Back to my Second Home…LHR to MCO March 2022

​After 2 and a half years and a whole pandemic later, I have finally made it back to my happy place: Tampa. I would normally say how happy I am to be here etc but I thought I’d get straight into the nitty gritty of things as there’s a lot to cover and not enough space to waffle on for ages. 

Pre-Travel Day

After reading endless recommendations of travel testing agencies to go through, we decided on Project Screen. As we were flying with Virgin, this company was directly associated with them (and was naturally what Virgin recommended). It was £28 each and the test kits arrived within a couple of days. Very quick service and would highly recommend. I also heard good reviews about Qured, Collinsons and Breathe Assured too, which had very similar reviews to Project Screen. As a family we decided to take an LFT test a couple of days prior to travelling, just in case one of us had a positive test and we had to amend our plans asap. This worked very much in our favour and quickly reassured us of any anxieties we had prior to travelling. 

We had booked 4 separate appointments through Project Screen, 15 minutes each with a 5 minute break between each person. We had a confirmation email come through containing the times of the appointments, the Zoom link to which the call would actually be on, and the Zoom code to access the meeting. We clicked on the link, entered the code and waited for our turns to be tested. The lady on the other line was super helpful and actually asked if we would all like to take the test together at the same time which we all happily obliged to. She was very patient, clear on her instructions and extremely helpful. After 25 nervous minutes, we finally had our negative results meaning we were able to go away! After about 3 hours or so, we had all received our confirmation emails stating that we were able to travel. It is worth noting that despite Project Screen being associated with Virgin, they did not actually upload our results for us, we had to do that ourselves. We then had to complete an attestation form for each passenger, and also upload the email that was sent to us from Project Screen confirming our negative results, and also proof of our vaccines. Heads up, when uploading your vaccine status you have to download the QR code from the NHS app as screenshots will not be accepted. Despite the worrying, this was all very straight forward and was very well guided during the check in process. Once everything was uploaded to FlyReady (Highly recommend doing this prior to leaving for the airport), we were all good to go! 

Travel Day

We left at 3:30am and unsurprisingly, the roads were very quiet at this time. The drive to Heathrow only took about 2 and a half hours, and after dropping our car off via the meet and greet service at Terminal 3, we were ready to drop our bags off! 

When we entered the check in area we couldn’t believe how quiet it actually was. Call it luck but we walked straight up to the counter, dropped our bags off, were given a little green sticker on the back of each passport and were all set to go! FlyReady made this process so much simpler, and like I mentioned previously I would highly recommend this service. As a treat, we decided to really splash out and book Premium Economy. We had never done so before and at the time of booking we found a *glitch* where the price was a lot lower than normal. Through booking via Premium Economy, we were able to get Fast Track through security. I would say from dropping our car off to getting through to the other side took maybe half an hour? Absolutely incredible! As an extra treat I had booked for us to go into the No1 Lounge in Terminal 3. Despite mixed reviews, we were enthralled by the experience. All you can drink bar? Unlimited hot food and continental breakfast? Peace and quiet away from the busy terminal? Sounds like perfection to us! We had pre-booked this way in advance, so they had reserved a table for us in the settee area. It was an isolated room with a few sofas inside, and was blocked off from the rest of the lounge. It was absolutely perfect and we completely lost track of time as we didn’t realise our flight was boarding! 

We managed to skip the rest of the people boarding and went straight to the front (again, one of the perks of Premium). Upon boarding we were offered prosecco, orange juice or water whilst the rest of the flight was filling up with passengers. The seats were plenty big enough with a huge TV screen, foot rest and a good recline on the seats. We already felt like we were living in luxury! 

Masks were required to be worn during the duration of the flight apart from when eating or drinking. We were sat in seats 19A/C and 20 A/C. I would highly recommend these seats as they weren’t right next to the toilets and we were among the first people to disembark from the plane. My only critique is the TV screens were not the easiest to navigate. The touch screens were very awkward and the movie selection wasn’t that great. But hey, that’s me being extremely picky! After takeoff we were given a menu of what was going to be served during the flight. There was a typo but I opted for the chicken pasta which was absolutely delicious! 

I did mean to take a picture of the food when it arrived but I completely forgot! The frittata wasn’t to my taste but the rest of my family loved it. The cheesecake was incredible and to have food on an actual plate instead of a plastic serving dish was *chef’s kiss*. I must say the cabin crew on Virgin were among the best cabin crew we’ve ever had. They were attentive, friendly, kept coming around with drinks and ensuring that everyone was okay throughout the course of the flight. I’ve lost count of the amount of times they came around! We were planning on going up to the Wander Wall (an area with snacks etc to help yourself to during the flight) but we were so full that we were quite happy to stay in our seats! A few mugs (yes, mugs!) of tea later it was time for our Afternoon Tea. Due to Covid their supplies are quite restrictive so we didn’t have the eclair or macaron included like before, but the scone was absolutely incredible. It tasted like it was freshly baked on the flight! 

We didn’t have any turbulence on the flight, and when landing in Orlando it only took a few minutes of taxi-ing before arriving at our gate. We walked straight through immigration and the only wait we had during the whole trip was for our luggage at the conveyor belt. We picked up our belongings, took them on the monorail and headed for Terminal A, Ground Floor towards the Virgin Baggage Claim. We hired our car via Alamo and opted for the Visitor Toll Pass that could be collected near the Virgin baggage claim. Instead of prepaying an obscene amount for tolls, we opted for the Visitor Toll Pass. You hang this on your interior mirror and are only charged for the tolls you actually go through via SunPass. We collected this then went outside to collect our car via Alamo. We opted for the Skip the Counter option and chose any car we wanted from the Full Size SUV range. Prices have sky rocketed with regards to car hire, but it’s a small price to pay to have your own car for the trip. A 3 hour drive later and we were back in our home in Tampa! 

It feels so good to be back and I’m so happy to be here. I still can’t quite believe I’m here, but I hope my documentation of our travel day helps those who are travelling soon. I know things will probably change very soon so this information will be invalid but for the moment I hope it is somewhat useful! We did so much research, heard so many differing opinions that I wanted to put our own experience out there. If there is anything I can help with or if anyone has any questions, please drop a message and I will do my best to answer any questions you may have! 

B x