We are really looking forward to our upcoming back to back cruise on Celebrity Eclipse, which will visit Greenland and Iceland (on each leg) leaving from Bayonne and returning to Boston. We have never been to Greenland and are hoping to see some Northern Lights on this cruise. I should note that the Activities Manager on Eclipse, Ana Dulce, has already contacted me via email concerning the talks and the order they should be given on the first cruise. And for this trip, I even bought a new suitcase - a little bigger than carry on but a size that will make packing easier.
This cruise is complicated by the fact that our condo is being renovated while we are gone and the renovation started the week before the cruise. So, we had to stay in a hotel in nearby Glenview for that week (separate packing) and bring along the two cruise suitcases. On the day before the cruise, we are going to drop our cars at our kid's place (along with the hotel suitcase) and then head to the airport after checking out of our hotel. It's pretty crazy but we did think it through and it should work.
Travel Nightmare
I always check the weather forecast at both our departure and arrival airport. While the weather in Chicago is beautiful, the situation on the East Coast is not. Our cruise was supposed to originate in Port Liberty (Bayonne NJ) but severe and persistent thunderstorms are causing delays and cancellations of flights. Nevertheless, our AA App said we were on time so we departed for the airport. Our aircraft, AA1688, was at the gate, which I took as a good sign.
Delays started almost immediately. There was a glimmer of hope when we boarded our flight ( (B737-800 with Cabin Extra Seats) and actually pushed and started rolling.
I could tell something was up when our plane was taking a long time to get to a runway. The captain came on and said that the plane had been directed back to the terminal.
I was checking the weather radar in Newark and I knew that we were not going to fly today. The flight was indeed cancelled after a delay of several hours and it took almost three hours to get our checked bags back. This was a first for us and I always wondered how you got your bags back once a flight was cancelled. It's a nightmare; they are taken back off the plane and put on a special carousel in Baggage Claim. A lot of American flights were cancelled so a lot of bags were going to be on that carousel. Ellen had convinced the agent at bag retrieval to flag our bags (that probably got us some priority).
I cheered when I saw Ellen's bag finally emerge onto the carousel. Mine came off a few minutes later.
Since this was a new experience for us, I first contacted my agent who told me to call the Celebrity Corporate Travel Emergency Desk. The agent was very helpful and cancelled our NJ Hotel and set up a hotel for the night (Best Western Inn and Suites O’Hare) so we could get an early flight tomorrow. The agent at Corporate did some more checking and finally told us that the ATC mess at Newark would not be cleared up for several days and there were no flights the next day for Newark. That meant that we would miss the ship.
We took an Uber to the Hotel (the driver was a tad confused - I had ordered a ride to the Hotel but he took us from Terminal 2, the Uber pickup location (a long walk from AA T3, by the way) back to T3 (what?). After I clarified things for him, he took us to the hotel. Not a big tip or lot of stars for that guy.
The Hotel was nice and quiet. We were in Room 306 and the beds were comfortable.
After breakfast, I got on the phone again with Corporate Travel and she told me that, based on available flights (the ATC system was still wacked out with the storms), our best option was to fly out on August 5 (while Eclipse was at sea) and join the ship in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Celebrity Travel set up another hotel night for us here and new flights for August 5; United didn't have any flights available so she got us on Air Canada flights (code shared with United). We would first fly to Toronto with connections to Halifax. My agent notified Celebrity of the problem and said they would be expecting us in Halifax.
August 5, 2024
At the gate, I watched our plane arrive from its previous location.
After a weather delay (there was also nasty weather in Toronto), we boarded the aircraft. When I noticed that the flaps were extended in the take off configuration, I felt like this plane was actually going to depart.
We did depart for Toronto on Air Canada 506 and were airborne at 2:40 PM; our aircraft was an A220-200 – my first flight on this aircraft and we had nice seats on the two side and some decent legroom.
This is what I look like when we are finally in the air.
The flight to Toronto was relatively smooth - a short flight over the Lake and into Toronto.
We landed in Toronto about 6 PM local time. The situation in Toronto was predictably chaotic due to weather primarily and after some delays (you can see the water on the tarmac from the rain) and six gate changes in Toronto (thunderstorms again). I had loaded the Air Canada app on my phone which helped me track all of the gate changes. We got to what hopefully would be our departure gate to find an aircraft ready to go.
The weather improved somewhat (some blue sky poked through the storm clouds) and we left for Halifax on Air Canada 616 (aisle across on an A321-200 also with decent standard seat legroom). The passenger in the middle seat immediately went into sleep mode and the guy at the window coughed and hacked the entire flight. We'll have to keep any eye on any symptoms as COVID has come back and it's pretty tight quarters on this flight.
The flight to Halifax was close to the bumpiest flight we have ever been on – I could not get my drink to my lips because the plane shifted so much. The seat belt sign was on the whole time - fortunately, I didn't need to leave my seat for the duration of the flight (a little over two hours).
We touched down around 11:00 PM and our bags came right out (whew). It was very creepy - it was just us and a some folks traveling together waiting for a pick up outside of the baggage claim area at midnight. Here I am calling the hotel to see where the shuttle is.
The shuttle finally came and took us to the Holiday Inn Express Halifax Airport (thank goodness it was a 24-hour shuttle), which was out in the countryside and not really at the airport. We were both tired but the place was comfortable and almost identical to the HIE we stayed in at ORD. I honestly don't recall the room number but it was nice and quiet.
Celebrity Corporate Travel Emergency Services (Gladys) did a phenomenal job getting us to Halifax so we can join the ship.
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