Florida with a stop on the way!

[babyh200]

Hi everyone,
We are doing a DIY holiday and travelling to Florida on 23/5/2009 with my DH, DD (5) and DS (3).
We are flying from Heathrow with North West Airlines via Detroit.
Obviously this wouldnt be my ideal choice with 2 small children but its half term and we got an excellent deal!
Anyway, I just wondered if any fellow disers have used North West with a stop along the way or just in general how they found stopping off on the way???
As a family we very rarely use a tour operator these days although our last holiday was booked for 18/9/2008 with Travel City Direct and they went under with 6 days to go so surely it cant be more stressful than that!!
Any tips or advice would be appreciated!!
Thanks Mandy

 

[wayneg]

Hi Mandy
We did exactly the same route last Oct half term. NWA are brilliant, way better than Virgin or BA in my opinion, new plane, superb In flight entertainment, staff worked their socks off the whole flight.
We got a great price of £240, so was not worth us going from Manchester. Would use them again anytime.
About half our trips listed below have been indirect ever sice DS was about 4 or 5 years old, never a problem, we enjoy seeing other airports, you get immigration done before arriving in Orlando so makes it easier there.
You have to collect your luggage and drop off again but its very easy, not far. Coming home they are checked right thru, don't see them until you get back to Heathrow.

Might be on same flight yet, we are looking for May half term, not decided if we are going yet, might just wait for our August trip.

 

[tubtruck]

North West have now merged with Delta Airlines forming the largest ailine in the world so the likelyhood of them going under is as near zero as you can get. We nearly almost have a stop on the way as there are few scheduled ailines with direct flights to florida.

Personally I prefer a stop as it allows me to have a walk about and something decent to eat as I find the direct journey very long.

You also go through border control and customs earlier in the day so less hassle when arriving at Orlando International.

 

[babyh200]

Hi Mandy
We did exactly the same route last Oct half term. NWA are brilliant, way better than Virgin or BA in my opinion, new plane, superb In flight entertainment, staff worked their socks off the whole flight.
We got a great price of £240, so was not worth us going from Manchester. Would use them again anytime.
About half our trips listed below have been indirect ever sice DS was about 4 or 5 years old, never a problem, we enjoy seeing other airports, you get immigration done before arriving in Orlando so makes it easier there.
You have to collect your luggage and drop off again but its very easy, not far. Coming home they are checked right thru, don't see them until you get back to Heathrow.

Might be on same flight yet, we are looking for May half term, not decided if we are going yet, might just wait for our August trip.

Thanks Wayneg,
I feel much better now knowing this, i got the impression most disers flew with Virgin! Wow, £240 was a great price for half term! We could only fly on Saturday 23/5/09 because our daughter is in school until Friday 22/5/09. We land back in Heathrow on Sunday 7/6/2009 and our DD is back in school on the Monday so not a single day of school missed!!
The times are as follows:
LHR 0915-DTW 12.55 (23/5/09)
DTW 1510-MCO 17.41

Return:
MCO 13.30-DTW 16.11 (6/6/09)
DTW 17.55-LHR 07.05 (7/6/09

The total cost was £1246.00 for the four seats which I thought was a good price as long as we dont miss a connection which is my main worry?

Do you get free in flight drinks with North West and did you check in online?
Thanks again
Mandy

 

[wayneg]

They are perfect times. Ideally I like about 2 hour connection going out and 90 mins on return. I would have no worries about connection with what you have.

We got the flights at £240 but thats when the £ was $2. We bought them thru orbitz.com and paid in $'s. Now with exchange at $1.50 they would be about £320 which is probably about what you have paid, so you have paid no more than we did to NWA just a worse exchange now.

If we do decide to go we would probably take DS out of school for 2 days and go on the Thursday 21st May.

Not sure about alcohol, we never drink on flights, Soft drinks are free, and they were plentiful, seemed to be always coming around asking if we wanted anything. Yes we did online checkin.

 

[TheBlundells]

Hi Mandy,

I see you have just under 2 hours to change. A few years ago we changed planes in Washington and nearly missed the connecting flight due to the time to get through US immigration at Washington. We, had two young children (3 years and 5 months) at the time and it was quite stresssful. Wayne may be able to advise how long he has taken. Just something to bear in mind.

John

PS - was typing this at the same time as Wayne was typing his reply!

 

[wayneg]

If I have worked it out correctly its a 2hr 15min connection. That will be fine. If there are any major problems and you arrive in detroit too late for your connection they have another 2 flights down to Orlando that day, 7:10pm & 9pm but I am sure your scheduled connection will be OK.

Oct 07 we had a 90 min connection in Chicago, going to Vegas. From landing to sitting at the departure gate was exactly 1 hour, plus we arrived in Chicago early so loads of time spare.

Whatever happens don't stress about it, they will get you there as soon as they can. We missed a flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles Oct 06, no worries Virgin were brilliant got us on next flight 3 hours later.