my first vacation with my hubby (then my boyfriend) was a cruise departing out of Miami. We had a connecting flight to Miami via the hub in Charlotte. Needless to say, our departing flight was delayed, and we missed our connection to Miami. Upon arriving in Charlotte, we had to go to guest services to arrange for another flight down to Miami. We were told that the only flight that was available would get us to the ship after it departed. We explained our situation to the ticketing agent several times (e.g. WE HAD to meet that ship), and she booked us on a flight to Miami that would arrive too late for us!!! Even after we told her NOT TO BOOK US on that flight. She told us our only other option was to fly BACK to Philly (where we came from) and then catch a flight to San Jose (that would be the one in Puerto Rico), and then catch a flight from San Jose to the first island (St. Marteen)the ship stopped at. We finally gave up, called the cruise line, and told them that we were hung up in Charlotte due to airline issues. That was when we found out that an "unkown" delay had occurred on the ship, and that we should still try to make it down there...we had at least a 2 hour delay in which to try and make the ship.
So we hightail it to another guest services desk (already dealt with the first nincompoop!!), explain our desperate situation to that agent, who tells us that there's a flight leaving for Ft. Lauderdale in 45 minutes, and he can get us on that flight. It's less than an hour ride to Miami (can't remember how long 45 min or so I think). We ask him to cancel our Miami seats that we didn't want in the first place and book the seats to Ft. Lauderdale. He tells me that he will put a flag on our luggage so that when it's scanned, it will not get loaded on the Miami flight, they will know to take it to the Ft. Lauderdale flight instead We think all is well...until we land in Ft. Lauderdale
We go to baggage claim, no bags!!!! We're going on a 7 day cruise and have nothing but our carryons! I call the cruise line again, and tell them what's going on...they check on the status of our cruise and tell us there's a "customs issue" and that the ship isn't expected to leave until 7 pm!!! We file the lost baggage report with US Air (our bags already had the cruise line tag on them too) and hightail it to Miami to meet the ship. The lost baggage clerk told us we had $75 per person, per day until our bags arrived to cover expenses. Fine, we can make due with that if we're careful....clothing and toiletries are expensive, but we'll figure out something! Needless to say, we bribe a shuttle driver to take just us, and to step om it. I think we made the trip from the airport to the cruise port in just over a 1/2 hour!!!
Having never cruised before, we didn't know where to check in, and start running up the gangway....right past two stunned customs agents (who we didn't even see). We were so worried about making the ship, we didn't hear them yelling to us either! A cruiseline employee sees us running, sees customs agents running after us, and stops us. While the agents are catching up to us, we tell the cruise employee that we missed our connection, and thank god the ship's been delayed, because we finally made it! The cruise person suggests we show the nice agents some ID, and let them search our carryons, and he will personally escort us aboard! NOt only did he escort us on board, he took us to the FRONT of the very long line (we had been under enough stress for one day....can I bring you a drink while you're setting up your onboard account?) to set up our room account.
The cruiseline gave us one free t-shirt, and comped my hubby's tux rental (he checked his garment bag, I did not!). We headed off to the gift shop to get a change of clothes and some toiletries to get us by. We ended up spending about $260 on clothes and toiletries over the 3 days we had to wait for our luggage. We both needed swim suits, and bought 2 changes of clothes (tops and bottoms, no bras or undies available!!!..remember, this is cruise ship shopping/offerings). I thought we were very frugal, all things considered!!! Our luggage finally arrived and we could finally enjoy the rest of our vacation!!
Upon returning to PHilly at the end of our vacation, I go to the lost luggage desk to get reimbursed for our expenses. I give the man all of our reciepts so he can see exactly what we spent for each item we needed.....he tells me we have exceeded our limit. Apparently, there was a bit of confusion on our part (he tells me). The spending limit was $75 per day, not per person per day! I could not believe that after all that we had been through (I did tell him that we were held hostage on the airplane on the runway, sitting in the rain, knowing we were missing our connection, that we were booked on a flight we did not want because the agent did not want to look for any other options, and that, frazzled as I was when we landed, there was no way I "misunderstood" what I was told regarding the spending limit. I further explained that we were on a cruise ship, and a t shirt and shorts cost $50. IT's not like we could go to
Walmart!!). I think I was close to threatening him with bodily harm, and he recognized that....and politely informed me that he would be more than willing to (now) remiburse us the additional money we had spent. But the little bugger couldn't resist mentioning that he was "doin us a favor" and reiterated the spending allowance "in the event that this happens again." The only reason I didn't jump over the counter was that he was filling out the check as he was getting his last quip in!!
Once we finally got our bags, we checked all of the airline baggage tickets on them. Our luggage had been flown to Philly, then to San Juan, then to St. Marteen......the exact 2nd flight options we were offered by the first idiot ticketing agent!!!
Oh, by the way, the ship finally left at 7:30.....it was supposed to leave at 3:00. The "customs issue" was an employee who tried to smuggle a quantity of drugs off/on the ship, and customs was going over the whole ship with a fine tooth comb, dogs, the whole 9 yards before they would let it leave. It was surreal...we were in Ft. Lauderdale, watching a tv monitor, seeing helicopters hover over OUR ship!!!
