First Caribbean Cruise: Getting There

Our first Caribbean cruise! It's been so much fun sharing the eager anticipation with our fellow travelers (my brother Galen, his wife Carol, my niece Venisa and her husband Anthony). The texts and calls have been flying back and forth the past few days. Today is the day we fly to Houston, and tomorrow, finally, the cruise ship!

We arrived at the Portland Airport more than 2 hours early to check our bags, only to learn that our 2:45 p.m. flight was delayed until 4:15, which meant we would miss our connecting flight in Denver. The next flight with room for us would put us into Houston at 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. WHAT!?! Not happening! Please keep trying! This poor agent. She tried. There was no way to get all six of us on the same flight and get there in time. She searched and finally found 3 different flights to split us up and get there, but one disappeared before she could book it. I'll spare you a lot of very boring details....Two hours later, the other 4 members of our party were all booked together on a completely different airline to arrive in Houston tonight (for a tidy fee unfortunately). "Will" (he is so cool) and I are were still on the original delayed flight to Denver, getting the last 2 seats connecting to Miami, then arriving in Houston at 9:15 tomorrow morning.

(Hmmm. Yesterday I thought it was odd when I sent a text to "Will" (he is so cool) and it said "Will" (he who must be obeyed). When it happened the second time, I realized I had been pranked, because I catch on really quick. Last night he kindly offered to fix it. I'm so glad he did. That "Will" (he is so cool)!)

So anyway, can you believe our great luck! We get to go to Miami! We don't even have to pay for a hotel since we get to be on a plane to sleep from midnight to 5 a.m.! And when I think of getting to travel all these extra miles for the same price we paid for our original trip, well it just amazes me. I'm going to figure out our rate per mile, I'm sure we probably doubled it! What a deal!

The rest of our party departed about an hour before we did. Surprisingly, our flight was delayed another 50 minutes. They kept bringing young men in wheel chairs off the plane, wearing sweatshirts that said "Harlequin". Gonna have to look that up too!

Eventually we got to our front row seats on the plane. A pleasant, nicely dressed man was seated on my left. Before long I thought wow, this is going to be a long flight, he has the worst onion breath ever. Then I got out the chicken salad I had bought at the airport to eat on the plane. It was in a plastic container in a paper bag, inside my huge purse/bag. Oh no. The paper bag was wet and smelled strongly of onions. I apologized to my seat mate for thinking he had onion breath and for the odor. I think he was pretty thrilled to be sitting next to me. But now the salad is eaten, the trash is thrown away, and the moisture wiped out of the bag and the affected items therein. There wasn't a lot of liquid (maybe some type of onion dressing?), just enough to spread the aroma and probably make the bag pretty odiferous for the rest of the trip. I think "Will" (he is so cool) was pretty proud to be traveling with me at that moment as well.

 So here we are in Denver, waiting to catch a flight to Miami at midnight. Our fellow travelers made it safely to Pheonix and have just arrived in Houston. LUCKY! We couldn't ask for better traveling companions! Such great attitudes! No one freaked out or complained, we're just all happy to be healthy and on track to get to the ship on time tomorrow afternoon!

I learned some traveling lessons today.
1. It definitely pays to be early. If we wouldn't have been at the front of the checkout line, we might not have been able to get flights as they were very full today.

2. Frontier Airlines may have great prices, but they have a limited number of flights and few other carriers with ticketing agreements, so if you're on a deadline your options are limited.

It doesn't matter how far in advance you carefully plan a vacation, you just never know what "Will" (he is so cool) happen when airlines are involved. I can't wait to see my traveling companions at their hotel in Houston tomorrow morning! I wonder if I'll be lucky enough to shower or change clothes before I embark on the cruise? Doesn't really matter, I'm still so excited to go on a cruise!
I wonder how soon my phone "Will" (he is so cool)  be unpranked after someone reads this? It's the one and only time I've used my iPad for a blog - on the laptop this delightful bonus would not have been included. And yes, I know how to get rid of it when I'm typing, but it's too much fun to keep sharing with you all how cool "Will" (he is so cool) is.