Not So Bad After All
Returned Sunday night from our trip to Dublin on Ryanair, and am pleased to say everything went quite smoothly. Thanks to all here for your tips. They really did help.
Got to the airport early, as I usually do anyway, and learned Ryanair posts the actual gate information only 30 minutes before boarding time. In both cases, the gates were not far away at all. In fact, in Dublin, it was the first gate. No mad rush, no jostling or any bad behavior that I saw.
No issues with carry-on luggage, as we made sure we were within specs. I did not see anyone from the airline actually checking luggage size or weight before boarding.
Both flights departed on time and arrived on time. Weather was not a factor.
The seats were perfectly adequate for a three-hour flight. I'm six feet tall and had no issues with the 30-inch pitch so long as my butt was firmly against the seat back. The seat was actually pretty comfortable, and I dozed off on both flights.
The overall atmosphere was really not any different from, say, a flight on Lufthansa to Frankfurt. No wild and crazy passengers or anything out of the ordinary.
Bottom line, not so bad at all. Would do it again.