You know, vacation only comes once a year for most of us, and it really does a body good to have time off from, well, whatever you do on a daily basis. Our H3 end of things were great, the staff was excellent and everyone that I and me mate of the knot tying kind, Crossbones, met were awesome. But unfortunately, I have a rant. Our travel itinerary was severely lacking. Our schedule of events lies below, were working on a more detailed version to send to the culprits, Air Jamaica.
August 31st, leave Tampa – Continental airlines flight # 9197 @ 8pm EST, arrive Ft Lauderdale @ 9:10pm.
Sept 1st, 5am shuttle to Ft Lauderdale airport, arrived at gate 6am for Air Jamaica flight# 038 scheduled for departure 7:30am EST.
Approximately 7:15am, an announcement was made that the flight was delayed until 8:30am. At 8:40am, another announcement was made stating that the flight was further delayed and that we’d be given more information at 9:15am.
Approximately 9:40am, the announcement was made that the flight would be leaving at 11:30am. We were given meal vouchers for $7.50 each. Finally the flight boarded, and we arrived in Kingston at approximately 12:30 local time. This was to be a short stop with an immediate continuation to Montego Bay. We were due to arrive in Montego Bay at 9:30am local time. At this point, the Kingston bound passengers disembarked. Rather than continuing to Montego Bay, the remaining passengers were asked to disembark, at which point, we were informed that this flight would not be continuing, and that we’d be placed on a different flight, scheduled to leave Kingston at 3:15pm.
We had booked a vacation at a an all-inclusive resort in Runaway Bay. With this latest change in travel itinerary, barring any additional delays, the earliest we would have arrived at our resort would have been 6pm local time, a full 6 hours after our scheduled arrival time. At this point, rather than waiting for the plane to Montego Bay, followed by a lengthy bus ride, we decided to obtain a bus, and travel directly from Kingston to Runaway Bay. Air Jamaica did make the arrangements for us and provided a $2 meal voucher. By doing this, we arrived at our resort at 4:30pm local time.
We left our resort on the 7:00am local time bus, and we arrived at Montego Bay just after 8:00am local. We were scheduled to leave Montego Bay at 11:30 local time, aboard Air Jamaica flight # 035. This would have put us in Ft Lauderdale at a scheduled time of 2:10pm EST, which would have allowed us to make our Continental Airline connection flight# 9301 at 4:30pm. It was imperative that we arrive back in Tampa Bay that evening as we needed to pickup our daughter from the babysitter as she had to work that evening. Shortly after 10:00am, we were informed that our flight would be delayed until 12:40pm. We were very concerned that we would not be able to make our connecting flight if there were any further delays. We approached the Air Jamaica customer service counter to inquire about our flight and we were assured that flight # 035 would be leaving at 12:40pm. The flight was further delayed until 1:15pm, and finally cancelled. By this time, we had missed the 10:30 flight to Orlando, which we possibly could have taken at the time we were talking to customer service. We were informed that there was an American Airlines flight departing shortly, and that if we hurried, we might make it to Miami. At this point, 12 passengers from flight # 035, including ourselves, quickly passed through customs and claimed our baggage, then had to run outside in the heat all the way around the building, carrying our luggage by hand. Upon our arrival at the American Airlines ticket counter, we were told that the flight was closed and had finished boarding. At this point, the remainder of flight # 035 passengers opted to stay in a hotel and fly to Ft Lauderdale in the morning. This was not an option for us. At this point, an Air Jamaica representative was finally able to book us on a flight to Kingston, and from there to Ft Lauderdale. Incidentally, the flights to Kingston and Ft Lauderdale were delayed by over an hour. We were promised ground transportation from Ft Lauderdale to Tampa International airport. It was nearly 11pm when we arrived in Ft Lauderdale, and when we cleared customs at 11:30, we were approached by a Air Jamaica agent who told us we were not getting ground transport and we’d have to spend the night in Ft Lauderdale. At this point, we left the airport and rented a car, and drove the remaining 5 hours home, finally arriving in Tampa at 4:30am.
I have to say that the ride from Kingston to Runaway Bay was great, we were able to see a part of the country that we never would have if the travel plans would've worked out. IDK, maybe we can get Air Jamaica to apologise and hand us a free ticket for next year (laughs histerically). We had a great time at H3, but it seemed muted by the fact that we had a hard time with travel.
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Argggg.... Again, so sorry this happened to you. And by the way, love your jokes. 
Originally Posted by turbine99
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, LOL
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