| I don’t know if my story qualifies as "scary", but it was a tad worrisome at the time. 2008 was not a good travel year for me. In September I was waiting, boarding pass in hand, at Pearson when they announced that there was now a hurricane warning in effect for the area where I was bound. (Cayo Santa Maria) I had known that Hurricane Ike was possibly going to cause me some grief, but since I didn’t have cancellation insurance I was at the airport ready to depart. We were given three choices; full refund, pick another destination (and pay for any price difference), or go anyway (in which case there is no guarantee we will pick you up next week). Reluctantly, I cancelled, or I might have a truly scary story to report. However, hurricanes were not done with me yet!Fast forward to November. Pretty much finished with hurricane season. Well, not quite! Hurricane Paloma was churning away, but south of Cuba, and I thought I was safe. I was on my way to Sol Río de Luna y Mares, and had treated myself to Club Class. Hurricanes didn’t figure large in my plans. My only worry was the NJT suitcase I was muling, but I had no problem and breezed through Aduana and onto my bus. The first hitch happened when we arrived at Sol and were told they had overbooked, and ten of us (including me) would be "upgraded" to Paradisus Rio de Oro, which ordinarily would be a good thing, but it was only for one night. Not so good! We had arrived in the evening, so there wasn’t a lot of time to enjoy the upgrade. Unpacking was out of the question, as we were to move the next morning. Fine, I thought, at least I will be up early and have a chance to try the snorkelling at PRDO’s little cove beaches before I have to leave. That part of my plan worked out. The rest of my morning was spent delivering the NJT suitcase, as I had a premonition I had better make haste to get that responsibility dealt with. Hurricane Paloma was now making waves in our direction, and the forecast did not look good. I was only at PRDO long enough to ascertain that a five star rating does not keep birds off the tables at an open air buffet before I was relocated to Sol Luna Mares. On arrival I discovered that my room wasn’t yet ready, so plans to change and hit the beach evaporated in a haze of anxiety over rumours of an evacuation due to the hurricane. Stewing over our imminent departure became the order of the day. When I finally was assigned to a room my brief moment of peace was rudely interrupted when a maid entered and proceeded to tape up the windows and place the TV in the bathtub. I was beginning to think that it was time to get outta Dodge! Hurricane preparation was going on throughout the resort. Chairs got tossed into the pool, rumours that the bars would be closed abounded, and people fretted over our lack of a confirmed plan. Some folks were calling Canada in search of information, and the hours ticked by until dinnertime. I managed to grab a bite to eat at the buffet, and then suddenly we were told that the buses would shortly be arriving to take us to the airport. Not everyone was happy with the news, and some did opt to stay behind. I didn’t think sitting in a room with no TV, no booze, and nothing to do but watch the wind and rain and hope the window didn’t blow out sounded like much of a vacation, so I was fine with getting on the bus. Off we go to the airport, with the conditions rapidly deteriorating. So now we are watching the rain from the terminal, wondering if we are actually going to get out of here! Finally there is a plane, but for some reason we aren’t boarding. It’s a CanJet flight, hurried into service for this unscheduled departure. And we are waiting because some people have not yet arrived, and then we are waiting because they are debating about bringing a bus around to take us the short distance through the rain to the plane. Silly idea. We wouldn’t get any wetter just running for it. But at last we are boarded, wondering if we will indeed get off in this horrible weather. Finally we taxi out and take off. Anticlimactic after all the waiting. We have an uneventful flight home. The CanJet flight attendants are very apologetic about having little to offer but a few snacks, and of course I am deprived of my Club Class amenities. We arrive home in the wee hours of the morning, and to this day I occasionally get asked by Aduana about my one night trip to Cuba back in 2008.
A footnote to this story: on board the aircraft I got talking to someone who had booked his trip on line. We exchanged e-mail addresses and stayed in touch after our return. On the morning of my return, I made one phone call to my Travel Agent, telling her what had transpired. She said "leave it with me", and that was the last I heard for a few days. Meanwhile my acquaintance from the plane was fighting tooth and nail via e-mail and phone calls to try for some compensation for his lost trip. He spent hours on the phone, as did his wife, and he e-mailed me complaining bitterly about how he was being treated, describing rude or indifferent people who were reluctant to be of any help. Then my TA called me to report that I would be getting a full refund, including the Club Class that I had received on the flight down. I passed the information on to my friend, and he used it as leverage to obtain his own refund, which he was able to negotiate using my example. My TA actually offered to take up his case if he was unsuccessful, but he managed to get it done on his own. I’ve said it before, but a good Travel Agent is gold! |
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Wow! I guess we almost ran into each other back in 2008. I was staying at the SRLM and left (on schedule) as Paloma was bearing down. We somehow managed to remain oblivious of the hurricane until the day of departure. I don’t recall which carrier it was but they had brought in a larger Airbus for the return flight rather than the usual 737. It was explained that they had brought the larger aircraft in case they needed to get more people out quicker. That didn’t happen and the Airbus seemed very empty. We had to take our assigned seats for takeoff and landing but were free to sit where we wanted during the flight. I had a very nice sleep across the middle seats with blankets and pillows and I’ve never seen a more efficient process at the airport! Best flight ever! |
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You both had an interesting trip. Especially eeeefarm. You were right in the middle of it. I think I would have been scared sHHtless. You have very interesting vacations! (Not sure I would call them vacations but a lot of excitement). |
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| Hi Eeeefarm, We were at the SRLM during Ike, having only arrived at the resort on the 7th. On previous visits to Cuba we have been on "Hurricane Watch and Hurricane Alert" two or three times, but we had been following this hurricane Ike on the interweb and it was due to follow a normal route up and close to the Bahamas. It came as quite a shock when we went down to the beach on the morning of the 8th for beach towels,only to be told that the hurricane was changing course straight for Cuba. On returning to the Mares they were only then doing the Hurricane protection [window taping/ pool furniture thrown into pool etc etc. We were sent to our room about two in the afternoon. It was not a "Scary Story" but a very scaring experience and in hindsight we should have been more scared than we actually were.Upon meeting and greeting people outside our room in the corridor during the deadly quiet period of the "Eye" passing overhead and also on the following morning when the storm was over was the most common response to each other was "Well We’re Alive"!!!
Ray |
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