Instead of waking up to the sight of St. Thomas (photos courtesy of my neice Anna who made it on board on time), the Manzella family woke up in a stinky hotel room in rainy Atlanta, Georgia. Not what we paid for. We get ready, which for me consists of taking a quick shower and putting on the same clothes I wore yesterday. Beni and the boys had a change of clothes in the carry-0n bag.
The shuttle drops us off at the airport, and not having to check in any bags, we go through security and to our gate and wait for about three hours. When an attendant gets to the desk, Beni has her check to see if our luggage was found and if it is on our flight. She confirms that yes, it is on this flight with us. Halleluia!
We board the plane, sitting in FIRST CLASS, and it takes off on time. We should arrive at 3 and we have until 5 or 5:30 to board the ship. Beni called from Atlanta to make sure someone from Royal Caribbean was aware we were coming late and would be at the airport to bring us to the ship. Airborne we could see the Florida Keys and the clear blue seas and things started looking up. In just a few hours all would be right with the world again.
Disembarking in St. Thomas was fun. We got to alight from the plane on the tarmac from one of those roll-up staircases, which makes you feel like a dignitary. The airport was tiny. We went through customs quickly and painlessly and went to the semi-outdoor baggage claim area. We saw many islanders holding signs with people's names on them, but of course, none had our name. Not a good sign. I stood and waited for our bags while Beni called Royal Caribbean yet again to make sure someone was coming to get us.
The boys were getting antsy. Mario kept asking, "Is that one ours?" and when I'd tell him it wasn't he became upset that our luggage would be lost again, and it would be all Frankie's fault. Soon, all the luggage had come and gone and - you guessed it - our's hadn't arrived. Beni found the guy from Royal Caribbean who'd been given the wrong arrival time, almost left without us, then gotten another call saying we were there and turned around and come back. He and Beni went to file a missing luggage form. A woman from New York was throwing a fit, threatening to shoot someone because her luggage was also missing. I went to talk to her to let her know we were in the same situation. She said she'd been in a hotel in NJ for two days because of weather delays while she'd been paying for a hotel in St. Thomas. Now her luggage was lost. I wished her luck, went and sat on the conveyer belt and started to just sob. Frankie saw me and came and sat next to me and said, "Mommy, it's all my fault." Now I was out of control. I was sad that my vacation was ruined, I was upset that my youngest son felt he was to blame thanks to my oldest son and I was ready to put Mario on medication to get him under control.
The RC rep decided he'd drive us to the ship so that we'd make it on board and he would come back to deal with the luggage situation and worse case scenario we'd have our luggage at our next port of call. As we rode to the port I imagined myself attending that night's dinner in my bathing suit - the only other clothes I had with me.
One would think that with all the crap we'd been through, and knowing that we were arriving and someone had come to get us, someone from the boat would be waiting to greet us and process us and appologize, but no. We had to wait in front of the boat as all the passengers from the day before passed us wearing swimsuit cover-ups and shorts and sunglasses and carrying souvenier bags, laughing and looking at us and wondering what our story was. Someone asked, "Did you just arrive?" and we told everyone we knew to boycott Delta airlines and told them of our ordeal. People were very nice and said things like, we hadn't missed anything fun and that St. Thomas wasn't really that nice, etc. All lies, I'm sure, but exactly what we'd wanted to hear.
Finally someone from the ship came and took us in and gave us our cards to board the ship. They took us up to guest services where we had to fill out all kinds of stuff, not just for boarding but to address the lost luggage situation. The boys were still ansty, so Beni gave me the room keys and had me take them to the room. On the way, we saw Beni's dad. He asked where Beni was and I told him filling out paper work for our lost luggage. He said, "Your luggage is here, in your room. It came last night." Sure enough, we opened our stateroom and there were our bags. Basically, the Delta attendant who told us our bags were on the flight with us had flat out lied! Not to mention the fact that the RC personnel had no idea that our bags had been checked in! I left the boys with their grandparents and went to tell Beni.
All this settled, we had 45 min. to shower and get ready for our first formal dinner. We were on the ship, and things could only get better, but it was the worst start to a vacation than any of us had ever experienced!
The shuttle drops us off at the airport, and not having to check in any bags, we go through security and to our gate and wait for about three hours. When an attendant gets to the desk, Beni has her check to see if our luggage was found and if it is on our flight. She confirms that yes, it is on this flight with us. Halleluia!
We board the plane, sitting in FIRST CLASS, and it takes off on time. We should arrive at 3 and we have until 5 or 5:30 to board the ship. Beni called from Atlanta to make sure someone from Royal Caribbean was aware we were coming late and would be at the airport to bring us to the ship. Airborne we could see the Florida Keys and the clear blue seas and things started looking up. In just a few hours all would be right with the world again.
Disembarking in St. Thomas was fun. We got to alight from the plane on the tarmac from one of those roll-up staircases, which makes you feel like a dignitary. The airport was tiny. We went through customs quickly and painlessly and went to the semi-outdoor baggage claim area. We saw many islanders holding signs with people's names on them, but of course, none had our name. Not a good sign. I stood and waited for our bags while Beni called Royal Caribbean yet again to make sure someone was coming to get us.
The boys were getting antsy. Mario kept asking, "Is that one ours?" and when I'd tell him it wasn't he became upset that our luggage would be lost again, and it would be all Frankie's fault. Soon, all the luggage had come and gone and - you guessed it - our's hadn't arrived. Beni found the guy from Royal Caribbean who'd been given the wrong arrival time, almost left without us, then gotten another call saying we were there and turned around and come back. He and Beni went to file a missing luggage form. A woman from New York was throwing a fit, threatening to shoot someone because her luggage was also missing. I went to talk to her to let her know we were in the same situation. She said she'd been in a hotel in NJ for two days because of weather delays while she'd been paying for a hotel in St. Thomas. Now her luggage was lost. I wished her luck, went and sat on the conveyer belt and started to just sob. Frankie saw me and came and sat next to me and said, "Mommy, it's all my fault." Now I was out of control. I was sad that my vacation was ruined, I was upset that my youngest son felt he was to blame thanks to my oldest son and I was ready to put Mario on medication to get him under control.
The RC rep decided he'd drive us to the ship so that we'd make it on board and he would come back to deal with the luggage situation and worse case scenario we'd have our luggage at our next port of call. As we rode to the port I imagined myself attending that night's dinner in my bathing suit - the only other clothes I had with me.
One would think that with all the crap we'd been through, and knowing that we were arriving and someone had come to get us, someone from the boat would be waiting to greet us and process us and appologize, but no. We had to wait in front of the boat as all the passengers from the day before passed us wearing swimsuit cover-ups and shorts and sunglasses and carrying souvenier bags, laughing and looking at us and wondering what our story was. Someone asked, "Did you just arrive?" and we told everyone we knew to boycott Delta airlines and told them of our ordeal. People were very nice and said things like, we hadn't missed anything fun and that St. Thomas wasn't really that nice, etc. All lies, I'm sure, but exactly what we'd wanted to hear.
Finally someone from the ship came and took us in and gave us our cards to board the ship. They took us up to guest services where we had to fill out all kinds of stuff, not just for boarding but to address the lost luggage situation. The boys were still ansty, so Beni gave me the room keys and had me take them to the room. On the way, we saw Beni's dad. He asked where Beni was and I told him filling out paper work for our lost luggage. He said, "Your luggage is here, in your room. It came last night." Sure enough, we opened our stateroom and there were our bags. Basically, the Delta attendant who told us our bags were on the flight with us had flat out lied! Not to mention the fact that the RC personnel had no idea that our bags had been checked in! I left the boys with their grandparents and went to tell Beni.
All this settled, we had 45 min. to shower and get ready for our first formal dinner. We were on the ship, and things could only get better, but it was the worst start to a vacation than any of us had ever experienced!
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