Getting to Quebec - San Jose, CA
San Jose, CA
Where I stayed
Airport hotel in Philadelphia
After many flights to many destinations, we finally hit some problems during our travel to our disembarkation port. Minutes before we were to board our US Airways flight to Philadelphia, there was a boarding gate announcement that our plane was experiencing mechanical difficulties and there would be a 30 minute delay. The delay was extended to 1 hour and then when it was further extended to an hour and a half, the gate crew began calling passengers that would no longer be able to make thier connecting flights. We were in this group. With the delays, we would no longer be able to make our same day flight to Quebec.
We were sent back to the U S Airways Checkin area to find how we could now fly into Quebec. It was soon evident that we would not be joining our ship on this day. The airline's first suggestion as to stay at the airport for about 12 hours and then flying overnight to Quebec. Harriet asked for a second option and that was to fly in our original flight and spend the night in Philadelphia. That was the option that we selected. There was now 9 people in our group of Princess refugees that were trying to get to the Emerald Princess in Quebec. So back thru Security we went and back to our departation gate.
The flight into Philadelphia was good, smooth and quick. At the airport we were told that we couldn't get our luggage and would have to go to the hotel and spend the night sans our overnight supplies such as tooth brushes. Our luggage would be automatically sent to Quebec.The hotel in which we were staying, was hosting a Salsa Dance Festival. The members of the festival were partying all night so the few hours that we might of had sleeping was lost in the loud exuberance of an all night Salsa Party.
Early the next moring just after 7:00AM, we braved the morning cold to take a hotel shuttle back to the airport to continue our journey to Quebec.The light fom the sun was still trying to break thru the cold darkness of a wintery morning on the east coast of the United States aswe rode the fifteen minutes to the Philadelphia Airport. After a quick warm breakfast at a Chinese Quick Food Store; Randy, Doris, Harriet and myself made our way thru the airport and thru another security screening to our departure gate for the flight to our US Airways flight to Quebec. It had now been almost 24 hours since we had left home for a 7 hour flight to the Emerald Princess now docked in Quebec, Canada. We were a little tired and disheveled being without our suitcases that hopefully were still here at the Philadelphia Airport.At ourvboarding gate we meet the 5 other people that had started the trip with us from the San Francisco Airport the previous morning. Our plane was to leave at 9:40AM and the flight would have us all in Quebec by 11:30AM. That was our latest plan. We also met another couple that had started thier journey on US Airways the day before, but they had started thier journey in a different part of the state of Pennsylvania. Thier flight was overbooked and they were bumped from their original flight and given a second flight that aused them to also missed the connecting flight to Quebec. They too, had to spend the night without thier luggage in a local hotel. Now our group of Quebec bound traverlers was 11.
About a 15 minutes before boarding, we receive an announcement from the boarding area. Our plane had developed mechanical problems and there would be a short delay. Apprehension was high amoung the group. This aniexity peaked 10 minutes later when we witnessed the boarding gateway pull away from the airplane and an airport vehicle pull up, attach to the plane and pull it away from our terminal area . Only then did the gate crew make the announcement that our flight was cancelled. There was no backup planes to be pressed into service. The next possible flight that they could get us on would arrive in Quebec a half hour after our ship, the Emerald Princess, was scheduled to sail away from the port of Quebec. Although that plane had a capacity of 48 passengers, we could book all 11 of us on it. Harriet said, "Book all of us". Bonnie, another member of our new formed band of travelers, we began to call the Airport 11; began calling the Princess Cruise line Travel hotline. Our airlines gate crew quickly gave up and left us standed and with no way to get to our destination and without allowing us to talk with thier supervisors. Questions as to how we would get to a port in which we could board the ship and where would would stay while waiting for the ship to make the dock; were left unanswered. As the flight was cancelled and the gate crew felt no obligation to further help us was evident when they just left the area without ensuring that we would be able to get out of the Philadelphia Airport and onto our destination of the Emerald Princess;wherever and whenever that may be. I found two other US Airways employees walking thru the section of the airport in which we were now standed. Luckily, they were supervisors, but unluckily they were now off shift. After hearing our story, they stayed and helped us. Bonnie's call to Princess began to show some encouragement for our situation. Because the original 9 travelers from San Francisco had book our air flights thru Princess, they said that they would try to help us. They would have to contact not only the captain of the Emerald Princess, but the Quebec Port Authority. Even if the captain agreed to wait for us, the Port Authority might need our dock for another ship. They would check and call us back. Meanwhile we worked with the two airline employees first to confirm we had flights to Quebec and on a contingency plan to fly our growing group intrepid travelers to another port so that we could meet the Emerald Princess later in the cruise.Then the call came back from Princess that we should get to Quebec as quickly as possible and they would help us from there. They still could not say how they would be able to help us. So we left our gate and headed across the airport for yet another departure gate with the hope that this time we could make it to our elusive destination of Quebec.
At our new gate our aircraft was already at the gate when we arrived. It was a small aircraft that held only 48 passengers, 1 stewardess, and 2 pilots. Here at the gate, we had thirty minutes to wait before boarding. This had bcome a time of bad revelations about our intended flights.Those thirty minutes went very slowly as our group of 11 dreaded any announcements; fearing that it would be another flight
cancellation. But this time for the flight came with no announcement that the flight had been cancelled. The relief was palatable as we taxied away from the terminal gate out onto the runway. The airport 11 smiled at each other as our plane lifted from grounded and headed out thru the skies of Philadelphia toward Quebec our long sought after destination.
Our fortunes were changing. The flight from Philadelphia to Quebec was about an hour and a half on a very small air craft that only carried 48 passengers. Halfway to Quebec, the pilot came on the ship's intercom saying there was 11 passengers aboard the plane that were late for their ship's departure from Quebec. He asked that when we landed if the rest of the passengers would let the Airport 11 disenbark first so they could collect their luggage and meet with Princess who was waiting to take these passengers to their waiting ship. The captain of the Emerald Princess had held the ship waiting for us. Princess had quickly on a Sunday afternoon organized a bus that would quickly tranfer us from the airport to our waiting ship in the twlight of the dying day. Princess had also talked with Canadian Customs and asked them to facilitate our entrance into Canada.We were quicky escorted thru the airport by a Princess employee thru the airport and out to a waiting bus that was there to shuttle us accross town to our waiting ship. As the deepling shadows gathered splender as day was done, we went down hill and turned right into a parking lot that was the entrance to our docking area.There at the dock was a number of security officials that directed us thru the dock area, up the boarding ramp and onto our waiting ship. Emerald Princess employees took our luggage from the bus and took them directly to our rooms. On board the ship we were taken into a small conference room where our ships photos were taken and we recieved our mandatory Life Vest Drill. Within 15 minutes of arriving on the ship we were fully checked in with our suitcases in our cabin. We were finally aboard the Emerald Princess in Quebec, Canada, just as it was pulling away from the dock and heading for our next port.
The journey to the ship was long and tiring, but along the way we made some new friends and a better feeling of Princess Cruise Lines. We also along with only two of the many US Airways employees re-enforced our belief that trip is not only measured in distance but time. If you arrive late it can be as bad as not arriving at all.Luckly for us Princess beleves that also. Thanks to Princess Cruises.