We Tried It: Summer Travel

Living in Portland, Oregon, I like to travel anytime except in the summer. This is because summers are special in Portland, and I enjoy them.  It’s our dry season. We have warm (sometimes hot) sunny days, and I love the sun. It energizes me.  I love everything about summer at home.  My preferred vacations are cruises to warm, sunny places and visiting warm, sunny destinations. During summer, it’s warm and sunny, so I see no reason to leave it.  Additionally, hurricane season for the places I want to visit occurs in the summer. A few years ago, I had a very close call and learned my lesson.

But as I started preparing this article, I realized that as a family, we didn’t travel in the summer.  Our trips were done during winter break, and we primarily visited family in the south.  Summer as a child was spent visiting every kind of u-pick farm, and my mom would then preserve our harvest in the best way based on the type of produce.  We also trimmed our 20 feet of laurel hedges and did other tasks around the house that were best done in summer.    It never occurred to me that my desire not to travel in the summer might be a product of something I was conditioned to as a child.  Regardless, as you can see, there are many reasons why I prefer not to travel in the summer, and that doesn’t even address the challenges that might come with summer travel.

That changed this year. My oldest granddaughter, “my girl” as I affectionately call her, asked us to take her on a cruise. Her very first cruise experience was thanks to Papa and me, and she has been asking us to take her on another one. Mind you, she has cruised plenty of times since then with her family, but she is my girl, and I had to comply lol. The last cruise she went on, she wasn’t too happy about missing school, so I decided to take her on a cruise in the summer.  

The Worst Travel Day Ever

I’m not oblivious to the issues of summer travel, but for some reason, I didn’t think about it. Still, it didn’t take long for it to “hit me.” It started with our departure from home—easily the worst travel day I’ve experienced. 

The weeks before our cruise, hundreds of flights had been cancelled due to storms.  When I book flights, I consider the time of year, where I’m going, and where my layovers will be, and try to pick the best option.  I know summer storms can be an issue in some areas, but our flight was a good one.  We would leave Portland, go to Seattle, and then fly nonstop to Miami.  What my strategy didn’t take into consideration was a late flight attendant.  Yes, you read that right—a late flight attendant.  I don’t know why this flight attendant was late.  It could have been due to scheduling issues; I certainly hope it wasn’t because they overslept, but regardless, they were late.  This flight attendant was going to be late enough that we would miss our connection in Seattle.  Ugh 

My husband headed to the counter, and I went to the app to start a chat.  The agent over the chat, as well as the gate agent, were beneficial and kind.  After reviewing flights and options, it came down to not leaving until 6 hours after our original flight with a 4-hour layover in Atlanta 😭

We fortunately live very close to the airport, so in my mind, there was no question that we would go back home.  I think it’s important to note our original flight was scheduled for around 5:20 AM.  I had not slept the night before, because I didn’t bother to go to bed to get 2 hours of sleep, maybe.  So, I thought it would be a good idea to go home and take a little nap.  Well, long story short, that didn’t happen.  My husband had no desire to return home.  In his mind, vacation had already started.  My sweet granddaughter reasoned that if Papa wanted to stay at the airport, maybe we should.  Paying for a taxi back home and then back to the airport, and I would have been too anxious to fall asleep. After getting something to eat (we were given a food voucher) and further discussion, we stayed at the airport.   We did leave the secure area and found a nice, open, and comfortable space to lie down and relax.  Portland’s newly remodeled airport is fantastic.  I love it.

We finally got on our flight 6 hours after our original flight, and we were able to switch seats since we were not seated together after rebooking our flights.  I at least needed to sit next to my granddaughter.  We did get breakfast on the plane, and we were ready because the only person who really ate breakfast at that early hour with our voucher was my husband.  We also got snacks on the flight. 

After landing in Atlanta, I was not looking forward to the 4-hour layover.  We were less than an hour into our 4-hour layover when I got a text that our next flight was being delayed by an hour.  I immediately sent my husband to the counter to confirm whether this flight was going to happen.  You hear stories of delayed flights that end up being canceled because the crew has timed out.  I internally panicked thinking we were going to be stuck in Atlanta overnight. I started looking at other flights to Miami.  It wasn’t looking good.

The gate agent, not as friendly or helpful as the one in Portland, seemed sure the flight would still happen, so we found somewhere to sit and wait.  And wait. And wait.  Eventually, my granddaughter got hungry and wanted French fries.  It wasn’t an easy task.  Maybe because the adults had been up for more than 24 hours at this point, but we managed to get her some.  I didn’t eat.  Honestly, I don’t remember why.  Maybe I was too tired to.  While she ate her fries and my husband was off wandering, I sat and listened to a conversation between a passenger who had been removed from his flight and the airline staff about why he was removed and what they were doing for him until his flight the next morning.  It was entertaining to say the least. 

Thankfully, our flight to Miami was not canceled and stayed on schedule with the one-hour delay.   We arrived in Miami at 2:00 AM.  Our original arrival time was 5:30 PM.  During all of this, we had to communicate with the transfer company to make sure they had the new flight information, as we would be significantly delayed, and notify the hotel.  We had a tour scheduled for Friday morning, but we were going to be in no shape to get up early on Friday, having only a few hours of sleep after over 36 hours awake.  Thankfully, we were able to reschedule it to Saturday.

I have never experienced such a bad travel day.  I like to think it’s because I plan my travel around non-peak travel times and I try to choose my flights wisely.  I look at possible issues that may arise and proactively try to avoid them.  Again, who would have thought to prepare for a late flight attendant?  Not me, and I’m not sure you ever could.

Hot and Crowded

So, what was the rest of my trip like?  Hot and crowded.

I’ll start with the crowded.  I’m no stranger to large cruise ships.  I have sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class ships several times, and when I say I have never felt like there are a lot of people or claustrophobic, I mean it.  Okay, not never.  I usually feel the sense of a lot of people when shows end and everyone’s leaving the venue at once.  And the start and end of a cruise, waiting for elevators.  But other than that, I don’t feel it.  Not so on this last cruise.  I’m going to say part of it for me was the ship layout.  I felt there were not enough public spaces for the number of people on board.  I’m sure the ship was sailing at full capacity since it was summer, and it was visiting Celebration Key for the first time.  I noticed a lot more children on board than on other occasions. I think this was again due to it being summer, and many families take a vacation when the kids are out of school. 

There were people everywhere.  That might sound funny if you’re not familiar with cruising.  People imagine cruise ships as these overcrowded spaces with people everywhere.  That has not been my experience until now.  It felt overcrowded, and yes, people were everywhere.  On my other cruises, I have been able to find a quiet space outside, and I wasn’t able to do that this time.  Since I usually cruise in winter, the one difference was that this was a summer sailing, so I attributed the overcrowded feeling to the extra people during summer.

Summer in the Caribbean is hot.  I kept reminding myself of this in the weeks before our trip, but I was prepared.  I have practice with this.  I took a Mediterranean cruise two summers ago, and it was hot.  I had my sunscreen, sun hats, sun umbrella, fan, and cooling towel.   The heat in the Caribbean hits a little differently.  Some days were hotter than fish grease, and if you’re a fan of Abbott Elementary, Ava has a saying about it being hot.  IYKYK.  Being prepared for the heat helped, but I did get a little sunburned despite my regular use of sunscreen and a sun umbrella.  I’ve been to the Caribbean in the summer, but it has been, well, since my last Carnival cruise, and I no longer can tolerate that level of heat.

Lessons Learned

Bring snacks no matter what.  I don’t like traveling (the airport and flying part), and not having adequate food in my stomach doesn’t help.  Our flights did come with meals, but with the long layover in Atlanta, things didn’t work out as initially planned.  I try not to travel with food because I figure I can grab something at an airport or preorder a meal on the flight when possible.  It’s just one less thing I need to worry about when packing.  From now on, I will always throw something in my bag, such as meat sticks, nuts, and chips.

Have a good travel companion who offers a different perspective. No, not my husband LOL. He’s a good travel companion.  He was the one who chatted with the gate agent and rescheduled our transfers and tour in Miami, but I feel like if it had just been the two of us on this worst travel day ever, I might not have kept my composure as well as I did. My granddaughter was the perfect distraction. I didn’t want her to see that I was stressed, but nothing seemed to bother her. She just went with the flow and never complained. She video chatted with her friends and her family, who were on a later flight to meet us. She ate French fries and was just happy to be on her way to another cruise.  Having her that day made it all better.

I’m a Pacific NW whimp.  I love summer.  I love my summer, not the summer heat of the Caribbean or the Mediterranean.  From now on, if I travel in summer, it will be to Alaska.  Visiting the Caribbean in winter is perfect for me.  People from warmer climates will say the ocean is a little cold in the winter.  Not to us PNW whimps.  It feels just right.

Finally, it is not so much a lesson learned but just the thought that I always tell those I’m planning travel for, to be prepared for different things and to pack their patience when traveling during peak times.  It just felt a little odd that I was having to practice what I tell others.  I’m glad I was prepared (minus not having snacks) with all my travel documentation and information, so I was able to contact transfers, hotels, and activities while in transit to rearrange schedules.  It’s better to be prepared for particular possibilities and not have to use it than not be prepared at all.

Despite all this, I haven’t fully learned my lesson.  Back in February, not thinking about all the issues of summer travel, I planned a cruise for later this month.  But this isn’t just any cruise.  It’s on Royal Caribbean’s brand-new Icon-class ship, Star of the Seas!  I could not take my cruise on the first Icon-class ship, Icon of the Seas, last year, so I’m looking forward to this.  I will be sharing my experience and thoughts on it after I return, so stay tuned.