T16GEM
<font color=blue>I must have a funnel cake when I'
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2003
- Messages
- 6,487
This trippie was never going to be called this title but the events of the first day will fully explain why I have named it what I have! 
4.30am Monday 4th January
It's -6 outside and we are excited to be up and getting ready for our trip, we are due to get to the airport at about 6am an hour earlier than usual because of the extra security checks after the attempted bombing on christmas day. We got up and got the kids ready and packed our last minute bits and bobs, FIL arrived at about 5.30 and we loaded up the car with all of our stuff.
When we got to the airport we met Terry and Lou there and went to check in the line to check in was huge and we were shocked that it took us over an hour to get to the front of it, it turns out that the incoming plane from Newark was delayed but nobody would tell us why. We managed to access the internet on Terry's iPhone and it turned out that terminal C was closed due to a security incident.
We obviously felt nervous when we found out what had happened. They could not tell us at that point when we would be leaving Birmingham, as the plane that we would be using hadn't even left the USA yet but they would not let us go home either. We were given some vouchers for food and drink so we headed off to get some breakfast knowing that we were in for a long wait. The TVs were saying that the next update was at 10 am so we sat down in Wetherspoons and waited.
We all had a lovely breakfast of bacon, sausage, beans, fried bread and the men had a beer and girlies had juice. The kids were too excited to eat and so they played with their fuzzy felts and colour wonder books.
We went back at 10am to check on the status of our flight and were told that we were expected to be leaving at approximatly 3pm! We were obviously rather deflated at this news as there was no way that we would make our original connection now, little did we realise how significant this would be.
DH and I were running out of things to keep the kids occupied so we decided to take them on the monorail over to the NEC for a walk! We walked all the way around the NEC, rode the travellators and faffed about for a couple of hours. Then we rode the monorail back over to the airport for lunch at Frankie and Benny's.
Shelby between Terry and DH
After lunch we thought it would be nice to wander round the airport again - we hadn't seen that much of it after all had we?
At about 2pm we went through security and we didn't really notuce any differences in the way that they were checking people. Same old stuff, liquids in plastic bags etc. We were in the departure lounge for around 20 minutes when they called people with small children to beard. Off we went, here we met another huge line and it took approx 30 mins to get to the gate lounge, everyone was searched individually here - this was a big difference and even the kids Minnie and Mickey were searched and squeezed! Shelby found it amusing that she was searched, we were also all patted down and our shoes were looked at again.
We boarded and hoped for an uneventful flight. The kids were very good and slept for some of the flight, they loved the IFE in the back of the seats and Harley watched Bolt on loop without sound!
Shelby did some drawing
Eventually the sky map showed us that we were nearly there!!!!
We filled in the forms on the plane.......
We gathered up our bits and bobs and made our way through to see what would happen about a connection for us as it was now past 6pm and our connection was meant to be at 4pm. We stupidly assumed that they would have gotten us on a flight later on that night as obviously there were hundreds of people who would have missed connections, we assumed that they would bump back the flights so that those who had been delayed the longest would get on the connections but they didn't do that at all, we waited in line for over an hour with some bloke who was wandering around with a PDA thingy telling us that we would be able to make the 8.55 flight. He kept taking people out of the line who were parties of 2 or 3 and giving them boarding passes we were left to wait. Then when we got to the front of the line it was 8.30 and the woman at the desk said that there were no spare seats now and we were on the 7am flight the next day as there were no more flights that evening. I wanted to justt cry, 12 hours in the airport with a 3 and 4 year old was not really the start of the holiday that I was expecting.
DH spoke to the Customer Service people and they gave us some more vouchers, they didn't offer them though, we had to say that we hadn't got any dollars and couldn't buy anything for the children etc etc. We also needed to buy water and stuff as we were not allowed to take anything through to the gates with us becuase of the security rules. She said that it wasn't their policy to hand out food vouchers etc and they would only do so if they were asked my a customer!
I must say that I will not be using Continental again unless they give us some seriously good rates! It was shocking how they were treating people, they said that it wasn't their fault that we were delayed because it was the airpport security that let the man run through the gate the wrong way. We are now trying to decide if we should claim on our insurance for the night we missed at the villa as we had paid for it but obviously never made it there.
So we decided to go and grab some food, Mc Donalds it was
We found a place to sit around Gate 75 as there wasn't anyone else around there. I stayed awake with the kids and the others tried to sleep, Shelby eventually fell asleep on the floor and Harley slept in his buggy. It was 5.40am which would have been 10.40 our time the next day before we were called for our boarding of the flight.
It was uneventful - thank goodness and at 9.30 we were eventually in Florida!!!!! but it was bloody freezing - oh well at least we were here huh!
4.30am Monday 4th January
It's -6 outside and we are excited to be up and getting ready for our trip, we are due to get to the airport at about 6am an hour earlier than usual because of the extra security checks after the attempted bombing on christmas day. We got up and got the kids ready and packed our last minute bits and bobs, FIL arrived at about 5.30 and we loaded up the car with all of our stuff.
When we got to the airport we met Terry and Lou there and went to check in the line to check in was huge and we were shocked that it took us over an hour to get to the front of it, it turns out that the incoming plane from Newark was delayed but nobody would tell us why. We managed to access the internet on Terry's iPhone and it turned out that terminal C was closed due to a security incident.
We obviously felt nervous when we found out what had happened. They could not tell us at that point when we would be leaving Birmingham, as the plane that we would be using hadn't even left the USA yet but they would not let us go home either. We were given some vouchers for food and drink so we headed off to get some breakfast knowing that we were in for a long wait. The TVs were saying that the next update was at 10 am so we sat down in Wetherspoons and waited.
We all had a lovely breakfast of bacon, sausage, beans, fried bread and the men had a beer and girlies had juice. The kids were too excited to eat and so they played with their fuzzy felts and colour wonder books.
We went back at 10am to check on the status of our flight and were told that we were expected to be leaving at approximatly 3pm!
We were obviously rather deflated at this news as there was no way that we would make our original connection now, little did we realise how significant this would be. DH and I were running out of things to keep the kids occupied so we decided to take them on the monorail over to the NEC for a walk! We walked all the way around the NEC, rode the travellators and faffed about for a couple of hours. Then we rode the monorail back over to the airport for lunch at Frankie and Benny's.
Shelby between Terry and DH
After lunch we thought it would be nice to wander round the airport again - we hadn't seen that much of it after all had we?
At about 2pm we went through security and we didn't really notuce any differences in the way that they were checking people. Same old stuff, liquids in plastic bags etc. We were in the departure lounge for around 20 minutes when they called people with small children to beard. Off we went, here we met another huge line and it took approx 30 mins to get to the gate lounge, everyone was searched individually here - this was a big difference and even the kids Minnie and Mickey were searched and squeezed! Shelby found it amusing that she was searched, we were also all patted down and our shoes were looked at again.
We boarded and hoped for an uneventful flight. The kids were very good and slept for some of the flight, they loved the IFE in the back of the seats and Harley watched Bolt on loop without sound!
Shelby did some drawing
Eventually the sky map showed us that we were nearly there!!!!
We filled in the forms on the plane.......
We gathered up our bits and bobs and made our way through to see what would happen about a connection for us as it was now past 6pm and our connection was meant to be at 4pm. We stupidly assumed that they would have gotten us on a flight later on that night as obviously there were hundreds of people who would have missed connections, we assumed that they would bump back the flights so that those who had been delayed the longest would get on the connections but they didn't do that at all, we waited in line for over an hour with some bloke who was wandering around with a PDA thingy telling us that we would be able to make the 8.55 flight. He kept taking people out of the line who were parties of 2 or 3 and giving them boarding passes we were left to wait. Then when we got to the front of the line it was 8.30 and the woman at the desk said that there were no spare seats now and we were on the 7am flight the next day as there were no more flights that evening. I wanted to justt cry, 12 hours in the airport with a 3 and 4 year old was not really the start of the holiday that I was expecting.
DH spoke to the Customer Service people and they gave us some more vouchers, they didn't offer them though, we had to say that we hadn't got any dollars and couldn't buy anything for the children etc etc. We also needed to buy water and stuff as we were not allowed to take anything through to the gates with us becuase of the security rules. She said that it wasn't their policy to hand out food vouchers etc and they would only do so if they were asked my a customer!
I must say that I will not be using Continental again unless they give us some seriously good rates! It was shocking how they were treating people, they said that it wasn't their fault that we were delayed because it was the airpport security that let the man run through the gate the wrong way. We are now trying to decide if we should claim on our insurance for the night we missed at the villa as we had paid for it but obviously never made it there.
So we decided to go and grab some food, Mc Donalds it was
We found a place to sit around Gate 75 as there wasn't anyone else around there. I stayed awake with the kids and the others tried to sleep, Shelby eventually fell asleep on the floor and Harley slept in his buggy. It was 5.40am which would have been 10.40 our time the next day before we were called for our boarding of the flight.
It was uneventful - thank goodness and at 9.30 we were eventually in Florida!!!!! but it was bloody freezing - oh well at least we were here huh!
) but at least our children are a bit older than yours. I hope it all goes smoothly for you now 
