I picked the rental van up on time, and after joking with Bella that they were going to upgrade me to a 12-passenger van like they did for the SkillsUSA trip, they upgraded me to a 12-person van! So no worries on space.
We finished last minute errands and packing with the goal of getting to bed by 10. We needed to get up at 4:15 am. Needless to say, we didn't quite make it to bed by 10. I was in bed a little after midnight.
We got up at 4, I took a shower and loaded the van. Bella's flight was before ours, and she got a message from Delta just after 4 am that her flight was delayed an hour. So we could have slept longer if Delta had told us that earlier.
A bit of explanation on why Bella was flying a different airline: she had a travel voucher from Delta that needed to be used before the end of 2022, from her canceled trip to Germany with GAPP. But we found super cheap airfare to Dublin on Air Canada. So we decided to book Bella on Delta on a flight that arrived to Dublin at the same time as our Air Canada flight. It would be relatively easy as long as the flights didn't change or have any serious delays.
Also, our friends Jeremy and Nancy Hine and their son Jacoby decided to join us for the first two weeks of our trip. Bella and Jacoby have been best friends since 6th grade. They got flights on the same Air Canada as us. So it was unorthodox, but the way it worked out is that five of us were on the same Air Canada flight and Bella was on her own Delta flight.
Despite the Delta delay, we picked up the Hines at their house around the original scheduled 5:30 am and headed to Orlando. The delay just gave us more time to grab some breakfast outside of the airport. We topped off the tank and then ate some breakfast at Wawa near the airport.
No problems returning the van. We got Bella's bag (i.e. our family bag) checked, and then headed thru security. A little slow, but not too bad. Still fine on time. In fact, she continued to get notifications that her flight was delayed a little more, until our flight was going to be leaving before hers. We each had a 6-ish hour layover, ours in Montreal and Bella's in Boston. So her delays just meant she'd be in Orlando a little longer and Boston a little less.
Our flight boarded on time and Bella saw us off at our gate. Air Canada required masks on the flight.
I read a blog by a flight attendant with dos and don'ts of flying. Don't go barefoot on the plane. Don't put your phone or headphones in the pocket on the back of the seat (it never gets cleaned)...that kind of stuff. The post talked about how kind of a gesture it is to give a little something to your flight attendant. They can't take cash or homebaked treats, but Starbucks gift cards, individually wrapped chocolates and mints, things like that are super appreciated. But even something as simple as making eye contact with them and saying hello or goodbye is appreciated. So I decided to make little thank you bags for our flight attendant. Having taught high school thru the pandemic, I knew how hard it is to work in an enclosed space with a bunch of people who may or may not be vaccinated. So I wanted to show my appreciation for the job they do. My idea was to make a goodie bag for one flight attendant on each leg. Cristina recommended making bags for multiple attendants, and though I didn't want this to turn into too big of an undertaking, I made four extra bags. I'm glad I did, because we didn't really have just one attendant. There were three that tended to our section. So we gave them each a bag and they were super appreciative. I didn't do it for any special treatment, but they did hook us up with extra drinks, which was sweet.
We only had had about four hours of sleep (Cristina even less) but I didn't sleep on the flight, which only lasted 3 hours. I just listened to my chill playlist on Spotify. We got to Montreal and began our 6-hour layover. We got the lay of the land, checked out all the restaurants and gates, had some dinner, and watched a massive thunderstorm encase the airport in thick rain and fog.
Hanging out at our gate, we noticed that the plane using our gate before our flight was taking a long time to board. They announced that they were waiting for a crew to clean the plane and catering to stock the food before they could board. It stretched on and on, until it was obviously going to delay our flight, which it did. In the meantime, Bella touched down in Boston and was stuck on the tarmac. So while I watched our flight get delayed, I was monitoring Bella's situation stuck on the tarmac in Boston. Her already shortened layover was slowly evaporating while she sat on the tarmac, and as it stretched into hours, she began to fear that she could miss her connection, which had previously seemed unthinkable due to a 6-hour layover.
Our own flight delays were stretching into hours, and thankfully, after 3 hours on the tarmac, Bella, hungry, finally got off her plane and made it to her connecting gate, just minutes before boarding began. Instead of having time for a leisurely airport meal, she barely managed to buy a bag of popcorn.
After several gate changes, we finally were bused out to the tarmac to board our plane and by the time it took off, it was past midnight and we were three hours late. That meant instead of us arriving in Dublin the same time as Bella (8:15 the next morning) we were going to arrive three hours after her.
Our second leg flight attendants were equally appreciative for the goodie bags and hooked us up with extra drinks as well. Thankfully, we had an empty seat in our row, so after we ate dinner, we stretched out and fell asleep for most of the flight.
No comments:
Post a Comment