Day 18 – Chaos at JFK - By the Skin of my Teeth

What a day today was…

Lesson Learnt:

Never take a flight the day of a cruise to meet up with it.  Always fly in the day before so that you are firmly in location for a stress free transition.

Background on how today was supposed to go:

8.30 am flight from New York, arriving in Fort Lauderdale at 11.30am, meet the rest of the family at the FLL airport, we catch 2 taxis to the cruise terminal. Check in and board our ship at roughly 12.30pm. Fun to start.  Simple, smooth sailing was the plan.
 

How today actually went:

I’m up at 4.50am and was in a cab at 5.20am, arriving at the airport at 6am for 8.30am flight. So far so good (and that is where the good stops for the entire day).  I had never seen such utter chaos and bedlam at an airport terminal in my life (far worse than it was when the boys and I flew out of Sydney). Of course it was freezing cold, there had been a blizzard overnight. I was flying on JetBlue Airlines (JB) they are at terminal 5 at JFK airport.  The queue just at this terminal alone was out the door for probably 200m when I got there. In the words of the classic Sweet Brown I thought to myself “aint nobody got time for dat” so I went inside the terminal and managed to wedge my way into the queue (my prior years of jumping the queues at night clubs finally paid off), at what point of the line I was in I couldn’t tell you, but I was indoors and warm, that was all I cared about. At 7.45am I was able to do my bag drop (that is an hour and 45 minutes in queue) and proceed through security. Getting through actual security was pretty fast.

Now I am in the JB departures terminal, check the flights board and see my flight is delayed from 8.30am to 9.55 am. I think to myself that’s ok, still leaves me plenty of time to get to the ship.  Also because of all the cell phone congestion at the airport, I’m hardly getting phone reception and was finding it difficult to get a phone call out to my brother who was now in Washington. With a whole heap of trying were able to touch base and formulate a plan if I didn’t make it to the ship in time.

 

After talking with a few people at the terminal, the picture was painted as to what had happened at JFK.  A plane had landed around 6am. It landed fine, without issue.  As it was taxiing back to the terminal it skidded on some ice and slid into a snow bank.  Then JFK and all it’s terminals were shut down for 4 hours. No planes were landing and none were leaving. Keep in mind my ship boarding time cut off was supposed to be 3pm, for sailing departure at 5pm.

 

JB were cancelling flights like nobody’s business. Over the loud speaker they kept on saying “If your flight has been cancelled, just leave the airport, do not approach staff and ask them to re-book as no assistance will be provided. No replacement flights will be available for three days. You will need to re-book on-line” or words to that effect.  The joys of low cost carrier air travel hey? I kept on watching the board as flights were being cancelled left right and centre. Fortunately mine wasn’t cancelled, I just kept watching the departure time for my flight get pushed back.  I had it clear in my mind and had made peace with the fact that there was every possibility that I was going to miss my cruise.

 

 

 

 

 Finally at 12.10pm we board the plane and we take off at exactly 1pm. Yep, she was a pretty bumpy flight the whole way to Fort Lauderdale. Also I am seated towards the back of the plane. So we land, I turn my phone on and call Peter, by now it’s 3.55 pm. Peter had clued some of the officials at check in and on the ship as to what the airline situation was out of JFK this morning. 

After I hung up this lad in his 20’s taps me on the shoulder and says, “I couldn’t help overhear your conversation, what ship are you trying to make it to?”

“Allure of the Seas” I reply
“Us too” he says.  His name was Viktor and his mate’s name was Mike.

We also came to the realisation that there were other people on that flight trying to make it to the same ship.  So from here on Viktor, Mike and myself stuck together to get to the ship. We helped each other with our luggage, Viktor went and organised the SUV taxi to accommodate all our luggage and we were off.

 

Drive from the airport to the ship was like a scene from the movies. The taxi driver was this Rastafarian dude with the dreadlocks and an islander accent to fit. He was speeding through the traffic like no body’s business. So from 3.50pm touch down, we finally pulled up at the cruise ship terminal at 4.33pm.  One lady at the door was giving the hand gesture cut off at the throat indicating we were out of luck.  Another guy is asking for our paperwork.  I had mine in my hand and handed it straight to him.  Viktor and Mike are scrummaging about for theirs.  The man at the door is on his head piece, talking in Spanish to someone for a few minutes, then finally he waves us into the terminal.  “Almost there, so close, yet so far” is what’s going through my mind.  Dreaded US security first and then check in. We’re all running, maneuvering our luggage as we go.

 

As we get to the check in counter the guy at the furtherest counter away call me over to him. 

“Are you Miss Duplex?”
”Yes” I replied
“I’ve been expecting you, your brother told me what had happened with your flight, I’ve already checked you in” Bless his soul.

There is no opportunity for my luggage to go to my cabin by the usual method, it’s all up to me at this point. From the terminal to the ship, the gangway is over 4 steep levels, and I am pushing and pulling my luggage as I go. Finally I make it. I am on board at 4.50pm – Thank god.

By now I’ve lost Viktor and Mike, I did see them go up the gangway, and as I’m typing this out 3 days later I’ve not seen them again and don’t expect to either.  Although I do feel with us teaming up and helping each other out is what enabled us to make it on board just in time to throw the ropes.

 

 

 When I got on the ship there were people everywhere doing the safety presentation, I missed that.  I got to my cabin and no-one was to be seen. I just had to sit down and take in what had gone on that day.  It was stressful, I reckon my blood pressure would have been through the roof, but hey, finally I made it.  As I was taking a moment to re-group the boys came back to the cabin and Peter and Sue were following closely behind.  So we caught up on the travel disasters of the day and then headed up onto one of the back decks to watch the departure from port. After that we explored the ship for a bit and then we headed off dinner.  The restaurant for dinner is called ‘Adagio’  it is over 3 floors and is supposed to be the largest restaurant in the world (or so I’m told). It is massive.  For mass produced food, the meals are exceptional. I am most surprised at the quality and variety. Just excellent.

After dinner we went to the diving show at the out outdoor sea theatre located on the back deck, that too was really good. I feel Shirl & Bern would love the entertainment on offer. And lets top the day off with a bit of rain, while we are watching this outdoors show, it started to rain, so we all had to scamper for shelter.  After this show the boys head off to the basketball courts, Peter, Sue and myself go to explore the ship a bit further.  There is everything you could want on this ship and Peter is ever so impressed. 

 

Finally it is time for shut eye and put the stresses of the day behind me.