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  • USA3000 MKE-PUJ-MKE (pics)

    Two weeks after doing my NW daytrip to ATL (http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo...d.main/145446/) it was time to go flying once again. Spring break had arrived and that meant my family and me were headed down somewhere south for a vacation. For some reason we didn't go anywhere last spring break, but this year we're back at it and going back to Punta Cana for the third time on USA3000. This would be my second time flying them and the one time I did fly U5 was the first time I went to Punta Cana three years ago. Since that time U5 left MKE and Funjet/Ryan took over all the charter flying, but I guess their charter flying must've folded because they're out and U5 is back in town. The two weeks in-between went by rather slowly, but eventually the 23rd of March rolled around and it was time to go on vacation!!! (March 23-30)...
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    Flight departure time from MKE was 6 AM so after falling asleep at around midnight I ended up getting only three hours of sleep before waking up at 3 to get cleaned up and ready to go. {tired} Usually my grandpa would come over and take us to the airport, but this time my grandparents were coming along as well so it was decided just to drive up in one car and leave it in the parking garage for a week. We got to MKE shortly after 4 AM and my dad dropped us off at the U5 ticket counters while he went off the park the car. The rest of us went inside and got in line for check in. U5's 'makeshift' ticket counter is at the very beginning by CO's. I guess they don't have to be that fancy since U5 only flies to MKE seasonally and they will be gone at the end of April.


    After about fifteen minutes of waiting in line we got up to the counter just as my dad got back and we had our boarding passes in no time. As is the case when I usually fly from MKE, I went over and got some starbucks and Cinnebun upstairs for breakfast. While the whole ticket counter area downstairs was kind of busy it was pretty quiet upstairs in the main terminal.


    I finished eating and we all headed over to the concourse E security checkpoint. There was almost no line at this point and we got through there in no time. I went over to gate E60 and snapped a shot of our ride down to PUJ.


    As mentioned earlier I flew out of concourse E only two weeks ago so I pretty much knew what I was expecting to see over here in the morning. At the end of the concourse I was able to get a better view of our A320 parked at the gate.


    NW DC-9 parked at the gate going to DTW.


    At one of the other NW gates there was a DL painted DC-9 which was going to MEM. I took some more pics of the other planes parked at the concourse but those turned out too dark. I then watched as the NW n/s redeye from LAX landed and pulled into the gate. From the looks of it when everybody got off it was a full load. I found it pretty interesting that a lot of the people on this flight weren't going to MKE, but instead they were connecting onto the flights to MSP, DTW, and MEM. (I know this because when they got off the plane they were asking the NW gate agent which gate the flights were leaving from)

    I started heading back to the gate for boarding and on my way back I passed a girl from my class heading down the other way with her family. Weird, I've never seen someone I know at the airport before. Her mom stopped and chatted with me for a bit but I guess the girl must've not wanted anything to do with me because she just kept on walking lol! :-I I didn't chat too long with the mom, but I guess they were going down to Florida on CO through CLE. When I got back to my gate they were about to start boarding for our flight to PUJ. They first announced that if anybody wanted free headsets to listen to the movie they'd be showing during the flight you could come up and get them at the gate. With almost every airline tackin on fees to nickel and dime ya its nice to see someone still givin away free stuff.

    Boarding started and we were one of the first ones to get on the plane. My seat was 22F. Once they finished boarding I could see that there were several scattered empty seats. I'd have to say the load factor for this flight was probably 70% or so. We pushed back on time and the safety demo started playing on the overhead monitors. Then we started taxing to 7R, a takeoff from MKE that I almost never do. Just about every time it’s either 19R or 1L so it was good to be mixing it up for a change. Once we got to the end there was no line and we made a very quick takeoff from 7R. We might have even used less than half the runway for our takeoff roll. We turned to the southeast after takeoff and started our climb up to 37,000 feet. It was still dark out at this point so I didn't bother taking any pics until after the sun started coming up.


    Once the seatbelt sign was turned off I went to the front and back rows of the plane (both of which were empty) and took some pics with the sun coming up.




    Not too long after I returned to my seat the flight attendants started coming through the aisle with the drink service (I got a cup of coke) and the onboard movie entitled 'Ghost Town' started playing. I didn't really didn't pay attention to the movie that much, but from the looks of it seemed like it could've been an ok way to pass the time. Halfway through the movie we crossed into the Atlantic Ocean over North Carolina.


    Then the flight attendants started coming through with the meal/snack service. You could choose from three different kinds of snack boxes for seven dollars each. While I'm sure most of you are familiar with the pitiful 'snack boxes' sold on some U.S. domestic flights, these ones on U5 did appear to be a bit better off than some of the other ones I've seen before. Still, I wasn't hungry so I didn't get one.

    As far as turbulence was concerned, there was an on/off light chop throughout most of the flight, but the captain left the seatbelt sign off most of the time anyways. After about three hours in the air, the flight started to get kind of long, slow, and boring. Not a good sign considering I've got a nine hour flight to/from Europe coming up this summer. {banghead} I'm guessing though it must've had something to do with the fact that when you're over water there's really not much to see. Eventually, however, the flight attendants passed out the immigration forms and shortly thereafter we started descending into PUJ.


    We flew inland over the D.R. before turning back around for final approach.


    The Approach into PUJ is in a way kind of dull. There's really nothing to see except trees and forest. Once the flaps and gear came down we passed the airport highway and touched down at PUJ.




    As we taxied over to parking I got a glimpse of another U5 A320 coming in for landing.


    Once we parked and shut our engines down they pulled some airstairs up the front and back and we go out through the back ones. One thing you gotta like about PUJ is that there's no jetways so you have to board/exit walking on the tarmac. Excellent for spotting! I snapped one last shot of our plane as they directed us over to the terminal.


    On the walk over I took advantage of being on the tarmac by takin a few more pics of other U5 action at PUJ.






    After clearing immigration we went over to get our luggage at the baggage claim. Our four bags were some off the first ones to come off.


    With our bags in hand we headed out to our bus and the start of our vacation!!!
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    As for our stay in Punta Cana, it was great!!! Our hotel was called the Iberostar and coincidently enough it was located right next to the hotel where we stayed two years ago when we came here. The weather was great and it only rained once during the entire week for a span of about thirty minutes. I had a great time walking on the beach, swimming, eating, and just relaxing! Now the legal drinking age in the D.R. is eighteen and I'm seventeen, but I guess my beard must've been convincing enough because they ended up giving me the adult wristband! Now I'm not really as big of a drinker as some of my friends are back at home, but I did make sure to take advantage of that little perk at least a couple of times. My parents are both from Europe so they didn't seem to care lol. Anyways, time for some pics. Here's a shot looking down the beach.


    And the pool area.


    These aren't the actual rooms/villas where we stayed, but they're still part of the hotel.


    On our last day I was able to get a pic of an AF 747 on approach from CDG.


    Also saw an A330. I'm gonna need some help identifying this one though...


    After a week in the sun, it was time to head back to cold and dreary Wisconsin...
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    Our flight to MKE was scheduled to leave at about 12:30 PM so we got up a little before 8 to eat breakfast and then catch our bus back to the airport at 9 AM. After about twenty minutes of driving we pulled up to the ticket counters area at PUJ. The ticket counters, like most of the airport, is outdoor. We went over to the U5 counters and each flight to each city had its specified counter. The line for the flight to MKE was sort of long and it took maybe about twenty minutes before we finally got up to the front.


    The people who were ahead of us inline had both of their luggage overweight by fifty pounds so they ended up having to put the excess into trash bags and have those be carry ons lol. Our checkin on the other hand went smoothly and with our boarding passes in hand, we headed for immigration and security, both of which didn't take long at all and we were in the gates area in no time. A neat thing at PUJ is that there's these two outdoor patio kind of things were you can go outside and be right by the tarmac. Just to give you an idea of how close you can get here's a picture of me I took for my facebook.


    Then it was time for some spotting! I'd have to think U5 has the most flights to PUJ. Every time I've been here they've had several aircraft on the ground. The closest one was going to CLE.


    This WS 737 was pushing back for its flight up to YQM.


    Soon the U5 flight to CLE pushed back and that revealed an AA A300 sitting in the back. It was going to MIA




    Pretty soon that flight pushed back and was off to the runway as well.


    Another U5 flight landed and pulled into to the gate and I thought it was my flight to MKE, but it turned out to be the flight to/from BWI.






    I was getting hungry so I went and got some Wendy’s to satisfy my hunger before heading back for some more spotting. Just to mix it up a bit, here's a shot of a something other than U5 at PUJ. AC was going to YYZ and CO to EWR.


    Also while I was gone eating my flight to/from MKE had arrived as well.


    From this point on there wasn't anything else going on so I headed back to the gate area and right as I got there they started boarding for our flight to MKE. We were in the first to head out onto the tarmac and walk over to our flight. While walking over and into the plane I took a couple more pics of our A320 as well as the terminal.








    This time my seat was 6F and once again there were a decent amount of empty seats, maybe even slightly more than the previous flight. There was almost nobody seated in the five rows in front of us so they started bringing people up from the back for weight and balance issues. The captain then came on and right away I noticed he had a strong Spanish accent. Half the time I didn't know what he was talking about because I didn't understand him. ?:-| He did however say that our flying time of four hours and twenty eight minutes (about thirty minutes longer than the flight down here) and then said there would be a short delay while the fill us up with a lil extra fuel due to a reroute.

    After an AE ATR landed and taxied behind us we pushed back, started our engines, and began taxing to the runway for takeoff. It was kind of a slow taxi, but eventually we got to the end and waited for some private jet to land before taxing off and climbing out over the coastline.


    We continued climbing over the coastline and since I was on the right side of the plane the only thing I saw was ocean. Once we reached 34,000 feet and the seatbelt sign was turned off I decided to see if there were any open window seats in the back of the plane. I always like having the view of sitting right behind the wing and luckily for me 19A, B, and C were empty so I took those three for myself. {sly}


    This time the movie was 'Nights in Rodanthe' and once again it looked ok, but I didn't really watch it. They started coming through again with the snack boxes and drinks and I got a coke. Unlike the first flight they came through with a second drink service later on and that time I got ginger ale. Midway through the flight I got up and took a pic of the A230 cabin.


    Once again the flight started increasingly long and slow, but finally at around the four hour mark the captain announced the start of our descent into MKE. We started slowing and going down over Lake Michigan and I got a great view of downtown Chicago. We came off the lake over Racine and once again I was able to spot my house!


    We continued heading west inland before turning around and landing on 7R in MKE. The captain used heavy braking on the landing and it was a very short rollout.






    We then taxied over to the international arrivals building and shut our engines down concluding a fun and exciting trip. Once we got through customs and got our luggage we waited as my dad went over to the parking garage to get our car. While waiting I snapped one last shot of our plane at the gate. It would be a quick turnaround here as a FL 737 was inbound from CUN and my U5 plane had to go to RSW in less than two hours.


    Right after I took this pic my dad pulled up with the car and we started driving home to conclude another vacation.
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    Well this is my ninth trip report and I hope you enjoyed reading it! Comments are always appreciated since it’s not all that easy putting one of these reports together! The flights on U5 were both very good as was the stay in Punta Cana. I would recommend both to anyone looking for a vacation. Thanks!!!

    Midwest Airlines - The Best Care In The Air

  • #2
    Excellent flight reivew!

    Hello,

    Nice job on the terrific flight review, you had a good amount of detail on the flights and some fantastic photos. Looks like U5 is a pretty good airline and it's nice to see that you and your family enjoyed your vacation.

    Regards,

    Rohan

    Comment


    • #3
      Great report. Nice clear pictures. Great to see the line-up of aircraft at PUJ

      Comment


      • #4
        Excellent report! I was in the D.R. last spring and had a great time as well. On a side note, the A330 that you saw was an Air Berlin bird, operated by LTU.

        Comment

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