Last year was meant to be our last holiday as a family of 5, but we ended up doing it again. This is definitely the last time as the two eldest have totally outgrown going away with the folks!
One week before the flight, as we were Virgin Holidays, I did a live chat on the website to book our seats. Plane was looking full again but managed to bag 79GK and 80HK up the back. We were cheeky and didn’t book 79H, that’s because my son was on a different booking (points/cash/economy light) so we gambled to try and get him that seat when check-in opened. This ploy was successful.
We did one week at our home resort (Animal Kingdom) and a further week(ish) at Beach Club. 4th July was spent at Discovery Cove and I felt it to be a little low-key. Went to Celebration for the fireworks which was ok. For our last day we didn’t have any valid theme park tickets so chilled in the hotel pool then had a walk around Disney Springs. I miss the DTD VH check-in desks.
Made our way to the airport at 5pm where our flight was shown on time with the incoming flight was only slightly behind schedule, they’d been playing catch up the last few days due to thunderstorms. We had picked up the hire car from Terminal A but was able to drop if off at Terminal C due to the move. I had hired (for $10) a toll pass at Terminal A, no issue dropping that off at Terminal C too. I have now bought a SunPass from Publix for $15. My impression of the new terminal? Meh. A big, soulless lump of a building. The old terminal had a better choice of shops and restaurants.
When queuing for the bag drop/check-in the airport was hit by a biblical thunderstorm, the view outside the window really did turn dark grey. My youngest son the aviation geek (I taught him well) noted that the incoming VS73 had started to circle over Ocala. Check-in was with an enthusiastic but clearly newbie on training. Placed my luggage on the scales and was clearly confused how my suitcase weighed 50kgs before he pressed the button to change it from lbs. My eldest being on a different booking reference also gave him issues and he had to call in a supervisor to assist.
As we entered the (short) line for security (1755) my youngest hit us with the bad news - VS73 was off to Tampa to wait out the storm. It wasn’t the only one. MCO started landing planes again while VS73 was on finals to TPA but I’m not going to second guess a pilot, it was totally the correct decision to divert and again to stick with it.
Through security and checked the departure boards - everything on time. I knew this wouldn’t be the case so calculating that my family were not going to get fed until after midnight, took them to Chick-Fil-A for a meal with the intention of charging it back to Virgin if the delay was significant. There was a bit of a queue for Chick-Fil-A and when we reached the front we were told they had run out of chips/fries. Out of fries!!! FFS. Abort!
Weighed up the limited alternative options in the new terminal and couldn’t really see much. A pizza place. A bread place. We lumped for Shake Shack which was outrageously busy. $108 to feed the 5 of us and it took them 3 attempts to deliver the correct order to us. Burgers were really good though. Receipt stored.
6.10pm - VS73 lands at Tampa for fuel
7.20pm - this was our “go to gate time” MCO website, departure boards and Virgin app all showed flight as on time departure at 8.30pm. I had a walk down to the gate where crew were setting up the boarding group signs and pretending everything was still on time.
7.30pm - an alarm went off which was really annoying. Firstly because it stopped all announcements so I got really worried I was going to miss something Secondly, it was an alarm that said something has happened, they’re checking it out, don’t do anything yet. So a huge annoyance. This cleared 10 minutes later.
7.50pm - this was our “board by” time, everything still showing as on time, plane still at Tampa
8pm - plane at Tampa starts to taxi. Email received, MCO website and board and Virgin website all update to say flight being delayed from 8.30pm to 10.40pm. Got to within 30 minutes of scheduled take off before they push it back by 2 hours. This, especially to parents with children, is completely unacceptable as they knew fine well at 6pm there wasn’t a chance in hell the flight was going on time.
8.10pm - plane at Tampa takes off
8.30pm - VS74 scheduled departure from MCO
8.34pm - VS73 finally lands at MCO
10.40pm - re-scheduled departure time. Radio silence.
10.45pm - boarding begins
11.32pm - take off
We’re now a page of text into this trip and I’ve only just sat on the plane. Jeez.
So as above we’re sitting in 79GHK and 80HK, we sat down at 11.15pm and the entertainment wasn’t switched on. This was eventually switched on at 11.45pm, fifteen minutes into the flight. After take-off there was an empty row nearby so my son negotiated with another passenger and they split it between them. The person next to my wife also moved elsewhere. So on a very full flight, we all managed to average 1.5 seats each which was a bit of a result.
Round of drinks and then meals were served at 0040.
The choice was chicken teriyaki or Mac and cheese (with some kind of black pudding?).
We had all pre-ordered the meals, the cabin crew asked us our choice and it appeared they had no idea we had pre-ordered. I asked for the Mac and cheese, which wasn’t great. Forced it down me.
I then spent the next 5 hours trying to get as much sleep as possible, woke up at 6am/11am somewhere west of Ireland. Didn’t watch a single second of inflight entertainment however I finally managed to beat the Klondike Solitaire game (see outbound flight).
Breakfast was a warm bagel and variety of things to put on it, this was actually popular with my family but I wasn’t in the mood so put it in my bag for later. Then binned it when I got home.
Original arrival was 9.40am
Rescheduled arrival was 12.05pm
Landed 12.26pm
Doors open 12.40pm (important! That’s 3 hours late)
At passport control the family got through but I got rejected by the automatic gate, had to queue up with the rejects while they got the bags. So it turns out my 9.6 year old red passport is no more. It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late passport! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! And the chip has stopped working so time to renew.
The TL;DR summary, outbound flight 2.5 hours late, return flight 3 hours late. That’s not good. Ground crew were amateurs (a common theme at Tampa and Orlando especially with British Airways - see my other trip reports.) Cabin crew I barely had any interactions with. Despite all that, they got me there, in a comfortable aircraft, the luggage turned up. Would recommend to friends.
Ok if you stopped reading now I wouldn’t blame you. The next bit is about the journey back to Glasgow by train.
Our scheduled arrival time was 9.40am and I had a balance to make - book a train at a reasonable time so I wasn’t sitting about too long, but also left enough wiggle room. I went for the 1204. Another Glasgow passenger on the flight booked the 1304. We both missed our trains. I had booked an Advance fare with Transpennine and was under the impression that under Advance fare rules, that’s the train you’re on miss it and miss out. I spent part of the flight using Starlink to look at alternative trains (£225), car hire (£180) or busses. We had decided to hire a car but firstly went down to the airport train station just in case.
This is where it turns out I was dumb. I had booked an Airport Advance ticket which is different from a standard advance ticket and if my plane was more than 3 hours delayed, they will re-book me free of charge onto an alternative service. So they put me on the 1504. Result! So lesson there is don’t be 2.5 hours late.
As I had been rebooked we did not have reserved seating but managed to find 4 with green lights and one nearby that had been partially reserved. Train announcement, something about signals at Bolton and overhead wires. The train had left late, didn’t seem to be in a hurry, got busy at Manchester City centre and then at Preston the fun started. Due to overhead wire damage, some of the West Coast Pendolinos were cancelled and there were hundreds of people attempting to cram onto the service. Standing with suitcases throughout the train, uncomfortably busy. Many were left behind on the platform. But at least we were still moving.
The crowding eased by Carlisle and we finally arrived at Glasgow Central sometime after 7pm so 30 mins late and 3 hours later than desired. Hopped on the local bus home.
Despite all this, it was a relative success. Lessons were learned. I would definitely go by train to Manchester again, I’m annoyed at the MCO ground crew. I now have provisional plans for the next two years, travelling without my boys (I said that last year!) Virgin will still be my first choice.
, but at least you made it home safe and sound (and no doubt knackered)!!
