Back to Mags Den Villa 2021 - Travel Day December 18th 2021

WELCOME BACK TO ORLANDO VILLA MAGS DEN…

Villa owners trip 2021/2022 … what’s happening (TRAVEL DAY)

It’s been a long time since we e been able to get to our beautiful home here in sunny 😎 Florida we were last here January 2020 just before the craziness of the pandemic hit and we were all stuck at home … thankfully the US borders opened 8th November 2021 much to the delight of the UK and us so our fingers were crossed we got here .

Well we did here’s a little about our travel days

The current rules meant we had to test 1 day before our flight. I won’t lie it was a nerve wracking few days kids were in school we were working (luckily we can social distance in our job) we avoided meeting up with people before we came away and dud door step visits

Anyway we did our video link pre travel test on Friday morning it was super easy and the nurse online was extremely friendly and put us at ease … the tension watching ours test results was intense, thankfully 4 negative tests we an start packing

Kids were online lessons for this day which was helpful for us, first job put the clothes in the suitcase and the Christmas presents I had everything ready in piles the night before as we had all done an at home test to help us relax a bit

Once packed I took down the decorations at home and boxed them up by which time our test certificate were all through as well as our VeriFLY app (we flew BA) was complete this was much simpler than I had imagined and took you through each step I had already got all our personal details & photos on it a few days earlier and once our test results were through and verified it took us to the next step until i could do online check in. (Our covid vaccination and test results were manually checked as our test certificate didn’t have a QR code and Andy covid pass was being iffy but all was cleared and sorted)

By 2pm I’d hoovered and packed and we had a visit with the grandparents before our last work shift

We flew BA the next morning out of Heathrow into Orlando International (we usually do Gatwick to Tampa, but when we booked last February those were not an option to us)

Early start we headed to Heathrow used a meet and greet parking service and went straight to T5, as I had already online checked in and printed my boarding passes we went to self bag drop (more tech to work out but we managed) through security fairly quickly - although one bag got an extra check all good and off to Weatherspoons for breakfast 🍳

The airport was busy everyone was wearing a mask but it felt spaced out lots of hand gel stations and screened seating at the restaurant

We only had time to get some water for the flight and then walk to the gate which was a little way away as we had enjoyed a leisurely breakfast we weren’t rushing and savouring each part of our holiday - we had started to relax

Boarding was easy and called Groups as stated on your boarding card. We had a short delay as they were still cleaning the craft but I didn’t mind that

The flight was good an almost full plane and all wearing their masks 😷 - I felt at ease knowing everyone was tested before they flew tbh . We were also all give an anti bac wipe to do trays if we wanted too.

BA let us down on the food this time it was pretty poor but I’d packed sandwiches for the kids in case and no mid afternoon ice cream 🍨

Entertainment was all good too with a wide selection. We landed on time and was through security super fast, they disembarked by a few rows at a time and we were all asked to remain seated until our row was called before getting our bags (as you can guess lots of people chose to ignore that request and were quickly asked to sit back down, let’s be honest not going anywhere until it your turn 😂)

4 suitcases and off to get the car we are Avis preferred members so we didn’t have to go to the desk straight to the car park and off … this time Andy chose to satnav without tolls to the villa it took us a different route and we passed some cute little towns all lit up for Christmas and came in the other way via champions gate we really only went 15 minutes out of our route and it was a nice peaceful drive

We stopped at the new Publix right accords the street from us for a pizza and some milk and entered our home for the first time in 2 years so glad to be back and immediately it felt like we’d never left …

A long post I know but I hope this gives you some updates to getting here and helping you feel more relaxed

If you read to the end thank you 😊

#thecartersfloridablog2021