Oh Man. I am so far behind. My intention had been to write every single day we were in Cancun (my brain no so good, and I will forget details so quickly if I don't write them down), BUT I ran into a wall. Internet access at the resort in Mexico was an issue. So, here we are, a first entry for a trip that started and ended days ago.
As I write this, I'm realizing that I'm noting more details of some of the more... "less positive", or shall I say "adventurous" parts of the trip. I think that is because the details of the wonderful parts (i.e. beach time) are memories of feelings of hazy pleasure, warm sun, sand under my toes, having tasty drinks and food, and just a sweet time with my husband and friends. Hard details hardly seemed necessary to remember in those moments.
The bad parts actually made me giggle as I wrote them down, but the good parts are the ones that are sustaining me until we finally pass this grey winter and head into Spring.
SO, here we go:
THE TRIP OVER
We woke up super early (3:00 in the morning) January 30th, because we had to be at the airport super early. We were dutifully there about two hours early, checked our luggage, were scanned, and loaded onto the plane right on time. Then we sat. And sat. And then we sat some more.
An hour and a half later we finally took off, but this delay started a series of events that completely changed how our day was supposed to flow. We had been scheduled to fly from our town to Salt Lake City to Atlanta and then land in Cancun (where we were stay at The Dreams Cancun Resort)around 6 that night. Did not happen.
Turns out that our pilot had been trying to land at the LAX airport the night before, just as the first lady was flying out of that airport. The rule is no other planes are allowed to land or take off when the President or his Lady are in the middle of transit there. Our pilot was unable to stay on his schedule that night, and didn't get home until very late. The FAA has another rule that says that a pilot must have 10 hours between flights, ensuring that the pilot gets enough sleep. His misadventure the night before, and his resulting lateness, added with the 10 hour rule equaled us taking off exactly one and a half hours late. Despite our best efforts of running frantically through the Salt Lake airport, we arrived to our next plane about 10 seconds after they had closed the door. Because of another rule that says once the doors are closed they will not reopen for anyone, we officially missed our flight to Atlanta.
They signed us up for a different flight, but for some unapparent reason (at the time), our flight kept getting pushed back. We eventually learned that there is another rule that says an engineer needs to sign off on every plane leaving the airport (I approve of this rule), but unfortunately there were no engineers available to sign off anything. It was looking more and more like we were either going to be stuck in Salt Lake City, or we were going to be stuck in Atlanta at some unknown point in the future. There were really bad storms hitting all of the major northern US airports that day, and the thought of getting stranded at any of them was super depressing after all the Cancun anticipation.
We all started feeling a bit desperate, and eventually it pushed us to action. Rob and Derrick doggedly waited in the endless Delta help line. I got in touch with our travel agent, Jackie. Deana called her sister who is gifted in all things arranging travel. With all of our powers combined, we restructured our trip. Jackie was also able to arrange one more day in Cancun since the travel debacle was costing us a day, and Deana's dear Mom and my dear sweet sister both said they wouldn't mind watching our kids one day longer. Things weren't going as planned, but at least they were going again.
We ended up flying to Las Vegas first, where we had a 8 hour layover (we actually had a lot of fun there- went to the Postrio Bar and Grill at the Venetian for dinner *Salmon to die for*, and walked down the strip enjoying the sights), then at around 11:30 that night we did an overnight flight to Miami (It's worth mentioning that both the Salt Lake to Las Vegas flight and the Las Vegas to Miami were extremely rough, and while I was able to sleep on the long flight, poor Deana suffered greatly). We finally boarded the Miami flight to Cancun that morning, and landed in Cancun around 8:00 that morning.
We were worn out travelers. Fortunately, the insurance we'd bought from the travel agency handled rescheduling our ride to the resort as well as extending our stay for a day to replace the day we'd missed with our interesting journey (This trip taught me both the value of a travel agent and travel insurance. We would've been sunk without them).
Upon entering the Cancun airport, a Mexican man in airport gear swooped in and put Deana in a wheelchair (Mexico does such weird things for tips...) and wheeled her all over customs and over to luggage claim where we discovered our luggage had not made it. Having ones luggage not make it is a much more distressing situation that I formerly would have thought.
Finally we were finally in our room at the resort. Derrick and I just sat there enjoying the sudden calm after a whirlwind trip. He finally got up and got us both a Corona out of the little refrigerator in our room, and I ordered room service for breakfast.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. We eventually did receive our luggage later that night, which was nice because then we had clean clothes to go to dinner in.
The beginning of the day had been hectic, the luggage thing a bit stressful, but ultimately we were in Cancun and it was beautiful, warm and just the place we wanted to be. Vacation was officially ON.
As I write this, I'm realizing that I'm noting more details of some of the more... "less positive", or shall I say "adventurous" parts of the trip. I think that is because the details of the wonderful parts (i.e. beach time) are memories of feelings of hazy pleasure, warm sun, sand under my toes, having tasty drinks and food, and just a sweet time with my husband and friends. Hard details hardly seemed necessary to remember in those moments.
The bad parts actually made me giggle as I wrote them down, but the good parts are the ones that are sustaining me until we finally pass this grey winter and head into Spring.
SO, here we go:
THE TRIP OVER
We woke up super early (3:00 in the morning) January 30th, because we had to be at the airport super early. We were dutifully there about two hours early, checked our luggage, were scanned, and loaded onto the plane right on time. Then we sat. And sat. And then we sat some more.
An hour and a half later we finally took off, but this delay started a series of events that completely changed how our day was supposed to flow. We had been scheduled to fly from our town to Salt Lake City to Atlanta and then land in Cancun (where we were stay at The Dreams Cancun Resort)around 6 that night. Did not happen.
Turns out that our pilot had been trying to land at the LAX airport the night before, just as the first lady was flying out of that airport. The rule is no other planes are allowed to land or take off when the President or his Lady are in the middle of transit there. Our pilot was unable to stay on his schedule that night, and didn't get home until very late. The FAA has another rule that says that a pilot must have 10 hours between flights, ensuring that the pilot gets enough sleep. His misadventure the night before, and his resulting lateness, added with the 10 hour rule equaled us taking off exactly one and a half hours late. Despite our best efforts of running frantically through the Salt Lake airport, we arrived to our next plane about 10 seconds after they had closed the door. Because of another rule that says once the doors are closed they will not reopen for anyone, we officially missed our flight to Atlanta.
They signed us up for a different flight, but for some unapparent reason (at the time), our flight kept getting pushed back. We eventually learned that there is another rule that says an engineer needs to sign off on every plane leaving the airport (I approve of this rule), but unfortunately there were no engineers available to sign off anything. It was looking more and more like we were either going to be stuck in Salt Lake City, or we were going to be stuck in Atlanta at some unknown point in the future. There were really bad storms hitting all of the major northern US airports that day, and the thought of getting stranded at any of them was super depressing after all the Cancun anticipation.
We all started feeling a bit desperate, and eventually it pushed us to action. Rob and Derrick doggedly waited in the endless Delta help line. I got in touch with our travel agent, Jackie. Deana called her sister who is gifted in all things arranging travel. With all of our powers combined, we restructured our trip. Jackie was also able to arrange one more day in Cancun since the travel debacle was costing us a day, and Deana's dear Mom and my dear sweet sister both said they wouldn't mind watching our kids one day longer. Things weren't going as planned, but at least they were going again.
We ended up flying to Las Vegas first, where we had a 8 hour layover (we actually had a lot of fun there- went to the Postrio Bar and Grill at the Venetian for dinner *Salmon to die for*, and walked down the strip enjoying the sights), then at around 11:30 that night we did an overnight flight to Miami (It's worth mentioning that both the Salt Lake to Las Vegas flight and the Las Vegas to Miami were extremely rough, and while I was able to sleep on the long flight, poor Deana suffered greatly). We finally boarded the Miami flight to Cancun that morning, and landed in Cancun around 8:00 that morning.
We were worn out travelers. Fortunately, the insurance we'd bought from the travel agency handled rescheduling our ride to the resort as well as extending our stay for a day to replace the day we'd missed with our interesting journey (This trip taught me both the value of a travel agent and travel insurance. We would've been sunk without them).
Upon entering the Cancun airport, a Mexican man in airport gear swooped in and put Deana in a wheelchair (Mexico does such weird things for tips...) and wheeled her all over customs and over to luggage claim where we discovered our luggage had not made it. Having ones luggage not make it is a much more distressing situation that I formerly would have thought.
Finally we were finally in our room at the resort. Derrick and I just sat there enjoying the sudden calm after a whirlwind trip. He finally got up and got us both a Corona out of the little refrigerator in our room, and I ordered room service for breakfast.
The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. We eventually did receive our luggage later that night, which was nice because then we had clean clothes to go to dinner in.
The beginning of the day had been hectic, the luggage thing a bit stressful, but ultimately we were in Cancun and it was beautiful, warm and just the place we wanted to be. Vacation was officially ON.
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| Just before Vegas |
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| Flight to Salt Lake |
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| Just made it to Vegas |
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Dinner at the Venetian
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Bellagio |
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