The flight to Dublin

I was really surprised how quickly we got through the O'hare airport for our Dublin trip. I checked us in on-line the night before, so, that speed up the process a bit. It only took us an hour to get our bags checked and get through security; this included waiting about 10 minutes for our airline (Aer Lingus) to open (there wasn't anyone at the check-in desks when we got there). The flight to Dublin was about seven and a half hours including taxiing.

After being on the plane for only a short while (about 30 minutes I would guess), the stewardesses came around to offer free juice or soda for the meal. They also gave us each a small bag of pretzels. What seemed like forever after that (I would guess another half an hour or so), they came around to serve our meal. It seemed like forever simply because we had long finished our drinks by the time they came around with food. Since they only give you about two ice cubes for room temperature soda, the ice gets melted quickly. We had two choices for our meals, some kind of chicken with yellow rice, or penne in tomato sauce. Timmy went with the chicken, and I went with the penne.



It looks a little different than the stock photo on Aer Lingus' web-site, eh?:



The penne wasn't inedible but I have had penne TV dinners that tasted better. The meal wasn't warm enough (and we were one of the first rows served) so the tomato sauce was pasty. And there was more sauce than noodles. The brownie was quite good; it tasted like a fresh homemade brownie. And of course I loved the cheese and crackers, because who doesn't love cheese? Timmy liked the chicken aside from it having mushrooms.

After they served our meals, they came around with tea and coffee. I didn't have either as I am not a coffee or tea drinker.

About an hour before landing, the stewardess came back around with a light breakfast. Everyone got a ham and cheese sandwich on a croissant and an orange juice.



The plane itself was pretty awesome. It has been a decade since I have been on a plane, and I have only flewn within North America, so, the flight to Dublin was quite different.

It was great how much free entertainment they have even in economy. They have quite a few movies and TV shows that you can watch (on the back of the headrest in front of you). They even have a wide selection of music. Inside the armrests was a remote that you could remove to play games.

I also loved the screen option that let you view a map of where you were on the route, how far you were into the trip, how much time was left, local time at destination, etc.





There were only a couple downsides to the flight. The first is that I thought they had bathrooms in the back of the plane too, which they do not; we were only a couple rows from the back, so, every time we had to use the restroom, we had quite the walk through the narrow aisles.

I also disliked how many times they interrupted the entertainment in the headrests with various announcements. I would guess it was at least 10 times. If you were listening to music trying to sleep, it would have been quite annoying.

When the meals and snacks were served, they made everyone put their seats in the upright position. While I understand the idea of it, I don't think it was necessary, and it made it impossible to sleep more than a couple hours at a time on the flight. I say this as someone who had someone in front of me sleeping, and as someone who was never sleeping when they served the meals. The person in front of me reclining would not have affected my level of comfort when eating; the only time the reclining in front of me effected me is when I needed to get out of my seat to use the restroom.


You can view all the blog entries I write about our Dublin vacation by clicking here.