Monday, July 30, 2018

Are we sailing?

So, Beth and I are off on our second Celebrity summer break sister's cruise. I've been in NY for bout a week, since I went with her to camp visiting weekend last weekend.

Our day started great - we were packed and ready to go to the airport (JFK) early, called a ride and away we went. About 5 miles from the airport, we got notices that our flight was cancelled. We both immediately got on the phone to the airline and were put on hold. We were on a 3:30 flight, but there was a 2pm flight so maybe we could get on that.

We arrived at the airport around 1:15, still on hold and were directed to a very long line for people with cancelled flights. There was no way we'd get to the front in time for the 2pm, so it was a good thing we were on the phone. We both got called about 10 minutes in, and it turns out it didn't matter because every flight to Florida on Jet Blue was sold out. And by Florida, we had them look at Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Orlando and Tampa. The best they could do was fly us to Boston from La Guardia tonight, and a 7 am flight to FLL from there tomorrow morning. It arrived at 10, so we would have made the ship, assuming not late. In the meantime, I looked at the United App, and found a 7pm flight to Miami, but from Newark. We bought it for not a small amount. Now we had to get to Newark from Kennedy, about 35 miles. We called a ride company and the driver showed up around 2:30. It took almost 3 hours, so we we a bit nervous. (Well I was, Beth trusted what Waze said). We arrived around 5:30, so plenty of time. During this time, we were canceling the rental car in Fort Lauderdale and replacing it with one in Miami. The first plan was to rent a car, drive to the FLL hotel, and come back in the morning. Beth asked why we were driving just to sleep, so I called Marriott and changed the hotel to this very nice one in Miami. At about 6:15, they pushed the flight to 7:15 - ok, still arriving on time. Then got pushed a few more times, until it was 8:30 and they boarded us at 7:45. We pushed at 8:44 and then were held while a flight went out to see if they could get around the weather. We'd get the news at 9:15. At about 9:30 the announcement came for flight attendants to take their seats for departure, and we took off soon after. While it was unclear if we'd depart, I actually booked a reservation to Grand Cayman. I was happy to cancel it on the way to the hotel. We were also worried about the crew timing out (Beth said they told her that it came close.) So here we are getting ready for our last sleep before the trip. I'm going to try to add a picture of us waiting for our bags in Miami airport, completely relieved to actually be in Florida.

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