The Adventure Begins - Complete Trip Report!* Highs and Lows added

[tink111]

Pre Travel / Travel Day

Pre trip report here : https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/sho... php?t=1215766

Well it’s a bit of a different one for us & unfortunately there won’t be loads of photos as we just haven’t had the time! I’m already sorry for the waffle that is to come…

I feel that we should start off on our report by announcing our news! Last weekend we got engaged 🙈 We are now even more excited to be going to the most magical place on earth to celebrate!

So I wasn’t going to write about pre - travel at all but after our rough experience I thought maybe I should 😂 It started off a pretty simple day we had our tests at midday all negative and go to go. Breathe assured video call was great and the lady was really friendly - I definitely recommend this option. We then packed as we hadn’t already as I didn’t want to tempt fate… once that was done we said goodbye to our little pup and sent her off to my partners parents house!

We then settled in for the night finally starting to get excited! We fired up our Ooni pizza oven and made some delicious food! After some pizza & tv we decided it was time to get some rest ready for our flight.

Just as I’m about to close my eyes and nod off I see an email come through from aer lingus to say ‘we are extremely sorry but your flight is cancelled’ … I’m a little speechless at this point! The email was so vague with no alternative offered and it was already 10:30pm. Panic had set in.

We found a number to ring for aer lingus and luckily they are 24/7 on their phone lines. After 2.5 hours of waiting and staring at my laptop wondering whether we should book on to the KLM/Virgin flight that was 1.5k per person rather than waiting and potentially not getting a new flight , we decided it was too risky and we waited and waited! When we got through the lady was lovely and managed to re book us on to the virgin flight same route ( MAN-MCO ) at the exact same time. Even though it was 1am I thought phew we are going and eventually after the adrenaline wore off I went to sleep!

I began to stir around 6am which was much earlier than we had planned ( thank god ). I then see a text from BA to say ,actually we have rebooked you again and you fly at 8:45am from Manchester to London and then on to Orlando at 12:15pm. I started to stress yet again thinking we will never make it to the airport etc etc. We hadn’t even finished packing…

We decided to go for it after speaking to a man at BA who was really helpful. He advised that the flight we first got moved too was in fact a code share and was also cancelled. I’m now not sure this is correct but it’s what I was told so hey ho, as I’m sat at the Manchester gate it doesn’t matter much now!😂

We phoned my OH’s dad who was kind enough to take us to the airport and explained we had to go , like now 😳 Luckily he left as soon as he could and we had left the house rather abruptly by 6:35am!

That takes us to T1 at Manchester airport around 7:10am. WOW. What a busy place.

I’ve never seen such a busy terminal and by now I am so so so glad I booked fast track booking ( although I didn’t know if they would accept it as I booked for T2 originally ). Check in was relatively easy thought and we were soon in line for security.

They accepted our fast track and thank god they did. I think the queue must have been 2+ hours to be honest. There was a family that got moved ahead of us at 7:52 and their flight was 8am… I felt so bad for them. We were through within 45 mins even with fast track - I will never travel without it again after seeing that!

We get to our gate 30 mins ahead of the flight to find out we are delayed as there are passengers still on the flight and there is no coaches to get them off! Anyways at 8:50 here we are just about to get in line to board so we aren’t too late after all.

Hoping for a better flight experience!

Manchester - London flight

We started to taxi around 9:15am - 30 mins delay. Not too bad at all and the flight time was announced to be just over 30 minutes. This was great news as it meant we made up all of the time.

The plane was a little tight but that didn’t matter - I’m finally starting to think that we really are going!

We landed in Heathrow around 10:05. The flight was really easy and I was surprised they came round with water & a little snack which was a nice touch!

After a wander around and a trip to W-Smith for a magazine we found a seat at the fortnum & mason bar. Everywhere else was far too busy to get a seat so we settled at the extremely expensive prices but it was lovely anyways!

I had smoked salmon & scrambled eggs and Reubs had a bacon sandwich. We also had a champagne & a beer! Price was £58 which was steep but actually it was a really nice breakfast.

We are now waiting to board the flight and I will update when we get to Coronado springs ☺️

I’m hoping to keep this report live but will see how we get on!

[Kcstyle]

that is such a horrible stressy start but I am so happy you managed to get away! Probably some other aer lingus passengers who are fuming and stuck in the uk just now!

[MarionG]

What a horrible shock for you finding out about the flight being cancelled. I would have been in a right state. Hope you are on your way now.
Congratulations on your engagement.

[mick]

Not a good start but glad you got everything sorted and are ready for the off

Congratulations on your engagement


Joan

[anji]

Wow that's so lucky you saw the messages! You did so well on the phone too. So very stressful and I've seen such awful reports of Manchester wait times. Fast track certainly saved the day.

So glad everything worked out in the end. Have a wonderful holiday and Congratulations! 🎉🍾😎💍

[Rob & Jan]

A bit of a stressful start but at least you're on your way now, have a great holiday.

We had the same thing a few years ago we were flying from MAN to MCO with Icelandair via Reykjavik . We had a text message at 2.30am on our departure day to say the flight was cancelled and we had been transferred to the Virgin flight, which was a direct flight so much better but it was 2 hrs earlier . It was sheer luck that DH had put his phone in the bedroom as we'd have missed the text and probably the flight!

[rubberduckie89]

Sounds like a stressful morning/experience but glad you're on your way!

[disneywiseowl]

I saw your earlier posts & thx for this thread, I’ve been wondering all day if you’d make the new flight. Hope everything goes well for your holiday from now on.
🤞

[Rescuer]

Congratulations on your engagement.

Very stressful start, I’m impressed you managed to get through to speak to people on the phones and so glad you got sorted.

Have a lovely trip.

[juless77]

How stressful hope everything else goes ahead okay x