Today was supposed to be a pleasant travel day. We were supposed to fly from Dublin to Heathrow and then on to Charlotte. We would spend the night in Charlotte before flying the rest of the way to Tallahassee on Wednesday. But as usual, things did not go according to plan. It started off pleasant enough, we got up at 6:30 to dress and then went to eat breakfast at 7:00. I was surprised how crowded the breakfast room was when we got there a few minutes after 7 when they opened. After breakfast, we finished packing and checked out of the hotel. I had arranged for a car to pick us up at 7:40 to take us to the airport.
We arrived at the airport and got the boarding passes for the three flights and Jay and I each checked a bag. We then went through security. They did not make you take anything out of your bags such as liquids, laptops, etc. After security we made our way to our gate. Our flight was on Aer Lingus and was due to leave at 11:15 and arrive in Heathrow at 12:40 which would give us 2 1/2 hours layover to make it from one terminal to the next and go back through security. But things did not go as planned. Our Dublin flight was delayed, it was only supposed to be 20 or 30 minutes, but it ended up being 2 hours. And they changed the gate 2 times. Finally, a little after 1:00 we started boarding. You have to walk down a flight of stairs to get to the jetway to the plane. They did not seem to have any order to how you were boarding. We had not been able to select our seats, so Jay ended up by the window and I was in the middle seat. We were not even offered anything to drink on the flight. I don’t know why, but the flight attendants completely skipped our row. the plane landed in Heathrow at 2:45 PM. We took off walking as fast as we could to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 2. We did have to get on a bus. There was six of us that was trying to make the Charlotte flight. The ticket agents said they couldn’t help, and we had to go back to Terminal 3 to the Aer Lingus ticket agents. So back the 6 of us went, we got on the bus back to Terminal 3, which meant we had to go through security again. By this time the other four had their tickets booked and was on the run to their gates. We were going to Tallahassee and Aer Lingus ticket agent was having trouble finding us a flight. She eventually said I could have a seat, and she would let me know when she had it worked out. After a while, she said we had to go back through baggage claims and then go to the Aer Lingus ticket agent in departures. That they were expecting us. But it looked like we would be spending the night in London. We eventually found our way to the Aer Lingus ticket counter, and she booked us on a Delta flight for in the morning. It would take us to Atlanta where we would spend almost 7 hours before flying on to Tallahassee where we would arrive about midnight. She also sent us to a hotel and gave us vouchers for dinner and breakfast. She also gave us vouchers for the Hotel bus. The hotel, Radisson Blu is nice, but the dinner vouchers can only be used in this one restaurant which was self-serve, and the food was a beef stew, some kind of pasta (maybe lasagna) that was covered in cheese, buttery mashed potatoes. They did not even have decent fixings for a salad and the only drink you were offered was water. It was very disappointing.
Jay was walking to a convenience store after dinner and he discovered a McDonalds on the way, so he bought a sandwich and me French fries. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
