Scotland to WDW, which airport

[Cyrano]

From various posts Virgin Manchester or Gatwick seem to be one of the favored travel from spots.
Was wondering if the Scottish Disney aficionados travel to these airports or fly by other routes and carrier?
If you have travelled by a number of routes, which did you prefer and why

Reid

 

[UK Crowbirds]

If you were prepared to use a charter, rather than a scheduled airline, several of the bigger companies fly direct from Glasgow. Thomson and Airtours/MyTravel certainly, possibly First Choice and JMC( now called Thomas Cook Airlines, I think)

 

[Miss Mickey Mania]

I travel with BA from Gatwick as my dad gets me reduced rates using his air miles.

Many moons ago we used to go charter from Glasgow - and once even from Prestwick which was even more convenient. This was with Thomson.

IcelandAir fly Glasgow-Rekyavik-Orlando. It's ok but you have a looong wait in Iceland and get to the US late. I didn't like the onboard offerings either. The food was disgusting, the cabin crew were rude and the inflight entertainment was rubbish.

Continental fly from Glasgow too, indirect though. I can't remember where the stopover point is in the USA.

 

[maleficent_man]

I flew from Prestwick last time and Glasgow the time before that (via London - the Prestwick one was direct). I would only go down to Newcastle/Manchester if there was significant savings to be had!

 

[Cyrano]

Thanks for the replies. More questions I'm afraid.
Regarding charters anyones to avoid and who gets top marks?

Reid

 

[duff]

I am also looking to book Orlando from Scotland and struggling to find a 3 week holiday. All the web sites I have seen so far has just 14 day options. Does anybody know of a 3 week Scottish option.

So far it looks like Virgin via Manchester.

Thanks

 

[carolfoy]

Thomsons Brittania are about the best charter but try and get premium seating, as with all charters the leg room is cramped they also only drop down tvs not seat backs, First choice have seat backs in their premium cabin and more legroom in premium than any other charter (or so they claim) hope this helps

 

[Mumof2]

Hi. We're flying BA from Glasgow to Gatwick and then on to Orlando. This was, for us, a better option than driving to Manchester to fly Virgin. The internal flights (Glasgow to London) can work out quite reasonable - check their website for prices.

We've also flown with "my travel" to orlando (Sandford) from Manchester. Their service was good. Seat back tv's and the crew were good with the kids. Though you had to pay for drinks etc. But I guess that's to be expected with all charter flights now.

Hope you find something that suits you.....

 

[tartangirl]

Hi,

We've flown charter Glasgow - Sanford, charter Newcastle - Sanford, BA Edinburgh-Gatwick-Orlando and Virgin Manchester - Orlando.

It's a few years since we flew charter but from what I remember the charter flights are cramped (and we're small) but if I was going for 2 weeks and could get a decent price I reckon they're the ones I would go with purely for the travel time. We flew Britannia from Glasgow and I think it was Air2000 (or something like that) from Newcastle and there wasn't much to choose between them.

We now try and go for 3 weeks and last time I tried I couldn't get a 3 week flydrive. I wouldn't go via London again as I dont enjoy sitting around waiting for a connecting flight.

Our choice for the last 3 trips is to drive to Manchester the night before and fly Virgin. This suits us as DH doesn't find the return drive too bad (takes about 3.5hrs but we normally take a wee break half).

 

[lynnmci]

We are flying Glasgow-GAtwick and then to Orlando. We have booked all our holiday with Virgin and their internal flights are £89 return. The reason we went with their internal flights than booking direct is that the baggage allowance of 60 kilos is carried forward on the domestic flight rather than being restricted to 20 kilos. I think we may need more coming back!!!!

 

[jockey]

Do Continental operate from Glasgow to New York? I live in Belfast and we normally fly from Gatwick to Orlando but next trip I am using Continental from Belfast to New York and then Continental again from New York to Orlando! This works out cheaper than flying from London!!!!

 

[Cyrano]

Had not thought about 2 weeks versus 3 weeks.
As we are hoping to have a bit of space between park visits and expect to be overwhelmed 3 weeks sounds a good idea

Reid

 

[tartangirl]

Continental fly from both Glasgow and Edinburgh via Newark - I never done this but I looked into Edinburgh - New York for a wee break in March and the price was silly (over £700).

3 weeks is great, we're not ready to come home after 2 weeks. That said we dont space our visits to the parks. We tend to do a park almost every day but usually only spend the morning in the park and sometimes go back in the evening. Doing it this way means we dont feel like we're rushing and if we need a day off then it doesn't result in us missing out on anything.

I notice you're in the North East - it might be a bit of a long drive back from Manchester. If you're getting a connecting flight I would go with BA as I prefer to get connecting flights with the same airline so we can check our luggage all the way through. I asked if we could do that with Virgin once but was told it was up to the check-in staff as the connecting flight was with a different airline (BM I think).

 

[duff]

I have flown from both Glasgow and Edinburgh to Newark with Continental, then onto North Carolina (avoiding Gatwick). The Glasgow flight is better at the moment as it have the seat back TVs with games etc. Edinburgh has the flip down screens every few rows, but I have heard that there are to be new planes for that route with the seat back TVs. If you are willing to go for an indirect flight it might be a good way.

 

[Cyrano]

Thanks tartangirl. As we have relations in Uddingston we could do overnight stops there; if necessary, to break the journey.
Mind you up until 2 years ago we drove to Dover for ferry, so are used to logistics of long car journey.

Reid

 

[50bear]

Just booked with them going May 20th 05 Direct Glasgow - Sanford
flying with First choice (new service 33inc pitch& seat back tv etc)
Staying at Bahama bay resort near Kissimmee
Saved a packet and its direct flights too also car hire !!!
2 adults 2 children 8&6

 

[GarryK]

Reid

We live in Tranent (just east of Edinburgh) and have done Newcastle-Sanford, Newcastle-MCO and Manchester-MCO.

The first 2 were charters (Air 2000 & Britannia) and we flew from Newcastle cos that's just as easy for us as Glasgow. In 2003 we went to Manchester cos I wanted to fly in a 747 (never had before) and we were going for 17 days so we flew Virgin from Man.

Preferred Air 2000 out of the charters and, to be honest, didn't feel there was a big difference between the charters and Virgin in terms of legroom, food, etc. However, in-flight Virgin entertainment was much better.

However, getting to/from Manchester was a hassle - I didn't want to drive back to Edin after 8 hours on the plane and the times of the flights/trains weren't ideal. So this year we are going via Gatwick with BA. Again for 17 nights but obviously BA have a fair selection of Edin-Gatwick flights. This might help you coming from the NE - presumably you'll fly from Aberdeen ?

Whatever, we always travel down the day before - it means the holiday starts earlier. This year we fly to Gatwick on Wednesday 29 June.

Tartangirl / Mumof2 - I see you're travelling around the same time. What BA flight are you on ? We fly out of Gatwick on Thursday 30 June - 10:55 I think.

Garry

Wh

 

[Cyrano]

Appreciate the options and decisions being made here. Knew I could count on you all to give me lots of ideas and suggestions

Reid

 

[edinburghlass]

We are going American Airlines via Chicago from Glasgow to Orlando Int on 3 July for 15 days. Had to book specific dates as a friend from NZ is joining us there so this worked out the best option.

 

[loadsapixiedust]

We will be doing 3 weeks with Mytravel (Airtours) from Glasgow for the second time this summer. For us the direct flight is worth going charter, my DS is disabled and getting on/off planes is a trial. We were very well looked after last time couldn't fault the service, food, etc in any way. The 3 weeks duration is not advertised in brochures or online but does come up as an option on the website when you come to select flights. We love having the extra week as it makes for a much more relaxed holiday for a small extra cost.