This is from Doug ..... I just don't know what to say . I only found out YESTERDAY that they did not get on the cruise ship . They decided to just manage themselves ....how I wish they had called me .... but I wonder if it would have still turned out the same ??? You can help missed flights and delays ....I feel terrible for them both.
We are now in Swanage staying at `Celia's bother Charlie's apartment. He left For Scotland this morning to visit his son and his family.
Monday night I completed a 3 page diary to give you the details of our trip from Hell so far but when I tried to connect with the server at our Quality Hotel - Heathrow, they ended up changing my laptop settings and I never did get it sent, If I can get Celia to retype it, we'll send it later.
In essence, here is what happened:
Friday we boarded the plane on time to fly to NYC to get the Queen Mary 2. Because of a severe storm on the East coast all air traffic was backed up to the point that out flight was delayed from takeoff so that it was impossible for us to get the embarkation time of 5:00 PM. We recovered our luggage after two hours and just grabbed a local hotel for the night.
Saturday we decided we were not admitting defeat and going home but were getting out of Buffalo so we flew to to JFK and got another hotel for the night. Long story.
Sunday I arranged a `first Class ticket for Celia on Air India as our only option to get to he UK. I rode economy. `Celia slept most of the way and was fine upon arrival.
Mon we arrived Heathrow at 8:30 AM at went to the Hotel for a snooze. We stayed here overnight.
Tuesday we got a car and Celia drove us to Swanage where we will be staying until next Tuesday.
We are hoping everything will get much better Froom here on. Needless to say we were disappointed more than I can express here. Between the disappointment, personal baggage handling, lousy hotels, junk food meals on the run, it has been a trip from HELL so far. Celia is resting right now after a visit to Decia's. She may add to this later.
Cheers, Doug
