Headed Home - Day 9

What a day. I repeat. What a flippin' day. Our original flight out of San Juan departed at 4:30 but a couple of months ago it was changed to 6:30, so we had all day to kill in town. The plan was to take a taxi to Barrachina's (a restaurant) and have a drink or two with lunch - maybe walk around the Old Fort since it's pretty close by. Barrachina's has a complimentary luggage hold for late afternoon flights - or so the Internet says.  It was the first time we've been able to chose the last disembarkation time. Having a sort of leisurely morning, instead of rushing, was very appealing. Hahahaha. Last laugh on us. Someone in the group actually read the paper and informed the rest of us that Blu (and everything else) closed at 8am. So much for leisurely mornings. (One would think since this is our 3rd Caribbean cruise we would've remembered that. Apparently not.)  We met at 7:30 for our last meal.

We still had an hour or so after breakfast before our number (32) was called at 9:25. Spending it up on deck 11 in Reflections wasn't so bad. We all went through pictures and videos reminiscing about the fabulous time we had this past week. We heard the number 30 (and anything up to that) called about 9:15 so we were on alert waiting to hear ours. The room had gotten significantly more crowded in the last half an hour or so, and there were attendants checking them in. Weird, we thought. Soon after that servers came around with trays of mimosas and champagne for everyone. Hmmmm, we knew they do that when you arrive, we just didn't remember them sending us off with a drink in the past. You know we all took one. LOL.

It was when one of the crew picked up the mic and welcomed the back to backers (passengers cruising back to back cruises) that we freaked out. OMG! I don't think any of us have moved that fast all week!! We never heard 32 called!!! You can't make this stuff up. Wth? Apparently, when they call 30 it means everything past 30 too. And we're just supposed to know that? Smh. We flew out of there. It appeared that Customs has cleared our a bit -  imagine that - we were among the last of departing passengers. Let me just say there were very few unclaimed luggage bags left in the open room. In the past, grabbing a porter was a great way of bypassing the long Customs lines. One would seem to think it would be a good idea this year as well. Not so much. We had a great porter, who piled that dolley higher than you could imagine, got in line and waited. And waited. And waited. It was absolutely crazy how long it took. Jim and Kathy were literally the last ones out of the building. We closed it down. There were four agents for the regular line and one for passengers with porters. It took forever. The regular line went much faster. You just can't make this stuff up.

Finally through Customs we tried to get a taxi to take 8 passengers with luggage to Old San Juan. When we managed to get one he refused to take us because the traffic downtown was so bad today due to some kind of festival. (We found out it's the SanSe Sebastian Street Festival, the biggest festival of the year.) Sigh. Really? That should've been our first sign. The second taxi guy agreed to take us but did say the traffic was horrendous downtown.  As we progressed through the city it was obvious he was right. It was like a parking lot. Thinking ahead, we ended up agreeing it may be the smartest move to just go straight to the airport. Our driver was only too happy to make a U-turn right there in the middle of the street.

I believe it was around 11:00 when he dropped us off at the airport/zoo. To say it was packed would be an understatement. We couldn't check in earlier since we were off the grid with no internet and it was too late to check in online, so we just had to wait. You can't check in at the airport until four hours before your flight. That put us at 2:30. We had a few hours to wait. Our scout (Rick) found a spot we had gone before, on the other side of the airport, where we could grab a beer and snack. They only had light beer and the food didn't look that appealing but Bob found us a decent sandwich at the coffee shop two doors down. With more free time, we pulled our cameras out to transfer photos and videos, and see if we could figure out why the videos from Bob's phone wouldn't play and why my camera died - we thought it was the battery but that doesn't seem to be the problem. I just don't know. Will have to figure that out when we get home. I noticed the place seemed to be cleaning out. Lord have mercy, I look up and they're pulling gates closed, cleaning up the kitchen and closing up shop! Seriously? It was 1:00. Smh. 

Hauling all of our bags back to the main concourse, it was just as busy as before. And we still couldn't check in for an hour and a half. After standing there for a while Rick got bored (imagine that) and came back a little later with four cans of local brew with cups. LMAO. That boy is something. The guys stood right there in the middle of all that chaos drinking beer. Oh! And in the middle of that the screening center we were standing in front of pulled their gates and shut down. Security came out of nowhere. Wth? Someone had left a bag on the belt and not claimed it. Well crap, do we need to move? Is there a bomb that's gonna go off in there? Obviously we must not have been but so concerned because we didn't move. We just stood there watching everything unfold. In the end it was some drunk or high chick that simply forgot her bag. Smh. You can't make this stuff up. 

I had bought some internet time earlier and tried to check in online. It didn't work and we thought it was because it was too close departure time. Sarah had the international package and it worked long enough for her to get a message saying our flight had been changed yet again. Ooohhhhh. That's why we couldn't check in. All of us were anxious to get rid of our luggage and go find a place to sit down and chill. Finally it was 2:30 and we attacked the kiosks to check in and pay for the extra bags. After a number of failed tries the damn thing finally told us it couldn't fulfill our request and to see a customer service assistant. Joy joy. 

In the meantime, Sarah's had gotten far enough to get a non valid ticket printed. It said our flight was rerouted through Charlotte and our final destination was Newport News / Williamsburg airport. What? How can they change destinations on us? We arrive at 11:45 and our cars are in Norfolk. That's just crazy. An agent came down the line asking if she could assist us. When we explained the problem she told us there was bad weather in Miami (which is where we were scheduled to fly into) and that flight was cancelled. Our group was shown to Priority Customer Service where were again told the flight to Miami was cancelled due to weather. And since we were rerouted because of weather they were not responsible for ground transportation to get us to our original destination. Again, you just can't make this shit up. No matter what we said the agent stuck to her guns and so did the supervisor. Thankfully, we're traveling with a lawyer who isn't buying it. 

At least we all got TSA Pre✔️, right? We'll take small victories. Oops! Seven out of eight got it. Rick didn't. You can't even imagine the line to get through security. They had a ton of stations and scanners open and it still took forever. It was after 4:00 before Rick made it through. Needless to say he was not a happy camper. It just reinforces to us that we need to apply for TSA Pre✔️ and be done with this crap. It's $85 for 5 years. Well worth every penny. 

There was a very small, crowded Margaritaville restaurant down by our gate (it was the only place to sit down and get anything). As some customers finished, we swiped their tables. The flight boarded at 6:00 and we were cutting it a tad close since they were so busy - it was taking a while to get served. Walking to the gate we checked the boards and lo and behold our flight was boarding and on time. Hmmmmm. They told us flight was cancelled. Obviously they lied. We believe they overbooked the flight and since we didn't check in yesterday they gave up our seats and booked us on whatever flight they could to get us close to home tonight. We're flying American Airlines by the way. Just throwing that out there. The only Southwest flight going out of San Juan today was 8:00am and there wasn't any way we could make that so we went with American. 

Jim tried working some magic with the agent at the gate. That didn't work either. That guy had a major tude from the get go and had no interest in helping us. However, when we mentioned that the flight we were told was cancelled was boarding and on time, he totally changed the story and said it wasn't the flight going to Miami, it was the flight leaving Miami that was cancelled because of weather. Uh huh. Not buying that either. Our scheduled flight was boarding and on time and we're supposed to believe that everyone on that plane has a final destination of Miami? So Miami is grounded? We have accepted that they have changed our destination but cannot accept they bear no responsibility to get us to Norfolk. That's what we're trying to get them to arrange. By the time we land in Newport News it will be midnight. We aren't going to be able to get any kind of taxi to take us and our luggage from there to Norfolk. Can you make this up? I think not.

We landed on time in Charlotte and had about an hour before the last leg to Newport News. Jim tried his best to get something out of the agent here. As helpful as he tried to be there wasn't anything he could do either but did suggest we contact the AA Complaint Department. In the meantime, Bob got on the phone and rented cars for us - a van for the Riddles and the Comstocks and a car for us. Thank goodness he had the foresight to do that. DE and Sarah's son picked them up so they were good to go. We landed about 11:30 and had our rental vehicles and bags by about midnight. Not too much traffic to worry about that time of night. Oh wait, I almost forgot! I went to the restroom before we left and as I was washing my hands, this automated voice said, "Washing hands helps prevent the spread of germs. Thank you for washing your hands." Seriously. What the bloody hell? Consider me punchy. I'm sure whoever was left in the airport could hear me laughing. It got worse when Regina washed her hands and didn't get thanked. I have never ...

Another DEism - "Do you know what's gonna go good with alcohol tomorrow? My lips!"

The ride home was uneventful. We stopped by Walmart at 1am (or later) to pick up bread, bananas and peanut butter. A PBJ with some milk sounded like it would hit the spot. It was at least 2:30 by the time we got into bed. What a day. What a flippin' day. At least we're home. Safe and sound. (ETA: I'm happy to report that our Orange Truffle Baileys made it in one piece. Very happy campers.)

(Also ETA: On the drive over to the airport the next morning it was snowing its butt off. Back to boots, coats and scarves!)

Another DEism - "I need some prompting. My pegs are full!"