Wednesday, September 22, Day 16 of my 30-day JetBlue All You Can Jet Adventure
A long travel day, and now a second attempt at reporting on it, after the first one disppeared as I tried to work around a non-working wireless mouse. And I just typed it as a gmail draft, figuring I could copy and paste it here, but that's not working... so I'm retyping it all... again ... aghhhhh. If there are any typos, I apologize, but I'll try to catch them.... later.
Beginning in New Orleans, I arose at 6am, after getting to bed at 1am. This wasn't even due to partying, just catching up on blog-writing and packing. For this long travel day, I took advantage of the Country Inn Hotel and Suites free breakfast. A free hotel breakfast is perfect for a day like this. It's fast and easy, and there for you, no thinking required.
The hotel is not a sleek, modern skyscraper kind of place. It was built in an old warehouse of some kind, so it has character, old brick walls, and other interesting architectural quirks. It's on Magazine Street, west of Canal, so away from the Bourbon Street area, but an easy walking distance.
The day really started with a lesson on why you need to double and triple check things when you travel. The airport shuttle was to pick me up at 7:10am. By 7:18 or so, I called the shuttle to see where they were, but had to leave a message when no human responded. I had arrived in New Orleans on 9/20, told the shuttle person I was only in town for 2 days, and she said she could schedule the return shuttle to the airport right there. By around 7:20, I looked at my receipt, and noticed it said pick up at 7:10am on 9/29. Wait. What? I looked at it for a second, and thought, what day is it today? Uh-oh. She put the wrong date on this. It should be 9/22. Aghh! I started calling again and the woman at the hotel front desk help me by dialing as well.
I got through to a human, and started telling her my problem. She asked why I waited until 7:30 to call... "But I did call, nobody answered!" Breathe. Don't panic. It's all fine. She checked with dispatch and said a van would be there to pick me up, and bring me to another van that would get me to the airport by 8:30. My flight leaves at 9:45. So that's what we did. After a short tour around New Orleans, picking up people, moving onto another van, we were off to the airport.
One other van passenger had an AYCJ pass, so we compared notes on where we had been and where we were going next. In the Country Inn Hotel, I had seen a man wearing the AYCJ logo, which, of course, gave me permission to yell out at him, "Hey, All You Can Jet, me too!" It's like being a member of a secret club. Maybe we should have an AYCJ secret handshake.
On the airport shuttle, we talked about the pass, and at least one of the passengers was making a note to check next August to see if JetBlue would offer it again in 2011.
We made it to the New Orleans Airport fine, and to JFK with no problems. Another full flight, but I did manage a little nap time on board. This was my first time spending time between flights at JetBlue's Terminal 5 at JFK and it was nice. Several food options, and places to plug in your computer and use free Wifi. By the time I had eated (salad bar and soup) I had time to check my email, and it was time to board the next flight to Fort Lauderdale. At one point, sitting in the terminal I looked around and thought briefly, wait, where am I? Oh right, back in NYC, headed for.... oh yeah, Florida... geesh!
The pilot made a comment about heavy traffic driving in on the Van Wyck (NYC expressway leading to JFK) and then we headed out to the runway, and stopped. And waited. The pilot initially said it was a weather delay that was backing up planes. I recalled that when I was leaving NYC (was that really only Monday, 2 days ago?) they warned of heavy traffic, since the UN was in session all week. I wondered if there were foreign dignitaries arriving at the airport. Then I remembered that President Obama was going to speak at the UN this week. Hmm, I wonder if that's today?
Whenever any president visits your town, expect traffic delays. When Reagan visited LA, he often stayed at the Century Plaza Hotel, and whenever I heard many helicopters buzzing overhead, I knew, he must be in town. While I was living in NYC, visits by both Clinton and Bush caused delays, including stopping a subway line that I was one. It was above ground, and traveled over an expressway the president's motorcade would be using. We waited until the motorcade had passed.
I turned to CNN on my JetBlue Direct TV screen, but didn't see any reports fromNYC. Then the pilot confirmed there was VIP Movement or some such description at the airport. When we started rolling forward again, after about an hour's delay, we made a turn towards our runway and there were at least a dozen jets of various sizes in line behind us. Then I checked CNN again, and there was President Obama arriving at the UN. Wow, he got into the city fast! Apparently a motorcade is faster than taking the AirTrain and the subway!
The flight to Fort Lauderdale was fine, we arrived about an hour late. I waited for my bag, then took the shuttle to Car Rentals. I was happy to be getting a car for this week. Florida Road Trip! I can just throw my stuff in the trunk! My initial plan was to get to Fort Lauderdale in time to see the almost full moon rise over the ocean, which I saw once and it was amazing. The full moon low on the horizon is HUGE! By the time I got my car, the moon was alreaday high up in the dark sky. Frankly I was too tired to care much by now.
I found my way out of the airport and finally found my motel by around 8pm. The motel was a little lower quality than I had hoped but I really just needed a place to sleep for the night, and didn't want to spend a lot of money. I needed a little something to eat, so I stopped at the nearby McDonalds for something cheap and fast, got back to my room, showered, and finally got to bed sometime after 11pm. I've been up and moving since 6 am. That was a long day.
Beginning in New Orleans, I arose at 6am, after getting to bed at 1am. This wasn't even due to partying, just catching up on blog-writing and packing. For this long travel day, I took advantage of the Country Inn Hotel and Suites free breakfast. A free hotel breakfast is perfect for a day like this. It's fast and easy, and there for you, no thinking required.
The hotel is not a sleek, modern skyscraper kind of place. It was built in an old warehouse of some kind, so it has character, old brick walls, and other interesting architectural quirks. It's on Magazine Street, west of Canal, so away from the Bourbon Street area, but an easy walking distance.
The day really started with a lesson on why you need to double and triple check things when you travel. The airport shuttle was to pick me up at 7:10am. By 7:18 or so, I called the shuttle to see where they were, but had to leave a message when no human responded. I had arrived in New Orleans on 9/20, told the shuttle person I was only in town for 2 days, and she said she could schedule the return shuttle to the airport right there. By around 7:20, I looked at my receipt, and noticed it said pick up at 7:10am on 9/29. Wait. What? I looked at it for a second, and thought, what day is it today? Uh-oh. She put the wrong date on this. It should be 9/22. Aghh! I started calling again and the woman at the hotel front desk help me by dialing as well.
I got through to a human, and started telling her my problem. She asked why I waited until 7:30 to call... "But I did call, nobody answered!" Breathe. Don't panic. It's all fine. She checked with dispatch and said a van would be there to pick me up, and bring me to another van that would get me to the airport by 8:30. My flight leaves at 9:45. So that's what we did. After a short tour around New Orleans, picking up people, moving onto another van, we were off to the airport.
One other van passenger had an AYCJ pass, so we compared notes on where we had been and where we were going next. In the Country Inn Hotel, I had seen a man wearing the AYCJ logo, which, of course, gave me permission to yell out at him, "Hey, All You Can Jet, me too!" It's like being a member of a secret club. Maybe we should have an AYCJ secret handshake.
On the airport shuttle, we talked about the pass, and at least one of the passengers was making a note to check next August to see if JetBlue would offer it again in 2011.
We made it to the New Orleans Airport fine, and to JFK with no problems. Another full flight, but I did manage a little nap time on board. This was my first time spending time between flights at JetBlue's Terminal 5 at JFK and it was nice. Several food options, and places to plug in your computer and use free Wifi. By the time I had eated (salad bar and soup) I had time to check my email, and it was time to board the next flight to Fort Lauderdale. At one point, sitting in the terminal I looked around and thought briefly, wait, where am I? Oh right, back in NYC, headed for.... oh yeah, Florida... geesh!
The pilot made a comment about heavy traffic driving in on the Van Wyck (NYC expressway leading to JFK) and then we headed out to the runway, and stopped. And waited. The pilot initially said it was a weather delay that was backing up planes. I recalled that when I was leaving NYC (was that really only Monday, 2 days ago?) they warned of heavy traffic, since the UN was in session all week. I wondered if there were foreign dignitaries arriving at the airport. Then I remembered that President Obama was going to speak at the UN this week. Hmm, I wonder if that's today?
Whenever any president visits your town, expect traffic delays. When Reagan visited LA, he often stayed at the Century Plaza Hotel, and whenever I heard many helicopters buzzing overhead, I knew, he must be in town. While I was living in NYC, visits by both Clinton and Bush caused delays, including stopping a subway line that I was one. It was above ground, and traveled over an expressway the president's motorcade would be using. We waited until the motorcade had passed.
I turned to CNN on my JetBlue Direct TV screen, but didn't see any reports fromNYC. Then the pilot confirmed there was VIP Movement or some such description at the airport. When we started rolling forward again, after about an hour's delay, we made a turn towards our runway and there were at least a dozen jets of various sizes in line behind us. Then I checked CNN again, and there was President Obama arriving at the UN. Wow, he got into the city fast! Apparently a motorcade is faster than taking the AirTrain and the subway!
The flight to Fort Lauderdale was fine, we arrived about an hour late. I waited for my bag, then took the shuttle to Car Rentals. I was happy to be getting a car for this week. Florida Road Trip! I can just throw my stuff in the trunk! My initial plan was to get to Fort Lauderdale in time to see the almost full moon rise over the ocean, which I saw once and it was amazing. The full moon low on the horizon is HUGE! By the time I got my car, the moon was alreaday high up in the dark sky. Frankly I was too tired to care much by now.I found my way out of the airport and finally found my motel by around 8pm. The motel was a little lower quality than I had hoped but I really just needed a place to sleep for the night, and didn't want to spend a lot of money. I needed a little something to eat, so I stopped at the nearby McDonalds for something cheap and fast, got back to my room, showered, and finally got to bed sometime after 11pm. I've been up and moving since 6 am. That was a long day.
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