MAN-MLB with Tui Overview inc delay claim 31/07

[Tour de Orlando]

We travelled as 2 adults and a 15 year old on Sunday the 31st of July on the 13:25 flight from Manchester to Melbourne with Tui.
Used the meet and great car park and arrived at terminal 2 just under 3 hours before our flight departed to find we were pretty much the last in the queue, no problem didn't take long to check in and precede to security, security was busy, we had to first queue in the main check in area before we could join the normal queue for security. Once through we got a quick bite to eat and made our way to the gate.
Having only booked the holiday 3 weeks before and knowing the bad press the airport had been getting i'd kept an eye on the flights to MLB, wasn't good reading, most of the flights particularly on a weekend had been delayed, some over 4 hours, this prepared me mentally for any delay to our flight and low and behold we were delayed nearly 3 and a half hours, this was due to a lack of cleaning crews and according to the pilot some bags went missing including his own.
The flight made up nearly half and hour so instead of landing at 17:10 local time it was 20:11, upside to this is we were just over 3 hours late which meant we were entitled to compensation. A quick peruse of the Tui website provided us with link to the claim form which only took 5 minutes to fill in, around a week later, while still on holiday; we received £780 into our account.
Once in Melbourne and off the plane we went to the baggage carousel, it was only a small affair and I'm glad we were the only flight.
As luck had it and probably from being the last to check in at Manchester all three of our cases came off first, we then preceded straight to security and on to the waiting coach. From getting off the plane to the coach took us around 30 minutes, fantastic if you've got a car waiting, not so good for us, being the first on the coach meant we had to wait for everyone else, nearly an hour later we were underway. The journey to international drive took around 1hr40min, we were the second drop and we got to the hotel at 23:20, so just over 3 hours from landing, not great but heyho. After checking in we managed to get our heads down at midnight, 5am UK time.
Our journey home took place two weeks later on Sunday the 14/08, we were the last pick at 14:40. Journey to the airport took around a hour and half, check in and security were quick and simple. The departure lounge was very small and dated with only a small bar on entrance, a dunkin doughnuts, tiki bar and small duty free shop; the bar and tiki bar served food too, i tried the fish tacos; wife and daughter had dunkin.
The lounge was busy as there was a delayed flight to Doncaster too. Once they had gone it was a quiet place to sit and wait. Again we were delayed, this time due to the late arrival of our plane. We were scheduled to depart at 19:10 but didn't get in the air until 21:58, just over 2 and a half hours late, we landed at 10:20am instead of 07:55, i was hoping we would circle for half and hour to take it past 3 hours but wasn't to be.
How big is T2 these days, took an age to get from the plane to immigration.
Tip for anyone returning to the meet and great reception for your keys, its on the ground floor of the car park through the central entrance.

[ClaireNJ]

Fab quick report so glad you had a good last minute holiday and your compensation was sorted quickly giving you extra spends while you were away

[DiszeeBelle]

Weve just used Tui for Tenerife, 2 1/2hr delay going out and 1 1/2hr delay returning then 1 1/2hr delay in baggage claim due to Swissport not realising a Dreamliner has 2 holds so only emptied the rear hold! We are a little tired after arriving in Glasgow at 4:55am this morning and having a 3 1/2hr drive home so 11am we finally walked through the door. Main gripe not a single bit of contact with a Tui rep throughout.