Thursday September 2nd
As you know the build up to your holiday is all part of the experience, however ours was one with a difference! After spending eighteen months planning and looking forward to our trip we had now spent the last four days watching Frances’ progress with a mixture of disbelief and dread. One of my work colleagues phoned to tell me that MCO had just announced on the internet that it was closing from noon tomorrow and would not open until it was safe to do so. We thought surely that was it we could not fly in if the airport was shut…..could we?
We decided to tell the kids that we might not be going our dream holiday just yet, the wee souls had come in from school full of beans and really excited but they began to suss that something was not quite right when my wife and I found it hard to join in their enthusiasm. There were a lot of tears but they did understand and I promised them that we would be going sometime, if not tomorrow.
We tried in vain to contact someone, anyone from Icelandair but all offices were closed. We did speak to Servisair who are their handlers at Glasgow but all they could tell us was to report to the airport as normal.
Friday September 3rd
We all woke early as planned and went through the motions without really believing that we would be going anywhere today except back home. My wife’s parents arrived right on cue at 6.30am we packed up the cars and headed to the airport. When we arrived I spoke to the Servisair Station Manager who said that they were awaiting an announcement from Icelandair at 10.00am and until then they would be checking everyone in as normal except that we would be keeping hold of our luggage until the announcement was made. So we all checked in and sat about for 2 hours trying to remain optimistic but not really believing that we would be going anywhere, I mean MCO was closing ….wasn’t it?
Shortly before 10.00am the PA system asked us to report to check in desk 28, I did as asked expecting to hear “your flight has been cancelled” but instead I was told that the flight was going ahead and that we would be going all the way to Orlando.
Well that did it, everyone was now back in holiday mode we honestly thought that the airline knew best and that maybe something had changed since yesterday.
We had a great flight to Iceland and spent a lovely few hours in the Blue Lagoon courtesy of Icelandair (This is standard on every flight, not just ours!!) We had all but forgotten about Frances when the bus driver on the way back to the airport announced that we were to stay in our seats until an Icelandair rep had spoken to us. There was a deathly hush, I tried to reassure my family by saying that this is probably normal procedure but I was not very convincing. Sure enough when we got back to the airport she came onto the coach and bluntly told us that our flight had indeed been cancelled and that their was a plane waiting to take us all back to Glasgow. A few passengers shouted and ranted, all the kids cried but most folk just looked shocked.
At this point all sorts of thoughts went through my mind, I did not know where we stood with regards to our tickets. Were they now null and void because the airline tried to get us to our destination? I had a real fear that this was the end of our holiday. I got no reassurance off of the airline rep, all she would say was that I must speak to the agent from whom I purchased the tickets. As I looked around it was pandemonium, some people were frantically transferring to other flights going to places like Boston, Baltimore and New York and then planning to make their way to Orlando from there. Others were planning to tough it out in Iceland for the weekend hoping that the flight would go on Monday. Luckily I had spoken to my travel agent the day before trying to pre-empt exactly what was happening now and i had brought her number with me. My wife and her sister went in search of a phone and I stayed with the kids and in laws trying not to dissolve into a wreak myself. After what seemed an eternity my wife came back
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