Flights of fancy?

Search

Categories

About This Guide
Latest Articles
Most Viewed
Random Selection
Articles With Photos
Meet The Authors
Accommodation   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
Animal Kingdom   page 1 / 2
Cruising
Days Out   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
Dining   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 / 21 / 22 / 23 / 24 / 25 / 26 / 27 / 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / 32 / 33
Discovery Cove   page 1 / 2
Disney General   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14
Disney Parks   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14
Epcot   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Florida History   page 1 / 2
Golf   page 1 / 2 / 3
Hints and Tips   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Hollywood Studios   page 1 / 2
Magic Kingdom   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
Miscellaneous   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 / 17
Museums
Night Life
Other Activities   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14 / 15
Other Florida   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 / 14
Other Parks   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
Owners Vacation Diary   page 1 / 2
Places to Visit   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
Planning your Trip   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
Sea World   page 1 / 2
Shopping   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10
Shows
Sports and Recreation
State Parks   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
Travelling   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11
Universal Parks   page 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
Water Parks

Florida Guide > Miscellaneous

Flights of fancy?

The first time I flew to Orlando, it was on a Monarch flight from Luton airport to Orlando via Bangor in Maine!! It was a completely new experience for me, at the time I think my longest flight was around 5 hours at that point. So, I was understandably tired, and with no seat back entertainment, it would be fair to say, I found the experience quite a challenge, though of course worth it on arrival!!

The next trip back to Orlando, was with an 18 month old, so our thoughts were that this could be a real challenge , especially with the indirect flight and a small baby, so we choose a direct flight with Virgin, from Gatwick to Orlando. What a difference it made! The small child was a delight to travel such a long way with, and as we had seat back entertainment, all was very good indeed, it certainly made a difference!!

Over the years, we have used a number of different airlines, though Virgin primarily, and more often than not , used the direct route from Gatwick to Orlando.

However, one of the other routes that we have used was Gatwick to Sanford. Now this was a direct flight at the time, but we were a little wary of the route as we thought Sanford was so far out from Orlando! How wrong we were! The airport at the time, had slightly less facilities than it’s better known, big brother, with it’s scheduled international flights, and extremely busy internal flights gates, but we got through very speedily and the route to our accommodation in the Orlando area, was less than an hour, so overall it was a successful option!!

Now, more recently, there is no denying that flight prices can be a serious consideration when booking your Orlando trip, and we are no exception to this rule. With that in mind, we were interested in looking at other airlines and other routes, that would get us to our ultimate destination, and hopefully at a price which suited our budget a little more. Again, a surprise was in store for us!! A financially good surprise at that!!!
Having read on the forums that flying into Tampa was such a great option, and not at all a problem if are holidaying in the Orlando area, we decided to try it! We took a flight with Delta that flew indirect to Tampa, and then drove up from there, we were through the airport in about 15 minutes and in our villa from there in just on an hour! A superb option! The airport at Tampa was so quiet and the journey from Tampa to our villa on Highway 27 was straight forward, which meant the journey time was under an hour! We were so pleased we had taken advice on it, we had an encouraging price, and such a good journey all round, we are flying into Tamp again on our next trip!

The moral of the story, is be flexible, it is worth it!!

Viewed 49491 times.

We aim to provide accurate and useful information, but if you feel anything provided here is not accurate or out of date, please email us with the address of the page concerned and any comments so we can amend as necessary.

Villa Owners: Upload A Photo To This Article

To upload a photo for consideration, click here. Please only submit photos relevant to this article.