Day 1 - 26th Birthday Solo Trip to Universal! 17th -22nd Jan 2020

[charlz_29]

Hi everyone

I booked this birthday trip awhile ago, August bank holiday when Virgin Holidays had a 10% off sale + free v-room tickets. I managed to get Virgin flights, 5 nights at Cabana Bay, 3 park Universal ticket, free v-room ticket all for the grand total of £1165 which I thought was pretty decent.

I've been interested in a holiday to Orlando for at least the last 3 years however, it is an expensive holiday and not many of my friends and family could afford to go with me so I booked it as a solo trip. Anyone that is reading this and is thinking of a solo trip just GO! Seriously! It was one of the best experiences I've had!


Travel Day - 17th January 2020

This began with a seriously early wake-up call. My flight was leaving at 10:10 from Gatwick and since I live in North London I am quite a ways away from Gatwick Airport. This meant I had to be up by 3:45AM to be able to get to the airport for 7.

I was quite smart with my packing and made sure everything bar the toothbrush was packed by the time I had gone to bed the night before. I quickly got ready and had a quick cup of coffee before leaving the house at 5:15AM. I wasn't too bothered by breakfast since it was so early and plus I had tickets for the v-room so would have breakfast there.

Unfortunately due to work commitments etc, my family were unable to give me a lift to the airport.I had checked prices for a cab a few days earlier and got a quote for £72 which I wasn't pleased with especially since it was just going to be me. I booked tickets for the Gatwick Express for £33 which was less than half the price of a cab so I was well happy with this.

Travel to Gatwick Airport was uneventful. I got to the airport just after 7 and there was absolutely no queue to check in which was fab. Since it was my first time departing from Gatwick Airport (I'm normally a Heathrow kind of girl), I did end up getting confused as to where security was and had to actually ask someone.

I had ordered dollars beforehand and was given really huge bills with no $1 notes at all so my first priority after I arrived a Gatwick was to change some of my $20 bills for $1 but apparently they're not allowed to do so which was quite annoying.

Once I got to security, the lovely lady let me know that since I had V-room tickets I actually have access to Premium security which to be quite honest I didn't have the slightest clue what that was. Turns out Premium security is just a faster, more dedicated way of going through security which would be beneficial if you were going during peak times etc but in the middle of January the normal queue for security was pretty much dead anyway!

After security I headed for the Harry Potter shop which I thought was amazing. Didn't make any purchases though since I knew I was going to buy a few Harry Potter purchases at Universal. It's just an amazing shop to look at. I then made my way to the Virgin Holidays V-room which considering it was my very first time, I found pretty quickly. The v-room was stunning and is a really nice room to chill out before your flight. Its got plenty of seating and some of the seating faces the runway so you've got a pretty good view of the planes landing and taking off. I had a veggie v-breakfast and a cup (or 7) of orange juice which was pretty nice!

You also get unlimited cereals, pastries, cookies, doughnuts and yoghurt etc and they're all help yourself. I had a white chocolate cookie and a blueberry muffin. I didn't go crazy with the food since it was so damn early and I knew we would have food again around an hour into the flight.

Depending on your package, you can also get alcohol included. I found out once I checked in had the Standard Plus package which includes selected alcoholic drinks. Now normally, I would say 7:45AM is too early for a G&T but since I was on holiday and it was free I went ahead to the bar and ordered one.

My plane started to board at 9:15 and I left the v-room around 9 ish. This was a good idea since the gate was a little further than I anticipated. Whilst the V-room is fantastic especially if you get it chucked in for free in your package, I personally wouldn't pay for it. Just because I tend to like walking around the airport and if you've paid for the lounge you would feel obliged to stay there the whole time just so you make use of the ticket.

The flight seemed really long. Now I've been on flights before the longest being 12 hours straight (Brazil) or a 14 hour journey (with layover) to Mauritius. For some reason this flight seemed really long even though it was 9 and half hours.

The cabin crew were amazing, nothing seemed any trouble for them and we were offered plenty of drinks. They handed out pretzels and drinks very soon into the flight. I ordered a Amarula Cream Liqueur which in hindsight wasn't the brightest idea since it was quite heavy.

I had a Vegetable Biryani for lunch as well as a Japanese cucumber salad, chocolate and ginger gu pot and cheese and crackers which I saved for later. I was surprised how nice the biryani is, I'm notorious in my family for not eating on the plane and I was fully expecting to walk off the aircraft very hungry after not eating a thing. However, the food was actually quite nice and I enjoyed it which surprised me a lot.

I landed in MCO just before 3PM. Once we landed I had to navigate my way around MCO airport for the very first time which was a little nerve-wracking. However, I soon found out that there wasn't anything to worry about. Whilst reading about the airport, I had envisioned it being very difficult to find your way around but in actual fact it was fairly simple and I found it much easier to navigate than Gatwick!

The queue for immigration was quite long due to 4 planes landing at the same time. I think I was in the queue for 45 minutes to an hour. Once I made it out of immigration, it was time to pick up my case. my case surprisingly was one of the first to appear (after 1st class/premium). I found my way to the Virgin Holidays desk on Level 1 A since I had transfers booked with virgin Holidays. This turned out to be a Mears cab and I did wait around 30 minutes for my cab to turn up. This isn't ideal since I would have preferred to just leave the airport straight away but hey-ho! I was also the last drop-off out of 4 passengers. This wasn't terrible of course but just keep this in mind when booking transfers as I underestimated how tired I would be on Travel day.

I arrived at Cabana Bay around 5ish. Cabana Bay is an absolutely beautiful resort. I did have quite a long wait to check-in once I arrived. I think I spent around 30-45 minutes in a queue before I managed to check in. This was quite a long wait but it was a busy night and I suppose there was not much the staff could do on that front. When it was my turn to check in it was quite clear that the staff were stretched since the member of staff checking me in didn't have time to explain in detail what the hotel had to offer ect. It definitely felt like he was just trying to get me the key so I can leave. He wasn't rude or anything but it didn't allow for me to ask any questions etc. No worries though as I could tell they were quite bust and over-stretched.

Once I got the key to my room, the next thing I did is collect my pre-booked ticket at the Universal Vacation planning desk. I then hurried to the hotel gift-shop to purchase a lanyard so I can put the ticket and keycard in it. I then headed to my room which was surprisingly easy to find! I was in Continental (building 4), room number 4627.

The room location was absolutely perfect. Very close to elevators and exits. Since I was on the 6th floor it afforded me some views of volcano bay.

I quickly unpacked and then made my way downstairs to the Bayliner Diner since I was quite peckish and I wanted to buy Resort Refillable Mug. I ended up buying a Cabana Bay Burger + chips with the refillable mug. This came to a total of $31 with tax. The food was fairly expensive especially since I ended up chucking the majority of chips away. The food was fab and very tasty however, the portion sizes are ridiculous hence why I had to chuck so many chips away. I deffo recommend the Cabana Bay Burger as this was absolutely delicious. I would also recommend getting the refillable mug since you could get unlimited drinks for the duration of your stay for around $18. This in my opinion is a bargain as drinks are fairly expensive there. The one downside is of course, you can use it at the resort and not at the parks. However, I still say it is a bargain and it really helped me whilst I was there and also doubled as a neat souvenir from my trip.

After filling up my refillable mug and finishing as much of the chips as I could I decided to have a walk-about in the resort so I could get my bearings. I happened to walk past the pool closest to the lazy river and saw quite a few families swimming. At first I was dead on just walking around the resort but I decided to touch the water to see how warm/cold the water would be. It literally was like a bath. Once I realised how warm the water was, I literally dashed up as fast as I could to my room, got changed into my swimming costume and came back down to the pool. I spent a good 45 minutes in the pool before getting out to find the hot tub. The hot tub was literally the next best thing to heaven! I stayed there until around 8PM and then decided it was time for bed. So I went back to the room and got ready for bed. I was fast asleep by 9:30 PM.This was a fantastic start to the holiday and travel day couldn't have gone any better to be honest.

[mick]

A great travel day

Joan

[Sparksy72]

It’s always good when your travel day goes well. It still always surprises me how big the portion sizes are, you did well to manage a burger and a drink after such a long day. A swim and some time in the spa is a perfect ending.

[Juliemack]

A pretty decent travel day. The spa sounds like a great way to relax before bed

[candycat75]

Nice travel day! I love cabana bay.