After our 2 hour drive to Dublin, 8 hour flight to Chicago, 2 hour flight to New Orleans and all the waiting and travelling in between we were totally wrecked! Of course there were a few "difficulties" along the way.
We flew with American Airlines - Never Again! First of all when we went to check in we found out that Expedia didn't assign our seats together! We ended up having to ask the guys sitting beside us if they would swap seats with us. We were both sitting in the two emergency rows in one window and one aisle behind each other. So I asked the two guys if they would move and of course they refused! One of them said, "Well, if it was an emergency row seat I would." (They were both emergency rows!) The other guy said "I have to go all the way to Mexico!" (We had to go to New Orleans and why would that matter when he would have had exactly the same seat but one row back) I was really ticked off! Who would refuse that???? I just put it down to different cultures, if you know what I mean!!! Although they must just be a**holes. So to be honest my view of those people really coloured the start of my holiday.
To top it all off we had to spend 8 hours on a plane that came from the 60's. There were only main tvs so to watch the only film that was on you had to strain your neck to watch one that was miles away from you. I will never complain about great companies like Virgin Atlantic/Cathay Pacific or any of the others again! At least the staff were pretty decent.
We finally arrived in the "great" old U S of A and then we had to deal with the Taxi Driver from hell! He didn't seem to know where he was going, didn't seem to know what we said, couldn't speak english, was a bit of a perv and drove like a maniac!
The next thing we had to deal with was the Hotel staff. We got to reception to find out that we couldn't get the room we had booked and this was relayed to us by the rudest reseptionist I have ever met! She wouldn't look us in the eye, was visably annoyed and seemed to be bothered that she had to deal with us at all. She didn't smile the whole time she spoke to us...but with all the one word answers she was giving us I assume she was just a miserable kind of person. Marie and I were sooo tired that we just took the room and went on our way. Thank god the room was decent or I would have blown my top and started complaining to the management. Marie doesn't like it when I complain so I have to hold back when she is around unless it is totally necessary.
So let's just say our holiday didn't get off to the best start! We were hoping it would get better.
