Virgin Holidays always get my vote (Virgin Holidays)

Member Name: custard1975

Product:	Virgin Holidays
Date:	10/03/09 (254 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy checkin, high luggage allowance, good inflight entertainment

Disadvantages: only available froma couple of airports

I have travelled with Virgin and Virgin Holidays on a number of occasions including in Feb this year to go to Florida. To be honest I can't imagine travelling with anyone else anymore! I booked my holiday over the telephone about a year ago. This was a smooth process and I was given the booking reference which enabled me to pre book my seats. This is free with Virgin (I believe a number of other operators charge for this). The holiday was well priced in comparision to other comparable operators. I always choose them when we go to Florida as they fly into Orlando International which is only about 15 minutes from the main hotel centres, whereas most Charter companies Thomson, Airtours etc use Sanford which is about 60 miles away. Anyway I booked our seats online, managed to get the bulkheads with extra leg room on way out. On the way back I could only get 2 rows of two so put son and hubby in front row with extra leg room. About 6 weeks before we had a letter to say that unfortunately our hotel was closing and we were given a choice of 3 others we could choose at no extra cost. Once at the airport check in was quick and easy. They have an excellent luggage allowance too 2 bags of 23 kilos each whereas most operators only allow 1 bag of 20 kilos. The flight was good, a bit of turbulance but hardly Virgins fault!! Free drinks including alcohol available throughout the flight. There was also a good entertainment selection with a number of recent films to suit all tastes as well as tv channels. Once we arrived in Orlando baggage claim was simple as was picking up our rental car, Virgin have their own hire car desks at Orlando airport. Got to the hotel and was given some free meal tokens because of the hotel change. On our return trip we were able to drop our cases off at their downtown disney checkin area at 8:30 in the morning which is great, it means you don't have to carry your cases round all day. Although I had pre booked the seats they offered to change them so that we all got the extra leg room. All in all a good experience. My only problem with them was that there was a mix up with the car hire as we were staying 16 days but they had only booked the car hire for 14 but it was easy to sort out. Will definately go with them next time.

Summary: Good all round holiday operator, competitive pricing and always had good service