Recent history: I’ve been taking my kids to Orlando annually since 2012, was Virgin from Glasgow back in the day, had some shocking flights with British Airways, and so last year we did a faultless west coast USA trip with Virgin from Heathrow. Now we’re going back to our familiar stomping ground.
We originally booked this holiday with Virgin Holidays in September 2025 for the four of us (2 adults, 2 children). Heathrow to MCO was coming in around the same price as Manchester so we went with the closer option. With it being the start of the Scottish school holidays, Edinburgh was prohibitory expensive.
A cautionary tale for anybody who have managed to get rid of their adult children, unfortunately they fall out with their girlfriends and move back home. He’d planned to go away with his pals but plans fell through then he lost his job with Emirates in April as *gestures wildly at Trump and Iran* some stuff happened. So just 4 weeks before take-off, eldest decided he was going to come with us. Rather than add him to the existing VH booking, I did this as a fresh booking, and managed to save some money by booking Economy Light with no hold baggage - the rest of us had plenty of space in our cases and paying with a mixture of points and cash.
1 week before flight I tried to take advantage of Virgin Holidays free seat booking service however every time I tried to book online it would try to charge me £35 per seat (x4). Nope. A phone call to VH sorted this, apparently the online functionality just isn’t there despite what the website says. Big issue though was the seat choices 75EF 76EF, we hoped to improve on those when check-in opened however the flight was extraordinarily full and pre-booked so we never did.
Travel day, dropped the cat off at the cattery and we decided to take advantage of of some spectacular fares with Transpennine for direct trains to Manchester Airport station. £18 per person per journey is an absolute bargain, and cheaper than paying for diesel and parking. So we walked (with cases) to the local bus stop, got the bus to Glasgow City Centre and made our way to the still restricted and fire damaged Central Station.
1309 train was very busy, about 70% full to Motherwell and full thereafter. Slight delay at Preston when they had to find a driver so arrived 10 minutes late into the airport station at 1655, where we headed to Terminal 2 for twilight check-in.
Twilight check-in had 2 desks open and a queue of 6 parties ahead of us so it was a 15 minute wait but straightforward enough. We then took the decision to walk from T2 to the Airport Pub where we spent a good 3 hours watching planes (and got fleeced £100 for chicken nuggets and chips). Uber back to the Premier Inn for a good night and good breakfast (but not as good as the one at Gatwick.)
Woke up as planned at 8am to a text message from Virgin that was sent at 0542.
“We’re sorry to advise you that your flight is delayed until 28 Jun 2026 15:00”
I had a few moments of panic where my eyes didn’t work as well as I’d like at that time of the morning, at first I thought it was cancelled or put back a day. But a 3 hour delay, I could live with that.
So we pushed back breakfast and then with a few hours to kill (and we’d missed the last shuttle bus from the Premier Inn) we decided to walk it to T2. It was just over a mile and a lovely morning. With the suitcases already checked in it was a breeze and we arrived at 1pm (scheduled take off 1210), security only took a few minutes and then bought some gin and whisky in duty free.
Boarding started at 1420, Airbus A350-1000 G-VBOB Soul Rebel, we bide our time and got onboard nearly last at 1445 and settled down to what we thought was rows 75 & 76. Some confusion as the last family to board then walked up to our seats and told us we were sitting in them. The seat numbers above are horribly mis-aligned and it’s difficult to tell exactly which row was which, we asked a passing attendant who seemed stressed and pretty much ignored us and let us try to sort it our ourselves with 5 rows of people all sitting in the wrong seat and initially unwilling to move. There were still people moving seats when the plane started pushing back at 1500. Very poor.
Taxi’d down to runway 23L, watching proceedings on the tail and belly cam - very cool! Took off 1510 so exactly 3 hours late and in EU261 territory, although I suspect the delays were caused by thunderstorms and so we couldn’t claim.
Once in the air a round of drinks was swiftly served followed by 30 minutes of me trying to get everybody’s devices onto the free Starlink wifi. As I posted elsewhere, here is a quick connection guide:
My phone found it difficult to connect, my boys phones were rather simple. There are no connection instructions onboard. However I eventually found the best way to connect is:
Click on Virgin Atlantic Wifi in the wifi settings
Hopefully the log-in screen appears (it didn't on mine)
If not, go to a web browser and type in "onboard . virginatlantic . com" (remove the spaces between the words)
If that doesn't load, put a https:// before
You'll need your Flying Club number and password
It'll then send you an email with a code so make sure your Flying Club email address is accessible from your device.
The wifi protocol was observed by most but there was one instance of somebody a few rows in front making a WhatsApp Video call “I’m on a plane!!!”
Time for food!
Starter of salad which as usual is fresh but too dry and needs a dressing
A choice of chicken with lemon, potatoes and vegetables, or Mafaldine Pasta. We had pre-booked these one week before.
So Mrs Fuzzy isn’t a fan of lemon but went with the chicken it anyway, and said it was great with particular praise for the potatoes. I went with the pasta, and while it looked like an unappetising lump of solid tomato sauce, it was again great. I really enjoyed it.
Desert was chocolate mousse.
Three hours into the flight there was a post movie Magnum mini ice cream, a throw back to when everybody watched the same movie at the same time. Long gone days but the ice cream remains.
I watched 30 Rock and spend about 3 hours trying to beat a game of Solitaire. Genuinely 3 hours and I couldn’t beat it. Raging.
High tea was:
Cheese and onion sandwiches but they weren’t too oniony which suited me, my boys weren’t too keen on them, if you check previous trip reports this is a long running theme.
Hot scone with clotted cream and jam
Cake
Scheduled arrival was 1600, we landed 17L at 1835 so 25 mins within EU261 claim time (and like I say, was probably due to weather). As we were at the back of the plane, we were one of the last to get off but here is where my wife pulled a blinder, using the Starlink Wifi I managed to download the MPC app and completed the customs declaration onboard, I took the selfies in the corridor walking off the plane. We walked from the end of the queue to the start and cleared customs ahead of 90% of the plane. Our bags arrived 5 mins later and we were off to Virgin Holidays supplied Hertz Chrysler Pacifica. Plane to car in 40 minutes. Astonishing.
Stopped off at McDonalds (a tradition) and Publix (a necessity) on the way to my 2nd home, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge Kidani Village.
The TL;DR summary, flight 2.5 hours late but didn’t feel late, cabin crew initially stressed trying to catch up and not helpful but more than made up for it during the flight. The new(ish) A350-1000s are very fine aircraft and a credit to the fleet.
