Pre- Departure & Flight Day
10-11th Feb 2012
For weeks before the trip Id been consumed with trying to decide whether or not to stay at the airport the night before and where to park the car. Typically, we do stay at the airport the night before, but usually we are in the US for 10 days and most hotels offer free parking for up to 14 days then start charging you daily at extortionate rates. I knew wed need parking for 16 days if we stayed overnight at the airport so after much debating I decided to stay at the Marriott hotel £55.96 ($85) at Gatwick without parking and use ABC Meet & Greet Parking £74 ($110).
For travellers from the UK (particularly those travelling with Virgin Atlantic) I highly recommend doing what we did, let me tell you why
There are 3 hotels that are actually on the Gatwick property, Sofitel (North Terminal), Hilton (South Terminal) and Marriott. Being on the airport the day before stops you worrying about getting there on time and gets you into the holiday groove (as Kate and I call it) earlier. You can relax into your trip knowing you can be at the gate in less than an hour the next day. In our case, only the Marriott had availability, but it is also about £100 cheaper a night!
If youre travelling with Virgin Atlantic, you can also take advantage of their twilight check in which is AWESOME! Twilight check in starts at 1pm on the day before you travel, it allows you to get rid of your cases and get your seat before anyone else. That means youre more likely to get the seats you want on the plane because youre among the first to check in.
We arrived at Gatwick at around 2pm, we were met by the uniformed guy from ABC Parking outside the doors to departures. He checked the car over, gave me a copy of a signed receipt with instructions on what to do on our return and drove the car off to its holiday home for the next 16 days! It was quick and simple and considering my sister paid over £100 to park at Gatwick for 10 days earlier in the year then had to mess around with a bus back to the terminal with their cases, it was a bargain!
By 2.15 we were at the check in desk for Virgin Atlantic. There was no one in line because all of the flights for the day had departed and we could walk straight up. By 2.30, we were checked in with the seats we wanted, cases were out of our hair and we could walk the 500 yards to the Marriott to settle in for the night firmly in the holiday groove!
We stayed in room 252, courtyard view, and the hotel was really nice considering the price. The room had 2 queen beds, a flat screen TV, and was really comfortable other than the bed! Ok, so let me just explain because for most of you the bed would have been great Amanda and I have a memory foam bed, which we hated initially but have grown to love and appreciate with our injuries from the car accident. In a memory foam bed, if your partner moves, you dont feel it, in that hotel bed, every time one of us moved (which is frequent because our injuries mean we can only stay in one spot for a short time) it felt to the other like they were being launched out of the bed. Needless to say we didnt sleep too well!
The hotel had a really nice restaurant. It wasnt cheap but youd expect that at an airport hotel, but the food was great and it wasnt too hard on the pocket. Amanda had a chicken ceasar salad which was HUGE and Kate and I shared (this will become a common thread through this TR) a steak burger, fries, coleslaw and onion rings. The total bill was £42 with the drinks but Kates apple juice was £3.50 of that! Seriously £3.50 for a juice, did the apples come from the tree of life or something?
After dinner, we chillaxed in our room, watched some TV and I checked my folder for the hundredth time. I have to confess to being a bit OCD with these things, I took a folder that had all of paperwork, tickets, BEOs, email confirmations, receipts etc., in it all in the order they would be used. I know, I think I must have Autism too at times!
Sleep as I said was not my friend that night, but I was rested enough and relaxed for the flight ahead. We walked to the airport and because we were flying Premium Economy we got to use the Premier Security thing so we were through the doors, through security and into departures in less than 5 minutes. We picked up a couple of things at WH Smiths and waited for our gate to appear on the screen. This was the first time that I realised how much easier life was being a non-smoker on flight day! Usually, Im the last to go through security so I can nip out for a smoke before I fly, this time, I was chilling in departures keen to get on the plane!
When the gate appeared we headed straight there knowing we had priority boarding and we could get on the plane first! Here is where the first negative happened
So, travelling premium economy comes at a price and its not cheap. Its a supplement of about £300 ($450) each way. For that supplement you expect a better level of service than you get in cattle class. Was I expecting business class, no, of course not, was I expecting better than economy, you bet ya!
Here is a little review of Virgin PE for those who are interested .
For your £600 ($900) extra, you get 6 inches extra legroom, 3 inches extra seat width, priority boarding, check in &, baggage reclaim. You also get a menu, your meals on real plates with real cutlery, pre-flight champagne or juice, a newspaper, small cabin, dedicated cabin crew (you will see why this becomes laughable in a moment) and extra baggage allowance.
Virgin are currently refurbishing their fleet with the Gatwick/Orlando route being done later in 2012. So you get the old planes (747 twin deck). The extra legroom/width is relatively unremarkable or noticeable to be honest. 6 inches may sound a lot but it really doesnt make a whole lot of difference in my opinion. We had additional legroom because the special assistance team (who are wonderful by the way) made the request for us because of Kates additional needs. There are 2 PE sections, one on the main deck just behind Upper Class, and the whole of the upstairs is PE.
We were on the main deck going out in seats 81 DEF and on the upper deck in 70 AC and 71C on the way back. Upper deck is definitely better but Ill discuss that later in the TR. Priority boarding, check in and baggage claim worked on the way out, on the way back baggage reclaim went horribly boink!
The food was good, jumbo couscous salad, braised beef in red wine, chocolate moose, cheese & crackers and hot bread roll.
This is how you can tell it was good
all that was left was the fat from the beef!
So now for the negative stuff
The plane clearly hadnt been cleaned properly from the previous flight. There were sweet wrappers on the seats and in the magazine pockets and when meal service came and I pulled out my tray it was disgusting.
Ok, I accept that the cleaners didnt do what they should and that isnt entirely the fault of Virgin Atlantic, but when pointing this out to the *!%£* flight attendant (brace yourselves, there is a huge rant coming about her!) she said The cleaners dont do a very good job, sorry! and walked off! There was no offer to clean it, not even an offer of a cloth or something for me to clean it with myself, she just moved right on like it didnt matter at all to her.
Said flight attendant whose name (for those who may have the misfortune to get her on their flight) was Alex was a total waste of space to everyone in PE except one chosen family who were seated to our left. She spent the whole 9+ hour flight pandering to their every whim, which included them moving from different seats and throwing out other peoples seating, plying them with drinks, snacks and chocolate and chatting with them while sitting on the floor in front of them pretty much the whole time. No one else got a drink with their meal because she was too busy chatting, when I asked her for a Pepsi when she had a moment, she rolled her eyes and said shed get it in a minute. 3 repeats of the request over the next few hours never resulted in my getting a drink.
This family were constantly given everything and more as she sat on the floor *****ing about how her job sucks with them. At the end of the flight she gave them a ton of drinks to take away which included a carton of juice which they snuck into their bag. There were 8 kids in the PE section (which only had 16 seats for her to service) and while she handed crisps and chocolate to the two kids in the chosen family, the others were left to watch this happen without so much as an offer for them to have any.
What really irked me was at the end of the flight she gave them some sort of questionnaire thing or compliments thing and said could you fill this in about my performance today. Well, of course, it would be a glowing report, shed spent 9 hours pandering to their whims to the neglect of the other 12 passengers in PE. I was livid! I have written to Virgin to complain because I was so angry.
The flight was uneventful, the entertainment didnt work for half the flight which upset other people but didnt bother me because I never watch the films anyway. We arrived in Orlando about half an hour late due to a strong head wind with the flight time being 9 hours and 36 minutes.
I have to say that I hate Orlando International! Sanford is so much easier. I dont like having pick up the cases, drop them off again, get the monorail to the terminal, wait to pick them up again its a drag! We used the time to take care of the hire car so when our cases emerged for the second time we could just head over to Alamo and get going. Another thing I hate is the ridiculous charges for luggage carts and the fact that you have to somehow lay your hands on some change for the tolls!
RANT OVER!!
Alamo tried to tell me that I had to upgrade the car (which Id prepaid £225) telling me that the 3 of us and 3 cases wouldnt fit. Nice try but Ive done this before! They did automatically charge me for the fuel which irritated me but I figured I wouldnt have to worry about topping up so it was OK. We got to pick a car from the relevant section and Amanda picked a black Nissan Versa which was a nice little car and suited our purposes.
We expected traffic to be quite heavy as it was the tail end of rush hour but it was fine, we arrived at Disney about 25 minutes later. I always get an overwhelming feeling of excitement when you get off of I-4 at the Disney exit and see the Disney sign ahead of you. It happens every trip I arrive but only the first time I see it.
Finding Saratoga Springs was a bit of a challenge. Amanda took the wrong exit and it took us a while to get back on track. The resort is beautiful and at check in we were given the new buttons. We were given room 7112 in the Carousel area, not our choice and it did give us one or two problems, but nothing too serious. It was actually really quiet over there and we ended up liking it!
Our studio was lovely, one king bed and a sofa bed. We had door wall, out on to the patio and a bus stop right by our door (not that we used Disney transport much). We headed out to get some food, which proved a pain, being a Saturday night, everywhere was heaving with people, and we ended up driving around for a while to different places to try to find something wed eat that we didnt have to wait a week to order! We ended up having a quick service meal from Port Orleans FQ food court.
Then it was off to bed ready for our first full day at WDW next up - The TSM dash & The Royal Table Experience!
For weeks before the trip Id been consumed with trying to decide whether or not to stay at the airport the night before and where to park the car. Typically, we do stay at the airport the night before, but usually we are in the US for 10 days and most hotels offer free parking for up to 14 days then start charging you daily at extortionate rates. I knew wed need parking for 16 days if we stayed overnight at the airport so after much debating I decided to stay at the Marriott hotel £55.96 ($85) at Gatwick without parking and use ABC Meet & Greet Parking £74 ($110).
For travellers from the UK (particularly those travelling with Virgin Atlantic) I highly recommend doing what we did, let me tell you why
There are 3 hotels that are actually on the Gatwick property, Sofitel (North Terminal), Hilton (South Terminal) and Marriott. Being on the airport the day before stops you worrying about getting there on time and gets you into the holiday groove (as Kate and I call it) earlier. You can relax into your trip knowing you can be at the gate in less than an hour the next day. In our case, only the Marriott had availability, but it is also about £100 cheaper a night!
If youre travelling with Virgin Atlantic, you can also take advantage of their twilight check in which is AWESOME! Twilight check in starts at 1pm on the day before you travel, it allows you to get rid of your cases and get your seat before anyone else. That means youre more likely to get the seats you want on the plane because youre among the first to check in.
We arrived at Gatwick at around 2pm, we were met by the uniformed guy from ABC Parking outside the doors to departures. He checked the car over, gave me a copy of a signed receipt with instructions on what to do on our return and drove the car off to its holiday home for the next 16 days! It was quick and simple and considering my sister paid over £100 to park at Gatwick for 10 days earlier in the year then had to mess around with a bus back to the terminal with their cases, it was a bargain!
By 2.15 we were at the check in desk for Virgin Atlantic. There was no one in line because all of the flights for the day had departed and we could walk straight up. By 2.30, we were checked in with the seats we wanted, cases were out of our hair and we could walk the 500 yards to the Marriott to settle in for the night firmly in the holiday groove!
We stayed in room 252, courtyard view, and the hotel was really nice considering the price. The room had 2 queen beds, a flat screen TV, and was really comfortable other than the bed! Ok, so let me just explain because for most of you the bed would have been great Amanda and I have a memory foam bed, which we hated initially but have grown to love and appreciate with our injuries from the car accident. In a memory foam bed, if your partner moves, you dont feel it, in that hotel bed, every time one of us moved (which is frequent because our injuries mean we can only stay in one spot for a short time) it felt to the other like they were being launched out of the bed. Needless to say we didnt sleep too well!
The hotel had a really nice restaurant. It wasnt cheap but youd expect that at an airport hotel, but the food was great and it wasnt too hard on the pocket. Amanda had a chicken ceasar salad which was HUGE and Kate and I shared (this will become a common thread through this TR) a steak burger, fries, coleslaw and onion rings. The total bill was £42 with the drinks but Kates apple juice was £3.50 of that! Seriously £3.50 for a juice, did the apples come from the tree of life or something?
After dinner, we chillaxed in our room, watched some TV and I checked my folder for the hundredth time. I have to confess to being a bit OCD with these things, I took a folder that had all of paperwork, tickets, BEOs, email confirmations, receipts etc., in it all in the order they would be used. I know, I think I must have Autism too at times!
Sleep as I said was not my friend that night, but I was rested enough and relaxed for the flight ahead. We walked to the airport and because we were flying Premium Economy we got to use the Premier Security thing so we were through the doors, through security and into departures in less than 5 minutes. We picked up a couple of things at WH Smiths and waited for our gate to appear on the screen. This was the first time that I realised how much easier life was being a non-smoker on flight day! Usually, Im the last to go through security so I can nip out for a smoke before I fly, this time, I was chilling in departures keen to get on the plane!
When the gate appeared we headed straight there knowing we had priority boarding and we could get on the plane first! Here is where the first negative happened
So, travelling premium economy comes at a price and its not cheap. Its a supplement of about £300 ($450) each way. For that supplement you expect a better level of service than you get in cattle class. Was I expecting business class, no, of course not, was I expecting better than economy, you bet ya!
Here is a little review of Virgin PE for those who are interested .
For your £600 ($900) extra, you get 6 inches extra legroom, 3 inches extra seat width, priority boarding, check in &, baggage reclaim. You also get a menu, your meals on real plates with real cutlery, pre-flight champagne or juice, a newspaper, small cabin, dedicated cabin crew (you will see why this becomes laughable in a moment) and extra baggage allowance.
Virgin are currently refurbishing their fleet with the Gatwick/Orlando route being done later in 2012. So you get the old planes (747 twin deck). The extra legroom/width is relatively unremarkable or noticeable to be honest. 6 inches may sound a lot but it really doesnt make a whole lot of difference in my opinion. We had additional legroom because the special assistance team (who are wonderful by the way) made the request for us because of Kates additional needs. There are 2 PE sections, one on the main deck just behind Upper Class, and the whole of the upstairs is PE.
We were on the main deck going out in seats 81 DEF and on the upper deck in 70 AC and 71C on the way back. Upper deck is definitely better but Ill discuss that later in the TR. Priority boarding, check in and baggage claim worked on the way out, on the way back baggage reclaim went horribly boink!
The food was good, jumbo couscous salad, braised beef in red wine, chocolate moose, cheese & crackers and hot bread roll.
This is how you can tell it was good
all that was left was the fat from the beef!
So now for the negative stuff
The plane clearly hadnt been cleaned properly from the previous flight. There were sweet wrappers on the seats and in the magazine pockets and when meal service came and I pulled out my tray it was disgusting.
Ok, I accept that the cleaners didnt do what they should and that isnt entirely the fault of Virgin Atlantic, but when pointing this out to the *!%£* flight attendant (brace yourselves, there is a huge rant coming about her!) she said The cleaners dont do a very good job, sorry! and walked off! There was no offer to clean it, not even an offer of a cloth or something for me to clean it with myself, she just moved right on like it didnt matter at all to her.
Said flight attendant whose name (for those who may have the misfortune to get her on their flight) was Alex was a total waste of space to everyone in PE except one chosen family who were seated to our left. She spent the whole 9+ hour flight pandering to their every whim, which included them moving from different seats and throwing out other peoples seating, plying them with drinks, snacks and chocolate and chatting with them while sitting on the floor in front of them pretty much the whole time. No one else got a drink with their meal because she was too busy chatting, when I asked her for a Pepsi when she had a moment, she rolled her eyes and said shed get it in a minute. 3 repeats of the request over the next few hours never resulted in my getting a drink.
This family were constantly given everything and more as she sat on the floor *****ing about how her job sucks with them. At the end of the flight she gave them a ton of drinks to take away which included a carton of juice which they snuck into their bag. There were 8 kids in the PE section (which only had 16 seats for her to service) and while she handed crisps and chocolate to the two kids in the chosen family, the others were left to watch this happen without so much as an offer for them to have any.
What really irked me was at the end of the flight she gave them some sort of questionnaire thing or compliments thing and said could you fill this in about my performance today. Well, of course, it would be a glowing report, shed spent 9 hours pandering to their whims to the neglect of the other 12 passengers in PE. I was livid! I have written to Virgin to complain because I was so angry.
The flight was uneventful, the entertainment didnt work for half the flight which upset other people but didnt bother me because I never watch the films anyway. We arrived in Orlando about half an hour late due to a strong head wind with the flight time being 9 hours and 36 minutes.
I have to say that I hate Orlando International! Sanford is so much easier. I dont like having pick up the cases, drop them off again, get the monorail to the terminal, wait to pick them up again its a drag! We used the time to take care of the hire car so when our cases emerged for the second time we could just head over to Alamo and get going. Another thing I hate is the ridiculous charges for luggage carts and the fact that you have to somehow lay your hands on some change for the tolls!
RANT OVER!!
Alamo tried to tell me that I had to upgrade the car (which Id prepaid £225) telling me that the 3 of us and 3 cases wouldnt fit. Nice try but Ive done this before!
They did automatically charge me for the fuel which irritated me but I figured I wouldnt have to worry about topping up so it was OK. We got to pick a car from the relevant section and Amanda picked a black Nissan Versa which was a nice little car and suited our purposes.We expected traffic to be quite heavy as it was the tail end of rush hour but it was fine, we arrived at Disney about 25 minutes later. I always get an overwhelming feeling of excitement when you get off of I-4 at the Disney exit and see the Disney sign ahead of you. It happens every trip I arrive but only the first time I see it.
Finding Saratoga Springs was a bit of a challenge. Amanda took the wrong exit and it took us a while to get back on track. The resort is beautiful and at check in we were given the new buttons. We were given room 7112 in the Carousel area, not our choice and it did give us one or two problems, but nothing too serious. It was actually really quiet over there and we ended up liking it!
Our studio was lovely, one king bed and a sofa bed. We had door wall, out on to the patio and a bus stop right by our door (not that we used Disney transport much). We headed out to get some food, which proved a pain, being a Saturday night, everywhere was heaving with people, and we ended up driving around for a while to different places to try to find something wed eat that we didnt have to wait a week to order! We ended up having a quick service meal from Port Orleans FQ food court.
Then it was off to bed ready for our first full day at WDW next up - The TSM dash & The Royal Table Experience!
(which didnt always work out so well as youll read later) so the Star Tours FPs were given to another family who were really grateful. It was the little girls birthday so it was a nice treat to be able to walk straight on one of the big attractions.
Your meal at CRT looks fantastic, makes me want to try it out the next time we got to WDW.
