AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND 2018 – PART 2

Flight Toronto to Amsterdam

We arrived on the jetway in time to allow the airport staff who provided wheelchair assistance to passengers to exit the jetway. Upon presentation of our boarding passes we turned left, walked through the Economy Comfort zone (it has extra leg room vs. Economy) and entered the front portion of the plane. Oh happy day!

FLIGHT REPORT KLM Toronto to amsterdam

KLM 695
Toronto – Amsterdam
Scheduled departure: 22:45
Scheduled arrival: 11:55+1
Seats: 1J & K (World Business Class)

This was the first time I’ve ever been in the front section of a 747. The cabin crew were quick to welcome us on board. As we settled into our seats, we were offered a selection of sparkling wine, juice and water.

Overhead storage space at the front of a 747 is in short supply. After stowing our smaller items in an overhead bin, the cabin crew offered to store our remaining carry-on in the closet in front of us.

pre-departure

We settled into our seats and were quickly presented with amenities kits and the menu for the flight.

There was a separate menu for the wine.

For the amenity kit there are separate styles for men and women. Outside of the exterior, they had similar contents: Toothpaste, toothbrush, face mask, socks, ear plugs. For mine I received a comb and for her she had chapstick. With our carry-on stored, I didn’t use my birthday present headphones, but instead used the KLM provided noise-cancelling headphones. The construction made me think that this were a variant of a Bose Quietcomfort noise cancelling headphone, but no branding could be found to confirm or deny this guess.

Seats

Part of the reason for selecting KLM was for their seats. Both of us had plenty of legroom, and when extended even at 6’4”, the seats provided enough space for me to stretch out.

Seat controls were in the shared centre console, along with the tray table, and a small pocket filled with KLM’s magazine, duty free, and reference card for emergencies.

To the right of the seat, just behind your right shoulder are the plugs for power and headphones. There is a small indentation that allows for a bottle of water to comfortably rest there during flight. When reclined there are buttons for an additional reading light as well as seat controls.

The pillow was feather and the blanket, although thin, was ample to keep me warm when I tried to sleep.

After the captain did his welcome message where we were informed of this being a 6.5 hour flight, and arrival around 30 minutes early to Schiphol. Our plane then left the gate and began its taxi to the east/west runway on the north side of Toronto’s Pearson airport. Take-off was without delay and we were in the air quickly. One item that Amber & I learned during take-off was that the front landing gear seemed to be located directly underneath our seats as we got to hear the doors open, the landing gear retract, and doors closing.

dinner

Once the seatbelt sign was turned off, Amber decided to sleep, and I had a quick nap. An hour into the flight, the meal service was presented to our neighbour in 1A, and I received mine shortly thereafter. The service had all food presented at once.

From the appetizer, I only focused on the prosciutto leaving everything else. For the main, I had the chicken. I skipped the risotto as I had enjoyed the pretzel bun. The chicken was fine, as were the few carrots and vegetables I could find. The cheese was okay, with generous slices. Finally, I happily downed the cheesecake without issue. The crew was quick to respond to any requests, including when Amber woke up just as I received my meal. She glanced at the flight attendant and a few minutes later she had dinner served to her as well. At the end of the meal we were provided bottles of waters, as well as the opportunity to have either a milk or dark chocolate fashioned like a Dutch canal house. A touch I gladly enjoyed.

After the meal I tried to sleep. The seats are good overall, however even though my feet were okay, my shoulders and arms felt constricted when it was fully extended. Nevertheless being just after midnight for my body I did manage a few hours of sleep.

breakfast

When we woke up for the breakfast service, I elected for the lighter option of yogurt and granola as dinner and the lounge food (deep fried cauliflower) still had me feeling full.

Again, everything was served at once on a tray. I gladly had another pretzel bun. The fruit was okay, however honeydew and cantaloupe I skipped and it made up the bottom portion of the serving. The granola was European style, that ensured it was devoid of sugar, however mixed with the yogurt it was a fairly bland affair. I should have mixed jam to give a hint of flavour and sweetness to it.

The onboard screens weren’t the highest quality, however it was fine to watch Lego’s Ninjago movie and to start to watch Dunkirk. I didn’t watch the conclusion of the movie as we landed early, as planned, at Schiphol. This flight was also a treat as the plane didn’t land on Schiphol’s third runway. This is the runway that feels like it was constructed an hour’s taxi time away from the terminal. Instead our plane quickly approached the gate where we were subsequently informed by the flight crew “Sorry, we will have to wait for the plane ahead of us to clear the gate.” The wait was only 10 minutes and that had us in the terminal early.

Once at the gate, the senior purser stated on the intercom “As a part of our services to premium passengers, business class members will disembark the plane first.” I found this odd as we had walked through economy comfort seating to get to our section. This statement was resolved by having business class passengers in our section walk through the forward galley to get to the second set of doors, where we met up with the staircase to the upper level of business class passengers.

Waiting to leave

Containers in Galley

More of forward Galley

We left the aircraft and had 9 hours before our connecting flight. We knew exactly what we were going to do. Lunch!

For those who take transatlantic flights, what is your most important thing during the flight?