We've been members of Virgin's flying club since the early nineties and always used them when flying direct to Orlando but with so many Dis-members singing the praises of flying with Aer Lingus from their local airport via Dublin to Orlando and also with competitive prices to Virgin at the time of booking we took the plunge and booked with Aer Lingus for the very first time.
The one-hour Saturday Aer Arann flight to Dublin was less than half full and although taking off 30-minutes late it didn't matter as there was a 3-hour wait at Dublin for the flight to MCO. They didn't weighed our carry-on's and our checked baggage was labelled for onward travel to MCO so we never needed to handle them at Dublin.
We were surprise to find we were the only passengers on that flight connecting onto MCO, upon landing at Dublin we were taken with about 10 other passengers on a short bus ride to the departure lounge at T2. As you entered through the doors there's a row of tables with customs declaration forms and pens, after filling one out we joined a queue and soon passed through the first check by an airport staff member who was also checking to ensure our luggage had been processed, (off-loaded from the short-flight with a photograph taken of it).
Once passed that quick check you join either the US or non-US line for immigration, there were 3-Officers checking the non-US line and it was just like being in the States, the immigration Officer also shows you a photograph of your luggage on his screen and you just need to acknowledge that it's yours, after immigration you have a short walk to the next check of screening and x-raying of carry-on's.
From touching-down at Dublin through to passing that last check it took us 55-minutes. We then looked for a place to have breakfast and soon realised our first mistake, we could only find a small food counter serving sandwiches, paninis and hot and cold drinks; we had been looking forward to a full-breakfast so had to make do with hot paninis, next time we would have a full-breakfast at our local airport.
There's only a few shops so if you're hoping to buy duty-free either do it at your local airport or wait until you arrival back into Dublin on your return, there's a good selection of shops (with some reasonable prices in Pandora), check out the shops at http://www.dublinairport.com/gns/shops-restaurants/the-loop/terminal-2.aspx
The loading of passenger didn't take that long but we did have to wait for some passengers on a delayed flight from Paris, so we took off about 25-minutes later than planned and also arrived later by about the same time.
We were on the road within an hour of landing and a large part of that time was down to a 20-minute wait in picking up the Alamo car.
The flight food was okay, no complaints but we did have to pay $5 or 7 for a glass of wine, we were seated in economy and the legroom on the A330 was okay, might have been 32 inches whereas Virgin I think was-is 31 inches and there was a good selection of films-entertainment http://www.aerlingus.com/inflight-e...-entertainment/longhaul/entertainment/movies/
We arrived more refreshed than any flight we've ever taken from Gatwick, we had a longer sleep the night before, friends drove us to the local airport which is only 25 minutes away and we didn't have that 3-4 hour drive on the M4-M25-M23.
So on this occasion we found this to be a much better alternative than flying direct from Gatwick, so many thanks to those who have highlighted this in their posts as an option, especially with the US pre-clearance facility.
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The one-hour Saturday Aer Arann flight to Dublin was less than half full and although taking off 30-minutes late it didn't matter as there was a 3-hour wait at Dublin for the flight to MCO. They didn't weighed our carry-on's and our checked baggage was labelled for onward travel to MCO so we never needed to handle them at Dublin.
We were surprise to find we were the only passengers on that flight connecting onto MCO, upon landing at Dublin we were taken with about 10 other passengers on a short bus ride to the departure lounge at T2. As you entered through the doors there's a row of tables with customs declaration forms and pens, after filling one out we joined a queue and soon passed through the first check by an airport staff member who was also checking to ensure our luggage had been processed, (off-loaded from the short-flight with a photograph taken of it).
Once passed that quick check you join either the US or non-US line for immigration, there were 3-Officers checking the non-US line and it was just like being in the States, the immigration Officer also shows you a photograph of your luggage on his screen and you just need to acknowledge that it's yours, after immigration you have a short walk to the next check of screening and x-raying of carry-on's.
From touching-down at Dublin through to passing that last check it took us 55-minutes. We then looked for a place to have breakfast and soon realised our first mistake, we could only find a small food counter serving sandwiches, paninis and hot and cold drinks; we had been looking forward to a full-breakfast so had to make do with hot paninis, next time we would have a full-breakfast at our local airport.
There's only a few shops so if you're hoping to buy duty-free either do it at your local airport or wait until you arrival back into Dublin on your return, there's a good selection of shops (with some reasonable prices in Pandora), check out the shops at http://www.dublinairport.com/gns/shops-restaurants/the-loop/terminal-2.aspx
The loading of passenger didn't take that long but we did have to wait for some passengers on a delayed flight from Paris, so we took off about 25-minutes later than planned and also arrived later by about the same time.
We were on the road within an hour of landing and a large part of that time was down to a 20-minute wait in picking up the Alamo car.
The flight food was okay, no complaints but we did have to pay $5 or 7 for a glass of wine, we were seated in economy and the legroom on the A330 was okay, might have been 32 inches whereas Virgin I think was-is 31 inches and there was a good selection of films-entertainment http://www.aerlingus.com/inflight-e...-entertainment/longhaul/entertainment/movies/
We arrived more refreshed than any flight we've ever taken from Gatwick, we had a longer sleep the night before, friends drove us to the local airport which is only 25 minutes away and we didn't have that 3-4 hour drive on the M4-M25-M23.
So on this occasion we found this to be a much better alternative than flying direct from Gatwick, so many thanks to those who have highlighted this in their posts as an option, especially with the US pre-clearance facility.
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Just wondering if it would be worth paying for if we still need to allow loads of time to get through immigration?
Great to know they'll let you know if you are too early 
