I haven’t posted a trip report for a wee while as I’ve been busy with other tasks however last November we booked a Marella cruise from Palma to Limassol with return flights from PFO. You would have thought that TUI would have offered a GLA departure but no, two departures each for LGW, BHX, MAN and NCL comprised the only offering. That said and given the fact we wanted an early morning flight as MrsC has visions of us arriving and no bags….we opted for the LGW morning departure.
So cue an early start, bus to EDI form Dundee then BA to LHR followed by the Oxford Express bus from LHR to LGW. What no NatExpress I hear your say?or Mobico to call them by their new asinine name! Well if you wish to shell out £80 quid then the seats are yours but for £40 return for two of us Oxford Express ticked all the boxes. That said bring back Green Line.
Our flight to LHR was crewed by a very friendly and jolly SCCM who insisted that we, and the couple in front of us from Edzel, would not leave the aircraft unless we were legless. I haven’t had a pre landing drink since Monarch flew from GLA and that’s not yesterday. Nevertheless the bubbly was more than welcome and washed down a tasty breakfast.
Collect suitcase and board coach to LGW then wait for the sunset check in desk to open at 1400. An overpriced Costa lunch kept us going and right on the button the check in desk opened and bags duly deposited and tagged for PMI before we headed round to the Holiday Inn close to Horley, one time headquarters of much missed DanAir London.
The next morning it was straight through security and then breakfast; the TUI short haul offering is woeful to say the least and is surpassed by even Ryanair who don’t pretend to be something they are not.
So duty dog 737-800 WZ did the honours for our flight to PMI. There were quite a few -800 and MAX at LGW but only one MAX flew despite some of the flights being medium haul sectors. Odd?
Anyway a smooth flight back down to PMi which was very quiet given that high summer was long gone. A smattering of Eurowings sitting on the ground; Ryanair, Lauda and Iberia/Air Nostrum were plying routes to mainland Spain, Germany and Austria: a couple of notable aircraft were on the ramp though: G-OBYK which went tech at the end of October along with an Evelop 332 and an Avianca 787-900.
As the Paseo Mariimo was doing its best to masquerade as Sauchiehall Street we gave Palma City a miss and stayed on board. We shall be back down again this June when hopefully all the roadworks wil be completed.
Our first port of call was Cagliari in South Sardinia, a place I have long wished to visit- and the wait was well worth it. Lots of Medieval buildings, steeped in history and friendly folks; the coffee and wine were good too. This was followed by Malta where we took a vintage bus trip through St Juliens, St Paul’s Bay then Mdina before heading back to Valletta. The weather was glorious too.
Malta was followed by Messina looking across to Reggio de Calabria which will become one of Ryanair’s new bases along with Olbia later this year. After that was a day at sea then Chania in Western Crete where we had a thunderstorm, another day at sea then Limassol which we visited in May whilst staying with friends in Tala.
A very organised and efficient disembarkation process saw us onto our coach to PFO in jig time.
PFO was TUI city with normal Wednesday flights, but not Glasgow, and additional cruise flights.
Eventually our gate was displayed I must admit I was sufferings pangs of “I used to do that” and would have made a damn sight better boarding call, when eventually it was done!
Our bus drew up alongside 737-800 TAWH. As our seats were in Row 17 we chose to board by the rear steps. Much has been said in the aviation media regards the state of TOM 787s; some of the 737s aren’t any better; if not much worse. As I was climbing the rear steps I could clearly see the rivets beneath the windows towards the cabin rear but what I wasn’t prepared for was the blistered paint work, rust and crack beneath the tailplane! I was concerned and when I mentioned this to the SCCM she said they knew and it was noted in the defect book.This aircraft should have returned to MAN but there was an aircraft change here instead.
After an uneventful, but expensive, flight back to LGW although the landing left lots to be desired and it wasn’t the weather which was clear and calm. TUI in flight eateries don’t come cheap; Jet2 leave them in the starting blocks!
Another LGW night stop then round to Renaissance at LHR where we had a two night stay allowing us to visit both London and Windsor.
Our return flight from LHR to EDI was on 320-Neo TTNL a much superior beast to the TUI 737.
The next trip would follow ten days later with a flight to Munich and stay in Freising but more of this later.