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#924034 by Fuzzy14
18 Jul 2016, 12:37
Ground Staff
Food & Drink
Entertainment
Seat
Cabin Crew
Family of 5 including three boys (age 10, 8, 4) returning from large mouse related adventures.

Ever had one of those holidays where about 10 days into it you feel ready to come home? I’ve never had that in Orlando. Two weeks of full on madness. It was a real struggle to leave. We left Animal Kingdom Lodge at 10am, packed up the car and headed off to Epcot for a few hours, followed by one last tour of Downtown Disney Springs and Disney Quest (said our farewells last year, still open this year.) Filled the car up with petrol ($33 for a full tank) and headed to the airport at 3pm, arriving 30 minutes later for our 6.30pm flight. The man presented me with a bill for $45 for pre-paid petrol, I had to go to the desk to get this refunded as I’d handed it back full, first time this has happened with Alamo they’re normally quite good.

Check-in at MCO was relatively quick and simple, the check-in queue was shorter than the bag drop queue and it only took 10 minutes. Our seats had been requested anyway. Spent the last of my dollars in the Disney store before making my way to security which took 20 minutes. Just a note about the security, approach it from the right hand side as you look at the fountain/hotel. The left hand side feeds into the same queue as the right but is much longer. Also note with the new layout it’s easier to get on the wrong monorail. I think they need to revisit the layout.

Once over the Monorail, it was my intention to have a burger from Outback take-away (the restaurant looked particularly busy) after feeding the kids some last nuggets and hot dogs from Nathans. However I made a mess of the order and got adult portions so there was plenty to go round all 5 of us. After we’d finished we took the long walk down to the furthest gate, it was rather busy with BA to Gatwick and 4 Virgin 747s all parked up, the Glasgow flight was just boarding (without us :-( ). Just as we approaching the gate the Bubble was called so perfect timing.

Got to our seats, no cockpit visit this time, and got the kids settled then found a note on my seat. “Do Not Use”. It was a bit of a blow because I planned to use my seat. Crew member had to go and ask, on his return said the seatbelt was inop and should really have been blocked out at check-in. They offered to move our entire party downstairs to the back of the plane however I wasn’t keen especially after paying to sit in the Bubble. I was then offered an extra leg room seat at the front of the Bubble (row 75), I was hoping for a PE or UC seat! I then managed to swap the ELR seat with a fellow passenger who fancied it and I took his seat (79H) to allow me to sit next to my kids. So it all got fixed in the end.

Well that's a blow

Plane took off on time from runway 17R with 350 onboard so not as full as I expected, turned left over Cape Canaveral and straight out over the Atlantic, next sight of land would be Cork.

After takeoff we got the customary round of drinks, and then more drinks with the meal. As it was a night flight any more drinks had to be fetched from the galley, however there was also a tray of orange and water made available above the stairs.

There were no menus handed out for the meals. As usual it was chicken nuggets with mac & cheese for the two younger kids, they barely touched it due to the big meal in the airport. The older one had the choice of adult meals so went for beef stew same as me. Mrs Fuzzy had chicken teriyaki. Food on the way home is still lower quality and filling up in the airport still the sensible choice.

I’m currently suffering from pre-holiday tendon damage to my leg muscles and walking 5 miles a day around theme parks didn’t help. I was in quite a bit of pain throughout the flight and frequently had to get up and stretch it off. It made for quite an uncomfortable flight (no fault of the airline). In the end I only managed about 1 hour of sleep, I was hoping for more as I had a long drive ahead but it turned out to be fine. The two older boys didn’t get much more sleep than me, they were too busy watching films we didn’t really hear from them the whole flight. The youngest was bored in particular wanting to do anything but sit and watch the IFE. Eventually he got too tired and we had to get him to sleep despite his protests.

Breakfast boxes were handed out before landing, these went untouched. They are still really disappointing, yoghurt, granola, fruit. Certainly not suitable for the kids.

Arrived in a cold and wet Manchester slightly early at 7.15am but then we had to sit about for 10 minutes to get a parking space. We got off the plane quickly and security was only 5 minutes with a really pleasant border control agent. Bags were quick coming through as well. Manchester was surprisingly efficient.

The hotel minibus picked us up within 5 minutes of walking outside, we collected the keys from reception, loaded the car and were on our way. It was only then I started eating the breakfast box. I had been wary of the 3.5 hour drive back home but it went really well, everybody else slept in the car but I wasn’t tired so it was a good drive and certainly hasn’t put me off booking Manchester again if there’s a considerable saving involved £1.5k).

Already looking to book up for next year, intention is to make a direct booking on Virgin Atlantic and use some miles to take money off or upgrade to PE. However we’re spying some bargain fares with the Dark Side to Tampa via Gatwick... decisions decisions...


My star ratings

Ground 4* No issues
Crew 5* Great service in the Bubble, couldn’t ask for more
Food 2* Meh. Ok for adults, useless for the kids
Seats 1* Well, it was broken. Otherwise it would be 5*, love the Bubble
Entertainment 5* Once again happy with the content
#924036 by buns
18 Jul 2016, 12:50
Fuzzy

Thank you for such a detailed TR - I could not believe that your two weeks were already up!! :D

Could not agree more about the food out of MCO and even when Mrs Buns and I are travelling in either PE or UC, we still stoke up in Outback to be on the safe side ;-)

Thanks for the tip about the Security at MCO - I imagine it will be a mess until the new Terminals come into play and coupled with the heat, it is an added downer after a holiday break in Florida.

Once again, you have shown the investment in "Bubble " seats is well worth it - well done for not taking seats at the back of the bus in exchange :cool:

Thanks once again

buns
#924039 by Fuzzy14
18 Jul 2016, 13:19
buns wrote:Thanks for the tip about the Security at MCO - I imagine it will be a mess until the new Terminals come into play and coupled with the heat, it is an added downer after a holiday break in Florida.


Thanks again for your kind comments.

It seems there used to be two separate queues for the security depending on which gate you went to. Now it's all combined into one, with two entrances.

When you exit security, the monorail down to the international pier is now behind some screens, and when there's an incoming train they close the screens so not to let incoming and outgoing passengers mix. This gives the issue that when you exit security you'll only see the one monorail and might walk towards it without thinking.
#924041 by hiljil
18 Jul 2016, 14:28
Thank you for another interesting & enjoyable TR. Glad everything went well and that for a homecoming it was a good flight.

I would recommend Tampa airport.
#924045 by TimCrawley
18 Jul 2016, 19:13
A cracking pair of trip reports that were really informative - thanks a lot for posting.

I thought the food offering used to be a bit better but maybe my imagination and I'm not a big fan of wraps instead of sandwiches but time to give the EL seats in the bubble a try again before the big beasts get retired as it's been a few years since I gave them a go (and quite enjoyed it then).
#924058 by Fuzzy14
19 Jul 2016, 11:54
TimCrawley wrote:I thought the food offering used to be a bit better but maybe my imagination and I'm not a big fan of wraps instead of sandwiches but time to give the EL seats in the bubble a try again before the big beasts get retired as it's been a few years since I gave them a go (and quite enjoyed it then).


Cheers! Nothing wrong with the economy food for adults, the wraps were good and I was happy with them. It was the kids quality and selection which I've noticed has deteriorated.
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