Let's Get This Show on the Road

Thursday, February 26

Living so far away from ANY port, I always plan to arrive a day early for a cruise. There are just too many things that can go wrong…especially in the winter…and missing the ship is not how I want my vacation to start. But…since we fly from MSP which is three hours away, our travels usually start two days ahead.

We drove up to Minneapolis on Thursday morning and took advantage of being in the city to do a little shopping before checking into our hotel late in the afternoon. Our son had used his connections to get us two rooms (for us and J & K) near the airport for a very good price. Even better…the stay also included parking for the duration of our trip. He had taken care of all of the arrangements and all I had was his email saying that everything was set.

The hotel was very busy when we checked in and customers were being turned away because there were no rooms available. I gave the girl at the front desk our confirmation numbers and she searched, and searched, and searched, but couldn’t find our reservations. I showed her the email I had printed from the general manager and she was even more confused.

Eventually the front desk manager was called into service and it turned out that the general manager had made our reservations for the same dates in January…not February. My head was spinning as I tried to think of what we were going to do. We could probably find another hotel, but not one that was willing to let us leave our car for 16 days!

I am happy to report that the story had a happy ending. In spite of the hotel being “full”, she found us two connecting rooms overlooking the pool! Their long-term parking area was at capacity, but we left our keys and they would take care of moving our car when space was available.

Disaster averted! By the time J & K arrived, everything was right with the world and we were ready to start our vacation! After dinner at TGI Fridays and hanging out around the pool, we were off to bed knowing the next day would be starting early.   

A trip to paradise with special friends...life is good!