Travel Blog: Virgin MAN to MCO PE

[PlatinumOwen]

Introduction

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow we embark on our first trip to Florida in over 3 years! We are flying Virgin Premium Economy direct to MCO from MAN.

This thread will cover many topics, from testing to the flight etc!

Hope this helps people get an understanding of what travel to Florida is like post border opening!

Feel free to ask questions

[PlatinumOwen]

Covid Tests

Breathe Assured

To put it simply, the tests were easy!

We did the video supervised lateral flow tests, 3 days before our flight, via Breathe Assured

Microsoft teams link was available at the time we had booked and we didn't even need it installed, we chose to click the 'open in browser' option!

The lady instructed each of us how to do the test, and supervised us throughout, she was very clear. During the wait time we went over basic information such as, email address, passport numbers, phone numbers, etc.

This is where it gets a little odd. The lady checked the tests after around 8 minutes and asked us to show the tests to the camera. Personally, I don't think she really cared about the result but I could be wrong. After she could see the results we waited for our conformation emails on the call, these came in around 1 minute!

Overall view: Very easy and quick service to be checked, if we have to do it again I would choose Breathe Assured, slightly concerned around the effort given to check the results but we are negative so travel day it is!

[PlatinumOwen]

Manchester Hotel

We stayed at the Clayton Inn

Started off pretty poor as the car park was full, this meant we had to abandon the car near the enterance as we dropped the cases off and then went to park our car in the West Car Park.

The room is a double queen and I was really suprised to see 2 actual queen beds, no sofa bed for me

The room has a bath/shower which, once again, is great to see however, it could have done with a clean. What we will describe as a 'hair not from the head' was left floating around in the bath , England won 10-0 so that made up for it!

Only gave us 2 towels and 2 pillows for 3 people, but a little request to the front counter and we got some more!

We chose to avoid the restaurant for dinner as many of the people had been on the drink for a while, but thats fine. Very friendly staff!

Ratings

Staff: 9/10
Beds: 9/10
Bathroom: 7/10
Storage room: 6/10
TV: 9.5/10
View: 10/10
Cleanliness: 6/10

[PlatinumOwen]

Virgin Check-in

One word: Easy

Upon arrival at the check-in, a gentlemen spoke to us to check for the following things, ESTA's, Proof of Vaccination, Proof of Negative Lateral Flow test.

We arrived at around 7:10 and the queues for PE were quiet. The crew are moving people from the PE queue to any check in desk, we were given the Upper Class check in desk.

Bags checked fine, total time around 5 minutes!

[PlatinumOwen]

Manchester Security

After check-in we moved to the new security enterance, quick scan of your boarding pass and away you go!

The first hurdle came as to which queue to join, we assumed that we could use fast-track but the lady at check-in didn't give us any information, this meant that we joined the normal queue.

At first only 2 bag check lanes were open but as soon as that moved onto 3 the queue went quick. All 3 of us went through security without needing additional check-in, and appart from the loud drunk woman in front of us, it was fine.

Estimate that security took 25 minutes in total!

[PlatinumOwen]

Departures

Main Departure

Our first time going to the new departure lounge and it was quite disappointing, no changes to the stores or food at all, it has just been given a much needed face lift.

Of course we had to go and get ripped off by WHSmiths, otherwise it wouldn't be a holiday! £5 meal deal included an 850ml bottle of Smart Water, a Ham sandwich and a packet of Doritos

Departure Gate

We departed from gate 210, one of the older gates and it is so much older than the new building, it really shows when you go back to the old times, boarding was quick and easy, on the plane now!

[PlatinumOwen]

Premium Economy & Entertainment

I will just do a rating of the seats to avoid a long paragraph!

Seats

Size: 9/10
Leg room: 9/10
Comfort: 8/10
Seat belt: 10/10 (Lovely and cushioned)
TV screen: 9/10

Crew

Friendliness: 10/10 (I don't like the hot plane meals but she made sure that I had something to eat and wouldn't leave until I could prove it)
Responsiveness: 10/10
Overall: 10/10

In-flight entertainment

Screensize: 8/10
Position: 10/10 (No-one reclined)
Movies: 8/10
Games: 0/10 (They took away whowantstobeamillionaire)

Downside: With around 3 hours to go the inflight system failed so we didn't have 'VERA' for the remainder of the flight

[PlatinumOwen]

Premium Economy Food & Drink

Food

I will list the food choices in chronological order of when we got them!

1st - Snacks from the bar, available pretty much straight away and there was a wide variety of snacks! (10/10)

2nd - Hot meal!
Starter: Salad pot
Mains: EITHER - Jerk Chicken, Vegan Bolognese, Mushroom pasta
Desert - New York Cheesecake

I only had the desert and that was a 10/10, the £5 WHSmith meal deal filled me up on the plane!

3rd - Chocolate Digestives

10/10 - Love a good Digestive and the fact that they were chocolate and 2x was perfect!

4th - Afternoon tea

9/10 - Vegetarian sandwich and a scone with jam and cream, pretty normal and served at the perfect time!


Drinks

I felt like the selection was pretty weak however, the staff were virtually up and down all the time, this was great and they didn't disturb you, just needed to look at them if you wanted anything and they would ask!

Tea served in a lovely mug and all drinks in glasses, I love PE

[PlatinumOwen]

MCO Security / Airport / Hertz Car Rental

Passport Control

I have been on walk-on rides at Universal before, but never have I had a walk-on passport control, off the plane and straight to passport control. TOOK LITERALLY 1 MINUTE

Baggage Claim

Despite the walk-on security, bags were already being unpacked. PE and UC on a seperate carousel made is so quick!

At this stage it had taken us 5 minutes to get through security and claim our bags!

Exiting MCO

Straight onto the monorail, across to the departure lounge, they have started to put the tree up!

Florida Visitor Toll Pass

We are using the Visitor Toll Pass for the first time and it is so easy, you download the app (hopefully prior to your holiday) and as soon as you find the machine (easily locatable) scan a QR code and you get your toll pass!

The first toll you go through, it links your reg plate with the pass so really simple!

Hertz

We chose a premium SUV - Got an Infinity QX50

The employees try sell you everything but just say no and its easy!

[Orlandoguy]

Thanks you so much for doing this for us dibbers, hope you have a great time. I been watching Victoria from “Disney in details” live streams from the parks and there so busy but looks like there is a good buzz at the moment and the Floridians in the tourism industry are super happy to have us Brits back,