My experience on the first Virgin flight to Orlando - VS75 / MAN-MCO

[VS075]

Hi

Well here we are!

Day one of entry into our beloved US and by pure coincidence the day myself and family also travel to Orlando.

After 4 cancelled trips (including a TUI flight that was supposed to leave tomorrow), it’s finally time to head back to Florida for the first time in 3 years.

This may well be posted in the wrong forum and if so I apologise. My aim is to share my experience with as many of you as possible so you know what to expect when your travel day arrives so I thought the post was best suited here and in its own thread rather than getting lost in another.

We are a family of three; myself, wife and 2 year old son, and all though myself and wife have been to Orlando before, this is the first trip for our son.

I’ll split this post into 6 sections and I’ll update the post as the day goes on so please bear with me.

- Preparation.
- At the airport.
- Flight to Orlando.
- MCO.
- The rest of the day.
- Travelling home.
- Video of the trip (Posted on the last page of this post)

I hope this post is useful and if you have any extra questions, please let me know and I’ll be happy to answers these over the coming days.

Thanks!

[VS075]

Preparation

Well, this felt different. I’m used to looking at crowd calendars, booking fast passes and ultimately just turning up at the airport with our passports and if I’m feeling adventurous, maybe some flight reservation paperwork.

This time, the build up was spent wondering if this trip would finally be ‘the one’ rather than months of excitement.

Having just had our TUI holiday to Sapphire Falls cancelled an hour earlier, I decided to book a trip with Virgin Holidays knowing their flight cancellations were currently up to the end of October and the US borders were due to open in ‘early November’.

That morning I had priced up departing on Saturday 6th November, however lucky for me, the price had jumped up £2500 in the 10 hours since I last looked meaning we decided to book Monday 8th November instead. Had we not have booked the Monday, Virgin would have cancelled our trip within 24 hours of booking it.

The hotel availability at Universal seemed pretty sparse on our dates so we decided to stay at Cabana Bay, having last stayed there in 2018.



The next few weeks were spent similar to the rest of yours I’d guess, trying to work out the entry requirements from the CDC and other reliable (and not so reliable) sources when the guidance coming out of the US wasn’t so clear.

ESTA were completed a couple of weeks out and were approved about 45 minutes after application.

Around the same time I booked my car hire via Andy at Discount Florida Car Hire. We had originally planned to Uber based on car hire prices and having to pay for car parking at Sapphire Falls, but Andy found us a great price and since Cabana Bay has free parking for Virgin Holiday customers, it seemed like a good idea. Especially when we’d have been restricted to more expensive Ubers in order to have a car seat for our son.

We booked our pre-departure tests with Breathe Assured as I knew their certificate had the words ‘supervised’ and ‘CDC’ on it which filled me with confidence that it’d be accepted for travel to the US.

We filled some details in on their website ahead of time such as names and passport numbers which meant Breathe Assured had all the information they needed bar the test result ahead of time.

We joined the Teams meeting just before 19:00 and had our three negative certificates in hand (well, email inbox) by 19:30. I can’t recommend Breathe Assured enough. The lady we spoke to was lovely and made it a personalised experience.



Next came the attestation form which could be completed digitally via Virgin Atlantic’s site for myself, wife and son, which I hadn’t expected as I thought children had to complete their forms manually. Either way, I’ve completed a paper form for all of us to take to the airport just in case.

The form was simple enough to complete, especially the digital version.

This was the point when I felt I could finally get excited. Work was finished for almost 3 weeks, our COVID tests were negative and paperwork completed. Unless something unexpected was to crop up, we were actually going back to Orlando!

All though we did a trip to Spain recently with digital documents, I decided (since work was covering my printing bill) that I’d print out the documents, just in case, albeit I had everything saved on my phone too.

Online check-in was simple enough with the odd extra disclosure regarding COVID-19 symptoms. The only downside was I had to re enter everyone’s passport details even though I did this at the time of booking.

You used to be able to check in earlier if you were a Flying Club member, however this no longer seems to be the case and everyone is eligible to check in from 24 hours before departure.



So with everything in hand, bags packed and the dogs dropped off with parents for their holiday, it was time to try and get some sleep, battling the excitement and disbelief travel day was almost here, whilst hoping I didn’t do my normal trick of waking up at 2AM on the morning of a Florida trip.

[aprilshack]

Originally Posted by VS075

Preparation

Well, this felt different. I’m used to looking at crowd calendars, booking fast passes and ultimately just turning up at the airport with our passports and if I’m feeling adventurous, maybe some flight reservation paperwork.

This time, the build up was spent wondering if this trip would finally be ‘the one’ rather than months of excitement.

Having just had our TUI holiday to Sapphire Falls cancelled an hour earlier, I decided to book a trip with Virgin Holidays knowing their flight cancellations were currently up to the end of October and the US borders were due to open in ‘early November’.

That morning I had priced up departing on Saturday 6th November, however lucky for me, the price had jumped up £2500 in the 10 hours since I last looked meaning we decided to book Monday 8th November instead. Had we not have booked the Monday, Virgin would have cancelled our trip within 24 hours of booking it.

The hotel availability at Universal seemed pretty sparse on our dates so we decided to stay at Cabana Bay, having last stayed there in 2018.



The next few weeks were spent similar to the rest of yours I’d guess, trying to work out the entry requirements from the CDC and other reliable (and not so reliable) sources when the guidance coming out of the US wasn’t so clear.

ESTA were completed a couple of weeks out and were approved about 45 minutes after application.

Around the same time I booked my car hire via Andy at Discount Florida Car Hire. We had originally planned to Uber based on car hire prices and having to pay for car parking at Sapphire Falls, but Andy found us a great price and since Cabana Bay has free parking for Virgin Holiday customers, it seemed like a good idea. Especially when we’d have been restricted to more expensive Ubers in order to have a car seat for our son.

We booked our pre-departure tests with Breathe Assured as I knew their certificate had the words ‘supervised’ and ‘CDC’ on it which filled me with confidence that it’d be accepted for travel to the US.

We filled some details in on their website ahead of time such as names and passport numbers which meant Breathe Assured had all the information they needed bar the test result ahead of time.

We joined the Teams meeting just before 19:00 and had our three negative certificates in hand (well, email inbox) by 19:30. I can’t recommend Breathe Assured enough. The lady we spoke to was lovely and made it a personalised experience.



Next came the attestation form which could be completed digitally via Virgin Atlantic’s site for myself, wife and son, which I hadn’t expected as I thought children had to complete their forms manually. Either way, I’ve completed a paper form for all of us to take to the airport just in case.

The form was simple enough to complete, especially the digital version.

This was the point when I felt I could finally get excited. Work was finished for almost 3 weeks, our COVID tests were negative and paperwork completed. Unless something unexpected was to crop up, we were actually going back to Orlando!

All though we did a trip to Spain recently with digital documents, I decided (since work was covering my printing bill) that I’d print out the documents, just in case, albeit I had everything saved on my phone too.

Online check-in was simple enough with the odd extra disclosure regarding COVID-19 symptoms. The only downside was I had to re enter everyone’s passport details even though I did this at the time of booking.

You used to be able to check in earlier if you were a Flying Club member, however this no longer seems to be the case and everyone is eligible to check in from 24 hours before departure.



So with everything in hand, bags packed and the dogs dropped off with parents for their holiday, it was time to try and get some sleep, battling the excitement and disbelief travel day was almost here, whilst hoping I didn’t do my normal trick of waking up at 2AM on the morning of a Florida trip.

See more...

Does the fit to fly test have to have the manufacturer of the test on? State the tester is Government approved? I don't know what will be on my certificate when i get mine.

[VS075]

At the airport

My alarm rang to the familiar sound of ‘Hello? This is Jonah Jameson, roger, over. Is this thing on?’ at 5AM. I have that many alarm times set up on my phone with different tones, it seemed quite apt that this is one that indicated it was time for me to get up today when I’ll hopefully be riding Spider-Man later this evening.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, it was our first Florida trip for our two year son and what makes this a little more difficult is the time difference - We land at 3PM EST time which is his normal bed time here at home, so we decided to let him sleep until the last minute - Of course his room has to be themed to our favourite place.

[/url]

After the normal mad rush before leaving the house, even though we prepared everything we could last night, we left the darkness of West Yorkshire via a petrol station Costa for my wife.

We arrived at Terminal 2 West at just after 7AM. The East car park was full by the time we booked and some of the other options are being used for COVID-19 testing there unavailable.

I last used Terminal 2 in September and was greeted then by huge queues at every check-in desk so I was worried that today could be even worse with the amount of documents to check, however we were all checked in within 5 minutes with no queue!

We had our vaccines evidence and negative test results checked during the line, the attestation form were collected at check in (even though we’d do them online) and on the way to check our sons pram in, we were interviewed by a BBC radio station - I don’t think I’ll be listening to that one.









We went through the family security line so were done within a few minutes. Next stop duty free to collect some aftershave which I purchased ahead of time online (for 10% off) just as our plane arrived from LHR



We headed to gate 210 which is in the old part of the terminal to watch our plane loading up.





It’s 09:20 and time to board. See you on the other side!

[mrsbenny]

Originally Posted by VS075

At the airport

My alarm rang to the familiar sound of ‘Hello? This is Jonah Jameson, roger, over. Is this thing on?’ at 5AM. I have that many alarm times set up on my phone with different tones, it seemed quite apt that this is one that indicated it was time for me to get up today when I’ll hopefully be riding Spider-Man later this evening.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, it was our first Florida trip for our two year son and what makes this a little more difficult is the time difference - We land at 3PM EST time which is his normal bed time here at home, so we decided to let him sleep until the last minute - Of course his room has to be themed to our favourite place.

[/url]

After the normal mad rush before leaving the house, even though we prepared everything we could last night, we left the darkness of West Yorkshire via a petrol station Costa for my wife.

We arrived at Terminal 2 West at just after 7AM. The East car park was full by the time we booked and some of the other options are being used for COVID-19 testing there unavailable.

I last used Terminal 2 in September and was greeted then by huge queues at every check-in desk so I was worried that today could be even worse with the amount of documents to check, however we were all checked in within 5 minutes with no queue!

We had our vaccines evidence and negative test results checked during the line, the attestation form were collected at check in (even though we’d do them online) and on the way to check our sons pram in, we were interviewed by a BBC radio station - I don’t think I’ll be listening to that one.









We went through the family security line so were done within a few minutes. Next stop duty free to collect some aftershave which I purchased ahead of time online (for 10% off) just as our plane arrived from LHR



We headed to gate 210 which is in the old part of the terminal to watch our plane loading up.





It’s 09:20 and time to board. See you on the other side!

See more...

This is great! No questions about 3-5 day testing for your son? It will be good if you can let us know if asked at MCO. Thanks

[JoJo88]

This is wonderful to read, thank you so much for taking the time to post, in amongst all the other 'stuff' you have to think about. Safe travels!

[aprilshack]

Originally Posted by VS075

At the airport

My alarm rang to the familiar sound of ‘Hello? This is Jonah Jameson, roger, over. Is this thing on?’ at 5AM. I have that many alarm times set up on my phone with different tones, it seemed quite apt that this is one that indicated it was time for me to get up today when I’ll hopefully be riding Spider-Man later this evening.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, it was our first Florida trip for our two year son and what makes this a little more difficult is the time difference - We land at 3PM EST time which is his normal bed time here at home, so we decided to let him sleep until the last minute - Of course his room has to be themed to our favourite place.

[/url]

After the normal mad rush before leaving the house, even though we prepared everything we could last night, we left the darkness of West Yorkshire via a petrol station Costa for my wife.

We arrived at Terminal 2 West at just after 7AM. The East car park was full by the time we booked and some of the other options are being used for COVID-19 testing there unavailable.

I last used Terminal 2 in September and was greeted then by huge queues at every check-in desk so I was worried that today could be even worse with the amount of documents to check, however we were all checked in within 5 minutes with no queue!

We had our vaccines evidence and negative test results checked during the line, the attestation form were collected at check in (even though we’d do them online) and on the way to check our sons pram in, we were interviewed by a BBC radio station - I don’t think I’ll be listening to that one.









We went through the family security line so were done within a few minutes. Next stop duty free to collect some aftershave which I purchased ahead of time online (for 10% off) just as our plane arrived from LHR



We headed to gate 210 which is in the old part of the terminal to watch our plane loading up.





It’s 09:20 and time to board. See you on the other side!

See more...

So did you pre fill as attestation form to hand in? We're you able to upload your test results?

[Charlangela]

Originally Posted by VS075

At the airport

My alarm rang to the familiar sound of ‘Hello? This is Jonah Jameson, roger, over. Is this thing on?’ at 5AM. I have that many alarm times set up on my phone with different tones, it seemed quite apt that this is one that indicated it was time for me to get up today when I’ll hopefully be riding Spider-Man later this evening.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, it was our first Florida trip for our two year son and what makes this a little more difficult is the time difference - We land at 3PM EST time which is his normal bed time here at home, so we decided to let him sleep until the last minute - Of course his room has to be themed to our favourite place.

[/url]

After the normal mad rush before leaving the house, even though we prepared everything we could last night, we left the darkness of West Yorkshire via a petrol station Costa for my wife.

We arrived at Terminal 2 West at just after 7AM. The East car park was full by the time we booked and some of the other options are being used for COVID-19 testing there unavailable.

I last used Terminal 2 in September and was greeted then by huge queues at every check-in desk so I was worried that today could be even worse with the amount of documents to check, however we were all checked in within 5 minutes with no queue!

We had our vaccines evidence and negative test results checked during the line, the attestation form were collected at check in (even though we’d do them online) and on the way to check our sons pram in, we were interviewed by a BBC radio station - I don’t think I’ll be listening to that one.









We went through the family security line so were done within a few minutes. Next stop duty free to collect some aftershave which I purchased ahead of time online (for 10% off) just as our plane arrived from LHR



We headed to gate 210 which is in the old part of the terminal to watch our plane loading up.





It’s 09:20 and time to board. See you on the other side!

See more...

Looks like you've had a really straight forward journey so far! Also interested in the 3-5 day test requirement if they mention it, not sure if your son is above the age requirement for that or not.

[Monolith]

Can we all pretend this is our very own Vs75 getting a shout out?

[Michelleco123]

A great read and so good to see this happening again! We fly in December (family of 5) and were all very excited. Have a great time.