MAN – SFB

May 6th 2006

Airline: XL Airways (ops for Travel City Direct)
Departure Airport: Manchester
Arrival Airport: Orlando Sanford
Aircraft Reg: TF-AME

Bit of an introduction – my names Ste, and this was my second trip to Florida.I went with my Mum and Dad. 😮
This holiday had been booked for 11months,i was really looking forward togoing – especially on a 747.

We left my home in North Wales at 8am – the taxi driver liked to speed!!!
The taxi pulled up outside terminal 2 just around 9am. This was to be the moment of truth,all the bad stuff i’d read on the net about delays etc.
The first thing i did was look at the departure screen –

XLA130 – delayed 1 hour – flight time now was to be 2.30

I didn’t think that was so bad!! We walked up the XL check-in desks and shown to the que we needed,Sunshine Upperdeck. We had priority check-in which was a life saver,don’t think i could have stood in that economy que for long,it was huge!
We got to the front of the que and the female XL worker checked us in,she was pleasent. Before we headed off from the check-in desk she handed us a letter from XL apologising for the hour delay – it was caused by unstoppable service delay :confused:

Luggage had gone – boarding cards in hand,the next step was to head for level 13 of terminal 1 car park – i was desperate to see AME!!!
When walking along the walk ways – i noticed two planes i had never seen at MAN before.
The Air Asia Airbus(sorry don’t know reg etc) and a Luthansa MD-11.
Once on the roof i grabbed my camera and took a picture – sorry its not the best quality,i have only got a little digital camera!

You can clearly see – the MD-11,air Asia and AME sat there on an isolated stand being cleaned etc!

Now after 15minutes up on the roof, we headed off to security. The que was really small,so it only took us a matter of minutes to get through – none of us got stopped(thanks goodness).
Once through, My mum was in her elements – much to my dismay,so i wandered off for a walk to see all the planes at the gates. 😀

Here she is in all her glory,sat at the departure gate,cant remember which number

As we watched,the departure screen flashed up saying the flight was now 14:00!!
At 13.30,the time we should have took off they called the upgraded passengers for boarding. It was really weird going up a set of stairs on an aircraft,and the shear lenght and width of the aircraft truely did amaze me!!!!!
I sat in seat 80K(i think) the very back row on the upperdeck.
From my window on the aircraft i could see:-
Thomsonly Fly 767.

The side bins on the upperdeck.

The Cabin prior to take-off.

We took off at around 14.00,so it wasnt to much of a delay!!(this was the origanal flight time when we booked the flight,but TCD changed it)
We turned westwards and flew over north wales(My home),and merseyside!
A picture of the runcorn bridge…

Liverpool:-

So we reached cruising altitude and the entertainment was turned on.
To start was Catherine Tate which was good Followed by the simpsons.
After them a really boring program called the Extra’s came on,i didnt like that!!
Later on,the first feature movie was turned on,Last Holiday.
It was great.
The meal service started. The options were:- chicken,sausage and mash or pasta
I had the pasta with aubergine!
It had a side of potato salad,which was ok
and the regular stuff you get with a meal!( the crackers etc..)

Some thousand miles later the next feature film was turned on – Casanove,it was extremely boring,i just sat listened to the music channel(which was really good) and stared out of the window at all the cloud formations.

Contrails of another aircraft:

As i was staring out of the window – as if out of nowhere land finally appeared,we were nearing Florida! 😎

Touchdown at 17:40pm local time – should have been 17:30pm so can’t really complain about that.

Disembarked the aircraft at about 18:00pm and made our way through immigration – which we sailed through and Customs.

Walked out of the terminal building to be greeted with a of Heat – which means one thing,we have finally arrived :D!!!

Well thats the first ever Air trip report i’ve ever written – so please be easy!
😮

Oh and as for the rest of the holiday – it went fantastic.
I think the attached picture sums up the whole holiday.

Thanks for reading – i will try and get the return flight up soon – with videos of both flights(landings and inflight)

Steve