12:00
CLASS: Premium Economy (W)
SEAT: 21F
DURATION 7:30 hrs
Kevin got me seated before he accompanied his parents into economy to get seated as well. He returned to his seat- on the row in front of me- just in time for the welcome drink. We both chose champaigne. I don't know if it's just me or the fact I drank it on an empty stomach, but it pretty much knocked me out :p I wasn't drunk, but I could certainly feel it and as I was sitting there with a huge smile on my face, I got more than a couple of weird looks from the passengers beside me :lol:. We started taxiing, and by then, I'd be glued to the window if I had one. Instead, I had to herass other passengers who thought I was looking at them when I was actually staring out of their window. We took off when we were supposed to, and I finally had my a346 experience. Also, it was my first time sitting in a middle row- it was a good one! It felt like we were actually going FAST, compared to the window where it doesn't look like you're going at a very high speed. I enjoyed every second. The a346 is a wonderful machine for sure, and my awe for it kept growing through the entire flight. The fasten seatbelt sign turned off and I started playing around with the remote control for the IFE- actually, it was more like looking at it as the IFE wasn't on at all. I just enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the W cabin while accepting an orange juice from the f/a who came through almost the second the seatbelt light turned off. I talked to Kevin a little, looked through the Retail Therapy magazine and talked to the passenger seated beside me before headphones were handed out by the cabin crew and the IFE was turned on and I instantly grabbed the remote control ;) The remote still didn't work however- there was a small clip of info about virgin and the IFE and then, the news came on. That's about the only thing I wasn't too happy about- I wasn't particularly interested in the news and, granted, some passengers were, but it'd be so much better if VS made it optional instead of mandatory ;) It was nice to get a newsflash though, so it's nothing to complain about.
I must say Virgin's W cabin is certainly much different to Economy- as I hadn't tried Virgin's Y class at that point, I wasn't able to compare them, but I quickly felt very comfortable in W, especially after getting the legrest out. The IFE is truly amazing- the screen was huge, and even a shortsighted individual like me got everything that happened on the screen. The cabin crew came through the cabin pretty often (when they didn't, kaddy went to get drinks instead, so I couldn't tell whether I missed the cabin crew or not :p). The selection on the IFE was incredible as well- heaps and heaps of movies and a bunch of series as well.
W was served the same food as Y- in my case, I chose the vegetarian option, not because I'm vegetarian, but because I wanted to try something difference for once. Mostly, people describle veggie plane food as boring, but I certainly didn't have a problem with Virgin's- just delicious and I ate every little bit of it (except the yoghurt as I'm lactose intolerant).
I had one bad experience on this flight though- I lost my passport. Of course, this was my own fault, but for the period of time where I thought I had really lost it, I managed to freak out at least 4 other passengers. This little lost passport episode ended with JP.net's beloved kaddyuk on the floor for 5 minutes, messing up 21F (it's on the list of seats that need repair at the moment :lol: ), FINALLY getting out the passport which had slipped under the seat. Now, 21F is against the wall, so it wasn't easy to get out- we managed, and I was so happy i could cry. I had already the entire worst case scenario in my head- having to return to the UK, and then, back to Denmark. It was quite a scare, and my two sidemates were more stressed out than I was I believe. I kept an eye on my passport for the rest of the flight, that's for sure.
Finally, after passing through several timezones, around 10:40 AM new york time, we started descending. There was some small turbulence, and once again, I had this "fast" special feeling that was absolutely wonderful. We touched down on the runway and taxied to the terminal, arriving 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. I wouldn't have minded if the flight took double the time, that's for sure!
I was pretty much prepared for the security measures taken at JFK but it still impressed me. However, the officer performing the security check on me didn't seem that impressed of me- it all started out when I thought he asked all four of us to head over to him and it turned out he only meant Kevin and mrs. Cadd- I was standing, just staring until he told me to "step behind the black line(!)" with a very suspicious and unhappy look on his face. When it was finally my turn, he seemed very annoyed at a mistake I made in the visa papers as well, but I got through, and even got a "have a nice day" from him, so it can't have been that bad :p We all got through however. And we were finally ready to start our 7 day holiday in NYC.
I'll write about the return trip in another post, probably tomorrow- this is getting way too big :lol: Hope you all enjoyed it. If it seems like I'm praising Virgin a little too much, it probably is so- keep in mind it was my first time out of Y class, so I was easy to impress ;)
Once again, Hope you liked! If it seems rushed, blame the emu! He made me finish it fast so he wouldn't be bored once he got back from grocery shopping :p
Also, I apologize for any mistakes... it's 3:03 AM and I'm dead tired ;)
Preflight:
Kaddyuk had invited me to New York the second he got to know that my trip to Tokyo had been cancelled, and I happily accepted- I had been looking forwards to this trip ever since returning from Turkey with my family a week before, and finally, the day had come. My flight wasn't before 1800, so I figured I could sleep in late as I wouldn't have to catch the train before 1400. Unfortunately, at 6 AM, my cat decided to give birth to the kittens that I weren't expecting before returning from New York, so I had to give up that idea ;) She gave birth to three kittens, all healthy and loud and everything was once again peaceful around 10 o'clock. By then, Kevin called me to confirm that everything was fine and dandy, and after this, I decided that going to bed again would be a waste of time and I decided to pack the rest of my stuff and get ready to leave.
At 1400, I caught the bus to the airport. I met a couple of old classmates on the bus, and they didn't even bother asking where I was going- I always seem to run into these people when I'm going somewhere :lol: The bus ride to the trainstation takes approximately 10 minutes, and I was there well in time for the train that'd leave at 14:42. Basically, i just got a sandwich, picked up my ticket and sat back on a bench on the platform, listening to my iPod. The train arrived a couple of minutes prior to departure, I found a seat pretty fast and sat back, getting ready to enjoy the 1.5 hour trip to Copenhagen Central Station.
The ride went smooth and the change to the Oresund train that would take me to the airport went fine as well. I absolutely love these trains- the first time I stepped into 2nd class, I thought I was in 1st :) I just love them.
The 10 minute ride to the airport was uneventful, though I always enjoy it- it's always quite an interesting ride :) It took a while to disembark at CPH as there were so many people heading to the airport that day. Once I was off, I quickly headed into T3 and checked which desk I had to check in at before dashing off towards this desk-
Only to find out there was a MASSIVE line at check in. Turned out that Maersk had decided to take three or four flights and let all the passengers check in at 2 desks. Quite smart. Not. I was in front of a couple with a baby who constantly forgot their bags which conviniently blocked the entire queue from moving until they decided to run back and take their luggage with them. The poor Maersk employees at check-in did their best to serve the passengers as fast as possible, and after 20 minutes in the queue, I was through. I checked in my bag and asked for a window seat. I was lucky enough to get 17A, which is just behind the wing.
Off I went to security, which ALSO had a massive line. By then, it was around 1700 o'clock, and with boarding commencing at 1730, there wouldn't be much time to just sit and watch the planes roll by AND get the travel adapters I had decided to get.
Security went good, and I was only in the queue for around 5 minutes, thanks to the fastworking staff.
Once I got through security, I had another surprise: the flight was delayed until 1850. I texted Kaddy and told him so. However, this gave me more time to just skip around in departures for a bit, shopping around. I texted my friend a little, and we had a laugh at the expense of a poor waiter at Gino's pasta who dropped an immense amount of plates on the floor. I kept checking the screens for a gate, but none came up. Around 1810, well after the flight's scheduled departure, I checked the screens again- the plane was now delayed until 1910. I decided to get a sandwich at the incredibly overpriced Karen Blixen's Café and was almost killed as I found out it contained jalapenos :p I had a good outlook to a screen as well, but no gate showed up for ages. Finally, at 1835, a gate showed up with the nice message "togate" beside it. Off I went, still chuffing down my chicken and bacon (now without jalapenos) baguette.
Boarding & flight:
AIRLINE: Maersk Air
FLIGHT: DM117
A/C: 737-700 (OY-MRL)
S.T.D: 1800
A.T.D: 1920
S.T.A: 18:55
A.T.A: n/a
CLASS: economy ("small")
SEAT: 17A
DURATION 1:55 hr
Boarding commenced at gate A11 at 1900. I was standing in front of some nice british people who apparently had no idea what airline they were flying (and were making fun of my haircolor before they found out I was actually capable of speaking - and understanding - english ;)). At least, they knew their flight was going to London Gatwick which was good I suppose :lol:. Onboard the aircraft, I had a good breath of that aircraft smell and finally sat down in my seat after the 1 hour 20 minutes delay- something I wasn't quite pleased about. Shoving that aside, it was the first time a maersk flight I was on had been delayed, so I suppose it wasn't that bad.
Finally, we started taxiing, and I sat back, watching the planes we left at the gate (which included a heap of SAS MD80's as always). At 19:20, the 737 accellerated, and before most of the cabin even knew, we took to the skies, with me, glued to the window- it was mostly cloudless, and watching copenhagen disappear was just beautiful- it always is.
The services commenced quite fast- the seatbelt sign had barely turned off before the familiar smell of coffee spread in the cabin and a flight attendant appeared from the galley behind the trolley. Free coffee and tea is something I've always loved Maersk for- not many carriers do this anymore on shorthauls sadly. I got my cup of coffee, turned on my iPod and looked out of the window while the music played.
Maersk cabins are mainly grey aside from the ever present white. It might sound quite boring, but it actually looks pretty good. The atmosphere has always been nice in my opinion and this flight was no exception. There was this funny almost sad feeling about it though- I knew this would probably be my last flight (other than the flight home) on a plane in the Maersk livery as Sterling has taken over and the fleet is now being repainted in Sterling colors. I've always loved Maersk's scheme and it was like saying goodbye to an old friend. There was no change to the service received from the cabin crew though- they were nice, happy to refill my cup with more coffee and they made sure every passenger in the aircraft was comfortable.
Economy class on maersk is called "small"- there's a reason for this. The legroom really is small, and I can imagine that anyone over 5.9 would have a very uncomfortable flight. I've never had a problem with the legroom however, and it's quite cheap to upgrade to "medium" and "large" as Maersk is low-cost, so I can still praise Maersk.
At 2015, the captain Petersen spoke to the cabin. By then, we were at 40.000 feet, flying over Amsterdam. It was still cloudless, so the lights were clearly visible- it was simply beautiful! Since my first visit to Amsterdam in April, I've loved this city and it's very special to me- watching it from 40.000 feet above was certainly special as well! The flight had been smooth apart from some minor turbulence and it was all fine. Another nice (but delayed) maersk flight.
Around 2020, I felt the familiar crackle in my ears- we had started descending. Descend was smooth and there was absolutely nothing to complain about- the fasten seatbelt sign lit up around 2040 and the captain announced that we had started our descend into London.
At 21something, we slammed down onto the runway- and I MEAN slammed- the kids in front of me let out a squeal and as the 737 slowed down, most people had to press their hands against the seat in front of them as it felt like captain petersen had simply slammed the break and the little machine was making skidmarks along the runway :lol:
The aerobridge was quickly connected and disembarking went pretty fast, having in mind the flight was completely full. I was through passport control at 2130, and made my way into South Terminal... where Kevin called me and told him to meet him in North Terminal, meaning I had to take a train :p
Kevin quickly found me in the North Terminal (turned out he was on a different floor than I was) and after buying some coffee for his mom, we walked out to meet his parents that were coming to pick us up. So they did, and we headed off to Kevin's place where we had to get ready for little sleep and to get up at 4 AM the next morning to head off to Heathrow for our flight to JFK.
LHR-JFK.| 23rd of September 2005
Preflight:
Waking up at 4 was... well, hard to say the least. I think most of the group was in a zombie-like state of mind while getting ready to leave. But we got ready. We were picked up by a cab and dropped off at Gatwick airport where we had to wait for the crewbus to Heathrow. The wait was quite amusing with several jokes made by kaddy about a speed cushion trial that was going on in the area. It was pretty cold, and I was stupid enough to not bring a jacket, but it went pretty fast. The crewbus arrived, we boarded and finally headed towards Heathrow. Most of the trip went with Kevin's mother and I just relaxing and Kevin and his dad talking about Virgin and other airlines (surprisingly, neh? ;)). It was a decently long drive, but we got to heathrow with oceans and oceans of time to spare. Kevin got the tickets, but as we checked in for the flight, we were informed that our upgrades had been messed up and Kevin would have to call the staff travel center at 7:30. We went up into departures and sat down and waited for 7:30, talking about just about everything.
At 7:35 Kevin got through to staff travel, and got our upgrades sorted out. Finally, we could check-in and get rid of our bags.
Going through security was quite a hassle- I ended up in a far shorter line than Kevin + family, so I got through around 5 minutes before them, resulting in me, getting seperated from them. I thought they had already gone through but I couldn't find them, so i was just standing, looking at the massive amount of lines in front of the x-ray machines for a while until I finally saw someone waving at me from one of the lines :p Also, it turned out that Kevin's dad had attempted to call my cellphone when they thought i was lost, but it was tugged away in my backpack so I had neither heard nor felt it ring :lol:
Everyone got through security though, and we headed to a newspaper and bookshop (don't remember which one) before finally heading to the gate. It was a nice walk where Kevin informed me about most of the aircraft we passed and we got to the gate well in time for boarding. Our boarding passes were still for economy, so kevin went to sort it out with the gate agent while his parents and I sat down, watching our aircraft- G-VGOA, an A340-600.
The other passengers started boarding before us, and we were pretty much the only ones left as Kevin returned with the tickets- kevin and I had been upgraded to Premium Economy while his parents had to remain in economy.. quite a shame we had to be split up like that, but off we went...
Flight:
AIRLINE: Virgin Atlantic.
FLIGHT: VS45
A/C: A346 (G-VGOA Indian Princess)
S.T.D: 9:30
A.T.D: 9:30
S.T.A: 12:10
A.T.A: 12:00
CLASS: Premium Economy (W)
SEAT: 21F
DURATION 7:30 hrs
Kevin got me seated before he accompanied his parents into economy to get seated as well. He returned to his seat- on the row in front of me- just in time for the welcome drink. We both chose champaigne. I don't know if it's just me or the fact I drank it on an empty stomach, but it pretty much knocked me out :p I wasn't drunk, but I could certainly feel it and as I was sitting there with a huge smile on my face, I got more than a couple of weird looks from the passengers beside me :lol:. We started taxiing, and by then, I'd be glued to the window if I had one. Instead, I had to herass other passengers who thought I was looking at them when I was actually staring out of their window. We took off when we were supposed to, and I finally had my a346 experience. Also, it was my first time sitting in a middle row- it was a good one! It felt like we were actually going FAST, compared to the window where it doesn't look like you're going at a very high speed. I enjoyed every second. The a346 is a wonderful machine for sure, and my awe for it kept growing through the entire flight. The fasten seatbelt sign turned off and I started playing around with the remote control for the IFE- actually, it was more like looking at it as the IFE wasn't on at all. I just enjoyed the overall atmosphere of the W cabin while accepting an orange juice from the f/a who came through almost the second the seatbelt light turned off. I talked to Kevin a little, looked through the Retail Therapy magazine and talked to the passenger seated beside me before headphones were handed out by the cabin crew and the IFE was turned on and I instantly grabbed the remote control ;) The remote still didn't work however- there was a small clip of info about virgin and the IFE and then, the news came on. That's about the only thing I wasn't too happy about- I wasn't particularly interested in the news and, granted, some passengers were, but it'd be so much better if VS made it optional instead of mandatory ;) It was nice to get a newsflash though, so it's nothing to complain about.
I must say Virgin's W cabin is certainly much different to Economy- as I hadn't tried Virgin's Y class at that point, I wasn't able to compare them, but I quickly felt very comfortable in W, especially after getting the legrest out. The IFE is truly amazing- the screen was huge, and even a shortsighted individual like me got everything that happened on the screen. The cabin crew came through the cabin pretty often (when they didn't, kaddy went to get drinks instead, so I couldn't tell whether I missed the cabin crew or not :p). The selection on the IFE was incredible as well- heaps and heaps of movies and a bunch of series as well.
W was served the same food as Y- in my case, I chose the vegetarian option, not because I'm vegetarian, but because I wanted to try something difference for once. Mostly, people describle veggie plane food as boring, but I certainly didn't have a problem with Virgin's- just delicious and I ate every little bit of it (except the yoghurt as I'm lactose intolerant).
I had one bad experience on this flight though- I lost my passport. Of course, this was my own fault, but for the period of time where I thought I had really lost it, I managed to freak out at least 4 other passengers. This little lost passport episode ended with JP.net's beloved kaddyuk on the floor for 5 minutes, messing up 21F (it's on the list of seats that need repair at the moment :lol: ), FINALLY getting out the passport which had slipped under the seat. Now, 21F is against the wall, so it wasn't easy to get out- we managed, and I was so happy i could cry. I had already the entire worst case scenario in my head- having to return to the UK, and then, back to Denmark. It was quite a scare, and my two sidemates were more stressed out than I was I believe. I kept an eye on my passport for the rest of the flight, that's for sure.
Finally, after passing through several timezones, around 10:40 AM new york time, we started descending. There was some small turbulence, and once again, I had this "fast" special feeling that was absolutely wonderful. We touched down on the runway and taxied to the terminal, arriving 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. I wouldn't have minded if the flight took double the time, that's for sure!
I was pretty much prepared for the security measures taken at JFK but it still impressed me. However, the officer performing the security check on me didn't seem that impressed of me- it all started out when I thought he asked all four of us to head over to him and it turned out he only meant Kevin and mrs. Cadd- I was standing, just staring until he told me to "step behind the black line(!)" with a very suspicious and unhappy look on his face. When it was finally my turn, he seemed very annoyed at a mistake I made in the visa papers as well, but I got through, and even got a "have a nice day" from him, so it can't have been that bad :p We all got through however. And we were finally ready to start our 7 day holiday in NYC.
I'll write about the return trip in another post, probably tomorrow- this is getting way too big :lol: Hope you all enjoyed it. If it seems like I'm praising Virgin a little too much, it probably is so- keep in mind it was my first time out of Y class, so I was easy to impress ;)
Once again, Hope you liked! If it seems rushed, blame the emu! He made me finish it fast so he wouldn't be bored once he got back from grocery shopping :p
Also, I apologize for any mistakes... it's 3:03 AM and I'm dead tired ;)