For months now, I’ve been reading horror stories about Heathrow’s Terminal 5 knowing that I’d have to contend with it this month. I even got some “TrackMe” tags just in case my bags were lost…
But in the end, I found it to be a great experience. I’ve heard the terminal is the size of 50 football fields, and it’s definitely a sight to behold. There’s actually a mall inside of it and some really great restaurants. There are three sections within the terminal and a train takes you to B and C. They say that you need to allow 20 minutes, though the train itself never took more than 5.
Gordon Ramsay has a restaurant inside the terminal, where I enjoyed a breakfast of pancakes and orange juice. Yeah, it was a bit pricey for pancakes but I have to admit they were delicious, as was the fresh juice. (During my time there, I imagined him in the back yelling at people for overcooked Wellingtons…)
I bought a few trinkets for friends at the Harrod’s store, though later found that one of the items was missing a piece. Grr. I tried exchanging it on my way back but the B store didn’t have the item I’d bought and I was in a frantic rush at the time anyway.
On my outbound flight, all my baggage made it with me. On my way back, I only had an hour to change planes in terminal five…had to go through security again as well as passport check, then run up to see from whence my flight was leaving (gate-wise). I had to take the train to B and made it just as people were boarding the plane. But, miraculously, my bags made it with me.
The one thing that was a bit surprising was the fact that at Terminal 5, they only tell you which gate you’ll be departing from 40-60 minutes before it actually leaves. So you hang out in A until they let you know.
But all in all, I have to give Terminal 5 a B+. It looks like they’ve worked out the kinks and now people can breathe a little easier.
