Saturday 4/26/03 Papeete, Tahiti- French Polynesia<br><br> We were up early. It was to be another glorious day in the tropics. The ship was a hubbub of activity, as various groups and their luggage were carted off to the airport. Some lucky passengers had chosen to remain for the return voyage and were thus at liberty to see Papeete for another day. Our cabin was not scheduled to leave for Faa’a airport to until 1:00 P.M., so we lazed about reading and enjoying the morning. At 10:00 A.M. we had a leisurely breakfast in the deck 14 Horizons lounge, gazing again at the pleasant surroundings at sea and on shore.<br><br> At 1:00 P.M., we were called to board buses for the airport. It is a brief 20-minute ride on buses provided by the Princess lines. If you had not paid for the transfers, you were on your own with cabs that charged $20 per person, each way, to and from the airport. We watched the local scenery drift by and read with interest the many signs in French advertising this and that. We had long ago noticed that in some of the former European colonies that folks can be “more French than the French” as it were.<br><br> The airport check in was a model of efficiency and order. We got off one bus, collected our luggage from a small area and stood in line to check the bags into the World Airways counter, flight # 510 for the 9:45 P.M., 7 & ½ hour run to L.A.X. It was effortless. Another bus ferried us back to the Dawn Princess where we were at liberty to do as we wished until we left for the airport at 7:30 P.M. this evening.<br><br> The Princess Lounge was running a 3:00 P.M. show of “Analyze That.” We saw it for the second time and enjoyed it just as much. Billy Crystal and Robert DeNiro are a great comedic pair that play well off each other. Kevin and Laura Hanley were at the movies, so we joined them and then had coffee afterwards with them in the 5th floor lounge. We watched the newly arrived passengers scurry about, as had we, trying to make their excursion reservations and get the feel of their new surroundings. As nice a time as we had experienced, we were ready to go home.<br><br> The Hanleys suggested that we visit the Florentine Room for one more sumptuous repast before leaving. I give credit to the Princess crew. They welcomed us just as readily as the new passengers who were piling into the room. We enjoyed another gustatory array of shrimp appetizer, cold fruit soup, a salmon filet and some wonderful Austrian Sacher torte. It was as wonderful as every other dinner we had enjoyed on board.<br><br> After dinner, we sat in the lounge areas and waited for the call to board our buses and head out to the airport. The day was getting long already. The bus ride was short .The bars and restaurants were full and lively. The waterfront park was full of Tahitians enjoying the relative cool of a very sultry evening. At Faa’a airport, it was a mob scene. The huge charter airplane was to carry 360 of us for seven hours back to Los Angeles. Another Omni airline charter had been delayed for an hour because U.S. customs at LAX refused to open prior to 7 A.M. to process incoming arrivals. Who the heck is running that zoo?<br><br> We sat with the Hanleys for a time and then stood in the huge mob of passengers trying to board at the same time. What happened to the order and precision of this afternoon? In time, all of us were seated in the welcome air conditioning of the aging MVD IX charter. This plane was old enough to have carried Captain Bligh home.<br><br> The next seven hours passed relatively quickly. We watched a few movies, read our books and dozed intermittently. Finally, we approached and touched down at LAX. Charter terminal. A shortage of immigration forms caused some confusion and delay. Then we shuttled to the LAX terminal. Customs was actually easy by comparison. The luggage took forever to arrive and it was mass confusion. God Bless the elderly in this mayhem. I don’t know how they managed. We dragged our luggage past some officious clown who wanted to chat. I looked at my watch and saw the minutes evaporate. Another clerk was for agricultural control. Jesus, how many layers of bureaucracy do they have here?<br><br> At last we were free. We ran like O.J. Simpson through the terminal. A Princess rep suggested we would make better time if we walked/ran to our connection. She didn’t tell us that terminal 7 was ¾ of a mile from the international terminal. We ran the entire distance, dragging our luggage behind us and hollering “coming through” to the startled and slow moving pedestrians. <br><br> At United’s terminal seven, the real fun began. We stood in another line as the minutes ticked off. We got the attention of a United clerk and she got us to the head of the line. We had about 30 minutes left to departure. A slow moving inspector took his time about running a small cloth over the zippers and metal surfaces of our luggage. It is the age of Sars I guess. We breezed through the scanners and literally ran up the stairs and several hundred yards down the corridors to the United gate. We were there twenty minutes before departure, but the ticket agent gave our tickets away for the 10:50 A.M. flight to Dulles in Washington. She didn’t want to know anything or help, just told us briskly to go to “customer services.” Just about then I was tempted to blast this officious prig to the moon. Good sense and the realization that we were stuck 2,500 miles from home made me check that for which the Irish are so famous, a volcanic temper.<br><br> The customer service clerk wasn’t much better help. She gave us “standby” reservations on a later flight. I knew and told her that there was no way we were going to get on a flight standby at the close of Easter Holidays. Resigned to our “Out of Towners” fate, we dutifully trudged to a far away gate and wasted another two hours until that clerk told us to “forget it” too. She gave us standby reservations on yet another later flight. Mary’s call to Princess lines got us reluctant assistance on an even later overnight flight into Newark airport. The only catch was that the walk up fares were over $2,000 and Princess would not guarantee payment for the fares, suggesting that we had to roll the dice and file claims against our insurance carrier for the added charge. Thanks Princess. All of your hard earned good will just got flushed down the crapper. The bottom line here is that whomever schedules your travel plans, you need at least three hours to complete the transfer, through the various terminal at LAX, when arriving form Tahiti. Even running like lunatics through the airport had not enabled us to make the connection in two hours after all of the delays and mishaps World airways had experienced. The lord only knows what happened to the many older passengers who had been ob board with us. They may still be wandering LAX, looking for help.<br><br><br> We had been traveling for a what seemed like a million hours and I had visions of the Jack Lemon, Sandy Dennis classic’The Out of Towners” in my tired head. We tried one more United Customer Service Rep. I suggested that we would go find a nearby hotel if she could get us out the next day sometime to Buffalo. This sweet woman did just that. She found us an LAX to Buffalo connection the next afternoon, via Chicago. She also gave us a number for nearby hotels that offered discounts for passengers with “interrupted service.” God bless you Ma’am for taking the time and trouble to help out two aging and tired travelers. United, keep this older African American, female clerk and give her a bonus. You need more like her!<br><br> A small shuttle collected us outside and ferried us to a nearby airport Radisson hotel. We bought some coffee and donuts and repaired to our room ($55 night) to read and relax. We were happy we didn’t have to sleep under a highway culvert someplace. Mary and I both e-mailed and phoned our jobs, telling them not to expect us the next day. We then surrendered to a welcome shower and nap. Travel, even in adversity, can be pleasant.<br><br> We had a very good dinner in the Radisson’s “Palmira” restaurant. French Onion soup, caeasar salads, salmon for me, chicken for Mary, were accompanied by a wonderful Philips Merlot. This sure beat the heck out of eating snacks at the airport. ($90) The insistent lure of Morpheus drew us to our room for a welcome night’s sleep. <br><br> Monday 4/28/03 Los Angeles, California<br> <br> We were up early, showered and prepped for the ride home. Coffee and donuts in the room made for a good start to the day. We packed our few things and caught a 10:30 A.M. shuttle for L.A.X. We checked into <br>United for our 1:00 P.M. flight to O’Hare, fresh eyed and rested, grateful we had opted for the layover instead of another nights travel.<br><br> By now, the 3 & ½ hour flight was something we could do standing on our heads. We got to Chicago without further travail. A two-hour layover enabled us to have coffee and walk some. The place was still awash with people returning home from their Easter vacations. The flight to Buffalo was even listed as “full.” I had never yet seen that happen. We had given up trying to find our bags and resolved to start that search when we got home. The brief 90-minute hop to Buffalo was a pleasure. The air was cool and rain-washed when the plane set down at Buffalo International. Be it ever so humble it was home.<br><br> We filed a “missing luggage” form with the United clerk. She checked her computer and advised that she showed our luggage as having arrived with us. By what feat of legerdemain could that have been accomplished? Sure enough, the baggage carousel delivered our luggage to two surprised and tired travelers. Without questioning our luck, we hopped a cab to our nearby home in Williamsville and happily checked our mail before crashing dead tired into slumber. Tomorrow was a workday and its inception was only a few hours away.<br><br> Despite its shaky finale, we had much enjoyed this trip and would highly recommend it to others. Travel, with all of its pitfalls is a welcome adventure of new sights and sound s and experiences that you carry with you for the rest of your life. We were glad we had gone and were even happier to be home.<br><br> -30-<br><br> Joseph Xavier Martin<br><br> May 12th, 2003<br>
