Loaded

Flights have been on time or close, boarded in Charlotte and mimosas in hand, hoping for the best upon arrival!

Whoooop Whoooop!!

And wishing you safe transit, an easy airport arrival and exit and a wonderful trip. So wish our paths might have crossed but maybe April? In any event, wishing you a great trip in every way. 😊😊

As long as you arrive before the KLM + Air France, or at least one of them, should be good!

Enjoy and looking forward to your experience.

Best wishes!! Hope it's not too horrible when you arrive. Enjoy your trip!

Might drop by Dany's after music at Porto Cupecoy this afternoon to see if you made it through the airport.

Guessing and hoping close to sunset, hopefully see you there!

And yet when I arrived a couple of weeks ago I transited the airport in less than 10 minutes. Probably closer to five. But carry on bag of course.

Is there any sand left at Cupecoy? Looked like it was getting washed away pretty quickly a couple of days ago.

Todd,

I hope that you and MJ have a safe, uneventful journey to SXM and a wonderful time while you are there!

So, Todd, how did it go?

He's probably still stuck in arrivals.

It went better than we feared but still having to ponder how they could do this much worse. In flight we were coming in early, about 20 minutes early so while we seemed to be approaching the airport we didn't make the final turn and instead flew around for 20 minutes so KLM and I think West Jet land. With AA you taxi down past all the jet bridges to the farthest area from where the bus would take you to go through immigration. Nice that they had ramps vs stairs and also they didn't over fill the first bus before letting it go and we were on that first bus. Once over to immigration they assign your flight a line, and we were told #1 but then they fed us to #2 but then had us all go back over to #1 after filling the line. They then feed the lines to immigration based on when they anticipate that the luggage will be arriving for that flight. Reasonable system other than those that are carry on only who should get some sort of priority. We rarely check luggage but did this time even knowing that we were going to pay a time penalty for it but we had a lot of items to bring down that will not be going home with us (carry on only home). Once they fed our portion of the line to immigration it went pretty quick through that line but once through there you are then waiting for luggage.

Time from walking off the jet to getting past immigration was 40 minutes, then time waiting for luggage was another 40 minutes.

They should do a better job of explaining why others are going through to immigration possibly faster than you. They did have two girls handing out water which was nice, and all in all people were pleasant but you get frustrated not knowing why you are watching others go faster than you. The speed of luggage handling is lousy, and there seemed to be more standing around with that group but note that you get a limited view of what is going on so my view was through frustrated eyes of a guy who did a red eye to CLT and then down with limited sleep.

One nice thing landing on a Sunday is traffic is not much of an issue, had that going for us to be able to drop off our luggage before heading to Cupecoy for sunset which was the goal. We brought along Brad and Lora and met up with Wendy, Linda, and Diane and many others. Enjoyed a few beverages leading into sunset and Lemon Drop with Rod and Donna and a very large group with a a lot of new people. Great to see all the familiar faces.

Lal's for dinner, feeling tired but once back to our unit we went to BBB and had a couple cocktails. Went up to our room and sat there for a bit tired but not yet sleepy tired wanting something more to drink but we had not taken the time to do any grocery pickup so walked over to Hupple the Pub and had a couple cocktails before heading back to our room. Then, slept like logs, still not adjusted to island time so we slept in to more of West Coast time. Taking it easy today getting settled, planning on sunset back at Cupecoy and dinner at The Palms tonight.

The trip has begun, will be on island for our longest stay yet just shy of four weeks. Looking forward to seeing our island friends and making new ones.

Cheers,
Todd

I will try “Hi, carry-on luggage only. Which line should go to?” with the attendants. Worth a shot but probably will just end in frustration.

They also have a Port-o-potty outside for you while waiting in the lines, for your convenience!

Todd--So not as bad as far as time as people were reporting on Friday or Saturday, so I guess that is an improvement.

So, you did not get a jetway and you were on AA. Did you see any AA planes getting a jetway?

KLM had a jetway and I think Jet Blue. Both AA jets far end. Spirit and Delta more middle of tarmac not far from AA jets.

I would suggest speaking up if given the chance that you are carry on. Did see one person make that statement and it helped although very little since he was already near the front of line.

Written while sitting at Lagoonies for a lite lunch.

Todd--OK, thanks.

Now that you are there, settle down and enjoy! Hopefully the chaos when departing has lessened by the time you go home.

Best explanation of the temporary arrival process yet Todd, thank you! An idea of what you're in for lowers the anxiety factor for sure. Tasha and I will give it a shot on Wednesday, hopefully on an on-time or early AA flight. Everything hits as it should, we should be in well before the 3 PM crush. Maybe see you folks at Danny's for sunset.

Cheers!

gomer--Best wishes and hope you don't have any big problems arriving and that things are working more smoothly when you leave.

Thanks Carol! That's what we're hoping too...our departure flight is early also, so between working out the kinks, training etc., it's a better experience. And then, fingers crossed, a fully functional airport in 2024.

gomer--Yes, but not until second quarter 2024, even by the airport's estimation. Which I assume means it will be later than that.

Todd, If you're coming from Miami then we are on your flight, lets hope ll is good, one of the first Big Planes to arrive!

Todd arrived on Sunday, and flew through Charlotte.

We’re home now and travelled through the temporary arrival and baggage procedures. It wasn’t pleasant, even with wheelchair porterage but it got us there.

Coming home we traveled on Day One of the jetway service. We did everything they asked, arrived three hours early, etc., etc., and had no issues at all beyond a very long wait after processing until boarding.

Remember, though, as far as I’m aware, the jetways are currently only being used for departures if I understood the situation correctly. When we arrived, we were bussed and wheeled to the temporary arrival stages for processing.🙂🙂