August 2009 Weddings
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Stolen Poll: Worst Travel Experiences
Stolen from the travel board: what are some of your worst/funniest travel experiences?
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Re: Stolen Poll: Worst Travel Experiences
Marshall Islands, last year. We hired a pretty trusted colleague as a consultant on-island because she's been there a ton of times. She assured us that the hotel she chose was golden, beautiful, well-run. Turns out the lower floors are Section 8 housing, there are cockroaches the size of my thumb running around, and the water goes periodically so we can't shower or use the bathroom. Pea green pool that you can't use. Old, creaky beds with questionable linens. Contaminated shore because of the tankers anchored in the lagoon. Now, you expect older things to be a bit rundown in the South Pacific given the weather, but this was over the top. We then visited another hotel down the road and it was gorgeous. Personal bungalows and great vistas. Why didn't we get this hotel? Because the other one is closer to the airport and this person likes to get as much sleep as possible before a flight. We did our own research for Pohnpei this year and have already booked the best hotel there. Our colleague is staying at a poorly rated hotel because--you guessed it--it's closer to the airport.
But hey, it is an awesome gig.
I'm going to go with getting stuck on the subway outside of Athens.
We decided to save money by taking the subway to the airport on our way home. It turns out that not all of the subway cars go all the way to the airport, only the ones with luggage racks and fancy airplane symbols (none of my travel books mentioned this fact). Well, we didn't get on one of those cars. After the last stop before the airport (or wherever the cutoff station was) the cars all emptied out, the train moved just passed the station, stopped and al the lights went out. With Derek and I on the train.
We hollered and even pulled on the emergency lever and after a few minutes the driver came down and yelled at us. He brought us back to the station and told us which train to wait for.
That was SO stressful.
We'll just not tell H about this little fact, m'kay?
Worst for me was my flight being delayed out of Illinois because of snow. It finally arrived but by the time I got to Atlanta, I had missed my connecting flight. Of course I had taken the last flight out of Moline, IL so there were no more flights leaving that night once I got to Atlanta. They were also out of hotel vouchers. So I had to stay the night in the Atlanta airport by myself. Also no one ever told me to pack your phone charger in your carry on, so my phone died partway through the night.
To top it all off, DH and I had just started dating and he was supposed to pick me up from the airport when I got home. Since I wasn't getting in until the next day now, he had to work and had to get his friend (who I had only met once) to pick me up and take me home. AND I called work and left them a message saying that I missed my flight and would be late to work because I was going to go home and shower and take a nap first. Apparently, the manager who I left the message for didn't work that day, so the manager that was there just thought I didn't show up.
Lessons learned: I never visit my dad in the winter and I never book the last flight out of anywhere.
Alyson & Phil | Planning Bio | Married Bio!
Dates & Quinces Blog
This past summer I flew to Michigan to spend a weekend with my extend family. I learned the night before from my brother's partner who hooked me up with a buddy pass that I may not get on the flight home since it was full. Why he didn't inform me of this until the day before my flight I have no clue. So I am contemplating even going if I can't get home. DH says just buy a ticket on another airline.I do.
I fly up via buddy pass, barely make that flight. SWEAR I WILL NEVER fly stand by again. Have a fun weekend. Get taken to the airport to catch my flight home, with the ticket I bought. Learn my flights delayed. It get's delayed further and further until it's canceled. I'm freaking out. I'm in a POS small airport and have to get to work the next day. I realize that my original standby ticket is still available to use. I hoped the flight isn't actually full. Dash into a bathroom to change out of my jeans and into nice dress clothes. I end up making the original standby flight I was supposed to have taken. I was the absolute last person on the plane but I made it home.
The first time I flew standby I was with my HS friends and almost didn't make that flight home. They only had one flight per day to Atlanta. Me and my then Boyfriend were only given the last two seats because some other people didn't show.
I have never had luck flying standby. It's always to nerve wracking.
Also my DH is claustrophobic so when we fly he has to have a few drinks and take some of his happy pills. So he is totally out of it and loopy. It always makes things interesting.
Worst for me had to be the day we came back from our honeymoon. We got off the ship at 9:30am. Got through customs and got our baggage and headed out to the shuttles. It took us 40 minutes to get to the airport. We get to the airport and go and print our boarding passes and find out that because we booked our fights so early that the plane we booked didn't get enough reservations so we were pushed back to a later flight. That meant that our wait in the airport went from being 2 hours to being 4 hours.
Our flight was then late and didn't leave until almost 5 instead of 3:30. Which got us into Seattle at 7:30 or so. By the time we got our luggage and got out to the bus to catch the lightrail it was after 8. We then had to wait 25 minutes for the train to get their to take us to downtown Seattle. Then we get to the ferry terminal and the ferries were on a 1 boat schedule instead of a 2 boat schedule because that morning the captain of one of the ferries ran it into the ferry dock and caused the boat serious damage.
Finally we get on a boat that leaves at about 9:30ish. Once we get to the island the cabs are all messed up due to the ferries being so messed up so there are none to take us to our apartment. We then had to walk the 2 miles up hill after over 12 hours of traveling with 2 suitcases and all the extra stuff that we had bought that didn't fit into our luggage.
This made me laugh. It's totally an "and we had to walk uphill both ways in the snow" kinda story.
This made me laugh. It's totally an "and we had to walk uphill both ways in the snow" kinda story.
I have 2.
1) My high school graduation my dad took me on a week long cruise to the Bahamas. The airlines lost my luggage on the way back, along with all my souveniers and clothes
2) Our honeymoon in the Bahamas. DH lost his wedding ring in the ocean
All great vacations with a sad moment.
I've actually been pretty lucky, given the amount of travel we do ::looking for some wood to knock ::
I think the worst for me was trying to travel the day after the Great Northeast Blackout of 2003. I was in TO and good friends were getting married back in Newfoundland on Saturday. My boyfriend at the time (and the best man) was already back there, so I was flying solo.
Background note: The groom and all the groomsmen were wearing dress kilts for the wedding, and it was cheaper to rent them in TO, and I had somehow gotten roped into transporting them, leaving me with two huge heavy suitcases full of kilts, plus my own bag.
So, back to the day following the blackout. All flights have been cancelled up until about 6pm. Luckily my flight was about 7pm, so it was ok for now, but always the risk of it getting cancelled. Bridal party back home is freaking out and looking for alternative places to rent tuxes for the next day. The airport is insane with people trying to get on flights. But mine is still scheduled to go. However, there is no plane. So we wait for the plane. The plane arrives, but there is no flight crew. So we wait for the crew. About 1am the crew finally arrives, and the whole waiting area starts to cheer. Then the crew starts to ready the plane, and they realize that there's not enough food or drinks, but given the time that it will take to get new food, the crew will be passed their mandatory max time on job. The passengers take a stand and say that we'll go without the food!
I think we finally manage to take off by 3am, after just sitting on the floor in the waiting room for hours, unsure whether we would be able to leave. I land in Newfoundland about 8am on the morning of the wedding, just in time to get the kilts to the bridal party, go to my parents and take a quick nap, shower and change to make it back out for the wedding.
Cecilia arrived 12 October 2012