Jan 22
“The Honeymoon” The First 24 Hours
Some say that ‘getting there’is part of the trip. Well, in our case, it seems to be most of the trip. We left Swansea in a freezing cold South-Westerly wind, so it was a relief to get away. Forty eight hours later we finally arrived at the airport in San Juan! The plan was to stay overnight in Heathrow at the Park Inn Hotel, which was functional, but not in any way inspiring. Our flight was due to take off on the following day at 12:05. The first hurdle came while trying to check in. America has decided to introduce a new system called ESTA, which involves completing personal details on-line before you fly. Fortunately we were early, very early, having got up at the crack of dawn, so we were one of the first to get to a computer in order to on complete the necesary work on-line. However, we were not informed until we hit the confirmation button that there was a cost of fifty pounds. Hey ho. Apparently if we had been advised about this new system (which only came into action on the morning we left) we could have found the site from home which allows you to do this for free.
OK, then came the good news that our plane, en route from Philadelphia, had been turned back to the States because of engine problems. Possibilities of missing our connection loomed large!
While waiting for the plane to arrive Carol decided to put on a nicotine patch. Normally a straight forward process, only a scissors or knife is not something that one has readily available at an airport…. OK, this is Britain, what do you do? Ask a Policeman of course! Approached two heavily armed coppers for a knife – reasonable prospect, yes? I didn’t get the response I expected. “We are not allowed to carry a knife!” Sub- machine guns yes, but no knife, Hmm? They sorted it eventually by walking about the Terminal until they found a member of staff with a scissors. Tops marks to the Met for being helpful.
The flight eventually takes off four and a half hours late, after a further worrying delay on the tarmac where the US Airways pilot was giving us too much information about the further engine problems they were encountering. Full marks to US Airways for frankness, even if it was rather alarming. Needless to say, our connection is missed at Philadelphia, and we were put up for the night at the Sheraton, hugely better than the hotel experience in London. With less than four hours sleep we were on the move again, with even further delays while the aircraft’s wings were de-iced!
Watch this space for more. I need a drink
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Really happy to see you keeping us all up to date on the blog. Hope things are going well. Anna was 11 months old a couple of days ago, and it is now just less than three weeks before we’ll all be meeting up again
Very weird, the comment was put straight into spam. Perhaps three smiley face convinced Akismet that I was dodgy? A little surprised that a blog admin still gets filtered when it comes to comments!
Nope, this comments was thrown into the spam bin as well.
All is fab! Update the blog hopefully when we hit the ship tomorrow. Unable to process photos – maybe have a word with the ships photographer. Amazing place – lives up to the “Paradise” tag. wait until you see the shots. Did the rainforest today – bitten all over! Even the mosquitos had a nibble!!!! Computer access is a bit wierd, in the bar,which is dark, and my typing skills are very limited. But the drink is FREE because we are in the Royal Club. Your Mother is a bloody genius – fancy finding an Irishman free drink !!!!
Back to the champagne…
You’ll not need to manually approve your own comments if you log in next time John
hmm another comment that went straight to spam. Wondering if Akismet suddenly dislikes all Kazakh IPs?
John, the resort Carol booked looks wonderful.. I’m going to have to have her do my booking as well.
Hope you had a good trip home with little or no issues.
Diana and I had a some trip home.. Cheers.
Thanks for the comment Bill. Our journey home was without any major event – other than the total chaos at San Juan Airport! Hope that you didn’t get caught up in that. By the time we went trough Philadelphia, Heathrow and then on to Swansea we were completely exhausted. Poor Carol had to start work early the following day, so her body-clock was upside down, and she was like a zombie for a couple of days. I’m fortunate that time is my own, so I managed to catch up with sleep easily.
It was great meeting you both, and you know that you would be more than welcome in Wales at any time.
Best wishes John & Carol