Whatever it takes...June 2019 Trip Report - Travel Day

MinnieMrsA · 2 Aug 19, 07:11 PM

Travel Day – Saturday 15th June

We woke up at 4.30am, after a very stuffy night. We were bracing for a delay after what happened yesterday, and upon checking the Virgin Atlantic app, this was confirmed. We weren’t departing until 1pm on VS75 – this was after VS73! Never mind – this was the first real delay we have ever experienced so we can’t complain.

We got up at about 5.30am and got ready anyway. This was the first time we were using the new T2 West multi storey car park, and wanted to make sure we could find it in plenty of time, as we knew the roads had changed from what was shown on Google Maps.

We made it into the car park by 7am – it was very easy to find from our hotel, and in all honesty, easier than T2 East! Lots of the levels were showing as full, but there were a few spaces on each level still. We settled on Level 5, and then started the walk towards the terminal after taking the obligatory 'don't forget where you parked' picture!

This is listed as an 8-10 minute walk form the car park to the terminal. At the moment, there is a pathway enclosed by boarding, which takes you to T2 East to use the lift to get to departures. I don’t know if this will change after the building work, but as two adults who walk at a pretty fair pace, I think it took us 5 minutes to get into departures.

We headed for the check in desk, where there was only a short queue. The crew member checked we knew about the delay and gave us a £10 food voucher each to get some breakfast. Happy days!
Security was quite busy but we had Fast Track tickets which definitely helped. We were soon airside, and I headed to Boots to buy some eye drops as I had left my medicated ones at home. I bought some for tired and watery eyes, and hoped they would ease the symptoms.
We went for a walk up and down the terminal to stretch our legs (and because Dave thought he saw Bradley Walsh so we had to stalk him to see if it was him – it wasn’t!), before heading to a packed Frankie and Benny’s for Breakfast. We had a lovely waitress, who told us that is was mayhem there yesterday due to all the Virgin Atlantic delays. We ordered some juice (apple for Dave, cranberry for me) and some food (eggs benedict for Dave, pancakes for me) and then sat back and waited for our food. There was a longer wait that normal but still not bad – and those pancakes were worth the wait. They were light and fluffy – absolutely delicious. They had run out of ham for the eggs benedict, so Dave had bacon instead. Dave doesn’t really like ham, so he was more than happy with this.

Breakfast eaten and mainly paid for with our food vouchers, we decided to have an amble down to the newly opened Pier 1. It was a 10-12 minute walk, as advised by all of the signs as you enter the new wing. There are moving walkways which were just being unboarded whilst we were there, so there is no need to walk it all if you might struggle with that. Lots of folk were not enjoying a leisurely stroll as we were, because they were on the last call for their flight and didn’t realise how far it is to Pier 1. There were a couple of young lads running full pelt because they were late for their Las Vegas flight. As they ran, lots of change fell out of their pockets – but they kept on running. Feeling sorry for the poor cleaner who was there picking it all up, we stepped in to help - and were bemused that he had only dropped euros! Not sure how far that was going to get him in Vegas.

When we finally got to Pier 1, we were very impressed. It really is smart in there, and if all of the airport ends up looking like that, it will be a significant improvement.

We mooched round the airport a bit more, I picked up some snacks and toiletries in Boots (and medicated eye ointment now there was a pharmacist there), and we got a hot drink from Upper Crust. We sat down by the gate that we thought we would board from, and got chatting to a lovely family who had a super cute little boy called Callum. If you are dibbers – we absolutely loved chatting to you all! We overheard some of the ground staff saying that we were going to be bussed out to the plane, which was still sat in the middle of the tarmac. This couldn’t happen soon enough, as there were lots of kids getting irate…if you were the parents of the kid having a tantrum because his sister ate his Quavers, we felt your pain!

Soon enough, we were bussed out and boarded the plane. We took our seats upstairs in the bubble (22H&K) and finally took off at 14.01. The flight was uneventful – my usual vegan meal was as tasty as usual (spinach dumplings with potatoes and veg), and drinks were plentiful (albeit we were sticking to soft). Dave has some sort of chicken dish and said it was fine too. The crew were exceptional on this flight though – the flight service manager Donna personally apologized to everyone on the plane for the delay. She was lovely, and the staff were all very cheerful and bent over backwards to help – e.g. bringing decaff coffee etc. This flight was a first for me – the person in front of me did not recline! I could not believe it at all. More on the people in front of us later.

I watched Mary Poppins Returns and Moana, and napped as much as I could. My one talent – I can fall asleep anywhere. I also bought 1 hour of wifi so we could track the other flights and I could dibb a bit as I had started a thread about the delays earlier in the morning. Thanks to Mr Morrow who was tracking the flight and advising me on getting compensation for the delay – much appreciated! We landed into MCO at 5.15pm or so – about 3 hours and 17 minutes late. At a compensation rate of £267 each – that’ll do nicely. You either want to be on time, or just late enough to not have your plans ruined and get compensation.

We braced ourselves for a long line in immigration, and got talking to the nice couple in front of us as we waited to disembark the plane. We ended up next to them in the immigration line too, and passed just over an hour with ease nattering away, and they shared some great advice about car hire to us, and stories of their previous trips to Florida. They were from Derbyshire and were going to Venice – so again, if you are dibbers (why don’t I ever just ask this?!) – we loved talking to you both and thank you for not reclining!

We had a relatively amicable officer talk to us when we got to the front of the queue – who informed us that the people at the end of the queue were in for a three hour wait. Ouch! That has been us in the past, so we felt sorry for them. Our bags had already been offloaded, and we grabbed both of them and headed towards the rental car desks. There was very little queue at the Alamo desk, and we were soon in the garage choosing our car. Dave immediately headed for the Mitsubishi Outlander, like we had on our last trip. However – it was dead. It wouldn’t start at all – and this was somewhat lost in translation when I tried to explain it to an Alamo employee. Anyway – he decided on a Hyundai Tuscon, which was lovely and spacious for our bags, and space for the extra luggage we planned to take home too.

We had a smooth drive to All Star Sports, and arrived there at about 7.30pm.

We checked in, headed up to our room, grabbed a couple of refillable mugs and some crackers, unpacked and showered, and headed for bed at 10pm, after being up almost 23 hours. But – we were here!

Steps: 15586
Food Cost: $44.59

**yellowrose78** · 2 Aug 19, 08:13 PM

Shame about the delay, but what a feeling when you finally get there, looking forward to the next installment

katnav · 2 Aug 19, 08:38 PM

What a shame about the delay but glad you got there safely. Off to read day 1!

MinnieMrsA · 2 Aug 19, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by yellowrose78

Shame about the delay, but what a feeling when you finally get there, looking forward to the next installment

I know - I was so happy to be there! Thanks

MinnieMrsA · 2 Aug 19, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by katnav

What a shame about the delay but glad you got there safely. Off to read day 1!

Thanks for reading

Floridafour · 2 Aug 19, 09:21 PM

A bit of a pain, but you arrived, our worst was a midnight arrival (US time) having missed our connection from Miami to Orlando. I look forward to reading more 🙂👍

MinnieMrsA · 2 Aug 19, 09:22 PM

Originally Posted by Floridafour

A bit of a pain, but you arrived, our worst was a midnight arrival (US time) having missed our connection from Miami to Orlando. I look forward to reading more 🙂👍

Ouch that sounds awful - I was so glad to get to the hotel and get to bed, even though I did catch some zzzzz on the plane!

collybird · 2 Aug 19, 09:37 PM

Not a great start to wake up to a delay but you got there in the end. I've found that the later you arrive the milder the jetlag is so hopefully you experienced the same.

MinnieMrsA · 2 Aug 19, 09:40 PM

Originally Posted by collybird

Not a great start to wake up to a delay but you got there in the end. I've found that the later you arrive the milder the jetlag is so hopefully you experienced the same.

Yeah it wasn't too bad - I don't seem to suffer too much with it, Dave does unfortunately! I am lucky and I can sleep anywhere at any time though 😂 my only talent in life!