We did our annual trip to Florida during Halloween last year (2017) and really enjoyed it, weather was great and parks with the Halloween decorations was really different from the usual sweltering summer trips. We wanted to go back same time this year but circumstances put it beyond us so we decided to give a Christmas trip a bash for the first time ever.
No direct flights available from Glasgow at this time of year so we weight up various options (Virgin from Manchester, Icelandair, United from Edinburgh) but BA via London seem to have the best prices. Based on last year’s positive experience our preference would be fly down to Gatwick the evening before, overnight in the Premier Inn and then fly out the next day to Orlando or Tampa. Unfortunately for our chosen day (Wednesday) there was no flight to Tampa and the Orlando flight was prohibitively expensive – after some research I found I’d inadvertently chosen the busiest day of the year! So we moved things forwarded by a day (Tuesday). Next problem! There isn’t a late night flight to Gatwick on a Monday night so it meant we’d have to do it all on the same day however with the Tampa flight running later in the day (1230) it meant we could get the 0930 flight from Glasgow and not the silly o’clock redeye.
So our story begins at 7.30am, we woke the kids as normal but it was quickly dressed and into the taxi to the airport. We’re only 5 minutes from the airport so we were soon dropped off and in the queue to drop off the bags which given it was rush hour at the airport there wasn’t much of a queue was a reasonable length but moved quick enough (we’d already checked in online the day before to secure some nice seats). Checked with the BA agent that our bags would indeed be checked all the way through to Tampa. By 8.15am we were briskly through security and on our way to find breakfast at the Beardmore. I’ve previously paid for lounge entry however as it’s a shorter time for the domestic flight there was no need, £30 spent instead.
We made our way to the gate at 0910 where boarding was about to commence. We occupied 5 out of the 6 seats in the row with a stranger in the A spare seat, flight was pretty full. Flight took off on time from miserably wet runway 23, BA now operate a cash/Avios bar on this route so didn’t purchase anything. Phones and iPads took up most of the flight time and we were soon coming down to join the queue to land at Gatwick, which we did on time. As we filtered out of the plane the crew asked the boys if they’d like to stick their head into the cockpit, which they did and chatted to the pilots for 2 minutes. We were last to leave the plane and then horrified to find that it was a bus transfer to the domestic side as we’d parked at an international pier. Two bus loads of people glowering at us because we were last. Wasn’t our fault!
This coaching of domestic passengers at Gatwick is poor, feels like you’re getting delivered into the boiler room of the terminal. They need to improve access and even the paved surface is uneven, broken and not the best for walking especially for the young and elderly.
Verdict: Run of the mill domestic flight, all efficiently done