After a negative covid test two days earlier today is the day I travel to Miami for the Allure of the Seas cruise. It was also the wierdest travel day I’ve had by far.
The universe put up a lot of obstacles to me getting to Miami but I persevered and got there.
Travel Morning
The strange things all happened in San Diego before I even got on a plane.
Power Outage
The day started out with our power going out about 1:15 am which woke me up instantly because I wasn’t getting air from my CPAP machine. I know a power outage isn’t unusual for some parts of the country but in 15 years I only recall two unplanned outages in our community.
Although the power was back on in 20 minutes I was up. My alarm was going to go off at 3 am anyway.
This way I had plenty of time for coffee and getting last minute stuff in my suitcase.
We got to the airport about 4:30 and I had no line to print off my bag tag but there was a long line to drop the bag. It didn’t move and 20 minutes later it became clear why.
Baggage Belt
American Airlines baggage belt had no power and they were having to manually take luggage down to the loading area. They only started doing this after a huge backlog of bags piled up behind them so stopped check-in while they moved them in front of the counter and had them picked up.
Another 10 minutes I was pulled into a separate line for my flight and was finally able to get my bag officially checked in. TSA precheck was a breeze (although I was randomly selected to go through the body scanner).
Once through it was a quick trip to the bathroom before trying to find something to eat. Of course all the lines were very long but I ended up with a breakfast sandwich and bottle of water. I scarfed it down just to hear our takeoff time was pushed back 30 minutes so they could get all the bags on board.
We did board 30 minutes later but we didn’t take off for 1 hour and 30 minutes. This of course meant I wouldn’t make my connecting flight and American told me so in the app to pick alternative flights.
I had three options. Two flights connecting in Columbus OH arriving at 9:44. Two flights connecting in Tampa landing at 9:49 or a direct that would get me there at 12:30 am. I close the middle one.
Travel Afternoon
Then when arriving in Dallas I went to Pappadeaux restaurant for a leisurely lunch and a cocktail.
The drink was yummy. I also loved the grilled salmon chopped salad.
If every restaurant cooked salmon this well, I would eat a lot more of it. Of course at this price I would expect great food.
My flight to Tampa left on time but we couldn’t there before a storm passed through and after circling a while had to divert to Sarasota for gas. After 30 minutes or so there we took off for Tampa.
Travel Evening
I would have been worried about my connection but it was delayed (wasn’t allowed to take off from Charlotte due to storm) so I still had a couple of hours or more to wait in Tampa.
While in Tampa I ate the lunch my husband packed for me (WW peanut butter and SF jam, hummus chips and baby carrots).
Once our plane arrived, they quickly turned it around and it was a smooth 1 hour flight to Miami.
Baggage Saga
While in Sarasota I had alert my bag had arrived in Miami. Great I thought. Once in Miami I had message to go to the baggage office. I went there and they said it was in the baggage storage room. But it wasn’t there and I was then sent to the overflow baggage storage room.
I waited for a supervisor to unlock the overflow room just to find out it wasn’t there. No, it was by one of the baggage claim areas where they had bags without people behind a rope. Walked back there and found it.
Then called the hotel who told me the shuttle only runs once an hour after midnight. I would have to wait over 30 minutes. At this point I was overtired to the point of wanting to cry so just got a taxi. Twenty minutes and $25 later I was there. What a day!
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