Getting some winter sun in Mallorca, Spain COMPLETED About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Your meals at the hotel looks so delicious, and especially that chocolate dessert (that would have been my choice, too). Luke would have be sick to set the thermostat at 82 degrees. In fact, we sleep with the thermostat set at 62 degrees. Of course, I also have a heated blanket.

Wow - 62 degrees? Here it's low 70s for us and I couldn't stand anything lower than that.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by purplegal

The food looks great, would love the chocolate sundae. I imagine you got pretty hot over night 28 is pretty warm.

You'll find out in a second...

[chezp]

Saturday 11 January – part one: this guy is wasted on his job!

I’ve decided. 4:00am is a time that no-one should ever see. It’s certainly way too early for an alarm to be going off, as it did for us today. I really did have to drag myself out of bed, and I was very slow to get going, as I hadn’t had nearly enough sleep.

Apparently, Mark had fared much worse than me, because (this is going to come as a big surprise to everyone I’m sure! ) the room had got too hot. No, really? You do surprise me!

We didn’t do badly, and by 4:20am, we were leaving the room. We stopped at reception to drop our keys off, then we headed downstairs and off to the North Terminal. I was very glad to get out into the cold and wet air, as it was raining again. Thank goodness we wouldn’t have to put up with this today! Ironically, given the sickeningly early hour, it was much busier now than it had been last night.

We headed into the terminal, and my goodness, Easyjet was packed this morning, with people checking in and dropping luggage. Thank goodness we’d done all of that last night.

We headed straight to security, where there was quite a line, but Mark spotted another set of security far off to the right, with no-one waiting there, so headed over there instead, and our boarding passes were checked immediately, and then we lined up behind a group of people who looked as if they’d never flown in their lives. Honestly, even if you’ve never flown, surely you know the basics, like you’re going to have to take that big winter coat you’re wearing off to clear security? Apparently not.

Of course, what happened when we got to walking through the scanner? You’ve got it – Mark and I cleared it with no problem, whereas the guy in front of us who’d been depositing his winter coat at the last moment ended up with a pat down.

It was even better when it came to getting our stuff back. There were a number of signs, asking you to place your empty trays on the conveyer belt back when you were done with them, but no-one was doing it, which a) meant our stuff was delayed behind the glassed in area, and b) they would eventually run out of trays at the other end. As it was early, there weren’t many staff, and certainly no-one spare to deal with this, so I gathered them all up and did what everyone was supposed to move things along, hoping that the idiots would get the idea, but of course they didn’t. Good grief!

Finally, we were able to retrieve our stuff, and leave them behind, and headed into the shopping area. I must admit the last time we had a flight this early, nothing was open, but it was very different now. All the shops and the restaurants were open and busy.



Our first priority for the morning was to go and get some breakfast, so we headed upstairs and into Garfunkel’s.



I didn’t do very well with the menu. I was going to go for the fresh fruit salad, but checked what the fruit was, and it contained apple, which I’m allergic to, so that was one out. I asked for the yoghurt and granola instead, and was staggered when our server told us that the granola was also made up of apple. She bought it over to show me, so that was out too. Ok, then, I guess it’ll be a couple of rounds of toast then, as nothing else really appealed.

Mark went for a cooked breakfast, and raved about it, being especially impressed by the sausages he had…



While the food was good, the service was only so-so, particularly towards the end of the meal. Given that it’s an airport, and people have planes to catch, I don’t expect to have to be looking around for the server to get the check, and then look around for her to pay it. That really wasn’t good.

Finally, we were able to pay up, and headed out. Our gate still hadn’t been announced, so we did a bit of shopping, and then it appeared, and we headed off.

We were one of the first people at the gate, and grabbed seats near the ramp down to the plane. Literally, we’d only sat there a few minutes when they announced that they were now doing speedy boarding, which we were, so we were off, and again were amongst the first down there. We had to wait a moment when we got to the bottom of the ramp, as the doors weren’t opened, but that was quickly sorted, and then we were on board.

We found our seats, which were emergency exit seats, and as a result, they had a lot more legroom, which was very nice. I was very glad I’d booked these.



Everyone boarded very quickly, and we were ready to go way before our 6:15am slot. A guy did come and sit next to Mark, but when the stewardess came round to explain that it was an exit row and were we Ok with that, he disappeared quite quickly afterwards. I guess he wasn’t Ok with it then… but it worked out nicely for us, as it meant we had three seats for the two of us, so Mark moved up one, and we had the middle seat empty between us, which was a real treat.

The safety demonstration was a real treat, mainly because of Matthew, who was in charge of the cabin crew. What a great voice he had – very clear, and honestly he could go into voice over work or radio, he was that good. I wish we had someone like him on all of our flights, as he was so easy to listen to. Honestly, he’s wasted on this job…

We were soon taxiing and I think we took off before our 6:15am slot, which is really impressive, and the first time that’s happened to us in a long time. Of course, at this early hour in January, it was still dark, so no photos. The sun did come up eventually, but the sunrise was the other side of the plane, so no photos of that I’m afraid.

We did have a chat with Matt and told him that he should be working in radio or voice overs, and he was just absolutely charming, He really is absolutely 100% suited to the job he does, and he does it really well. As he said, you’re either a people person or you’re not, and he really is. He was just wonderful to talk to, and I wish every single member of cabin crew on all our flights was like him.

We were soon given the 20 minute warning that we’d be coming into land, so we packed everything away, including the camera. Well, as we were in the emergency exit seats, it wasn’t exactly easy to have it down with us. To be honest, it was pretty cloudy as we came into land, so there wouldn’t have been much in the way of photos, if that’s any consolation. Here’s the only decent photo I got throughout the whole flight to give you an idea:



Next: why do we need to take a bus?

[shazza]

Interesting to find the airport shops open so early - chuckled at your experience going through security. Just what you needed after your 4am wake-up. I imagine it was a pleasant relief to have a nice and friendly flight attendant.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry the room was too hot for Mark! And sorry you could only have toast for breakfast! Can't wait to hear about Mallorca!

[disney_duke]

Funny that the airport is hopping that early in the morning but quite dead in the evening! Breakfast did look good. For Mark, anyway. Sorry you couldn't get anything more substantial! Good flight attendants are the best!

[cubfancolleen]

Did you at least steal some of Mark's potatoes at breakfast? Toast would have been Ok at that early hour if I could get something better the moment the plane landed. Hope you didn't have to wait too long!

[lauriep]

Very nice to have everything open early at the airport! Too bad the folks in front of you in security were so clueless. As you said, these days, even if you don't travel much, you've surely seen how it all works-- or could at least take the time to read the signs! I love people like your flight attendant! What a difference it makes when someone enjoys his job. Sometimes it's just a matter of attitude and you brighten the day for those around you and yourself as well.

[Cam22]

Sounds like a good flight, except for the flying newbies in front of you at security.

[dutchdisneyfamily]

You are off! Too bad you couldn't have much of a breakfast. I'm glad the flight attendant was so good. They can really make or break a flight.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

Funny that the airport is hopping that early in the morning but quite dead in the evening!

It was a bit surreal, especially as the last time we had an early morning flight from there, we don't remember much being open, so that made a pleasant change.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Did you at least steal some of Mark's potatoes at breakfast?

The thought didn't even cross my mind. To be honest, it doesn't if there's meat on the plate. I have to be pretty desperate to go for Mark's food, if there's meat around.

Toast would have been Ok at that early hour if I could get something better the moment the plane landed. Hope you didn't have to wait too long!

I was honestly fine with toast - it filled me and actually left me stuffed for quite a while, as you'll find out in due course...

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Very nice to have everything open early at the airport! Too bad the folks in front of you in security were so clueless. As you said, these days, even if you don't travel much, you've surely seen how it all works-- or could at least take the time to read the signs! I love people like your flight attendant! What a difference it makes when someone enjoys his job. Sometimes it's just a matter of attitude and you brighten the day for those around you and yourself as well.

The airline asked me to fill in a questionnaire a couple of days ago about our flight over to Mallorca and of course I took the opportunity to sing Matt's praises.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by dutchdisneyfamily

You are off! Too bad you couldn't have much of a breakfast. I'm glad the flight attendant was so good. They can really make or break a flight.

They certainly can.

[KMB733]

Sorry you weren't able to have more than toast for breakfast. At least you are on your way to Spain!!