Up Friday morning at 6 to shower and get on the road. Didn't have to be at the airport until 11 but had to do chores, load the car and head into the city for some last minute appointments - chiropractor and massage - before the long flights. Sent Doyle to pick up my dress from the tailors and grab some last minute toiletry stuff.
Finally off to the airport. Check in went smoothly!!! Got into the international flight area and settled down for the 2 hr wait for our flight to be called...only to notice that our flight to Denver was marked as DELAYED. But only 40 minutes...not a big deal.
About an hour later...noticed that the delay time was changed. CRAP...now there was a chance of missing our connecting flight to Orlando from Denver. And it seemed like there were LOTS OF PEOPLE up talking to the check in crew at the counter. Seems that there was a mechanical problem with the plane in Denver...but they would do everything they could to help...which wasn't much by the way they were answering everyone's questions.
Plane finally arrived. Got to Denver where we were told they were holding the connecting flight. However, our luggage did not make that plane...but they ensured it would get to our final destination without a problem.
Orlando was interesting. The shuttle going from the terminals to the main airport was very cool...wish my picture had turned out better though.
Once in the main terminal, we noticed that EVERYTHING was CLOSED. And we had cancelled our hotel (just in case of a delay). So we set out to find somewhere comfortable to spend the next 5 1/2 hrs.
Doyle, in his quest for a pop machine, found the United counter to see about our luggage. Turns out it went to CHICAGO!!! That was very unexpected...and worrysome, considering we needed it in San Juan. LOL They said to call them from Miami in the am to see where it was at that time.
We asked the nice gentleman at the baggage counter if there was anything open and he said "Starbucks". So we headed there...got some water and a muffin and settled into their two nice big armchairs for a little snooze.
Around 5:30 we headed to the ticket counter to get our next set of tickets and boarded the plane for Miami. It was the biggest plane I had been on - EIGHT seats across!!!
While waiting for the next leg of our journey to start, I called the United baggage check to be told that our luggage was on a direct flight from Chicago to San Juan. Was given the flight number and arrival time...told to go to their terminal on our arrival in San Juan and pick up our luggage. Wow...what a relief it was to hear that.
Didn't think that we would have much of a switch in Miami as it was the same flight number...but with how the trip had gone so far...I should have known better. Turns out that we had to switch planes. Went to a smaller one - and then we were told that they had over sold the flight. We didn't get bumped though - thank goodness. After sitting on the plane for 20 minutes with nothing happening...the flight attendant came over the intercom saying we were waiting for the PILOT TO SHOW...he had been called in on HIS DAY OFF as the regular guy didn't come in to work.
By this time, Doyle and I were asking ourselves "WHAT NEXT".
The coastline of Miami was beautiful from the plane:
The flight to San Juan was great. And it was an eye opener to see just how big Puerto Rico really is. I was expecting small and not overly populated. But the pics prove otherwise.
Arrived there on time...and headed over to United to collect our luggage. Well, the flight from Chicago was delayed. When it arrived, we stood there waiting for our luggage to appear and NOTHING. OH MY GOD!!! So into the baggage check office only to be told that it was offloaded and checked in ORLANDO. I was absolutely dumbfounded. I guess my defination of "direct flight" and the airlines is a little different. We were then told that because we flew the last part of our journey with American, that we had to file our delayed/lost baggage claim with them.
So it was back to the other terminal to do that. Once we arrived there, they would only let one of us back in as we had carry-on luggage. So Doyle went in and after TWO HOURS, finally had our claim done.
We then headed to the ship...only FOUR hours later than we had originally thought...and totally exhausted.
Once on the boat, we went to find our room to settle in.
We were trying to think of a way to contact Paige and Barry but met Barry in the hallway when we got to our room. We dropped off our carry-on luggage and headed for dinner. After a wonderful first meal, we went to Guest Relations and told them what happened. They gave us an emergency pack of toiletry products and a couple cruiseline t-shirts to help us out until our luggage arrived and we had to fill out a delayed baggage form.
It was then bed time. The two travel days had totally exhausted us.
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