Adam and I had the most fun vacation that we have maybe ever had. We went on a 7 day cruise to the Caribbean with 7 other couples from our neighborhood. Sixteen people provided everyone with a blast of non-stop entertainment.
However, getting to the cruise was a different experience.
For starters, I vow to never take a Red-Eye flight ever again if at all possible. There is a very good reason for this new goal. Let me explain.
Adam and I, along with our good friends Mike and Alison, decided to take the red-eye flight Saturday night to arrive in San Juan, Puerto Rico Sunday afternoon at 11:50 am.
We had a great start to our vacation and arrived to the airport on time and fully geared up for our seven day cruise to the Caribbean. Alison flew like a champ on the plan and was asleep before we even took off. However, the rest of us didn't fair so well.
We had a pleasant and short layover at JFK at 5:30 am and got settled in for our last leg of the flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Again, Alison was asleep before take-off. I too was lucky enough on this flight to fall sleep. However, I was awakened by the pilot sharing this news with me and everyone else on board.
"I am sorry to inform you that our left engine has failed and caused us to turn it off. We are currently flying solely on our right engine." (at this point I am thinking...seriously, failed. Is this a joke?) " Due to protocol we are emergency landing at the Turks and Caicos airport. They are expecting us."
(side note: After watching an episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County where one of the couples renewed their vows on the island I put it on my list of places to visit--just not in this fashion).
Good news: We landed safely in Turks and Caicos
Bad news: It is the smallest airport in the world (or close to it)
The flight attendant informed us that the airport only holds 250 people at a time and our flight had 250 passengers. Yikes! How about we all cram into this tiny airport with NO air-conditioning with a total size of maybe 2,000 sq ft along with the other 700 people coming and going on this particular Sunday and hang out for 8 hours. Sounds like fun--Not!
It was so crowded that we just parked ourselves in a corner and slept on the nas-tay tile floors.
Mike sleeping on the floor
Our flight carrier also included a lunch (after waiting 4 hours in hunger) from a local restaurant.
Yeah. I know what you are thinking. We dubbed it the "turd tuna sandwich".
For some reason the local mechanic they called down to the airport couldn't fix our plane's engine. Shocking--I know. So instead our flight carrier sent another plane from Atlanta to pick us up and take us the remaining 50 minutes to San Juan. At this point no word was given on whether or not we would make it in time to board our cruise. Panic!
This story is getting long so I'll try and wrap this up quickly.
By the time we landed in San Juan it was 7:30 pm. Our Cruise leaves at 8:30 and the last possible time to board the ship is 7:30. Yeah, we were freaking out right about now. Luckily many travel agents along with our flight carrier contacted Royal Caribbean to see if they would hold the ship for us. Guess what. They did!
After landing, we had a series of unfortunate events.
2. Our luggage carousel got jammed for 20 minutes.Time 7:55 pm
3. Our names were not on the list for the Royal Caribbean Shuttle so we had to find our own shuttle. Time 8:00
After literally 24 hours of travel, we finally we got on the ship at 8:45! Alison and I leaped and hugged and couldn't believe we actually made it on the ship. When we met up with the 6 couples already on board the ship we screamed and filled our plates with food as we re-told our day of unfortunate happenings.
Lessons learned--don't fly the day of your cruise!
Yes, I would totally go back to Turks and Caicos if I got the chance. I think the island is amazing--we just happened to get the worst possible first impression. Nothing a week long resort stay couldn't change.
Now our vacation can actually start. Check back for daily recaps.
6 comments:
oh my gosh, you guys weren't kidding about those tuna sandwiches. what was even the point of the lettuce?
oh i am crying from laughter! it's funny now that i look back! loved that tuna...we need to go back and see the island on a scooter...
What a nightmare! That must have been so exhausting and stressful. And seriously? Those sandwiches are pathetic...and totally hilarious.
That is funny and sad all at the same time. I am totally jealous of your vacation though.
That sandwich is hilarious. We took a redeye flight to San Juan also when we did the caribbean cruise. Our experience wasn't as bad as yours, but still really stressful getting on the cruise and I will never do a redeye again either! Excited to see all of your pictures!
LOL, you seriously have me laughing out loud at the sandwich! I have never seen a smaller scrap of food!!
That is totally freaky, I think I would scream out loud if the pilot of my flight announced that one of the engines had failed!
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