We are finally cruising on the high seas again. It has been a difficult year. Long story short, after a bad fall last December, I spent much of the year in a lot of pain. An MRI showed “severe spinal stenosis” causing compression of the nerves in my lower back. A series of spinal injections did nothing to ease my pain, so on August 4th I had spine surgery on vertebrae L3, L4, L5 and S1. The surgery went well but my recovery is not complete. I still wear a large, heavy brace and my stamina when walking has a ways to go. When our travel agent came up with this cruise offer, we decided to give it a try, knowing there are activities I would not be able to participate in.

Our trip got off to a very ominous start. On October 30th our Uber picked us right on time to take us to the Orlando airport for our 6:00 P.M. flight. We started with a cushion of almost three hours to change planes in Newark. We checked our bags in with United and noticed our flight was delayed by an hour. No worries, still plenty of time to make our connection in Newark NJ. The airport seemed chaotic with lots of people milling around and very few empty seats at each gate. Bill settled me into a seat and walked to Wendy’s a short distance from our gate. While waiting in line behind 30 people, he received a text message that our flight was canceled. He immediately got out of line, came to get me and we went to the airline desk to book another flight. We received new boarding passes for another flight that would still get us to Newark in time. They also told us we were eligible to use the United lounge. There we were able to get free food and drinks with comfortable seating. We sat near a nice couple from Seattle. He also was a retired engineer who loves Star Trek so he and Bill had lots to talk about. The wife was a retired elementary school principal so we had common things to discuss. It was an enjoyable hour until we received an alert that our new flight was delayed and we determined that we would not get to Newark in time to make our connection to London. Bill once again went to a United airline desk and received boarding passes for another flight that was boarding soon. It also happened to be the same flight our new friends were taking so we all went down to the gate. Would you believe we were in line to board the plane when it flashed with a delay which would prevent us from making our connection to London. Three flights canceled or delayed. The gates were a madhouse and we were very discouraged. We walked over to another quieter gate with no waiting passengers to discuss what to do. Bill overheard a United airport person remark they had a flight leaving for Newark and the pilot said they had two empty seats but only for someone needing to make a tight connection. Bill immediately jumped up and explained our situation. They took us around to the side of the line and issued us new boarding passes. The door to the jetway had been closed. They opened the door and we hurried down the jetway. Well, as fast as I could hurry with a heavy brace and two weak legs. One of the pilots was standing outside the plane on the jetway and told us not to hurry, he wouldn’t leave us. It was truly a miracle and gift from God.

As we flew toward Newark I watched the flight map. But then I noticed the time until arrival increased which decreased our time cushion. Then I saw the plane appear to turn around and fly south over North Carolina. Sitting across the aisle from Bill was a friendly United pilot headed to his assignment at Newark. We asked him why our plane appeared to be traveling south. He opened his laptop and checked and said we were flying in a hold loop. About that time our pilot came over the intercom and said he was making loops because he had to kill some time because very bad weather in Newark was causing flights to back up waiting to land. In the meantime the arrival time of our flight was getting later and later. We were relieved to see the plane once again fly north, but it happened again over northern Virginia. As we approached Newark the pilot said we are preparing to land and he was glad we made it to Newark. He confessed that for awhile he thought we would have to land at Dulles because of low fuel due to the loops. But we made it.

With less than an hour to take the shuttle bus from Terminal A to C, we really needed to hurry. Bill, anticipating the long walk, had arranged for wheelchair assistance for me. Someone with a wheelchair was waiting as we exited the plane and whisked us on our way. She asked us the time of our flight, sighed with dismay and took off. She knew the way and was able to get the wheelchair in front of a long line at the shuttle bus stop. We arrived at the gate shortly before the airplane door closed. By now it was well after midnight. They asked us if we wanted to order dinner and we declined. Because of my back and the long flight, we had splurged on business class seats meaning our seats were the fully reclining pod seats. We made our beds and went right to sleep, waking up 90 minutes before landing at Heathrow and just in time for our breakfast.

Once again a United attendant met us with a wheelchair. It was a very good thing because it was a very long way from the arrival gate through customs and to the baggage claim area. There were quite a few passengers with mobility issues so they loaded us and our spouses on the large mobile carts you see transporting people at large airports. When we got to immigration an official kindly came to the cart and collected our passports to enter us into the country and then returned them so we didn’t even have to get off the cart. We were now ready to head to baggage claim. United Kingdom now requires US citizens to preorder a “ETA” or precheck of your passport. Our immigration check when very smoothly.

But the drama doesn’t end there. We had one carry on bag with medications and a change of clothes each with us. Bill had GPS trackers in both of our larger checked bags. He could tell from the trackers that while we were now at Heathrow, our two checked bags were still in Newark. We didn’t bother going to baggage claim. We headed straight to where you report lost or delayed bags. We filled out the forms including the hotel where we would be staying for two nights. As part of our tour package we had two nights in London before our cruise. The United APP also provides information about where your bags are.

On a later call to United from the hotel we were told our luggage was being put on a midnight flight out of Newark and would arrive at Heathrow around 6:30 A.M. where it would be delivered to our hotel in the early afternoon. But the next morning the luggage trackers showed the luggage still at the airport in Newark. The discouraging thing was Bill could see four different flights had left Newark for Heathrow and our bags had not been placed on any of those flights. On another call to United we stressed we were leaving London the next day to get on a cruise ship. Bill and I talked it over and decided if we didn’t get our luggage we would cancel the cruise. We didn’t want to begin a 28 day voyage with one change of clothes each.

Cliffhanger: Did we get our luggage in time and get on the ship or did we fly home and collect our luggage back in Cape Canaveral?

Stay tuned.