Hi, we're back it was a great day! The weather held out til we had moved indoors. The heat was oppressive and it was good to be in the a/c. Peter and all were the most gracious hosts and outdid themselves and went so overboard making u feel at home
Here is the group photo.Thanks to Micmse2003 for talking me thru.
Ill try to identify everyone. I do apologize I didn't get the kids names in the front.
left to right
Me, DH/Mkygrl, Mkygrl/Chrissie, Rich dh/arlenesp, David/Daipp,
In the disgreen shirts are Devon DD/Goofyforlife/ Kristina/Goofyforlife,Andy/DH Goofyforlife, Next to Andy is HelenDW/Daipp, her DD Bethann,Justine DW/Fincantieri, Alex DS/Daipp, DH/VillagesBarbara, VillagesBarbara, Jack/Fincantieri. and Peter/Darthrugby in the front.
Really sorry we missed the meet, especially after what we went through getting home. As you may recall, we chose to end our trip on 8/23 because that was the last day we could find frequent flyer tickets with direct flights to Chicago.
So we left the Yacht Club at 4 on Thursday and went to MCO and hung out for awhile before our 7:00 flight. We went through security around 5:30 and as I pulled my phone back out of my bag, saw the page our flight was cancelled, called AA and they rebooked us on a 7:05PM! flight Friday night. So we had to go claim our bags (so much for the ease of Magical Express) and spend a way-too-expensive night in the Hyatt.
Friday morning, flights were being delayed two hours or more into O'Hare already. I called AA and they told us the chances of getting out were slim. So we rebooked on a flight through Miami leaving MCO at 6AM and then MIA at 8:30 to get to ORD. Then we rented a car and drove to Sea World. Our DS10 got sick in the car on the way to Sea World. Thank goodness we had extra plastic bags in the car for him to get sick into.
Sea World was fun for a while, but huge storms rolled through Friday afternoon and all of the afternoon shows were cancelled. We were in the Polar Bear exhibit when the fire alarms went off and we had to exit out into a torrential thunderstorm. So we felt we wasted $350 on Sea World. We went to the Hilton GV near Sea World for the night, after a stop at Wal-Mart for clean clothes.
We flew to MIA this morning (Saturday) with no issues. They couldn't put the five of us together, so they put me and my son in first class and the other three in coach together. I gave the first class seats to my wife and DD5 so Janie could try to get Rebecca to nap.
Arrived MIA with no problems and grabbed some breakfast and thought our luck was changing. Umm, no. Seated in the very last row of a 757, right next to the toilets (which smelled bad), we pushed away from the gate on time only to be told there was a problem with a motor on the stabilizer. Sat on the plane for 2-1/2 hours, being served only warm water, before being told the plane would not fly. Exited the plane and waited for 30 minutes before they cancelled the flight around 11AM. Called AA and got the five of the last six seats on a 4:30PM flight from MIA to ORD. Sat around MIA for five hours and FINALLY boarded a plane to home.
Luck changed at last -- we were seated together, in business class seats of a 777 (although they were not providing business class service), the plane left on time, arrived on time, and our luggage had beaten us to Chicago.
So 46 hours late, on three different airplanes in three cities and two extra nights in hotels, we're finally home.
So, short story was we could have just planned to stay through tonight and caught the connecting flight through STL and been home at the same time.
As I said to SWMBO last night (after finding out the 705PM flight on Friday did get to ORD around midnight after all), "Every decision we've made has taken us from bad to worse..."
It actually rained (OK sprinkled) on us on the way down to Hollywood from Hurricane Dean.
