When does your holiday start?

As soon as you finish your last day of work and put your out of office on? Getting through security at the airport? Putting your key in the hotel room door and sipping your first cocktail?

I doubt anyone would answer ‘Waiting in line at airport security’. I’ll be honest, until my boarding pass has been scanned through security and I have a pint in my hand, I don’t feel in the holiday mood.

Living here in Nottingham, East Midlands Airport is my airport of choice. It isn’t the biggest airport, but it is so blooming convenient. I would rather pay a slightly higher flight price for the fact that I only have to travel 30 minutes and the choice of food and duty free is just as good as some of the London airports! Millions of holidaymakers frequent this airport every year (nearly FIVE MILLION) so it gets incredibly busy and luckily East Midlands Airport are making it even more simple for us to get into the holiday mood as soon as we walk through the door to departures!

Hands up if you love the line at security? No… no one? Yeah I thought so! With East Midlands you have the option to Fast Track through security to cut down on that dreaded waiting time. There’s a dedicated security line and passport control for fast track and from only £4 per person, it makes complete sense to me!

It was so easy! We had pre-booked via the FAST TRACK page on the EMA website, chose our departure time (the time you expect to arrive in the security area) printed the confirmation and away we went! It only took 5 minutes to get through!

We then headed through to World Duty Free, but instead of wandering around aimlessly looking for the products I wanted to buy, I went straight to the tills! I had pre-ordered all my Benefit make up via THIS LINK and this made it so much easier. With Benefit make up being so popular, I sometimes get to the airport to find my shade out of stock (not good when you don’t pack make up). I also ordered some gorgeous Marc Jacobs perfume so I smelt lovely on holiday! With the click and collect option I can guarantee that it will be there waiting for me. Also, if security has taken a little longer than expected, I can’t guarantee that I will have time to charge around Duty Free, so this option makes it simple and easy to get what I want without running to the gate to board the flight! One other thing to note is that you pay for it on collection, so if you decide that you don’t want all of it, you aren’t obligated to pay for it!

After that (and grabbing a couple of bits from Superdrug – don’t forget your loyalty card as you can still get your points!) it was time for us all to relax and grab a bite to eat before boarding the plane. Another amazing new piece of technology that EMA has is the Grab app. You can now pre-order your food when you get to the airport and pick it up on your way to the gate. EMA have some great choices with something suitable for everyone including Frankie & Benny’s (pasta, pizza and all day breakfasts) and Pork and Pickle (baguettes, muffins, crisps and salads). My favourite place to eat is Castle Rock Tap Room & Kitchen. I love it as it is unique to EMA, celebrating Nottingham’s own Castle Rock Brewery. The Grab app doesn’t have the whole menu on it, but it gives a range of Grab ‘n’ Go options that you can pick up on your way to the gate. From Fanta and coke to latte and tea the drinks menu is varied (although doesn’t include alcohol for obvious reasons). The food ranges from burgers and nachos to breakfast baps. Download the Grab App HERE before you go and try it for yourself! (You’ll also get 20% off your first order!)

To please everyone, we ordered from Frankie & Benny’s. By ordering as soon as we got to East Midlands Airport, it cut down on waiting time massively. The food was ready 15 minutes from ordering and we were soon tucking into a full English breakfast, two delicious pulled pork hot dogs and a pizza. Perfect if you are in a hurry!

I try to fly from EMA as often as possible due to the convenience of the location, and with the fast track security, click and collect duty free and the Grab App, makes it even easier to enjoy your holiday, right from the moment you step through the door!

As you can see, we were all happy to get to our departure gate and start our two week holiday in Portugal!

This is a sponsored post in association with East Midlands Airport. For more info follow EMA on FACEBOOK, TWITTER and INSTAGRAM. Find out the latest offers from World Duty Free HERE.