Day 8: Saturday, May 2, 2015
Departure day. Why do weeks always pass so much faster when on vacation? We both were up pretty early. Ate breakfast downstairs and finished packing. Then I went for one more walk on the beach.
About 9, we loaded the luggage in the car, and headed west again. It cost $1000 less to return the rental car to the airport in New Orleans than it did to return it to one of the airports along the panhandle of Florida, so we were driving back to New Orleans. The 3 hour drive was really a no-brainer.
The trip back to New Orleans was easy, and we were pulled into the parking garage to return the rental car about 12:30. The return was easy, and pretty soon we were making the trek to the terminal.
Check-in was easy; there was virtually no one in line ahead of us. The ticket agents, seeing that our flight out of New Orleans was delayed by 30 minutes immediately checked to make sure we still had a legal connection time. We did, but just barely. If had been delayed just 5 minutes more, they would have started looking at alternatives. Hmm.
Security was also a breeze. Since I had padded our drive time with an extra hour in case of traffic, this meant we had a lot of time to kill at the gate. So we settled in and get busy chowing down on some of the snack food that we had brought from home but hadn’t eaten. Now that we only had a 40 minute layover in Baltimore, we knew we wouldn’t have time to get food there, so we were trying to hold out until it was close to flight time, and get a sub to eat on the plane. Our flight out of New Orleans was originally scheduled for 3:45, but with the delay was now supposed to depart at 4:15. Really made eating on any sort of schedule difficult.
The gate area was filled with people waiting on a delayed flight to Orlando that left just before our plane arrived. I really wanted to get on that plane! It was also filled with some college softball team that thought it was perfectly acceptable to play hacky sack in the middle of a gate area. First off, I didn’t even know people still played hacky sack, and second, how annoying!
Eventually our plane arrived. I’m pretty sure it was the slowest Southwest deplaning I’ve ever witnessed. Yeah, my eyes were totally on the time. Eventually they let us on board, and we ended up a few rows behind the exit row. Normally, this would be no big deal. Knowing, though, that we had a pretty short layover, being halfway back on the plane made me nervous. Particularly as I watched a whole lot of idiots struggle to stuff their oversized bags into the overhead bins. This process took a LONG time, and I knew we would be stuck waiting for them to wiggle those suitcases out of the bins when we landed.
While this was going on, those of us in the back of the plane were being entertained by the flight attendant. She walked down the aisle introducing herself, and proceeded to ask us for some assistance. As she put it, she “eats what she wants, and works out when she wants. Eating is more interesting than working out”. Because of this she was “much smaller on top than the bottom half”. And she was. As such, she jokingly said that the aisles are not as wide as she is, so if anyone got bumped, please pretend that it didn’t happen. She got us all laughing.
Eventually, everyone found seats, all the bins got closed, the aircraft doors were closed, and the flight attendants got into position to do their safety spiel. About the same time they raised their arms to show us the seatbelts, an announcement was made to unarm the aircraft doors. Say what?!
The flight attendants were just as confused as we were. Our back of the plane comedian, decided to go see what was up, as lightly as she could. She cleared the aisles with a confident “excuse me, hot chocolate coming through” (she was black). Much needed comic relief, as we were all getting antsy and checking the time.
The gate agents boarded the plane and started calling a few names. They then informed us that they had an inaccurate count, so they would have to take attendance. Thankfully, the used the divide and conquer method, and got about 10 people on the plane taking attendance, but it didn’t change the fact that they had to go row-by-row with paper and pencil, taking attendance on a completely full plane.
Needless to say, this process took awhile. We all were getting nervous. And there still seemed to be some confusion, and some people being looked for, once all of the row-by-row attendance taking ended. But eventually they cleared us, and once again, closed the door and started the safety spiel in earnest.
We all knew our connection would be VERY tight. There were many reassuring announcements made over the PA, that they were trying to make up time, and that they had called ahead to Baltimore, and the BWI crew had assured them that all connections were good. But we all were watching the flight tracker and knew that there were a lot of us trying to make connections at 8:30...and our flight would now be landing about 8:17. Yeah, you could feel the tension in the cabin.
The flight crew was wonderful. Shortly before landing, someone read off all the connecting gates, so that we wouldn’t have to stop and read monitors. We touched down at 8:17. As we taxied to the gate, again, they read the connecting gates. As we pulled in, she was kind enough to make an announcement that “for everyone’s safety, if you are not connecting, PLEASE stay in your seat, so that you don’t get trampled”.
The second that door opened, there was a stampede. We did a pretty good job policing ourselves. Those going to the next terminal for that 8:30 raced off first, and the rest of us followed suit. Shockingly, the idiots with the oversized bags stayed put. As Nick and I exited the plane, we could hear over the PA, “If you are headed to Manchester from the flight from New Orleans, we are looking for you at gate B14”. Trust me, we knew. We moved as quickly as we good through the terminal, and got to the gate with 4 minutes to spare.
The gate agent warned us, as we handed over our boarding passes, that our luggage would probably not make the flight. We had expected that, and didn’t really care. All we wanted was for us to not have to spend the night in Baltimore. We headed on board, and straight to the back of the biggest plane Southwest flies. There was a flight attendant pointing out the remaining 2 seats on the plane. Turned out to be directly across from each other-2 center seats. We got settled. Turned out I was sitting next to another person who had come off the New Orleans flight, so we chatted about that, and then ended up chatting for most of the flight. I’m pretty sure the adrenaline didn’t stop pumping until about the same time we began our final descent into Manchester.
Once in Manchester, Nick and I decided to divide and conquer. Knowing that there was no chance our bags made that flight, he waited by baggage claim while I went to the baggage office. The person in the office was very apologetic, but said we would have to wait until all the luggage had been offloaded, because they don’t scan bags at the plane. Ok, whatever. So back out to baggage claim I went, and shocker...our bags did not emerge! I was pleasantly surprised, though. This was the biggest plane Southwest flies (end of school vacation week) and had visibly come up from Orlando. There were a lot of families, with a lot of luggage. But all luggage had emerged within 10 minutes. And then we went back to the baggage office, surrounded only by those who had been on that flight from New Orleans.
The claim filing process was quick, and the people working in the office were very pleasant and apologetic. Hey, not their fault! They offered to deliver our bags, but someone would need to be around to sign, and it would come Fed Ex. Since it’s just Manchester, we asked if we could pick up the bags when they arrived. We were answered with “You’ll each get a $50 voucher for a future flight if you pick the bags up”. Well that’s a no-brainer!
So, we went out to find my car that my stepdad had dropped off earlier in the day, and headed home with just our carry ons. But honestly, we were just glad that it was only our luggage, and not us, spending the night in Baltimore. Things were just settling down there with the riots and that was the last city that we wanted to have to spend a night in!
(And we received a phone call about 10 the next morning announcing that our luggage had arrived in Manchester. They sent it on the first flight out of Baltimore that morning. So all was good. I had time to do laundry before returning to work on Monday).
Final thoughts: New Orleans is an amazing city. Like any city, it has its problems. You will see panhandlers. Some areas are kinda dirty. Some areas are pretty sketchy. The weather can be terrifying. Some of the news reports are pretty scary. But the people are (mostly) wonderful, the food is amazing, there is so much talent, and there’s so much to do. Both Nick and I will return, probably many times. Do your research and stick to the well-traveled areas, and you will be just fine, and have a lot of fun. They have worked hard since Katrina, and while things will never be the same there, they’ve made a wonderful comeback and are very much ready for tourists.
Mississippi and Alabama are both beautiful states. We loved the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores area! Gorgeous area and lots to do and see! We both would be happy to return to this area too!
