The 7 hour flight from Dallas to Anchorage was uneventful until time to land. I had the pleasure of sitting by a retired flight attendant for American Airlines. We visited a LOT and I pretty much know EVERYTHING about her, her family, and her life in general. We had a wonderfully smooth flight until time to land. The captain came on right beforehand and said he expected some turbulence landing so would have the flight attendants prepare the cabin for landing in advance and then be seated. That always gives me sweaty palms when he tells the flight attendants to sit down and buckle up. When I expressed my concern to my new BFF her reply was, “Oh, honey, don’t you worry about that. Back when I was working and we had a long flight and were tired of messing with the passengers we would ask the Captain to make that announcement so we could sit down and relax for a little while before landing.” WHAAAAT??? Now I know their dirty little secret! However, when the plane was pitching and rolling on the approach she mentioned, more than once, that the wind shear was really really strong. WHAAAAT???? WIND SHEAR???? Isn’t that something that causes planes to flip over and crash on landing? Death grip, sweaty palms, and a few Hail Mary’s later we landed safe and sound.
Once we retrieved our bags we put the bright yellow tags on them that we were given by the cruise line we were told to stand over by the big table next to the luggage carousel and wait for our marching orders. We were soon told that our “coach” had arrived and we were ready for transfer to the hotel. “Coach” they said???? Soon we found that “coach” was a fancy name for a big ole bus! Just like kindergarten kids we followed our leader over to the “coach.”
So those of you who have been to Schooner Wharf Bar know Michael McCloud and have heard his song “I Love This Bar.” The entire time we were dragging our bags with the bright yellow tags over to the “coach” the words to that song kept going through my head… “bus load of blue hairs, dirt bags, and sailors”. I didn’t think we were “dirt bags or sailors” so there was only one thing left…WE WERE THE BUS LOAD OF BLUE HAIRS MICHAEL MCCLOUD ALWAYS SANG ABOUT (Larry continues to insist that “blue hair” does not apply to him. “WHATEVER”, I say…).
We finally reached our hotel and when we asked about our bags they told us that as long as our names were on our bags they would be delivered to our room. We were in room 1115 and Larry said their room was 1111. We checked into our room and soon our bags arrived. When we checked with Larry and Laurie he told us that their room keys did not work and that the bellman showed up with their bags about the time they were trying to get into their room and opened the door for them. The bellman suggested they go downstairs and resolve the key issue with the front desk and that he would leave their bags in their room. When they returned with the new keys and went into their room the bags were not there. By this time is was WAY past happy hour so I suggested that we check with the front desk and tell them the bags had not been delivered. On our way out we did just that and were assured that they had a LOT of bags that they were trying to get delivered and were sure they would be in the room once we returned from happy hour and dinner. So off we went!
The food was AMAZING! We started out with smoked salmon dip and had a bowl of seafood chowder…best since Ireland! When we were told the halibut and salmon were fresh so CTM and I split the halibut and L & L split the salmon. TO DIE FOR!!!
I have three pairs of blue jeans in my suitcase. After that meal I now know that I need to wear them all immediately as I won’t be able to button them in a couple of days and I will need to move on to the stretch pants VERY soon!
1st night in town, bellies full, time for bed…
We returned to our hotel to find that L & L’s bag STILL had not been delivered. That being said, Larry was headed down to try to resolve the issue. I knew he needed an “alpha” female to take charge of this situation so I graciously volunteered 😬. After several conversations with the tour folks and bellman they all assured us that the bag would be found and delivered promptly. I assured THEM that they WOULD find their bags and that this was THEIR fault! After several back and forths and heated exchanges the bellman said, “You ARE in room 1110…right?” WHAAAAT? NO he is in room 1111 (the room that they tried to go into that the key did not work…the room that was NEXT DOOR to room 1110! It was all beginning to make sense to me. Their room was actually 1110 and this is why the key did not work in 1111. Even though when asked if he was sure that his key jacket said 1111 he insisted rather snottily that, “YES, IT SAID 1111, NOT 1110!”. Guess what….we went upstairs with the bellman and the bags were in the room next door…1110. And…here is the key jacket AFTER the new keys were made. 😉. Is it just me or did it say 1110 before someone marked it out and changed it to 1111?????
Larry actually had the audacity to suggest that I owed the staff an apology for my behavior last night. Who owes who an apology I ask?
Catch you on the flip flop…
CJM
