Travel Cambridge to Orlando

Today we travel to Orlando from wet and cold Cambridge. Of course, today is the first day we have seen a completely blue sky first thing in the morning. It’s as though Cambridge were saying, “See, I can do it when you’re about to leave!!”

Travel from Cambridge to London is fast. In fact it is scarily fast when going over points or the more difficult sections of track. This morning it actually takes less than the normal fifty minutes to reach Kings Cross station.

Just across the concourse is St Pancras station where, below the surface near the Harry Potter platform, runs a rather slow direct train to Gatwick Airport. However, this slow meandering train through the bowels of the City of London more than makes up for the inconvenience of the tube to the Gatwick Express which runs from busy Victoria Station.

Today are travelling in a brand new 787 “dreamliner” flown by one of the most successful new budget airlines.

First we have to obtain boarding passes. The machine does not work. As usual, a helpful Polish gentleman appears to help us. It doesn’t work for him either. So we retire to his office where he manages to get us our passes. Then he tries to print luggage labels for us on another check in machine and that doesn’t work either. Back to his office and at last we are fully equipped to check in our bags. I am delighted to see that my bag weighs 19.7 kg; just under the 20 kg maximum so my small bottle of brandy can travel with us to Orlando.

There’s a certain ritual associated with budget airlines and some shops  in the terminal have adapted their stock to take advantage of this. Boots sells their normal “main plus side plus drink” lunch for almost a duty free price and we notice that even Smiths has included a similar selection of food between their books and magazines. We buy a couple of wraps in Boots (I choose the falafel wrap and Theobo takes a chilli wrap) plus drinks and crisps. Although we had ordered and paid extra for a meal, we were now equipped to deal with any prandial crisis.

Boarding this flight is very ordered and serious as befits an efficient budget airline. Sitting at the front of the budget section of the aircraft – the “first class” section in front of us is tiny – we board last. During the melée of passengers stowing oversize carry-ons, I hear an announcement by somebody but his comments were wasted because of the cabin activity. After we have all settled down, we and the serious cabin staff sit there in silence for twenty minutes before the plane starts to move and takes off.

The first  thing we notice is that the wonderful “dreamliner” in-flight individual entertainment systems aren’t working. Then the screens at the front of the cabin also black out. After take off, we see the youngest member of the cabin crew looking very busy as he tries to get the screens working. He manages to get the screens going at the front of the cabin but it is some time before he emerges smiling to our applause as our individual screens come into action.

Of course, the star of the show is the aircraft.

It is a magnificent feat of engineering; the delivery time only held up by the Japanese-built wings arriving over three years late. Boeing engineers had told me that lawyers were calculating compensation for late delivery “plane by plane” so this outsourcing cost Boeing a great deal. We used to see Boeing’s Everett field surrounded by 787s before they were accepted  by airlines. So we were attracted by this airline which uses these planes on long haul flights between USA and Europe.

We fly a great circle route south of Greenland to Canada and then bump our way down the East coast of the USA to Orlando. Extraordinarily, the skies are clear over Orlando but the landing and the sickening collision with the runway is one of  the most awful we have ever experienced. It did bring to mind the profile of one of the pilots, published in the onboard airline magazine, who had been driving taxis just three years ago.

The plane taxis off the runway towards the gate. We passengers all remain silent after the shock of landing so violently. But we are happy to have arrived safely.

Our happiness is short-lived. The plane sits in the correct place but nothing happens. After about fifteen minutes, the engines are switched off. Another ten minutes later, the lights go out and the air conditioning stops. There is still silence in the main cabin. Thankfully the lights come on again but not the air-conditioning.

I make the remark, “There are no Australians or Americans here.”  Most of the passengers are from the UK. This polite English reaction to the situation is overwhelming. We question the cabin crew member sitting in front of us. He knows nothing. But he picks up his phone and reports that there is a technical problem with the airbridge.

We are now becoming worried that there is no fresh air reaching most of the passengers. I wonder whether those little oxygen masks will fall down when the carbon dioxide level reaches dangerous levels if the plane is only using emergency lighting.

We question the cabin staff member sitting in front of us and find that his name is David. He speaks fluent Russian and Polish. He has been in the job for just two months. He makes another phone call and informs us that they are still having problems with the airbridge. It will soon be fixed as they have called a technician.

Another ten minutes pass and suddenly David looks up to see the airbridge reaching over to the plane. Instead of being happy, he becomes concerned. He rushes over to the other side of the plane. We see him typing things into a computer then returning with four sheets of printout.

He approaches the door and examines it carefully whilst consulting his sheets of paper. My friend Theobo jumps up and helps him by holding sheets in front of him whilst he works out what to do. Eventually he decides to move a huge handle with an enormous arrow pointing counter clockwise. It also has “OPEN” written above it in letters about one foot high.

The door opens to reveal a group of smiling people welcoming us to Florida. Even the balmy air of Florida feels welcoming. We have arrived!!!

As usual, I am fingerprinted and photographed by the immigration person who again warns me not to overstay my time in the USA. “You were in the plane that long without air con?” he says in amazement.

As usual, our checked luggage is last to arrive. After extensive legal negotiations we pick up our hire car and drive to Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Club arriving just after eleven o’clock. We remark that there were no signs or lights helping us to find the Club. The lobby staff tell us that “We like it that way”.

Apparently Arnold is due here in a few days time.

We have a room overlooking the tenth green where greenskeepers are moving the pins on the greens ready for next days play by clients of Bay Hill.  Others are doing routine maintenance. All this is being done in the dark so they all have lighting on their vehicles. By morning every inch of the fairways has been mown. Every micron of the green has been coiffured. All the features have been manicured. Yes folks, we’re in the US of A!!!!!