Beans and I decided we needed a WDW trip, so we spent some time looking at our options, especially with the extras staying on property previously gave you now gone.
This is the trip we decided on – Monday 2nd to Friday 20th January, so 18 nights, staying at Holiday Inn Resort Lake Buena Vista on State Road 535, with 14 day Walt Disney World tickets, flying with Virgin Atlantic, and car hire. By staying off site we got four more nights away and it still cost us less than staying on site in a value resort.
Pre-travel day – So we didn’t have to have an early start on day one we chose to travel to Heathrow the day before we travelled, Beans dad kindly offered to drive us to Heathrow, we had booked Hilton Garden Inn for the night which is adjacent to the short stay car park at terminal 2. Beans dad dropped us in the car park and we walked to the hotel entrance which is inside the car park.
Being a Hilton we could check in on the Hilton app, which then told us our room number, and then use the app as our room key so we didn’t have to stop at the reception desk which was fab. We booked yummy steak from room service for our dinner and had a relaxing evening without having the worry of getting up early the next morning.
Day 1 – Travel day – Having checked out of the hotel we followed the signs to the lifts to the underground walkway from terminal 2 to terminal 3. The walk took around 15 minutes in total and we walked straight up to the check in and baggage drop off desks for Virgin Atlantic.
We had asked for assistance as I suffer from hemiplegic migraines, causing weakness in my left side during an attack, which unfortunately for me I had woken up having. This was where we were unfortunately let down by Heathrow. We were informed they had limited assistance so would have a long wait pre-security for someone to assist us and we were better off slowly walking to the gate ourselves to ensure we got there in time for our flight.
We had decided to book the Number One lounge so we could relax pre-flight, this included unlimited drinks and self service breakfast. Having a migraine all I wanted was to be somewhere quiet and non busy, and this was the perfect place for that.
We had booked Economy delight which meant we had slightly wider seats with more leg room, this also gave us priority boarding which actually meant we were the first people onto the plane, so I had time to get myself comfy with my Infinity Travel pillow to help block out the light and try to ease my head.
The air stewards were really good, and as we had booked assistance they came and checked a few times during the flight to ensure we were okay. They were also horrified by the advice we were given at Heathrow and contacted Orlando International to ensure there would be a wheelchair waiting for our arrival.
On arrival at Orlando International we were informed we weren’t on their assistance list, but they did eventually say we could have assistance so I was shown to a wheelchair. I was pushed up the airlink into the terminal building and then we were told if I wanted to stay in a wheelchair my husband would have to push me, and manoeuvre our hand luggage cases and my medical bag. Having gone through passport control we collected out suitcases, we managed to get a trolley for the suitcases and managed to arrange it so all the bags were on it, we placed it in front of the wheelchair and formed a kind of wheelchair-trolley train.
However this was short lived as we went through the doors at the end of baggage claim where we were informed trolleys had to be left. The suggestion we were given was to put our bags onto an internal baggage carrousel which would take our bags to the Virgin Atlantic baggage collection, so we went with that as there was no way we would have been able to manage the wheelchair, two hand luggage cases, two suitcases and a medical bag.
On arriving at the baggage carrousel we found the Virgin rep we needed to check in with for our transfer to the hotel. Unfortunately, our bags were delayed in being delivered to the baggage carrousel, the Virgin rep went to inform the transfer coach that we were in the terminal waiting for bags. When she came back in she informed us she was letting the coach go, and had upgraded us to a taxi direct to the hotel, which after all the travel hours, and the way I had been feeling felt amazing.
Check in at the hotel was very straightforward and we were soon on route to our room. We had been given a slip to take to concierge which we decided we would do later on. Our hotel had an Applebee’s on site so we decided that’s what we would do for dinner.
On our way for food we stopped at the concierge desk and the slip we were given was so they could sign us up for a tour of the new local Westgate resort. We agreed to a tour date then went for food. The food was delicious and I finally got to have my beloved Root Beer.
After tea we went back to the room and crashed out.
TTFN, Titch