Walt Disney World holiday nearly ruined after dad's ESTA error saw him refused boarding

A mum has revealed how a once-in-a-lifetime family trip to Disney World was almost ruined before it even began.

Disney fanatic Becky spent three years planning the dream getaway to Florida for her teen twins, herself and her husband, and even booked the trip 18 months in advance, doing everything she could to get organised before their trip over the pond.

Disaster struck, however, when the family arrived at Newcastle Airport on August 10, to be told Becky's husband couldn't check in because the date of birth on his ESTA didn't match the date of birth on his passport.

An ESTA, or Electronic System for Travel Authorisation, is mandatory for anyone travelling from the UK as part of the Visa Waiver Programme to the US, but having applied for the documents five months earlier, Becky believed everything was fine.

"I don't know how it happened," she told her TikTok followers, posting from her handle @thegeordiedisneyma.

"I scanned the passport which is where the information got put in from, I checked it, he checked it, it was approved by the ESTA people, they took the payment for it, everything was fine, and then went to check in with TUI and they said they couldn't let him board because the date on the ESTA didn't match his passport."

The mum-of-two recalled the moment she started unloading all of her husband's belongings out of their four suitcases and placing them into one, just in case he wasn't able to make it on the trip, as she and her kids would still need to fly due to the fact they wouldn't be able to get a refund on the pricy holiday due to it being their own mistake.

"When I tell you, my heart was in my throat and my stomach was in the other end, would be the understatement of how I felt," Becky said.

They started ringing all the relevant people they could think of for help, from border control to the US embassy, but were told they needed to speak to Homeland Security.

But as luck would have it, the phone line to Homeland Security didn't open until 11am - the exact same time the family were due to fly.

"Then by some divine intervention, I don't know what it was, but the flight was delayed by three hours," the TikToker recalled.

Becky and her two teen kids were forced to go through security and along to departures just in case anything changed, leaving her husband behind while TUI staff desperately attempted to get through to Homeland Security.

"I was sobbing at this point, my daughter was sobbing, my son wouldn't speak to us, and my husband's smiling going, 'it's fine, things happen for a reason, don't worry about it', which made me feel even more crap because he was being so nice about it even though it was my fault," she said.

Fortunately, a TUI rep finally managed to get through to Homeland Security, who told them they would need to cancel the existing ESTA in order to apply for another one.

An hour later, at 12pm, the ESTA had been cancelled and they applied for a new one as fast as they could, but were warned they could take up to three days to be approved.

By 1pm, Becky was fearing the worst as she knew if the document didn't arrive imminently, her husband would run out of time to get checked in and get his case on the plane, but by some kind of miracle, the flight was delayed again.

Staff told them they would have until 2pm for the ESTA to arrive before they would close the check in and at 1.45pm, it finally arrived, leaving him just enough time to leg it through security and along to departures.

"I still can't actually believe that that happened, it was like some kind of fever dream if I'm honest, I still can't believe he's here," she said, while sitting by the pool of their Orlando resort.

"So moral of the story, even if you think you've triple checked your ESTAs, check them again please because that is something I never want to repeat in my whole life."