Pearl 2/3 sailing...missed the ship (long review)

[bamabobb]

Bamabobb...the worst part of missing the first two days was not meeting up with you....although maybe I did and you were into one of your other "personas", and I didn't know it was you....Your review was a hoot...you were also one of the ones I was supposed to meet at the cc meet and greet at the Sky Hi, but you never mentioned that in your review. I wonder if you made it?

alas, during the meet and greet i was probably still recovering from cleaning the toilet. I'm sorry I missed it, but you would have been bored--at things like that I generally stick to being myself. :)

[Globaliser]

American Airlines:

... When you knew your jet needed major repair, why did you wait four hours to roll out a replacement plane, causing people to miss important connections?

...

What's with the propeller planes? Time to update your fleet AA. Any plane where people have to move to balance it, doesn’t sound worthy of the worlds biggest airline.

Thanks for the review, which I printed out and finally got to read last night. It's good that you managed to get to the ship to enjoy some of your cruise despite the initial problems.

 

It may be little consolation to you, but it's not very easy to find a replacement aircraft at short notice. Airlines don't generally have spare aircraft sitting around ready to go these days. And cancelling someone else's flight to use that aircraft for yours just shifts the problem around. It is often the case that it will be several hours or more before an aircraft comes free that can be used to replace the one that you're on - and in the meantime, the best that the airline can do is to continue to try to fix the problem in the hope that they can do that faster than waiting for a spare aircraft.

 

Also, propeller planes are neither bad nor out-of-date. AA's fleet (technically, American Eagle's fleet) of the type that you flew on is much younger than many of its jet aircraft. Prop aircraft of many types remain in volume production today, and your next prop aircraft may be close to brand new. They're there because they do a job at the right price, so that they can operate flights that would simply be impossibly uneconomic operated by any jet (including regional jets). The prop aircraft flight from Miami to Cozumel is the only non-stop flight on that route, and it simply wouldn't exist if it wasn't operated by a prop.

 

There's also nothing strange about having to move people to balance an aircraft. It happens on aircraft of all sizes, right up to the biggest. Obviously, if the aircraft is full or nearly full, then the balancing is automatically done because the passenger load is by definition evenly spread throughout the aircraft. But there are situations on every aircraft type, including jumbo jets, when passengers can only be seated in certain parts of the aircraft for balance reasons. In particular, many open seating airlines (like Southwest or Ryanair) have to block off certain seat rows in certain conditions, to stop passengers choosing to sit there and putting the aircraft out of balance. So the need to balance the aircraft is not a sign that there is anything wrong with the aircraft type you were flying on.

 

I hope that this can make you feel more assured that you were flown in complete safety on modern aircraft, despite the circumstances in which you came to be there.

 

Nothing excuses the rudeness and unhelpfulness, though - and I have been at the wrong end of that myself. :mad:

[flgirl]

We locals try to avoid Miami every day.:D Not just the airport, the city, too.;)

 

 

Thanks for your great and honest review. I caught it today and I enjoyed reading it. I have to admire your perseverance even though it was just for a 5 day cruise!

 

I have to agree with this poster from Florida that we locals do not go to Miami very much! We are so lucky to have Fort Lauderdale airport here just North of Miami.....it's really close! It's just wonderful compared to MIA and employees are nice and people speak english and security lines are shorter. I will pay double airfare to avoid going out of MIA. I will change planes to avoid going out of MIA. Us locals here in Broward county just don't do MIA unless we have to go to South America or something.

 

So anyone who is cruising, try staying overnight in beautiful Fort Lauderdale and taking a cab or a driver down to the Port of Miami!

[AuntieBarb]

Another example of why we are so grateful to NCL for scheduling cruises out of New York year round amd sparing us the agony of present day flying.

 

I'll second that emotion! :D

 

Rainman, thank you for a great review. I was agonizing over your entire ordeal right along with you. Happy to hear it all worked out in the end.

 

Aren't prop planes wonderful? Not! LOL!

[Cruise_More_Often]

I have to agree with you about AA and MIA, and I used to be an AA flight attendant (back in the days when flying was actually FUN). Awful flights to and from San Francisco, and they don't even give you a peanut. For those of you who are too young to have experienced real air travel, I feel bad for you. For those of you who have experienced real air travel, I feel even worse for you.

 

But our cruise on the Jewel made up for it all! :D

[rainman013]

Globaliser, thanks for reviving my review...I thought it was burried and gone for good...lol. Also thanks for the lesson on prop planes, I won't be so scared if I ever have to take one again.

 

Just one little prologue....don't unedrestimate the value of travel insurance...I recently received $500 back from Travel Guard Insurance Company for missing the first two nights. They said that was the maximum they could allow...I was happy with that.

[dilooni]

Great review. You are making me excited about sailing on the Pearl. But I am sorry you had so much trouble getting to your ship. That's the stuff nightmares are made of. And I share your sentiments about American Airlines. I despise flying with them. Miami Airport is also infamous for being a place you really don't want to include on your itinerary.

 

So tell me more about this upgrade from a mini-suite. ;) That's what I booked for my Alaska cruise in 8/08. Does it make a difference how you book? How do they decide who gets an upgrade?