So glad you got on the plane!!! Safe travels!!!
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Have a great trip!
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Oh, Iām so glad youāre on the plane. As soon as youāre in The World, your worries will evaporate, I just know it. Safe travels.
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Have a great trip!
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By the time you read this, our flight will be over. I hope it went as well as a long flight can go.
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Hello, gang. Greetings from 34,000 ft!
The aircraft is taking a very different route to the one I remember it taking in the summer. But we are currently set to arrive about half an hour earlier than scheduled.
This flight is long, lol. Still not even half-way yet! Iāve been on here for ages!
I was really tired once I boarded so I had a nap during take-off, and felt much better when I woke up. The in-flight entertainment is really excellent on Virgin Atlantic. Huge choice of tv films and movies, including the very latest releases.
I actually started by watching a film of a Beethoven piano concerto, which was very effective in chilling me out. By the time that finished it was time for lunch. Iām in premium economy ā oh yeah, I did get a double seat by switching just before take-off: this cabin isnāt full ā so we just get the regular food. It was actually pretty tasty, despite being not much to look at.
I then decided to watch one of the movies on my iPad. Itās one Iāve seen before and knew Iād get really into: Life. Itās a fairly new space horror movie: think Alien, if youāre not familiar with it.
It turned out to be somewhat ironic. The crew of the international space station successfully intercept a Martian soil sample that had been automatically dug up and shipped out by a robot lander. They analyse it in a lab and discover a single-called organism. They try to reanimate it and eventually succeed. Everyone thinks itās kinda cute and the kids in a high school on Earth are given the chance to name it. Their school is named after the 30th president, so they take inspiration from that and name the creature Calvin! What are the chances! Sadly, things go rather downhill for the crew after that. Calvin turns out to be not entirely friendly. Oh, and at one point one of the crew says āI miss my dogā!
Anyhoo, after watching that I went for a walk around the plane, including the upstairs bit (Iām in a 747-400) before deciding on having another snooze. I took some cold medication first and fell asleep pretty quickly. I woke up feeling better again, and just in time to catch the service of ice lollies! Flying might be an awful business, but Virgin does try to make it as fun as possible.
I suppose Iād better tell you the plan for the rest of the day.
My first target is to make it to AK in time to get dinner at Satuāli. I really love that restaurant and this will be my only chance. I figure I need to be there by about 7.30pm. Weāre currently set to land at 3.20pm.
If the flight sticks to that timing and passport control and baggage claim are reasonably quick and efficient (an hour or so?) then Iāll take DME to Pop. Otherwise Iāll take an Uber.
I need to check-in at the front desk, pick up my magic band (well, I donāt need to: Iāve brought two with me) find my room, be delighted by it, and then set off for AK. Again, depending on timing, I might take the bus or an Uber.
After Satuāli, AK After Hours will be starting. I figure I wonāt head for FOP immediately ā from what the reviews have said, thatās what everyone else does. So Iāll have a chilled out tour of Pandora and then a ride (or two!) on Naāvi. Then maybe head for FOP. Apparently they let you see the lab, despite using the FPP entrance, so Iām excited about that as Iāve only ever done FPP on FOP and never seen it. I might cycle round for a second FOP, before heading away from Pandora towards Asia for EE. I may see ROL: from the pictures Iāve seen you can sit wherever you like because hardly anyoneās there! Iāll maybe do Dinosaur ā from the pictures it actually looks quite scary because youāre quite possibly in there pretty much on your own!
Anyhoo, thatās the plan for the rest of the day! Tune in tomorrow to find out how things actually worked out!
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Iām so glad youāre feeling better and you got some much needed rest - youāll need it for DAH! Have a blast. Definitely hold on FOP for a little bit. We had the same deal with SDD on our DAH - wait started at 10 minutes, 5 minutes for the second and about 3 minutes for our third trip. Wait kept going down the longer the event went on.
Sounds like a great start!
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Wait, WHAT?!?! You mean Iām NOT going? Well, this just ruins my day!
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Oh, great. Pile on the emotional pressure, making @profmatt guilty for not bringing the rest of us along! 
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Cobb, I love you!!!
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We took a different route to Orlando from Philadelphia to miss the hurricane back in September
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Why are you torturing us! Iām already thinking āOk so it is 4pm here in Texas which makes it 5pm in Florida so he should have landed in Orlando by now.ā Why didnāt you send us an update from the airport?! 
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DME is making four stops, mine is the third. Hmm.
I was the first person from my flight to join the line at passport control. It was a ninety minute wait. In a windowless hall with no air-conditioning. The people from the back of the plane will easily be waiting three hours. After a nine hour flight. And five hours of jet lag. Families with young kids. There are 28 numbered immigration kiosks. Fewer than half were being staffed. This is not a great welcome to people coming from overseas to spend huge amounts of money in your country. I hope we donāt do the same to people visiting the UK.
Rant over!
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Yay!!!
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You basically do if you arenāt an EU citizen. My last two waits at Heathrow have been 1.5 hours. I need to get Global Entry.
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Howās the room?