Doing Things Differently

As many of you know, my adventure to Jamaica started out early Monday morning.  What most of you DON’T know, is the hell I went through to get here.

My plane was late arriving in Toronto since someone in Atlanta had left one of the service doors open.  The plane set to leave before mine, was also delayed, but for a different mechanical problem.  My gate was in complete chaos, but the stewards told us that connections after 2PM in Atlanta would be fine and they wouldn’t change any of us.  My connection was at 2:45PM so I thought I was fine.  Boy, was I wrong.

My flight finally got off the ground, but several hours late and  of course, I missed my connection.  But, not before running to the gate and arriving at 2:45 PM. On time, but too late. Flight had departed, they had given away my seat.  So, on to the service desk. Raymundo was helpful, without actually being helpful.  I couldn’t get a flight out that night, and had to wait for the morning to get a flight to Miami, to get a flight to Jamaica. Crazy eh?

So, Raymundo gets all us strandees hotel vouchers and calls ahead to the hotel.  They have enough room for the 20 of us, and we get on our marry way. The hotel was alright, nothing special, but nothing horrible.  The nice staff there got us a ride over to a nice restaurant and we got to have a real dinner, which was nice.

I didn’t really sleep at night, but I did end up washing my clothes I had with me in the sink using the supplies from our overnight bags.  Unfortunately, because we were’nt at our destination, we didn’t get our luggage.  It wasn’t too bad though, since our shuttle back to the airport was SUPPOSED to be at 4:30 AM for our new flight.  I emphasize SUPPOSED to, because, the driver never showed up for work.  We then had to wait until 5:30 AM to get a ride back to the airport.

Once back at the airport, we all wanted good news, and we got some: we ONLY had to go through Security, since we had done customs.  We all planned to meet back up in Miami for breakfast, which was nice.  In going through Security, I got red flagged and had to go in the ’special white gloves’ line.  What fun.  I survived. That’s all I have to say about that.

Our Miami flight left on time, and we got to Miami on schedule.  We met up for breakfast, and ended up eating Burger King.  Then we had to go through Security again since we were on a different airline.  What fun.  Once again I get selected for that ’special white gloves’ line, and again I survived.

Our Jamaican flight was running a little late, but it wasn’t that bad.  At least we were finally going to make it to Jamaica. And, we did.  This is when our group split up and went our seperate ways.  I quickly found my bags, and got in line to go through customs.  Luckily, that went through without a hitch.

Now, my manager had arranged for me to have somone pick me up at the airport, so I wouldn’t have hassles.  And someone was there, with a sign, with my name (of course, spelled incorrectly).   So, I met up with them and they got me into a taxi. But, I didn’t have any money on me other than a few Canadian, and a few American.  It turned out I had JUST enough for the taxi, $30 split between US and Canadian.

I said thanks to the Taxi, got out, and went to go find my reservation.  Turns out though, the person who arranged my taxi, sent them to the wrong hotel. Sent ME to the wrong hotel.  Luckily, that hotel was nice enough  to get me ANOTHER taxi and get me to an ATM.  So, I took out some money so I could get to my next location.

It turns out, noone has receipts, or change.  So, I’m now out the taxi money, which is a pain.  But, I’m at the right hotel, so it’s good.  Or, so I think.  It turns out, since I was a day late, my reservation at the hotel had been cancelled. So, they had to make me a new reservation, and, now I was responsible for providing a credit card. MY credit card.  I had them call up my on-site contact, and he said I needed to cover the bills.  So, I then set up my room and asked about getting someone from my office to change the card to a Corporate card, and they said it could be done.

So, I get to my room and get a call: it turns out the hotel is footing the bill afterwards and I need to go down there and get everything sorted out.  I hang up the phone, and a second call comes in: the person that arranged my taxi calling to apologize.  I hang up the phone and it rings once again: my on-site contact is ready to meet me.

So, I meet up with my contact and get a quick tour of the site.  And, that brings me to now.

I’m glad I made it here alive and in one piece, with luggage.

Now let’s see what the rest of the trip has in store for me.

Oh, and, please stop wishing me luck.  Every time someone says that, something goes horribly wrong.