Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Disney We Go Finally - Feb/March 2022 - Travel Day

[caitlinsmummy]

Welcome to another trip report! I'll start off by introducing the family:

Myself (Kelly) - Chief planner and organiser

Husband (Chris) - The laid back photographer one

Caitlin (15) - Total drama llama and moody teenager totally glued to her phone all the time

Thomas (13) - The cheeky brain box one

Noah (8) - The cute one. Noah is autistic and struggles with change so holidays are quite often a challenge for him

We have been to Orlando as a family twice before, Oct/Nov 2018. We stayed onsite at Port Orleans Riverside for 14 nights with the free QSDP (upgraded to DDP) We also threw a night in at Royal Pacific Resort in Universal to make use of the express passes, you can find the trip report here.

We returned in May 2019 for 9 nights. We stayed on International Drive at The Rosen Inn International, our first off-site stay. We visited Seaworld, Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Discovery Cove, Kennedy Space Centre, Universal (with a nights stay at Hard Rock Hotel) and 1 night at Caribbean Beach Resort and a day at Magic Kingdom/Hollywood Studios. The trip report is here.

Our plan was to return May 2020 for 19 nights staying on-site with the free QSDP and also 12 nights in a villa over New Year in December 2020 and just doing Universal, as with many others both of these were cancelled. We settled on May/June 2021 believing this would go ahead and obviously it didn’t ☹ so we finally settled on February/March 2022 and if this one didn’t go ahead we wouldn’t rebook due to the kids and GCSEs etc so we had everything crossed it would!

We were delighted when the travel ban was lifted in November 2021, so got to full on planning again. This time we’ve had 4 nights at The Holiday Inn, Lake Buena Vista and 17 nights in a beautiful Dibb Villa in Emerald Island Resort just off the 192, about 15 minutes from Disney. The pre trip report is here if you’d like to read.

Travel Day

So I was up at 5.30am, I always sleep terribly on travel day, but it certainly wasn’t helped by the family above us banging about in their room most of the night, at 5.30am I decided to just get up and get ready (quietly as the grumpy teen was still asleep)

I got washed, brushed my teeth, sorted my hair and was just putting my make up on when Caitlin’s alarm went off. She reluctantly got up and started getting ready. I messaged Chris at 6.30am and he was awake and they were getting ready. After the debacle of last night I wanted to get to the airport early to resolve the issues. We had a table booked for breakfast at 7.30am but we arrived at 6.50am and asked if we could get in early, it was very quiet and not a problem at all.

We had stayed at the Premier Inn Terminal 2/3 Heathrow and had pre-booked breakfast with our rooms at the Thyme Restaurant, kid’s eat free so it was £9.99 per adult. Seems such a waste for me given how much I eat, but kids were free. I only got a photo of what I managed, there were 2 pieces of bacon, 2 poached eggs and a slice of toast … the food photos do get better I promise

We went back to the room finished packing everything up and headed to the bus stop. We were at the bus stop by 7.40am. We only waited around 10 minutes for a bus. The bus cost £1.55 each (myself, Caitlin, Chris and Thomas, Noah was free) we arrived at T2/3 just before 8am. We then headed to get the free train to Terminal 5. You collect your tickets for these from the machines before the turnstiles.

Once in T5 we headed to Special Assistance to check in at 8.10am. When we joined the queue we were approached by a staff member who said that the line was very long and hadn’t moved in 1 hour, there was only 1 member of staff tending to SA customers so we would be better heading to the family lane, so off we went. The family lane was horrendous so we checked the Verifly lane as we had this, again this was massive. I was seriously regretting listening to the staff member last night and not checking in. We joined the Verifly lane. There was a lot of tension between some people and the staff, we witnessed a few arguments with the staff about the time it was taking. There was only 3 members of staff manning the Verifly check in desks. Another reason it was being slowed down was they were bringing people to the front as flights were leaving in 1½ hours or less! There was a massive camera crew in front of us too.

Whilst in the queue I checked the BA app … delayed till 2.30pm I also browsed the Dibb and had a message from the lovely Helen who was on our flight to say that it was delayed. Eventually after 2 hours we were at the front of the line just as they brought 3 BA staff over to help with the check ins. We spoke to the Heathrow staff member who had been directing people to check in desks, he apologised profusely and looked very harassed. I told him it wasn’t his fault there was no staff and he was doing a great job. I felt really sorry for him, yes it was frustrating that it was taking so long, but it also wasn’t his issue, it was BA’s! Verifly is meant to make checking in much quicker, but I honestly believe if we’d gone to the regular Orlando check in desk we’d have got through much quicker … but who really knows!

We approached the check in desk, I mentioned my ESTA predicament to the staff member and he checked my printed ESTA and passport. He then did something on the computer and said it was all sorted so looks like it was an issue with BA after all, causing so much unnecessary stress to passengers! He said 4 passengers were checked in was that correct I’m not sure, I tried to check them in last night but the seats we had booked were wrong and I couldn’t check in so I’d exited the app. I explained the seat situation and he changed our seats back to the original seats



We headed through security which was surprisingly very quiet, once through we headed to WHSmiths to grab some meal deals as we knew it was going to be a long day. Caitlin and Thomas had just ham sandwiches, Noah had just cheese and I honestly can’t remember what Chris had they all got crisps and a bottle of pop with their meal deals. I got a cheese, pickle and cracker box and some crisps and pop. I didn’t manage to get photos, but I did get a photo of my crackers though

As we were delayed we got £4 vouchers from BA so I queued to collect this. I got chatting to a few people in line and one of them said she travels frequently and that BA takes off late more times than not. I told her it was our first experience with BA and certainly wasn’t shaping up to be a food one! Once I had the voucher I went and got the kids another meal deal each, some fridge raiders and some other little snack bits for them as I knew they wouldn’t eat the plane food either.

Chris was outraged at the small amount of crisps in his ‘grab bag’, he even took a photo The boys whittled away their time playing on games and Caitlin and I went for a wander around duty free and the shops. I got a new concealer and we stopped at Starbucks. I got a chocolate cream frappe and Caitlin got a strawberry acai drink, sadly we forgot photos but these were very tasty and refreshing. It was now around 1pm I thought it was time to head over to the gate.

We caught the train over to the gates. It was very quiet over here so we found a seat at 1.22pm and chilled expecting boarding to happen any minute … yep … any minute now

2pm came and went and I knew there was no way we would be departing at 2.30pm. Chris, Noah and I went to watch some planes taking off and got some photos.

I honestly can’t remember the time but we started boarding. Once aboard we were told that the delay was because our plane had issues when it returned this morning so they needed to get a new plane from Gatwick! We eventually took off at 3.33pm, just 3½ hours late.

We were late departing and didn’t set off until 3.40pm. First round of drinks was brought about 30 minutes after we set off at 4.10pm. I was really flagging so opted for some coke, Chris had a vodka and coke, Noah had sprite but decided he didn’t like it so got a water, Caitlin and Thomas both got coke too. We didn’t get any little snacks. I’ve found from other reports BA are quite sporadic with giving out the snacks which is a shame for consistency!

I watched an episode of top gear then started watching A Quiet Place 2. I’ve already seen this but I really enjoyed it the first time so watched it again, with lots of interruptions from Noah he was playing on his tablet and watching the travel map.

Next up was lunch. The kids meals always come earlier, they arrived at 4.35pm. This was mac and cheese but it had mushrooms and breadcrumbs on the top. I thought the mushrooms were strange. It came with a small chicken salad and a chocolate and salted caramel pot. Noah didn’t like any of it so he had his sandwich. Caitlin and Thomas didn’t eat their meals either so they had their meal deals. Chris and I tried the pasta and it was ok for plane food, I ate a bit of Noah’s and some chicken from the salad, then halted myself as I wouldn’t be able to eat my dinner!

The adult meal choices were chicken pie (which was topped with mash) some sort of chickpea and broccoli thing and a salted caramel pot. I enjoyed the pie but I just picked out the chicken I struggle a lot with carbs, they fill me up very quickly so where possible I try to focus on protein … or rather I did I wasn’t keen on the dessert either. Since my op I just don’t really have a sweet tooth anymore, which I suppose is a good thing.

Next up at 5.35pm they brought round tea which I really enjoyed, just wish I’d had more I like my big mugs of tea at home.

I snacked on my cheese and crackers and ate all 4 of them in 2 sittings throughout the journey. I finished watching A Quiet Place 2 and then Noah went to sit with Chris and Thomas sat with me. Thomas discovered Uno and Monopoly games on the entertainment so we had a game of uno and then a game of monopoly whilst Chris played with Noah. I sat and cross stitched for a bit then Noah joined me again just before food was served again.

‘Afternoon Tea’ was brought round at 11pm for the kids. It was a turkey and cheese sandwich and a kitkat. Noah wouldn’t eat this even after we took the turkey out, so he finished the other half of his cheese sandwich. He enjoyed his kitkat though The adults option was a chicken caesar salad. Now I love a Caesar salad but I just didn’t enjoy this sandwich at all, size wise it was perfect for me, but just half a sandwich for people with 100% stomach capacity and a kitkat didn’t seem very generous to me! These arrived 15 minutes after the kids meals.

This was all the food we ate this day apart from the snacks that Chris and the kids had on the plane that we brought with us.

We landed around 12.30am, they disembarked section by section which I think is a much better way! We queued for around 15/20 minutes in immigration. The officer was nice, Caitlin had her ears on and he said I have no idea where you’re going Straight through and we only waited about 5 minutes for all of our bags, we then headed to the monorail. By now it was 8.39pm or 1.39am UK time.

Once in the main building I left Chris and the kids to do some photos as I tried to figure out where the Visitor Toll Pass booth was. I eventually found it downstairs at the car hire desks (makes total sense ) so I went back up, got everyone and the cases and we went to collect it. Very quick and simple. I pre-registered for this before we flew, you pay $10 and receive the pass which you hang on the rear view. You then just pass through the Sunpass lanes of the tolls, the barcode records all the tolls on your app and you can keep track, at the end of your stay you return the pass and are refunded the $10 minus the tolls. Such a fab thing and we will definitely do it next time.

Next up we went to Avis Preferred to collect our car, we had a intermediate SUV. We presented all the documents/licences and were told to collect our car from a certain space, so no picking and choosing like previously. We got to the car and Chris took photos and a video of the car so we could check for damage before our return. We were a little disappointed in the fact that the car clearly hadn’t been cleaned inside or out. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t filthy but we did expect it to at least be hoovered and washed! We played suitcase jenga again and just managed to fit everything in!

We were too tired to go kick up a fuss and we also needed to get to the hotel as quick as possible as we had a personal shopper order being delivered from the lovely angelbabe (Debbie) who was waiting for us even though we were super late (due to collect our order at 7pm!) I text Debbie to let her know we were on our way from the airport. The drive was ok and not too much traffic. We did have to stop after leaving the airport as Chris hadn’t put any lights on and didn’t know how

Took us around 30 minutes to get to The Holiday Inn Lake Buena Vista and Noah had fell asleep in the car (he had been awake since 6.30am and it was now almost 3am!). Debbie arrived at pretty much the same time, I told Chris to go check in whilst I helped Debbie and her husband unload everything into the lobby (we’d brought all our cases etc too) Whilst checking in they told Chris that we didn’t need to unload as we had to drive round to our room and take our luggage with us Debbie and her husband were lovely and offered to help us round with the shopping but I said we’d be ok, they’d already waited 3 extra hours for us! We waved goodbye and hugged, it was so lovely to finally meet after 2 years of emailing, it finally hit me we were in Florida, we’d made it and I did get a little emotional.

I knew we wouldn’t fit everything in the car (car seat, plus loads of grocery shopping and orders from B&BW and Disney that I’d had delivered) so I suggested we load everything into the car, Chris drive round and the kids and I walk round to meet him as we weren’t too far from the lobby. We then unpacked and headed to our room. We were very surprised at just how big the room actually was! So much space … just one downfall … no rollaway bed we still had lots of shopping in the car so I headed back down to grab it all whilst Chris phoned down about the bed and the kids got ready for bed. When I got back we unpacked and Noah and Thomas went to bed. They were meant to be sleeping in the same bed but the beds in here were SUPER high. I know Noah’s nearly 9 but I was petrified of him falling out so I popped him in the other bed to stay with me

We’d unpacked all the clothes and grocery’s and still the bed wasn’t here. We’d checked in at just gone 10pm it was now 11.30pm (4.30am) I rang back down and asked where it was as we were very tired, the guy said it was on it’s way. It eventually arrived at midnight. We woke Caitlin and moved her to that bed then I crawled in with Noah and was gone after 23 hours awake. Having such a late night I was hoping for not much jet lag and good lie in. Not the best travel day but it could always have been worse and we were back ‘home’ in our happy place and we couldn’t wait to start our adventures!

[Rescuer]

What a long day. BA are not top of my good books at the moment. We had a check in line like that a few years ago, it does test your patience, you did really well holding it together in that line knowing there had been an issue.

[mick]

Such a long day

Now it’s time to relax and enjoy your holiday

Joan

[P&S]

What a long day! Shame on BA putting you through that and what a nightmare at the airport to check in

So glad you got there and eventually all got to bed!

[Taffy1959]

What a long day no wonder you were exhausted

[lfc_sarah]

Wow such a long day for you all.

I can't believe the amount of crisps, what even is that?! That's crazy.
I love the look of the cathedral crackers though. Cheese and crackers are life 😍

You and your daughter look so alike, both so pretty.

I really hope the rest of the holiday was stress-free x

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

What a long day. BA are not top of my good books at the moment. We had a check in line like that a few years ago, it does test your patience, you did really well holding it together in that line knowing there had been an issue.

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It really was, they certainly aren't in ours either, Chris wants to me to write a complaints email to them too. Not gonna lie, in the queue my heart rate barely went below 120bpm x

Originally Posted by mick

Such a long day

Now it’s time to relax and enjoy your holiday

Joan

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It certainly was! Thank you x

Originally Posted by P&S

What a long day! Shame on BA putting you through that and what a nightmare at the airport to check in

So glad you got there and eventually all got to bed!

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There really was no need for it at all, they need to iron out these issues that's for sure x

Originally Posted by Taffy1959

What a long day no wonder you were exhausted

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I wanted to sleep for a week x

Originally Posted by lfc_sarah

Wow such a long day for you all.

I can't believe the amount of crisps, what even is that?! That's crazy.
I love the look of the cathedral crackers though. Cheese and crackers are life 😍

You and your daughter look so alike, both so pretty.

I really hope the rest of the holiday was stress-free x

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Chris was raging with the crisps haha they are so tasty! It's usually my go to lunch when out and about if I see it, before holiday every night we'd sit and have a couple of crackers and cheese

Ahh thank you so much, everyone says she looks so like me but I just can't see it at all x

[Helen1512]

Hi Kelly
Hope you had a fab holiday and being there and making memories made up for the awful travel day. We think we’re going to try and claim compensation for the delay from BA. We can claim if the flight landed 3 hours or more late. The official time says we were 2hrs and 57 m late. But they struggled to attach the air bridge and the captain announced we couldn’t get off whilst they sorted it. So although we landed and got to the gate before 3 hrs we were detained on the plane past the 3 hrs delay. Might be a bit of a fight but we think we might give it a go.

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Helen1512

Hi Kelly
Hope you had a fab holiday and being there and making memories made up for the awful travel day. We think we’re going to try and claim compensation for the delay from BA. We can claim if the flight landed 3 hours or more late. The official time says we were 2hrs and 57 m late. But they struggled to attach the air bridge and the captain announced we couldn’t get off whilst they sorted it. So although we landed and got to the gate before 3 hrs we were detained on the plane past the 3 hrs delay. Might be a bit of a fight but we think we might give it a go.

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It really was a shambles wasn't it Helen. I completely forgot about the delay with the air bridge, I think I was pretty delirious by this point as it was so late. Can you let me know how you get on please?

I hope it didn't spoil your holiday though and you still had an amazing time xx

[Helen1512]

Originally Posted by caitlinsmummy

It really was a shambles wasn't it Helen. I completely forgot about the delay with the air bridge, I think I was pretty delirious by this point as it was so late. Can you let me know how you get on please?

I hope it didn't spoil your holiday though and you still had an amazing time xx

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Yes it’s definitely put me off BA. Such a shame as we’ve had good experiences with them before. We had a great holiday thank you. Looking forward to reading the rest of your trip report. Will let you know how we get on with BA 👍🏻