Saturday, February 17, 2018

And the day did not get any better

We passed the night in this not great Hotel and checked out at 11.00 and planning to spend several hours in the Lobby, then thinking what would happen if the flight does not go at 17.00 as planned. So looked in to Hotels again and there is not a room to spare anywhere for some reason. There is the Miami Boat Show, apparently motor racing nearby and also cruise ships eight, in fact, over two days. we also understand that many flights have been cancelled due to bad weather of the East Coast of USA so all in all its not great.
Looks good on the outside by RUBBISH inside with dirty floors and rooms
So we spent the morning in the Hotel Lobby waiting patiently for the time to go by when we received a text from the Airline saying that the 17.00 departure is not confirmed and they will advise later, Blast what does this mean. So we continued to wait and it was near lunch time and so we ordered a Pizza for delivery which was very tasty but then we thought it may have GARLIC and so we checked with the supplier and he said no but one hour later, where the Loo so it may have been the cheese or it was a bit fatty. Oh well where is the Loperamide.
A new text arrived and we though first of all we had misread it but the aircraft will now leave on Sunday Morning at 07.00 with check in starting quite early so that means a 04.00 start, which we just love. In the meantime we had befriended a American couple from Portland Oregon who had just come of their cruise and were the night in Fort Lauderdale before flying home tomorrow. Having check yet again Hotwire, Bookings.com, Hilton, Hyatt etc one more time the only room that appeared to be available was in the current hotel with the room rate again increasing. We had considered a renting a car and heading away from FLL and /or getting another airline back but the extra costs would be high so we decided to remain where we were and booked in. After we had confirmed the room in the Hotel the couple from Portland came back to say they been given a suite with two bedroom and it we wanted to stay in there it would be fine but unfortunately it was to late. However they said also later on as they were also looking to check in at 0500 would we like a lift to the Airport in their rented truck, they had this because there were no rental cars available.
So we planned a restful afternoon knowing that we would have an early start tomorrow morning. What is galling though is the way Hotels collude to increase prices during a room shortage, I will not forget this in a hurry.
We also had to cancel and change our taxi a couple of times as well, and all this costs extra money and lets see whether e can get it all back. Having seen the state of the Hotel capacity issues no wonder the airline could not find rooms and we feel again very sorry for anybody still stuck at the airport.
The rest of the day we rested and then went out to the Waffle House for a light snack, or at least that's our intention. Anyway early to bed for a 0400 call, not what we expected.