The following story, sadly to say, is absolutely true. It is not exaggerated or fabricated. Please read on.
Our 50th wedding anniversary was almost upon us. We decided to go āall outā in celebrating this momentous occasion. After much reflection, we chose to book a river cruise, mainly because we fit their passenger demographics and there is an abundance of beautiful scenery to view while sailing. The location for this dream cruise was to be in Europe and start in Prague with a two-day hotel stay, and then bussed to Nuremburg to set sail down the beautiful Danube River all the way to Budapest, stopping in Regensburg, Passau, Engelhartszell, Krems, Vienna and Budapest. We reserved the cruise, booked our flights, (we were even able to use our mileage points on our flights) and visions of Medieval Castles and old European architecture danced in our heads.
While heading to the airport, we received a text stating our flight will be 45 minutes late in arriving due to gate problems in London. We should have seen this as an omen of what was to come, but no worries, we had plenty of time to catch our connecting flight.
Our excitement built as we watched our plane arrive at the gate. This feeling quickly subsided when we watched for an hour as they tried to attach the pedestrian gangway to the plane. As it turned out, the pilot didnāt pull it in correctly. Seems he couldnāt follow the bright yellow line painted on the ground. Eventually they gave up and the ground crew called for that little tractor to come and jockey the plane into the correct angle. After only another short hour, we were boarded and ready to go, almost. Because we were two hours late in taking off, evidently the airport decided we had to wait until they were good and ready to let us take off. After two hours on the tarmac, the planeās engines roared and off we went to our dream vacation!
Of course, by the time we arrived in London, we missed our connection and had to re-book our flight. Honestly, this went rather smoothly, and three short hours later we were in Prague. We retrieved our luggage and searched for our cruise provided bus which was to whisk us to our pre-cruise hotel. No luck, we missed it by 15 minutes. Undaunted, we booked an Uber and proceeded to our hotel.
The next two days were wonderful, our hotel and Prague were beautiful. We had a fantastic dinner at our hotel which only cost 2,000.00 Czech Korunas. Donāt panic, that translates to $80.00.
The next day, we were bussed to our ship, supposedly. In route, we were told our original sailing vessel was āunavailableā, and we were to be on a different ship. No sweat, it didnāt matter to us. We arrived, and went to the shipās lounge for our pre-cruise welcome briefing by the tour director. During her talk, she nonchalantly said, āAs you know, we will not be sailing because the Danube River is too high.ā
Wait, what? No, we didnāt know. It seems half of the passengers were informed and given the opportunity to cancel. Unfortunately, we were one of the ones who were not notified. I asked our cruise director why half of the people were notified and half were not. She said, āIāll look into it.ā
The next two days, we were given the opportunity to be bussed to Nuremburg and Regensburg for a tour, but we had no desire to take a five-hour bus ride for a two hour tour. We thought we booked a river cruise.
For the next three days, the ship was docked outside beautiful Engelhartszell, Germany. This is a bustling metropolis consisting of a gas station/liquor store, a grocery store which is open four hours a day and a pizza place which was never open.
Finally, we were informed the water in the Danube receded and we will be bussed to our designated ship to begin cruising. Hope springs eternal!
While travelling to our ship, we were treated to a tour of Salzburg. There were two bus-loads of people with one tour guide and two ā20 somethingā assistants. These trained professionals joked that they only lost 40 people last year and the tour guide fancied herself as an opera singer and performed the entire soundtrack from the Sound of Music operatic style. Oh, did I mention the temperature that day was 62 degrees with pouring rain? Our tour was spread out over two blocks and people were running to keep up. We found ourselves in last place.
We eventually sailed to Vienna and then Budapest, but after the last experience, we decided to not take any tours and stay on board ship. We didnāt want to be number 41 and 42 on the tour guides infamous list. As an added bonus, the bathroom in our stateroom developed a lovely sulphur smell the last two days.
All good things must come to an end. Time for us to get bussed to the airport and fly home. We excitedly walked up to the airline agent, and showed him our printed confirmation. He looked quizzically at us and said, āSorry, your flight left two hours ago!ā We again showed him our printed confirmation and he told us we were emailed about the change two months prior. To this day, I canāt find an email that said that our flights were changed. Ok, no big deal I asked him if he could please change our flights to the original one which was leaving in a few hours. His answer was, āNo, I canāt do that since you used your miles to purchase them.ā I then asked if our connecting flights were still correct and his reply was, āI donāt know, sometimes they are and sometimes theyāre not.ā Seriously?
We are in panic mode now. I then asked if we could purchase two tickets on that flight. His reply was, āNo, you have to do that on-lineā. I guess he didnāt realize there was a computer terminal right in front of him.
Panic is starting to really take hold now since we donāt have cellular internet on our phone in Budapest. Luckily, I found the airportās wi-fi and attempted to purchase tickets. Upon checkout, my bank attempted to send me a confirmation via text before the transaction went through. Again, we donāt have international cellular data on our phone. I started pushing settings on my phone like a madman, and somehow, we were able to purchase tickets. Keep in mind, these tickets were for the same flight we originally purchased months ago.
Arriving at the gate with 5 minutes to spare, finally we were on our way to London. But then we realized because we only bought one-way tickets and they had nothing to do with our connecting flights, we had to retrieve our luggage, exit the airport, and come back in and maybe make our connecting flights if in fact they were still valid. This is no small feat with an airport the size of Heathrow.
Of course we missed our connecting flights. We then proceeded to our original airlineās help desk and tried to re-book our flights. We were told there were seats available but we have to use their āpartnerā European airline since they were the ones who changed the flights.
On to the other airline help desk where we were told no seats were available and we would have to spend the night in a hotel. I then pulled out my phone, went to their website, found two available tickets and said to the representative, āDo you want to book them, or should I?ā Lo and behold, she said two seats were available.
We finally made it back home, safe and sound, after spending the night in the Boston airport.
The Griswoldās got nuthinā on us! We truly had a 50th anniversary vacation which we will never forget, and not in a good way!
