Ryanair Dublin – Stansted – Dublin (with movies and pics!)

Flights to London : £35
Travel from STN and around London: : £33.40
Getting to boo at Steve from X Factor : Priceless

Here goes my first trip report!

Ryanair FR212
STD – 1125 ATD – 1125
STA – 1235 ATA – 1225
Boeing 737-200 EI-CNX

EI-CNX http://www.airliners.net/open.file/481233/L/

Since Dublin is a 2hr drive (or 2hr 30min for anyone else lol) i left the house at 0545 to pick my friend up at 0600. Peter decided he shouldnt have to get up and we should have got a flight from Belfast (it was his suggestion to fly from Dublin and he had only got home at 0400 that morning:eek:) and so we finally left for Dublin at 0635.

We reached Dublin Airport at 0850 and went straight to the Long Stay Car Park. Dublin Airport have set the Long Stay out very well but we had to park in Zone Z which is the furthest away and is about 1/2 to 1 mile away from Zones A-X! We got the bus into the Terminal and started looking for the Ryanair checkin.

There was only 1 person infront of us and her bag was too heavy (she seemed to be a backpacker) and was told to transfer some weight into hand luggage. We checked out bags in with no problems and then I remembered we left our tickets for the Radio1/TOTP Christmas Party in the car! Since Peter is a better athlete than me he ran to the bus to get back to the car to get the tickets! I went through security to get seats at the gate.

Security was a doddle and was alot quicker than last time i was in Dublin but this was probably due to it being a Sunday! I got the moving walkway down to the A1 gate where we were due to depart to find it full of passengers! Luckily these were not for our flight but the Aberdeen flight leaving before us (a -200 also).

Peter arrived back about 20minutes later and we then waited to be called for boarding at 1055 for our 1125 Departure. Ryanair spilt you into a row for passenger numbers 1-65 and then 65-189 (surely 189 is a bit high??). When it started nearing 1055 we went over to the front of the cue so i could take a picture of our aircraft and we took place first in the que.

About 10 minutes later the Male Flight Attendant came up the stairs and started, with the help of the “Assistant Ramp Co-Ordinator”, boarding our flight. We got out first and walked over to EI-CNX which actually looks very clean on the outside!

The first thing that hit me when i got onboard was the Boarding Music (well really just a woman talking with a cr*p 80’s type tune) as ive never heard it on an airline (but i knew it existed) let alone a loco! We took seats over the reverse thrust part of the engine behind the wing as i knew that was the most exciting place to be sitting!

Now back to the Boarding Music – we were first on and boarding took a good 15 minutes after that and the Boarding Music must have replayed 30 times at least! It made the wait seem alot longer and surprisingly it was welcoming us aboard on not trying to sell us anything in particular!!! During boarding an Alitalia A320, I-BIKU, pulled up on the left side (which i was sitting on) and started to unload. This kept me amused but Peter was board since he hates Aircraft!

We pushed back just before 1125 and the Cabin Crew went through the Safety Briefing. Once engines were started and tug unattached we taxied, at speed i might add, to runway 28 for an immediate take off onto what i presume was the Liffy Two Alpha Departure. The engines really did put you in the back of your seat and make a short job of lifting the full plane into the air!

The weather at Dublin was very low visability and we hit cloud as soon as we took off. Once in the cloud we continued straight up to FL250 without levelling off at any stage.

The cabin were pleasent and offered the usually things to eat etc. This is when i saw the sheet about their new In-flight Entertainment System available (on 3 stansted based aircraft but more from Janurary according ot MOL in inflight mag). Not bad value for a movie (£5) but i wouldnt pay £5 for a 30min rerun like Friends or The Simpsons!

The approached into Stansted was fine with slight buffeting due to the dense cloud cover. We landing on 05 and rolled out until the very end of the runway were we turned onto our stand on the 2nd pier of the terminal.

Once off the aircraft we started to follow the signs to baggage reclaim and i thought (like the newest Pier nearest 23 threshold) you would walk into the terminal. To my surprise we went down to a row of 6 lift like doors. We then got on the train! A Nice surprise!

When we got off the train we got our boarding cards checked by Customs/Police and headed through to the Baggae belt were our bags had started to come out already! This was brilliant compared to my last trip to STN in 2002 when Ryanair took 1hr 20mins to get my bags into the belt!

Our bags werent damaged or anything so we headed for the Stansted Express and into London. Im sorry but £24 for a 45min journey is an absolute ripp-off as a train from Belfast to Dublin costs £22 return for a 2hr 30min journey!!

This isnt the place to talk about the TOTP/Radio1 Xmas Party but we had a good time as did everyone there bar the girl i had to help up who fainted and was completly stoned off her head 🙁 kids nowadays!!

Ryanair FR227
STD – 1600 ATD -1555
STA – 1710 ATA – 1650
Boeing 737-800 EI-DAI

EI-DAI http://www.airliners.net/open.file/507585/L/

We caught the the 1315 Stansted Express to the airport from Liverpool Street which, as with to London from STN, didnt seem to tke the 45mintues it actually did! It seemed more like 15mins!

We arrived at the Airport just as the checkin girls for our flight walked over infront of us to the desk and started to check the 20 people infront of us in. I got boarding pass Number 15 and we then headed through security to Weatherspoons where i noticed there was a Tax Free Hamelys which had i known i could have saved quite a bit off what i bought at their London Regent Street Store!!!

I even forgot to use my BAA World Points card i specifically brough out of my pocket to get points from the food and drink!

After eating we walked around to the terminal where we sat down beside our Gate were we waited for us to board at 1530. We started queing as the Cabin Crew guy walked over and came up to board us. It seemed off the Ramp Assisant was wearing shorts since it was about 6oC and foggy!!

We were 4th to get onto the aircraft this time and walked out to our 738NG where we took seats at the front of the wing this time.

The 738NG seems taller and wider in the cabin and also alot more brighter than the 737-200 and was very clean inside. The whole crew seemed to from either Portgual or Spain (Alberto and Raul etc) with exception of the Captain, Keith Robson.

We departing early with a completly full load (including a Dead Heading Pilot who was told that there were no seats so he had to sit in the Flight Deck – i would have given my seat up for the Flight Deck :D).

This time we departed from Runway 23 at Stansted and something i noticed as taxing out, which i noticed on the way in, was that it the airport seemed empty (including other stands on the other piers of traffic and i only saw a total of 4 easyJets both times at the airport! I also saw the new Boeing 737 of Ryanair in the Boeing House Livery which looked slighly erie through the fog!

The -800 didnt seem to have as much of a kick pushing you into the back of your seat as the -200 didnt but due to a full load we took alot of tarmac and an amazing amount of speed to get us off the ground!

Once through the clouds, we had a bit of turbulance which was also experienced going back through the clouds into Dublin. The flight was largely uneventful but we did have a laugh at the way Alberto was pronouncing his vowels etc!!

Overall i really enjoyed this trip with Ryanair, whoom i didnt like up until now after a TCAS alert inflight!. I do hope to travel with them again as at the minute they seem a really slick operation and they had the shortest waits ive ever had for baggage! They must be doing something right!!!

Still waiting for pics from Peters Digi Cam so expect them later on today.