An Easter return to the Isle of Man COMPLETED 5/10 About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

Great pictures from Peel! Sorry about the flight being canceled and for it taking them so long to figure out what to do with you!

[disney_duke]

That's 4+ hours of some well exercised patience. Fog happens, I suppose. Sorry you ended up feeling sick though, that's not good. My husband and oldest daughter get that way too. I totally understand - yuck!

[Pris]

Oh, so sorry about the carsickness. That really added insult to injury!

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Oh, how completely exhausting! At least the room looks comfortable.

It was a very exhausting evening. The room was Ok, shall we say?

[chezp]

Originally Posted by disney_duke

That's 4+ hours of some well exercised patience. Fog happens, I suppose. Sorry you ended up feeling sick though, that's not good. My husband and oldest daughter get that way too. I totally understand - yuck!

It's been many, many years since I've been that bad, as I just know that I usually can't travel in the back of cars - sadly I thought I might be over, apparently not.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by Pris

Oh, so sorry about the carsickness. That really added insult to injury!

It did.

[mommapants]

Flight Cancellations - UGH! what else needs to be said. Have a great time boating.

[Cam22]

What an exhausting and frustrating end to your day!

[chezp]

Monday 6 April – part one: one delay after another…

I woke up just before the first wake-up call went at 6:15am. I hadn’t slept particularly brilliant, as this wasn’t exactly a well sound proofed hotel, and every time someone had a shower, you knew all about it, shall we say?

Things got worse when I went to have a shower, and discovered that there was only one bath towel for the two of us. Are you joking me? Apparently they weren’t, so I made do with two hand towels. Hardly what I’d call ideal. All in all, considering how much they charge for this place (£105 or $158), which is a lot more than the £60 we were paying for each night at the Adelphi, I was not overly impressed. I’m sorry, but I expect a lot more and the façade gives you the impression you’re going to get a lot more too, but then it just doesn’t deliver…

We headed down to breakfast just before 7:00am, as we’d agreed to meet Mark’s parents down there then. We went down via the lobby, so that I could get some photos of it, as I just hadn’t been in a fit state to even contemplate taking photos of it when we arrived last night.


It looks murky out there again…


We were a bit early, and there was no sign of them when we got there, so we grabbed a table, and started to get something to eat. There was a pretty good selection of hot items…



… along with pastries, cereals, and juices. Barb and Dave joined us after a few minutes, and we had a good breakfast, although I had quite a wait to get a fresh batch of croissants. I blame the rude bunch of lads who all took about two or three each.

When we were done, we went back upstairs to get all our stuff, and then headed back down to reception. Our taxi driver was already waiting for us, and filled us with dread, as he told us that we could be looking at another two days here, as there had been no flights into or out of the island this morning, due to the fog, and the weather forecast was saying that it would be like this all day today and all day tomorrow. Ok, so I’m sure work can do without me, but this was not my idea of fun – using up flexi leave and annual leave to essentially sit around at an airport, waiting for a flight to go home.

We headed over to the airport, with me sitting in the middle of the back seat this time, so that at least I had a better view of the road in front. That, couple with taking a travel sickness tablet before we left the hotel, helped me hugely, and by the time we got out at the airport, I was still feeling Ok thankfully.

We paid the taxi, as we have to pay for the taxis, then reclaim them back through EasyJet, and headed inside. The woman at the deck when we checked in our luggage did give me some hope that we might get out today, as she told us that she’d boarded two flights. Sadly, my hope was only shortly lived, as we discovered that both flights had already been on the ground from last night. Apparently, according to what our taxi driver had told us, getting up into the air in fog isn’t a problem, it’s landing. He’d told us they could take off in complete zero visibility, but to land, they have to be able to see a certain amount in front of them.

Oh and just to compound the situation, there was no other way to get off the island, as the ferry is only other option. It goes twice a day, once in the morning, and was about to leave as we headed out of Douglas, and then we heard on the 8:00am news in the taxi that the catamaran had been damaged by fishing debris, and the damage was more extensive than they first thought. As a result, it was now out of service, and they were trying to get another one into service, but ferry sailings today were cancelled. The Isle of Man really did not want us to leave…

When we got upstairs, the situation wasn’t much better, as we couldn’t see that a single plane had landed yet. One was supposed to be landing in 45 minutes’ time (not ours), so if that came in, then at least there’d be some hope. I wasn’t holding out much, given that you couldn’t see a darned thing outside right now.

At least there was this bright spot…



The first thing I did was to log onto the Internet, and just like last night, I changed the Tesco grocery order, as I didn’t want that turning up and us still not there to receive it. I put it back until tomorrow night. Surely, hopefully, maybe, we might be home by then?


Mark getting proof of me working away…

The news wasn’t good, as one flight after another was announced as being further delayed due to weather issues in the Isle of Man – gosh I wonder what on earth that could be? Ours was pushed back from an original departure time, first of 10:15am, then to 10:45am, then 11:10am. Already, it was not exactly looking promising.

I settled down with a power point, so that I wouldn’t use up any battery power for the laptop, as I’d done yesterday. I managed to get online for a while to pass the time, which helped, as the announcements just kept coming and coming. Some flights, including ours, were delayed, while we had a cancellation early on for another airline. It was getting worse and worse, and I really saw no hope of us getting off the island at all today.

Our flight got delayed so much that EasyJet had to hand out refreshment vouchers. Over here, the European Union sets out what airlines have to do in the event of delays and cancellations, but if you thought we’d be rich and able to get something to eat with that, you’d be wrong. It came to the grand total of £3 ($4.50) each, and Mark told me water was £2.50, just to put it into perspective. Apparently, when Mark got the refreshment vouchers, the guy told us to hang on to them, as if the flight continued to be delayed, then we’d get some more, and we’d then have the grand total of £6 each. Wow, with that, we may even be able to actually buy a snack…

I have to say that everyone was very good spirited, even though lots of people were just sitting around on the floor, me included. People were patient, and understanding, knowing there’s nothing you can do about the weather.

When it got to 11:00am, we watched in hope and anticipation to see if the London Stansted flight would be able to land. We first knew it was due, then it was holding overhead, but the longer it carried on holding overhead, the more despondent we got again. After an hour in a holding pattern above the airport, with the visibility still obviously not good enough to land, it set off again, this time bound for Birmingham in central England, meaning that we still hadn’t managed to get any arrivals in today.

The next ones that would be trying their luck would be the flights from Gatwick, including the one we were booked on. All we could do was cross our fingers and hope, but although we felt there was somewhat visibility outside, with a few runway lights now visible, we weren’t holding out much hope. I had the feeling this was going to be a day spent at the airport, with the no prospect of getting out today….

Eventually, I decided to go outside and see what the weather was looking like, as the fog did seem to be clearing. I got a few photos…



… then I bumped into our taxi driver, who told me with real confidence that we’d be going. He told me that the airlines had been told the fog would clear around now (12:30pm) and that airlines had been told not to try landing until then. I told him our flight was due in the next half hour, and he told us that it should get in Ok. I certainly hope so!

Next: “holding overhead”…

[lauriep]

What a long, boring morning for you! With the way you two usually dash about, just sitting without going anywhere must have been really hard!

[Cam22]

Waiting can be such a tiring exercise! Sorry the island didn't want you all to leave.

[disney_duke]

Not much you can do about it! Too bad the vouchers weren't going to help much in the way of snacks. They need to update the value for today's costs!

[SuperDave]

What a fiasco with the fog and the flights! Unfortunately, you really can't do anything about it. Seems like things are improving and hope your flight gets out soon. Sorry to hear that you weren't feeling well and the overally experience at the hotel wasn't that great! Especially with the bath towels!

[Pris]

I can't believe how nice that hotel looked only to have one towel in the room and such poor soundproofing! A long boring day for sure.

[chezp]

Originally Posted by lauriep

What a long, boring morning for you! With the way you two usually dash about, just sitting without going anywhere must have been really hard!

It was very frustrating, especially just being stuck at an airport and not able to go anywhere. We were literally trapped there.