Friday 19 November

 After breakfast the next day in the hotel we set off from the North Terminal to see how easy or difficult it would be on the day to get to the US.

It took over an hour to get checked in, despite the fact that our queue was the one where people had completed the Verifly app which pre-checks that each person is compliant with the new requirements for entry to the States.  It seems there were two other BA flights departing at a similar time, one to Jamaica and the other to Brazil and many of them seemed to have a great deal of luggage which all took time to process.

We got through security except that Graeme got called back for leaving his tablet in the cabin bag while it went through the scanner. That came as a surprise as he thought he remembered that, from a previous flight or two, it wasn’t a requirement to remove them.

We finally got ready to board flight BA2039 but boarding was in groups and we were in Group 9, so we were some of the last to board.

BA were very generous with drinks. Leg room was good too, as was the food offering.  A number of complimentary newspapers was available on the way to the gate

A drink was offered very soon after take off with one drink for now and one with lunch. Lunch included a bottle of Harrogate water and a further drink (or two) was offered. After lunch tea or coffee was offered with the cabin crew apologising for the lack of choice of meals – unbelievable in the current circumstances.  Then it was a shortbread snack with a glass of juice or water and finally a sandwich with tea, coffee etc.

There was a good choice of entertainment, be it films, radio programmes, sound items and including a good range for children

There were some empty seats scattered here and there. I was in the row behind the parent and baby row and there was an empty seat between me and a woman in the window seat.

I was not aware that our temperatures were checked at any point on the journey whereas they were on entry to Lanzarote in September.

Nobody looked at our customs forms or collected them. The immigration officer was as minimal as possible, but did ask us if we had brought food in. When we told him it was cereal and baby food he was clearly only interested on such as pork.

It took 2 hours from landing to get the pushchair. The pushchair came out via oversize luggage while the car seat came out on the normal carousel.

Then it was time to get some transport organised.  After a while we were the proud short-term owners of a Kia Sportage which had only a few hundred miles on the clock and we set off on the last leg of our epic journey.

Despite the fact that it was mid-evening, the usual suspects in terms of roads were clogged up as we might have expected – the junction of the 417 and the I-4 where Disney’s World Drive also hits the I-4, on the 192 past Reedy Creek and at the junction of Old Lake Wilson Road and the Osceola Polk Line Road.  Nothing much has changed on the past two year!

We eventually drove on to the front drive at around 9.40pm US time (2.40am UK time). We unpacked the car and hit the sack at 10pm.

Phew! We’d made it – and with a toddler in tow!