Friday, February 16, 2018

It was a lovely day until aircraft push back

We extended the hotel room till mid afternoon so that we could go out for a while and then have time for a shower before attending the airport for our flight back to London.
We left the Hotel around 10.00 and drove down to the dock where we boarded the ‘Jungle Queen’ tour boat which visits all around Fort Lauderdale looking at some really expensive and lovely houses and then on to the main Cruise Port where there were only two ships in Port at the time plus a large car carrier. It was a bright hot sunny day, yet again, and the trip was most enjoyable  and some of the houses were spectacular. The tour lasted 90 minutes and so when completed we went back to the Hotel via Publix to get some sandwiches made up  and then we were going to sit by the pool but they doing some building near there and so we moved to a quieter place. We left for the airport around 5.30 and dropped off the rental car and on to check in, in the departure lounge we enjoyed a very expensive glass of wine and some fries, and boarded the aircraft and the captain was giving us a run down of the flight during push back when he suddenly stopped and there was silence for five minutes. He came back on the speaker system to say that there was a problem with a tyre and we needed to go back to the terminal, Damn!!
We returned to the terminal and after some checking it would appear that during push back they had run the front wheels over some metal debris and damaged three of the four front tyres and there were not enough in stock to change them and so they would have to cancel the flight and everybody would get off and possible go to Hotel until tomorrow. So then chaos ensued as there ware families with babies and children and it was a completely full flight with about 400 people and they needed to find Hotel rooms. We had learnt on the river cruise that there would be about eleven cruise ships in port for changeover on Saturday which means that many Hotels would be full. Clearly they had problems finding Hotels for so many people and so we decided to try and fix something ourselves. There was also a problem with customs and immigration with regard to taking off the suitcases and so it was at least  2.5 hours after our supposed take off that we finally got our bags .So after about an hour on the phone , Hilton were all full (that's about ten Hotels) Hyatt the same it began to look like we would not succeed but the last shot was a phone call to Expedia who found a room in a Best Western at double the normal price.
The Best Western I-95 its called is a rubbish Hotel and for over £ 250.00 per night is a rip off either by the Hotel or Expedia, I will find out in due course but taking advantage of people ;like will not go forgotten and perhaps the last time we will use Expedia and Best Western
So what could have been a nice day and then an on time flight home turned in to a mess. We do not blame the airline as it was not there fault that the aircraft was pushed over metal debris and of course in the middle of the cruising season Hotels were full and if their full there is not much they can do about that. Oh well put it down to experience.
At the moment based on information received the flight will take off at 17.00 hours Saturday evening some 19 hours late
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