In December 1988, I took a weeks break in The Gambia. It was an old BCal route with the DC-10/30 (I think) still in the livery and the crews in BA. The outbound from LGW was overnight, and then an immediate return so I got a taxi to BJL very early. I chose Christmas Day for the return, as the flights were cheaper and I knew that it would be thinly populated.
On Departure, we stayed low and went across the beach remarkably low. The CC explained later that the inbound crew had said they were going to go straight to the beach and the low pass was so that the two crews could wave at each other!
The flight was only about a third full, so lots of seats and a real party atmosphere with some lovely xmas lunch. So relaxed, it was brilliant - until arriving in mid winter!
As it was 1988, there were also visits to the flight deck of course [but, [b]SoS, that is NOT the reason for including it in this thread]. It was a lovely day with a flight of about 5.5 hours was a delight.