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I'll re-upload them once home. The videos will come a bit later, so only pictures as of now.
Flight: TOM584
Callsign: TOM584
From: Glasgow International (EGPF/GLA)
To: Orlando Sanford (KSFB/SFB)
Aircraft Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
Registration: G-TUIB 'Alfie'
Date: July 16th 2013
Duration: 8h 10m
Route: TRN P600 BLACA UP620 NIMAT DUB PELIG MALOT 5200N 02000W 4900N 03000W 4400N 04000W 4100N 05000W SOORY M204 ALOBI M326 LEXIM M203 SNAGY M203 HOBEE AR6 HIBAC CWRLD3
Early start to the day was in order to catch the 0935 departure. Woke at 0530 after just a few hours sleep and was at GLA for half 6ish. Airport was getting busy, nothing too bad though. Noticed United balloons at their check in and customer desks but didn't think much of it. The new logo was made noticeable - they were sporting it everywhere. Two brightly dressed gals arrived too and attracted a bit of attention. Checked in pretty quickly, not much of a queue, through in no time despite the large number of flights. After a spot of breakfast it was a swift pass through security and through into departures where we got our first glimpse of Alfie sitting quietly on 29:
Straight out of the window was easyJet A319 G-EZIJ:
Watched a stream of arrivals onto 23, BA 737-400 G-DOCB from LGW, easyJet A320 and Onur Air A321, as well as the departure of what I think was a Danish Air Transport ATR72 and a Thomson B752. Gate was soon announced and we headed along the pier, passing the departure gate of today's United to EWR (N18112) which was surrounded by press and food, accompanied by the girls in pink from check in, all explained by the banners that stated 15 Years of flying to Glasgow. Further up was a Freebird A320 bound for Dalaman and a US Airways B752 N935UW awaiting its flight to PHL, whose crew walked past shortly afterwards.
N18112 awaiting departure to Newark:
N935UW awaiting departure to Philly:
Got this nice nose view:
Boarding commenced with Premium passengers being called forward first, followed by the rear of Economy and then the rest. We boarded through L2 and I made my way to seat 19A.
The cabin was very welcoming; clean and spacious. The new plane smell was still slightly noticeable but not as much as I'd hoped. Seat was comfortable, seat pitch was 33-34" which was a big difference to the 28" we received on OY-VKI on the last Florida voyage. Only issue was that the window that looked out behind the wing for me had a large yellow crack in it, looked as though it was the layer that produced the dimming. By this time we had passed our 0935 departure time but I wasn't at all expecting to get away on time. Flight was completely full, all 291 seats were occupied.
The colourful light display lit up the ceiling above us which added a nice touch to the cabin.
Captain Harry Richardson introduced himself as the airbridge pulled away, announcing a flight time of 8 hours and 15 minutes.
Two fire engines arrived as we pushed back, wasn't sure if this was standard procedure for a 787 departure or for a water cannon salute for the United flight
Obviously it was the latter and I was disappointed when I realised I was going to miss it. Captain had announced a 'westerly departure over the Clyde' which was obviously wrong, so either it was westerly or it was going to be over the Clyde. In other words it was hard to tell if it was going to be a 23 or 05 departure
Knew it was 23 from watching other traffic though. After push, the two fire engines sat patiently waiting to get into position, sitting adjacent to us on the taxiway. We began rolling and they positioned themselves on either side of the taxiway. Held at the holding point for around 5-10 minutes as a Flybe Q400, BA E190 (Gaz? 
) and KLM Cityhopper E190 all landed whilst an easyJet A319 waited behind us. Captain came over the PA to tell us that we were waiting on the arrivals and then we would be on our way.Soon enough, we were lined up on 23 by 0957 and the two GEnx engines spooled up and roared as takeoff thrust was applied, much to the delight of all the kids on board. Rolling past the United I noticed it hadn't left yet, looked as though the fire crews were left waiting. Wasn't long before we left the runway and climbed into the low-lying clouds, the 78 showing off its lovely wing flex as we went
IFE was soon activated and within minutes most of the cabin was occupied.Climbing to FL310
Film selection on board was good, I had a look in the in flight guide online before we left. Blockbuster for this outbound flight was The Hobbit but The Guilt Trip, Wreck it Ralph, Yes Man and other big titles were available. Music selection was good too, plenty of variety was on offer from The Beatles to Bob Marley to more modern artists like Coldplay and The Killers. There were a few documentaries too, along with a TV section which included many big shows like The Big Bang Theory and Live at the Apollo. A flight map was available as well which I probably used more than anyone else on board
It was nice to have IFE, this was only my second long-haul trip, my last being, as I said, with Thomas Cook on OY-VKI which had no IFE.Playing with the dimmer produced some nice effects:
Another PA from the captain came as we flew north of Shannon, telling us that we were only at FL310 but had requested higher. This was obviously approved as we soon climbed to 330 followed by our final altitude of FL400. Our routing from GLA took us via a TRN SID (don't know which) followed by a right turn over Belfast and then Ireland. Don't know which track we were on but it was a much more southerly one than I had expected. As the captain had told us, we would route north of the Azores and then north of Bermuda, with Newfoundland on our right.
Was surprised at the number of male cabin crew aboard, there were at least six in Economy alone. One came to me to tell me to make my way to the cockpit after landing as a result of a pre-arranged visit with the crew. All crew remained happy and cheery throughout the flight.
A few hours into the flight we were served a hot lunch, consisting of a chicken noodle stir fry, small pot of cold pasta, cold water, bread and butter and a chocolate dessert, as well as optional tea or coffee.
Wasn't too impressed with the food, the chicken and noodles were pretty poor as was the pasta and the bread was already more than two weeks past the use by date :? Water was refreshing though as it was cold. Suppose the meal was typical of a charter airline.
Few more hours passed, mainly occupied by seeing what the IFE had to offer and regularly checking our progress on the flight map, or admittedly playing with the window dimmer 8-) I was surprised to have not seen a single aircraft since leaving Glasgow and it stayed that way until minutes before landing.
Funny looking 737 :roll:
Some interesting clouds:
Huddles outside the toilets gave some opportunities to photograph the cabin:
Shortly before landing we were served a light snack consisting of a cheese and pickle roll, cake with cream and jam and more water. It was nice.
Around an hour before touchdown we had another call from the flight deck announcing our position to the East of the Floridian coastline, about to begin our descent. During descent the IFEs were deactivated and showed promotional videos from the theme parks in and around Orlando, mainly Universal, but came back on for a short time before they were switched off for landing.
Soon after we caught our first glimpse of land, something we hadn't seen since we left the UK:
Cape Canaveral came into view with the Shuttle landing strip visible as well as the launch pad, quite a sight:
After passing Cape Canaveral we flew over SFB which offered us a view of what I though was an airTran B717 but might actually have been an Allegiant MD-80 - in close proximity to us which was also a nice sight. We descended through several clouds which produced some moderate turbulence as we positioned for the ILS. Clouds cleared, SFB came into view as we established on the ILS for 09L, passing through a ten second shower of rain that had been visible before the turn. The approach was smooth, and we soon landed on 09L. We vacated and made our way to the gate, passing the ex-bmi A330 that was being discussed here somewhere, now without gear or engines, and an all-white 767-200, N767DA. Several Cessnas could be seen in the circuit over at 09R. A few more tails became visible, two of which being Allegiant MD-80s, but two more very interesting ones caught my eye. One was an LOT 767 and the other looked like the livery that the Gulf Traveller (subsidiary of Gulf Air) 767s used to wear, assuming these were stored. No other British flights around, was expecting a TCX A330 or something...
The captain announced an early arrival despite the late pushback and departure just before arrival at the gate which followed with blocks on and shutdown. L1 was being used for disembarkation, meaning a stroll through Premium was necessary.
Yet more fire engines :?
http://i894.photobuc...bb/DSC_0864.jpg
After a quick check with the captain I headed into the cockpit for a sneak peek and brief chat. Even the cockpit was spacious. Nice, large glass cockpit complete with HUDs. The First Officer said he flew the first flight to PIK, also on TUIB, which I had went to see in June.
http://i894.photobuc...bb/DSC_0866.jpg
Said thanks and goodbye to the crew before disembarking and heading into the arrivals, quiet as we were the only arrival at the time.
Truly enjoyed my flight on the Dreamliner, it's a great aircraft and you do feel more refreshed than usual upon arrival, even if you did get up at half five in the morning.
Hope you enjoyed part one, thanks to those who read the whole thing. Videos will be added soon and Part Two will come when I get home.
Edited by Iain_, 20 July 2013 - 09:43 AM.
