Day 1
Today we began our big adventure. We were up by about 4:30 am and out the door by 5:00 am for our flights. Our departure out of Fort Lauderdale left at 6:15 am and it was on time. We were scheduled to land in Houston at 8:30 (their time, 9:30 ours) and then depart from Houston to Honolulu at 9:30 Houston time. This would put us in Honolulu about 1 pm Hawaii time, close to 7 pm our time.
About an hour out of Houston the captain came on and announced there was such severe weather in Houston that ALL flights in and out of Houston were being diverted, AND being taken out of the air. We originally planned to land in Aan Antonio, taking us past the storm but the tower instead diverted us to Lafayette, Louisiana. We landed here at about 8 am Houston time....and it was nothing but a landing strip and a small "terminal" building. In fact the cabin crew told us there was nothing but vending machines inside. We didn't know how long we'd be on the ground, but were told when we were given the OK we could fly, we had to take off immediately or one of the hundreds of planes in similar circumstances would take our spot. Two hours, yes, two hours later after just sitting on the runway (screaming kids, irritated passengers, frazzled cabin crew) we took off. We landed in Houston finally, at about noon their time. Our hope was that like our flight, all other flights had been delayed. We got off and checked with the Continental agent....no such luck, our flight was L-O-N-G gone for Honolulu. So we moved to the Customer Service line where we stood for nearly an hour. The agent, who was very sympathetic and helpful (telling us later that she was appreciative of our problem because we were the first, and what appeared to be the only, passengers who were not taking our anger out on the agents). She looked for flights to Honolulu .... and looked, and looked. She sadly told us there were no flights on any airlines, from any city to Honolulu on today or tomorrow. I tole her it didn't matter because we were going on a cruise. She looked, not even a flight on Monday to Kuai, our first stop. She said she was very sorry and she would look one more time in case there were cancellations. She searched, and searched, and suddenly her eyes brightened, and she said, "WAIT A MINUTE!" Her fingers clacked on the keys and then she smiled and said, "I did something a little out of the rules, but I have seats for all five of you, and boarding passes for tomorrow morning!"
Now we began the process of calling for a hotel and checking with our trip insurance - thanks to Nancy Nelson, our travel agent for telling us how important this could be. We got a room right at the airport Marriott and stayed the night - one positive being that we were able to watch the NCAA semifinals in the basketball tournament as our Gators moved into the title game for a chance to defend their NCAA Basketball title, on the heels of winning the BCS National Championship in football!
On Sunday morning we got to the airport and after a THOROUGH check, must have thought we were illegals or something :) we were off to Hawaii. 8 1/2 hours on the plane and we landed in Honolulu, then off to the cruise ship.
Got to the cruise ship about 5:30 pm just in time for the mandatory life-boat drill, and FINALLY we were on our way. We were disappointed we missed our night at the Hilton on Waikiki Beach, but thankful to have made the cruise, and even more importantly that our luggage had arrived in Honolulu (ahead of us!).
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