schumigirl
It's a bit of a roodie doodie word for lady parts
- Joined
- May 15, 2007
- Messages
- 30,128
One and all to another of our Trip Report`s, this one starts in September and runs into October and as always we`ll be staying completely at Universal Orlando Resort, our favourite place on earth!!
And if you`re new to Universal orlando.....
I thought, oh why not!Who are we first and foremost. We are Carole`n`Tom, we are from the UK and completely love Florida, we love everything about it especially the weather which believe me I know they are being roasted right now in Florida, but we have winter like weather right now and it is not nice, I`d swap in a heartbeat!
I do like to put a face to a name, so this was us in December last year with the squirrel dude.
We have been married, very happily for 32 years come Sept 5th this year and we have our son Kyle who turned 30 this year, he loves Orlando too and has visited with us several times as an adult, but now he has other plans in life. He is the most amazing son and we are so very proud of him and how he has turned out in life.
But, just the two of us again for this one which is also lovely, it`s always nice to just be a couple once again on our trips.
This will be I think, our 27th trip to Orlando with our first visit being way back in 2007, that does seem a lifetime ago now, but we were hooked immediately on all things Florida.
Usually this time of year we are getting excited for HHN but this year we are passing on the whole event. I`m sure it`ll still be fun, but I think we have become jaded on the event and probably a bit bored with it all now, especially as it just keeps getting busier and busier and the subtle cost effective procedures in place now are a little obvious to us as long time visitors. It`s a very different event from what it was way back in 2007, some good things of course, but it doesn`t seem we enjoy it as much as we used to. So this will be our first September without going to HHN. I don`t think we`ll be stuck for things to do elsewhere!!!
This may be a more relaxing type of trip for us, we`ve had a very busy year with Kyle moving homes and we of course got stuck in and for most of May we helped clean, decorate and help with the move in, he wanted to do most of it himself, which meant we`d of course help too
I don`t think I`ve worked so hard in years, but we loved every second of it and that was the reason we missed our usual May trip this year, to be there for Kyle and it was worth it, everyone loves this new place. So, with December being our last trip there it does feel a long time since we were there!!
Once we got Christmas and New Year over we immediately contacted Virgin Atlantic to get these September flights booked and this one was a little different due to our last May visit.
To go back slightly to a few days into our May 2023 trip, we got an email asking if we would return home in economy instead of our pre-booked premium seats as the flight was overbooked and in return if we did agree they would give us 3 free return Premium flights travelling anywhere to be used within the next three years, an offer we did take them up on of course. I admit flying home in economy wasn`t that bad, it wasn`t great, but, we knew there was a nice benefit coming in the future.
Contacting them was easy and we got flights booked, not originally on the day we wanted to fly as they were already sold out, so we chose to fly on what is for some a complete no-no...
I do laugh as I am not superstitious at all, well, maybe a little, but 13 has always been a lucky number for me in many ways, not least of all I was born on the 13th, I met Tom on the 13th and he lived at number 13 and a hundred other lucky 13th tales, so I didn`t even give it a thought except to recognise it was my birthday and I didn`t think we`ve ever flown on that before except once apparently to somewhere in Europe many moons ago, I had forgotten about that flight.
Virgin Atlantic are without doubt our favourite airline, we have always had positive experiences with them, even during the pandemic, for us they were excellent in how they were with us, it was very easy to defer each set of flights as five trips over that time were cancelled, they were brilliant, certainly for us. So, we never really consider another carrier and the bonus is they fly direct to Orlando from Manchester or Heathrow, either airport works for us, but we do like going up to Manchester to fly with them.
On speaking to the agent when booking the flights, he told us the seats we usually booked were gone which is fine as all the premium seats are very comfortable, but he told us although we wouldn`t be paying for the flights, Virgin now charged for what they call Preferred seats and we were in two of them. I said I hadn`t heard of that and it seems these preferred seats are towards the front of the Premium cabin which wouldn`t be our first choice, but this was new as you never used to pay for seat allocation in Premium. However the lovely agent said he would give them to us complimentary which was very nice of him, I think it was around $65 each on top of what you would pay for the flight, of course it all used to be free to choose any seat there. I believe the seats coming home are to the rear of the cabin so wouldn`t have this charge either. But, we were just happy to be booked, sitting together and glad we could use two of the three free return flights issued to us.
After I gave him the codes for the flights, I asked him about the third one and could we transfer Kyle`s name for one of us to use on another trip, he said he had used Kyle`s code for this trip, so we still had Tom`s to use in the future. Nice!!
Premium seats are very nice indeed, they have a nice recline, plenty of legroom and plenty of room for one`s ample derrier`s in the seats themselves which is always nice if one has extra padding in that region.....guilty
We also get a larger luggage allowance of two suitcases each up to 23kg which is around 50lbs each, not too bad and you of course get one piece of hand luggage up to 10kg each. You have your own decent sized tv screen on which you can choose from hundreds of movies, tv shows and music channels, so the time passes easily on even the longest of flights. They also of course have the skymap in which you can follow your route from take off to landing which some folks don`t like but we love it!!! It gives you height, speed and things like local time, time flying and distance and time to destination as well as outside temperature which scares the living daylights out of me!!! That is cold.
The food is nicer, no doubt and you do get proper cutlery, glasses and a real mug with tea or coffee, the food still comes in the tray but it just has a slightly nicer feel about it. A few years ago Virgin started sending out emails where you can pre-order the meal you would like which is also nice as some folks could be left with the veggie dish not many folks wanted!!! You also get unlimited drinks service, they are generous with the wines and other options and afterwards you can go up and ask for anything you like, anyone who appears to be inebriated will be refused anymore which is good to know.
I don`t think we`ve ever gone up to ask for more as they do give you plenty during their service. They also have a Wander Wall where you can help yourself to various sweet and savoury snacks to the front of the cabin all laid out in little trays for most of the flight, ideal for passing some time if you get bored or get a little peckish.
Our outbound flight on Friday the 13th is around 9hrs 30 minutes, so we`ll take off hopefully at 11am UK time and arrive around 15.25 Orlando time. Even when we take off a little late, they usually make up time, although that is more common on the way home. That flight time is usually around 8 hours but they can make it in a lot less time than that if we have a good tail wind behind us.
So,with the flights booked, we can then go to get everything else organised......the fun begins!!!!
I`m looking forward to this trip as is Tom, it`ll be different with no HHN but hopefully very relaxing and hope to have some company along the way, it`s always so much nicer to have folks to chat to and we have lovely posters that always makes the TR as much fun as it is!!!
Here`s to Friday the 13th!!!!
Ruth and yes, you made it first!!!
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We're not doing 
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Thrilled to see another pre-trip report from Carole. Love all the details you include especially the pictures. 
Brenda
Aspen was such a superstar in the Club Level lounge. She not only said the lovelies things about you and Tom but she went above and beyond with all the guests she came in contact with. 
