A "Heaven Sandwich"

We have just returned from what I can only describe as a "heaven sandwich" - defined as, "a six day slice of heaven, with a slice of hell on each side". I will explain...

Every year we take our six grandchildren on a trip. This year it was to be a cruise to the Western Caribbean which we organized a year in advance. The plan was to fly to Ft. Lauderdale arriving at dinner time, have a nice evening swim and dinner, enjoy the morning in the pool, and board the "Princess Caribbean" cruise ship in the afternoon for a cruise to the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico.

Everything went according to schedule as we arrived at the airport at 6 am Saturday for our 7:40 flight. Everyone was on board, ready to take off, and the pilot announced "We have a problem and have to go back to the gate for just a minute". The minute turned into five hours. We then missed our connecting flights to Ft. Lauderdale, and finally were booked on the last flight that night at 10:30 pm. But sadly that flight was 1 1/2 hours late, and we arrived at Ft Lauderdale at 1 am, tired, but ready to go to our hotel and still excited about our cruise! But surprise - only 4 of the 8 bags we checked made it to Ft. L, and Delta informed us that the other 4 bags went to San Diego - yes, just 40 miles from our takeoff airport. And to top off this first slice of hell, they told us that they could not get the bags to us before the ship sailed on Sunday afternoon.

So after collecting 4 of our 8 bags, we arrived at our hotel at 2:30 am - a bit late to have a nice meal and go to the pool. The missing bags belonged to myself and three of our teenage grand daughters who had planned on this trip for almost a year. Since all four of us had only the clothes on our back, no choice but to go shopping for clothes before the cruise - but the "trip through hell" continued when we found out that none of the stores opened on Sunday until 12 noon, and we had to board the boat between 1 and 4 pm at the latest. So the race began - hire a van to take us shopping, come back to pick us up, then back to the hotel to get bags, and then to the boat. I shopped by myself and was able to get enough to get me through the first few days, but my wife had three teenage girls to shop for - a dress, underwear, bathing suit, etc., and
1 1/2 hours to do it in. A monumental job for girls that are used to taking an hour to make a decision. High stress stuff for grandma, but we did it. Our van driver picked us up at the mall (in a blinding rain and lightening storm - just another side note of this trip through hell), then off to our hotel for bags, then to the ship, with 30 minutes to spare. Thus ended the first slice of hell on the "heaven sandwich".










We then checked our group of eight onto the boat, and Princess took over - they gave us all the toiletries we needed, free laundry and dry cleaning with one day turnaround, and even provided me a full tux for the first formal night on Tuesday. They also assigned one person to track our bags and update us every day. Three days later in Jamaica, our bags finally caught up with us, and we were happy campers. The rest is history. The vacation was great and our grandchildren had a trip they will never forget.


















But after a week, it was time to go home and we again went "from heaven to hell".

Princess was very efficient checking us out the following Sunday, and we arrived at the airport in Ft. Lauderdale at about 10 am with a 3:40 flight out to Atlanta, connecting to Orange County, CA. I checked for earlier flights, but, everything was booked. So the eight of us relaxed at the airport waiting for our 3:40 flight. But yes, it was delayed an hour, then another hour, and so it looked like we had missed our connection to CA. But when we arrived at Atlanta, lucky us, our connecting flight was also delayed, so we were on our way home! Unfortunately this next flight was delayed also, and after getting on board at 9:30 pm (instead of 8), we were "ready to go". But the plane didn't move, and we sat at the gate for another 1 1/2 hours waiting for a co-pilot! He finally arrived and we were off, and everyone was happy.

But the happiness didn't last long...after taking off the pilot informed us that we had missed the curfew at Orange County (airport closes at 11pm) so they would have to fly us into Ontario and bus us back to Orange County airport. Lots of unhappy people, but by now everyone was numb and looking forward to arriving at Ontario , getting our bags, then on the bus and off to Orange County where our family was to meet us. But...remember this is the trip from hell.

We arrived at Ontario at midnight, and the first announcement made was, " Sorry about the delay, unfortunately the buses will not be here for another 1 1/2 hours". Now Delta almost had a riot on their hands. We were so exhausted, we just called our kids and had them come to Ontario to pick us up (an hour each way). The trip ended at about 3:30 am in bed...ironically almost exactly 24 hours after we got up on the boat and prepared to travel home. So the "final slice" of the sandwich ended, and we are now all home and will hopefully soon catch up on our sleep.

In closing I will say that if you cruise - go Princess, their customer service was outstanding. If you fly be ready for anything, and if this trip was an example of what the US airline industry is coming to, they are about to hit rock bottom.