Booked a family holiday to Florida with First Choice for June 2006. First and foremost, the service in the agency at Bristol Galleries was excellent. I had a pretty good idea as to what I wanted and how much I was prepared to pay (the internet is a wonderful thing) , but they were very patient with my questions and came up with some great suggestions - some of which actually saved me money. Can't fault them.
The night before check in at Gatwick is great in terms of not taking your luggage across and queuing in the morning. However, if like us, your travel agent gives you the impression you can leave your hotel and breeze into the airport an hour before take off, this wasnt the case for us. As it was a US flight, we were asked to report at 8am for the 10.30 flight's security checks. (Check in closed 7.30). If you need to take your car to long stay parking via South terminal, this can still make for a pretty early start from the hotel. I'd give the agency staff the benefit of the doubt that they didn't realise we'd be asked to do this, as it looked to be an airport rather than travel company rule.
We flew economy Sanford - Gatwick. The Economy seat pitch is great, and my worries about keeping the kids amused for 9 hours were unfounded thanks to plenty of kid friendly entertainment on the seatback 7 inchwidescreen monitor. For a £5 per person upgrade, you got the ability to pause, rewind etc. the entertainment, and a few extra games. I think there were about 7 TV entertainment channels(sports, comedy, lifestyle, variety and kids channels for 3 age groups). I think there were about a dozen movies, 3 or 4 of which you could only see with the upgrade. The food was perfectly satisfactory, meals and snacks were provided.
A few niggling points spoilt the flight. Firstly, for all the reminders about keeping hydrated, we found it hard getting a drink. We asked twice on the outward journey to buy water, only to be told, 'we'll be round in a minute', but they weren't, only with the duty free trolley and Disney ticket sales, when we asked again only to be fobbed off with 'after we've finished this'. On the return leg, we brought our own bottled water. Considering we have two kids, pretty poor.
It was a little annoying to be told over the PA a few times , 'after we've served the passengers in premier class we'll be serving economy', but I suppose you've got to push the upgrades...
My wife's seat back entertainment stopped working during the flight for 3 hours or so. It only occurred to us afterwards, that as we had paid for the entertainment upgrade, they might have offered something - maybe one of those bottles of water we'd asked for!
On arrival, the reps were on hand to direct us straight to the car hire and the directions to the hotel were clear and avoided unneccesary traffic.
The return leg was a night flight and the lights were dimmed for less than 2 hours. If you've got a bit of a drive after you land, you may want to note you might have trouble sleeping.
That said, the 33 inch seat pitch was the main selling point, and I was very impressed with that, it made for a comfortable flight.
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Advantages: Very good at pretending they care PRIOR to travel... Disadvantages: ..Once you've boarded the plane for your holiday resort, they lose all interest!
Winterwonderful 24.01.2007 ·
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