Day 0 - Travel Day
Our cruise was leaving on a Sunday. With it being January, and us living in the Midwest we decided we better fly in a day early in case we ran into bad weather. We would have left Friday, but DH had to work and the kids had school. Friday afternoon, I picked the kids up from school and met my Dad halfway (my parents live about 3 hours away). We had an early dinner at Bob Evans, then kissed the kiddos goodbye, as they were spending the long MLK weekend at my parents, then heading home to get back to school.
I got back home early evening, and finally got the suitcases out and started packing. I also was fervently watching the updated weather reports as 'Winter Storm Harper' had begun and was in our path. Where we live in Southern Ohio, we are often on the 'rain-snow line', meaning we don't know whether these storms will produce, rain, ice, or snow until the last minute. The forecasters were predicting anywhere from 1 inch of rain up to 8 inches of snow. Our flight was due to leave around noon Saturday, right as the storm was to begin. I crossed my fingers and said a few Hail Marys that we would get out before the ice and snow came. In addition to the weather, DH was worried about getting through airport security, due to the government shutdown, our poor TSA workers were not getting paid, and there were lots of media reports out about worker shortages, and airport delays.
I tossed and turned Friday night and woke up Saturday morning before the alarm. First thing I pulled up the weather channel app, and saw this glorious photo, looks like luck was on our side and we were on the 'rain' side of the line until at least late afternoon/early evening.
Hopped in the shower, and finished our last minute packing, and were on the road by 8:30. We enjoyed a breakfast of champions along the way:
We made it to the airport about 50 minutes later, parked in the ValuPark long term lot, hopped on to a waiting shuttle, and were at the terminal shortly thereafter. There was only 2 guests in front of us in the Delta baggage drop off line, a few short minutes later and we dropped off our bags. I had asked the check in clerk about our seats. For the first time we were flying Delta Economy as I had bought our tickets with credit card reward points, and I did not have enough points for anything but economy. With Delta Economy you do not get to pick your seats until you check in online 24 hours before the flight. I checked in right at 24 hours, however instead of getting a seat assignment, I was told I would be assigned a seat at the gate. The check in clerk confirmed the same thing, reassuring me that I was not on 'standby', just had not been given a seat yet.
After dropping our bags we headed to security, and were relieved to find a fairly short line. Within about 10 minutes we were through the metal detectors and on our way. By this time it was still before 10 and our flight was not due to take off until 12:50. I guess early is better than late.
DH decided he was hungry, apparently a half a cookie is not a breakfast of champions after all. We headed to the only sit down restaurant in the terminal, Max and Ermas. I did my very best this whole trip to take food photos for all you foodies, but fair warning, I often took a bite or two before I remembered. That was the case here. I ordered Erma's original breakfast, which included eggs, meat, potatoes, and toast. I broke the egg before the photo, sorry!!
After a leisurely breakfast, we pursued the bookstore, and I could not resist picking up this to read along the way.
Then we headed to scope out some good seats at the gate to charge our electronics. We were entertained by this friendly bird, he flew and hopped around all over the place.
It was just as fun to watch people's reaction to the bird as they came to sit down, everything from shock to delight to disgust. One lady suggested we try to catch him and take him to TSA!
As we were chilling, I remembered that I had intended to get a drink carrier to take on the ship so we could carry multiple drinks back to the room more easily. DH suggested we see if the food court had one, so we wandered down there, where I bought a cookie at McDonalds because I felt I should buy something if I was going to ask for a carrier.
Then we hit up the restrooms, and headed back to our seats. I opened the Delta app, and found that yes indeed, we had been assigned seats, as well as a boarding zone. Was thankful to get Boarding Zone 1, pretty sure that was only because I have the Delta credit card.
After some more patient waiting, we saw our plane arrive, and soon after, it was time to board.
We walked ALL the way to the back, we were in the very last row, along with all the other economy folks. Thankfully we were sat together. We took another selfie for good measure, then off we went for a bumpy but uneventful flight to Atlanta. We had some snacks:
Funny story about that snack mix. The flight attendants started beverage service, with one cart at the front of economy, and one cart at the back. Just as they got going it got REALLY bumpy and the captain announced he was stopping beverage service due to safety. Our row WAY in the back was the only one that got snacks. How's that for 'Delta basic' economy class!
And then finally saw some blue skies:
Once we landed in Atlanta, we had a 2 hour layover before our final flight. We decided we should get some grub as we knew we'd be having a very late dinner. Again, we aren't big food court eaters, we looked at the sit down options and saw a PF Changs. We headed that direction, but saw that it was closed for remodeling, boo. We ended up at Gordon Biersch, which we had never heard of before, but their menu looked good. It was pretty busy, which we took as a good sign. We were given a table right next to the open kitchen. We ordered our food fairly quickly, then waited, and waited, and waited. There was some commotion going on in the kitchen, then one of the employees was yelling, then yelling obscenities, then throwing a plate, then being escorted away by someone who we presumed was the manager. Our waitress came back out, apologizing, saying the kitchen was in some chaos, but our food was coming. 10 minutes later she came out again, asked us to repeat our orders, then promised it was coming. Another 10 minutes, she said it would be out in 5. 10 minutes after than, we finally got our food. Good thing we had that long layover. By this time it was getting pretty close to boarding time, so we quickly ate, hit up the restroom, and headed to the gate, where pre-boarding was happening.
Here is half of my ham and cheese flatbread, it was pretty tasty!
I had checked the weather again while we waited for our food, was happy to see we were sneaking out before the storm hit Atlanta.
We hopped on the plane (yep, back row again), took a selfie to mark the time, and then we were once again up in the air. This flight was bumpy too, but I spotted the sun out the window, which made me so happy as we had not seen the sun it what felt like weeks back at home.
Here are some pretty clouds:
And a gorgeous sunset:
We landed safely in Fort Lauderdale, headed to baggage claim, and then called for an Uber to take us to Miami. Backing up just a second, we decided to fly into Fort Lauderdale because it was cheaper, and again, I did not have enough credit card points to get us to Miami. It is about 30 miles between the 2 cities. We debated spending the night in Fort Lauderdale (it was cheaper), but ultimately decided to stay in Miami near the port, so we could have a more relaxing morning. Uber was very efficient (it was our first time), and with a little traffic, pulled into the Marriott Biscayne Bay hotel about 7:30 p.m.
We had booked a 'port view' room in hope of catching a glimpse of the Magic the next morning. We got our port view but were bummed we were only on the 4th floor, hoping to have been up higher. But it was just one night, and the room was clean, and comfy. Upon bringing our baggage up we discovered this, thanks Delta:
I tried to go online to file a baggage damage claim, but there was no way to do that without a claim number that was supposed to be given to us at the airport. We did not notice the damage when we were at the airport. There was an 800 number to call, to which the recording said there was a high call volume due to Winter Storm Harper. I did not feel like being on hold forever, so I hung up and just send customer service an email with a photo and decided to deal with it when we got back. For the record, they promptly replied to my email, and so far are being pretty efficient in dealing with the situation.
After that debacle, we headed down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. It was warm enough to sit on the patio without being too hot, so we sat outside where I enjoyed snap chatting about this lovely adult beverage:
And had a Cuban sandwich which was pretty darn delicious (and look, I remembered to take the photo before I chowed down):
I think I had a second drink, then we headed back to the room, tired, and ready for a good nights rest.