On our way back to our hotel, Jay and I got on the wrong water bus, and while it dropped us close to our hotel, we couldn’t take the same path back.
It turned out to be a more interesting walk, going past a vibrant shopping area bustling with activity and several bistros.
In one bar, the Italian piano player sang an Elton John song phonetically, and other than not pronouncing the words exactly right, he sounded remarkably like EJ.
We returned to our comfortable and relatively spacious hotel room about 11:00 PM.
We hoped to see a light on in Rollie’s room so we could hang out in Venice, but all was dark.
We stayed awake about an hour watching TV and occasionally checking his room but by midnight fell asleep.
I understand they returned a little later.
We awoke early, and I took a quick walk by the canal before eating the included buffet breakfast.
While not exactly Sunday Brunch at the Hyatt Grand Regency in Kauai, it wasn’t a bad spread, although the eggs and meat were rather disappointing.
Overall, our hotel stay had been pleasant, with a convenient location and great air conditioning, but we really didn’t spend enough time there to truly appreciate the beautiful room itself.
The transfer company arrived on time, and we made the ten minute hike to the bus stop, where we boarded a van to drive to the airport making a rather boring departure from Venice.
Our guide took us to the Lufthansa check-in line, where we were over three hours early, but unfortunately, she put us in the line for people who already had boarding passes, so we had to switch to a long line later.
In the infinite wisdom of airlines, they ask everyone to show up three hours early and then have only one counter person available for coach passengers without boarding passes, and apparently few people had boarding passes.
Then, the very first family in line had a problem with their tickets, which took 45 minutes to resolve.
In the mean time, dozens and dozens of others took advantage of the time to cut in the line.
Somehow, we made it on our gate with time to spare, so Jay and I played some cards.
It turned out to be a more interesting walk, going past a vibrant shopping area bustling with activity and several bistros.
In one bar, the Italian piano player sang an Elton John song phonetically, and other than not pronouncing the words exactly right, he sounded remarkably like EJ.
We returned to our comfortable and relatively spacious hotel room about 11:00 PM.We hoped to see a light on in Rollie’s room so we could hang out in Venice, but all was dark.
We stayed awake about an hour watching TV and occasionally checking his room but by midnight fell asleep.
I understand they returned a little later.
We awoke early, and I took a quick walk by the canal before eating the included buffet breakfast.
While not exactly Sunday Brunch at the Hyatt Grand Regency in Kauai, it wasn’t a bad spread, although the eggs and meat were rather disappointing.
Overall, our hotel stay had been pleasant, with a convenient location and great air conditioning, but we really didn’t spend enough time there to truly appreciate the beautiful room itself.
The transfer company arrived on time, and we made the ten minute hike to the bus stop, where we boarded a van to drive to the airport making a rather boring departure from Venice.Our guide took us to the Lufthansa check-in line, where we were over three hours early, but unfortunately, she put us in the line for people who already had boarding passes, so we had to switch to a long line later.
In the infinite wisdom of airlines, they ask everyone to show up three hours early and then have only one counter person available for coach passengers without boarding passes, and apparently few people had boarding passes.
Then, the very first family in line had a problem with their tickets, which took 45 minutes to resolve.
In the mean time, dozens and dozens of others took advantage of the time to cut in the line.
Somehow, we made it on our gate with time to spare, so Jay and I played some cards.
A quick hop flight to Frankfurt connected us to our flight to Washington, D.C.
Again, Lufthansa did their best to make the flight comfortable, including serving complimentary beer and wine as well as showing movies.
We arrived in D.C. just as they lifted a weather delay, so we entered the terminal to find total madness.
Security procedures call for passengers to pick up their bags and then re-check them.
It was like a cattle stampede, if cattle could drag suitcases with them and didn’t have enough sense to all run in the same direction.
Jay is a very calm person to have along in such situations. He just goes with the flow, so we were joking around even as it seemed we must be destined to miss our flight to LA.
I looked at our tickets, which said we departed at 17:11.
For some reason, I didn’t see the 1 in front of the 7 for quite a while, and I thought we might make it, but as we made it through the last security checkpoint, I suddenly realized our United flight was scheduled to leave at 5:11 PM, not 7:11 PM, and we were already an hour and a half late.
When we reached our gate, it turned out our outbound flight had been delayed over two hours by the weather, so we were able to board with everybody else about a half hour later.
Once on the plane, we waited an hour to be cleared for take-off.
The pilot finally came on and said we were fourth in line, and those in front of us would leave about every six minutes.
Having been delayed so long, I went to the back to ask for some water. “Get back in your seat, sir,” the male flight attendant ordered. “We don’t want our take-off delayed because you are out of your seat.”
I told him the pilot had just said we wouldn’t be taking off for eighteen minutes.
“Get back in your seat immediately or I will ask the captain to have you removed from the plane by security.”
Yeah, right.
Like that isn’t going to delay the plane more than giving me a glass of water.
Are airline employees totally brain dead?
With the exception of pilots and mechanics (hopefully), is that a requirement for employment?
About a half hour later, the plane took off, and we made it home only about three hours late with all our luggage in tact, so I guess you could call that an acceptable flight experience these days.
Again, Lufthansa did their best to make the flight comfortable, including serving complimentary beer and wine as well as showing movies.
We arrived in D.C. just as they lifted a weather delay, so we entered the terminal to find total madness.
Security procedures call for passengers to pick up their bags and then re-check them.
It was like a cattle stampede, if cattle could drag suitcases with them and didn’t have enough sense to all run in the same direction.Jay is a very calm person to have along in such situations. He just goes with the flow, so we were joking around even as it seemed we must be destined to miss our flight to LA.
I looked at our tickets, which said we departed at 17:11.
For some reason, I didn’t see the 1 in front of the 7 for quite a while, and I thought we might make it, but as we made it through the last security checkpoint, I suddenly realized our United flight was scheduled to leave at 5:11 PM, not 7:11 PM, and we were already an hour and a half late.
When we reached our gate, it turned out our outbound flight had been delayed over two hours by the weather, so we were able to board with everybody else about a half hour later.
Once on the plane, we waited an hour to be cleared for take-off.The pilot finally came on and said we were fourth in line, and those in front of us would leave about every six minutes.
Having been delayed so long, I went to the back to ask for some water. “Get back in your seat, sir,” the male flight attendant ordered. “We don’t want our take-off delayed because you are out of your seat.”
I told him the pilot had just said we wouldn’t be taking off for eighteen minutes.
“Get back in your seat immediately or I will ask the captain to have you removed from the plane by security.”
Yeah, right.
Like that isn’t going to delay the plane more than giving me a glass of water.
Are airline employees totally brain dead?
With the exception of pilots and mechanics (hopefully), is that a requirement for employment?
About a half hour later, the plane took off, and we made it home only about three hours late with all our luggage in tact, so I guess you could call that an acceptable flight experience these days.
