Travel Day from Hell

I guess there is one in every trip. Hopefully that was our one and only - Monday November 17, 2014. OF COURSE it was a Monday.

We were due to fly from Toronto to Bangor (Maine) via Philadelphia at 11.37am. Holly and Google maps) said it's an hour and a half from Peterborough to Toronto in a good run, but because we’d hit early morning traffic we should allow three hours.  Setting the alarm for 5.45 I, of course, woke at 4.20am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Mum also woke early, so we managed to get on the road by just after 6am … and what a road it was! Stunning! There was the first big snowfall of the season the night before, and the scenery was gorgeously beautiful. Unfortunately, gorgeous snowfall makes for slow driving … S-L-O-W! In fact, it took us four hours to get from Peterborough to Toronto airport, due not only to the snow, but to two crashes on the 401, plus an extra fifteen minutes when our GPS steered us incorrectly.

Finally dropping the car off, it was another quarter hour till we arrived at the check-in kiosks, so despite leaving Holly’s house 140kms away five and a half hours before our scheduled flight time, the kiosk told us we were too late to check-in. However, a friendly staff member told us that the flight had been delayed by nearly an hour, so after passing through the delightfully efficient and friendly USA-customs-on-Canadian-soil people (hear that USA-customs-on-USA-soil people‼!) we boarded our flight for Philadelphia. Our scheduled connecting flight to Bangor wasn’t until 3.50pm, so we had plenty of time. Unfortunately, we had a lot more time than expected. Or wanted.

Our 3.50 flight was bumped to 4.15. And then to 5.15. And then to 6.15. And then to 7.15. And then to 8.00. And then to 8.15. They finally got the bird in the air about 8.45pm, at which point we were tired, and pretty fed up. Still, chatting to another displaced traveller we discovered it could have been worse. He had a woman sobbing on his shoulder after her flight was cancelled, and she was then rebooked and re-checked in to another five successive flights, all of which were cancelled on her. An Army lad heading back home from Afghanistan had been traveling all day, like us, and at one point had actually made it onto a plane in Texas, where they all sat for an hour and half, before being disembarked.

Worrying that the flight might arrive too late for us to a) pick up the rental car or b) check into the hotel in Bar Harbor (an hour’s drive from Bangor) we phoned the rental company (“no problem - we’re here till midnight”) and Days Inn Bar Harbor (no reply). Arriving in Bangor, we phoned Days Inn again, this time managing to get through and speaking to a man who said there would be no problem checking in late. Great, we said, we’ll be there in an hour.

They get fog in Maine. Pea soup fog. Wet road, dark night, pea soup fog, travelling for 16 hours already, it took two hours to make the journey, and to come around the corner and see the beautifully illuminated Days Inn Bar Harbor sight was such a relief. What was not a relief was the sign on the door. “Closed for the season. If you already have a reservation, please go to our sister property across the road at 123 Eden Street”. It was dark, we had no idea whether 123 would be left or right, so we headed to the first place where we could see signs of life,  the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel and Event Center across the road.

 

The lovely Hannah on reception confirmed that Days Inn Bar Harbor (where we had a confirmed booking) was closed for the season. She Googled 123 Eden Street and identified it as the Holiday Inn Bar Harbor Regency … which was also closed for the season. She phoned both properties and got no reply. She then phoned Days Inn Bangor and spoke to a man who couldn’t help, said it was not his problem, and seemed surprised that Hannah would expect that someone from one Days inn would know or anything about any other Days Inn, or that she would have expected him to help us. So, we did the only sensible thing, we gave the finger to Days Inn, and booked into the rather more expensive but oh-so-much nicer Atlantic, where we now have three days of R n R to recover from the Travel Day from Hell. 

The view from our suite at the Atlantic Oceanside Hotel where we ended up after being horribly let down by Days Inn. Talk about a silver lining! Simply breath-taking.