Have we ruined our DisneyWorld trip?

[Odellio]

I need some reassurance or advice. We are due to fly to Florida for DisneyWorld this afternoon with SC and DS. We have little knowledge of international travel, I knew we needed ESTAs but didn’t understand the process. I checked with in-laws who are organising the whole trip if they had sorted ESTAs, and they said they had. Obviously I misunderstood that they were talking about their ESTAs only and not ours. We applied yesterday afternoon as soon as we realised we didn’t have ESTAs. Still pending authorisation. I am hugely panicking now that we won’t get them in time to check-in.

Never been so invested in someone else's holiday! So happy that you have the bloody ESTAs at last. What a massive stress. You sound like you have all dealt with it so well. Wishing you the holiday of a lifetime! You deserve it!!!

Delighted it has come through and that you will fly tomorrow. I just came on to say what a fantastic attitude you have, making the best of everything, grace under pressure, what a great example you are to your children(and to us Mumsnet folks!).
I hope you all have a fantastic holiday.

PILs will probably be able to explain what's happened to the hotel.

We are all in an apartment, so same accommodation. When PIL check-in soon it will be all fine.

Shame it came through so soon after but at least that means you are all set to go tomorrow & not the same as today, checking & thinking about rebooking.

Have a lovely time.

I have been reading all your kind messages, thank you for all your help in keeping that positive attitude alive ❤️

We managed to get to the Natural History Museum and out for a nice dinner, we’ve been giggling all the way back to the hotel. We are all absolutely shattered though, and ready to crash now.

I will update once we have arrived safely in DisneyWorld!

I love this positive side of mumsnet - the fact that, when someone has a problem like this, there's a whole mass of people just rooting for it to work out for them and everyone is so pleased when it does.

So pleased you have a solution OP and have a wonderful much deserved holiday !

Awww, I’m sending you a big hug and I’m sorry you missed a day of your holiday!

DH and I had our Florida trip booked a few years ago - got to the airport, checked in, both had valid ESTAs from the year before… except we didn’t, because DH got a new passport and neither of us thought to update it 🤦‍♀️

I had my laptop so hurriedly applied from the airport car park, didn’t come through instantly so I left him and told him to get the first flight he could.

He walked onto the plane as the door was closing, deeply unimpressed that I was chatting to my neighbour and sipping the free Prosecco.

And before anyone has too much sympathy for him - two years prior, on our trip with our DC, he lost my fucking passport. In the airport. After check in and security, because I made the fatal mistake of assuming he could be trusted with all the family documents 😂 I was escorted through the entire airport by security staff and found it eventually, it was dropped behind the check in desk. Made the flight by the skin of my teeth with the kids in floods of tears.

Needless to say with our luck, Florida has not been revisited since 😂

Not read the whole thread but I got to check in once only to find out our ESTA’s had expired. Bloomin stressful 15 mins applying for them on an iPhone but they came through and we got on the plane!

Oh how annoying that it came through after the flight closed! But well done to you all for staying positive and having good grace (crikey some posters on this thread have had less grace when someone disagreed with their posts!🤣). And I’m glad you’ve had a lovely sunny day in London. Have a great flight tomorrow and a lovely holiday.

So glad your esta came through and you’ve had a good day enjoy Florida

Good news is that now you get an email telling you that it expires in 30 days, whether that’s the 2 years expiry or your passport expiring.

So annoying! Don’t let it ruin your holiday, just look forward to tomorrow. Have some wine on the plane.

Good. It’s just one day later than planned and the super time you will all have will kick this into a memory black hole, never to think of it again.

Some fab bands playing at the garden rocks concerts in Epcot over the next couple of weeks.

We were oblivious to the live acts showing until I got there, was very excited when I realised that the band playing Hanson songs was Hanson 😂

You were not meant to travel on that flight today...good luck tomorrow and have an amazing holiday

26 minutes is VERY annoying!
But the kids will remember today as a bonus holiday! Have a fab time.

Just read through the whole thread, I was so stressed for you! So happy it’s all sorted and you’re off to Disney 😁 have a wonderful time!

Have the best holiday! X

So the ESTA is not a visa, it's some other bit of bullshit you have to do over and above having a valid passport ... so what's a visa other than that?

A visa requires substantially more evidence and red tape, including a visit to the embassy, but it allows to stay in the US for longer, and with some classes of visa, you can also work there. The ESTA is for tourists travelling for a short amount of time, who do not need to go through the serious hassle of a full on visa.

What you don't get is any sort of message from the UK passport office reminding you that if you have renewed your UK passport that your ESTA (that you used 12 months ago) is no longer valid.

My dp was unable to check in with us on Friday for a 10am flight and is still an hour away from Orlando (via JFK...) then transfers to finally get to our hotel at approx 5am on Monday morning...

Hope the journey today goes smoothly!

An ESTA is a visa waiver. There’s a requirement for all foreign nationals entering the USA to have a visa, which is waived for the citizens of certain countries, provided they can say “no” to all the questions.

This has not changed substantially from the old green visa waiver form that you had to fill in on the plane except that it is electronic and has to be in place before you will be allowed on the plane.

DH has a habit of being vague and not clear in his communications too

to be fair, so do you given your ambiguous question to your in-laws whether ETSA had been sorted or not.

Either way, to have a DH with a “habit” of being vague and not clear would drive me potty!