We’re finally here in Jamaica, but the trip here wasn’t exactly smooth. After waking up at 3:30 to head to the airport, our flight finally left Chicago around 7AM. So in just over 3 hours we should have been landing in Montego Bay.
As we came close to cruising altitude, the flight attendants started running around attending to something. It wasn’t long before I realized something was going on with a passenger across the aisle from us. Pretty soon they got on the PA and said, “If there is a medical doctor onboard, please identify yourself by pushing the call button above your seat.” Crap.
They moved this guy to the back of the plane and continued to run around. He didn’t really look sick or anything so I couldn’t figure out what was going on. The next thing I Know I felt the plane tilt slightly in the way that can only mean we’ve started a descent. Since they hadn’t announced anything I wondered if maybe we were just changing altitude for some reason, but at the same time I started to get kinda pissed off because I was pretty sure it meant we would be making an emergency landing.
Sure enough, a few minutes later they told everyone that there was a medical emergency onboard and in the interest of the passenger’s safety we were diverting to Atlanta. Double crap.
Keep in mind, we were supposed to be getting breakfast on this flight, and though we’d been in the air about an hour, nothing was served (except first class) because all the attendants were trying to figure out what to do about this guy.
So we finally landed in Atlanta. They told us the passenger needed to deplane and the plane needed to be refueled. So we sit and wait. And wait some more. The passenger gets back on (!) and we wait some more. A refueling truck finally found the plane and around 9:30 we get off the ground.
Around 10AM we finally got our breakfast – 3 hours after we should have been eating and almost 7 hours after we got up. The delay was due to the “health” concerns of one passenger, but after he got back on the plane he seemed to be fine and explained to a few people that he just started to feel really weird and was having trouble moving part of his face. What?
So basically, this guy freaked out at 30,000 feet (was this his first time in the air?) and decided to delay 100 people’s trip to Jamaica for a few hours.
Anyway, after all the waiting, we finally landed in Montego Bay, figured out how to find our transfer flight and made it to Sandal’s Dunn’s River. Still, I’m not really sure we saved anything by spending another $200 to fly closer to the resort rather than take a 2 hour bus ride.
Now it’s Tuesday morning, and we’ve slept for 11 hours and just finished our room service breakfast. We’re about to head down to orientation and figure out what to do with the rest of our day.