I am German and a Capricorn so planning somehow runs in my blood and my hope has always been to avoid travel disasters. However, ever since I had children and experienced sleep deprivation planning things somehow does not work out the way it did before.
Last year we had planned to travel to Florence at Easter. Our trip was supposed to leave around noon from the new terminal in Barcelona.
My husband tends to rely on me when we fly (I am German) and I was convinced the flight would leave on time. As a result, none of us checked our boarding passes when they were handed out.
We arrived early for our scheduled flight (I am German). I took off with my daughter to buy some things at the Duty-Free shop. My husband stayed with my son at a Café playing cards.
The Departure Gate
All was very relaxed and as planned until I glanced at the screen to check on our departure gate. Somehow I could not find our flight. I put it down to an error. Still relaxed. I suddenly saw a flight on its last call departing to Florence (our flight) and all of a sudden I felt like fainting. The gate was far from where we were and my husband was still at the Café playing cards with my son.
What happened then I only remember passing by like a movie:
I grabbed my daughter and started running like a wild person. All our bags and our stroller followed me to the Café, where I screamed at my husband to get up and go. Our flight was leaving RIGHT NOW. He had no clue what had happened but he saw my pale face so he took our son and the other 2 bags and started running with me. We had a stroller with a buggy board so I started jogging with both kids towards to the gate. About 10 minutes later (it felt like an eternity) we arrived half-destroyed at an empty gate with only one staff member standing at the door looking at us with big eyes. The plane was still at the gate with closed doors.
We begged the attending person to see if we could somehow still make it on the plane! She kindly made a quick call. I wondered if we could somehow still save the day and prevent it all from falling apart. But she just shook her head and said: “Sorry, it’s not possible”. This was turning into one of our worst travel disasters ever.
My son was about to cry. So was I. He had been excited to travel to Italy. It had been my mistake not to double-check our flight time. I had relied blindly on what I had initially booked.
It only gets worse as travel disasters go:
I won’t name any companies here but unfortunately, it is one of those that constantly changes its flight times. According to them, I should have received an email stating that our flight departure time had changed. Until today I have not found that email but God knows. I now blame it on sleep deprivation.
No need to mention that we were all incredibly disappointed. But then the real fun was about to start. Our suitcases were supposedly collected from the plane, but somehow only one of the two suitcases showed up at the baggage claim. So what had happened to the other suitcase? Nobody knew! Until we managed to work out our next steps and re-book another flight to Florence for the next day, hours had passed! Thank God I had planned on enough snacks and entertainment for the kids (I am German after all) so it went “quite” smoothly.The good news
The car rental company and accommodation were informed. A new suitcase was packed just in case the other one did not show up in Florence the next day but, in the end, we finally made it to Italy, and only a day late! We even got our suitcase back.
Tuscany was wonderful for all of us but I will surely not forget the day we missed our flight.
Happy family travelling! 😉
What are your worst travel disasters with kids?
2 Replies to “Travel Disasters with Kids”
June 13, 2018
Mein Mann und ich waren einmal so verrückt, mit den Kindern mit dem Fahrrad und dem Fahrradanhänger zu einer ca. 200 Kilometer entfernten Geburtstagsfeier zu fahren.
Als passionierte Radfahrer dachten wir: Kein Problem. Aber da hatten wir nicht mit der Bahn gerechnet! Die zwei Räder, zwei kleinen Kindern und den Anhänger überhaupt in den Zug rein zu bekommen, ist schon ein Kunststück.
Dann handelte es sich um einen Zug mit Neigetechnik, bei dem man die Kinder im Zug so fest halten musste, weil sie beim Loslassen stellenweise drohten durch den Zug zu fliegen und als sich ein Kind losriss, passierte es: Es purzelte die Treppe vom Abteil herunter (diese Züge waren relativ hoch gebaut, so dass man eine Treppe herunter steigen musste, um aus dem Zug auszusteigen) und schlug sich den Kopf an der einzigen Metallkante auf, die zu finden war und fing extrem an zu bluten.
Der Schaffner hat gleich den Zug gestoppt und alle haben am Bahnsteig auf den Notarzt gewartet. Von einigen lieben Mitreisenden haben wir noch Kühlakkus für den Kopf bekommen. Vor Aufregung und Hitze waren wir ganz verschwitzt. Ich war total erleichtert, als ich mit meinem Kind in den Notarztwagen steigen konnte, der uns ins nahe gelegene Krankenhaus gefahren hat (immerhin nah!). Dort stellte es sich heraus, dass es nur eine Platzwunde war, die relativ schnell geklebt werden konnte und es hat auch alles nicht sehr lange gedauert - wahrscheinlich werden kleine Kinder im Notfallbereich vorgezogen (vielen, vielen Dank dafür!!) - das Wartezimmer war jedenfalls rappelvoll....... von dort aus ging es weiter zur Geburtstagsparty, auf der wir uns von der Anreise sogar etwas erholen konnten, weil zahlreiche Tanten und Omas sich um alle gekümmert haben... Das haben wir auch gebraucht, denn die Rückfahrt mit der Bahn (vor der uns sowieso schon graute) wurde schon wieder anstrengend, weil uns der Zug nicht mitnehmen wollte.
Schließlich hat man mit Fahrrädern kein Anrecht, mitgenommen zu werden. Dazu muss ich aber sagen, dass der Zug nicht sehr voll war und ein paar Leute sich einfach nur hätten umsetzen können, dann hätten wir rein gepasst. Als wir den Schaffner angesprochen haben, dass wir kleine Kinder dabei haben und dass mit etwas Zusammenrücken noch genug Platz für alle da wäre, hat er einfach nur mit den Schultern gezuckt und gesagt: "Ich nehme sie nicht mit. Was fahren Sie denn auch mit der Bahn!" Für den nächsten Zug hatten wir uns einen Schlachtplan entworfen: sobald die Bahntür aufgeht, sofort rein stürmen und Platz einnehmen (Räder, Anhänger und Kinder).
Sobald wir das geschafft hatten, würde uns kein Schaffner mehr aus dem Zug werfen können. So der Plan, der glücklicherweise aufgegangen ist. Seither bevorzugen wir das Auto für unsere Familienreisen;-)"
June 24, 2018
Our disaster was when returning home, so we couldn't even go home when it all went wrong, we had two under five and a third baby in our arms. Having flown from Italy to Dusseldorf we'd hired a car and been to a wedding, all fabulous. When then returned to Dusseldorf airport, gace the car back and entered the airport. We quickly noticed that our flight wasn't on the boards, so asked an information desk.
Our flight went from different Dussledorf airport, some 160km away, in fact over the border and in Holland. We had arrived Ok - what did this mean? I think we caught the same airline as yourselves.
With the hire car returned we couldn't get it back, we had three hours to catch the plan, so jumped into a Taxi for 200€ and raced to the new airport. On arrival, it was a lonesome place, we could see our plane, we had time, we bundled the children out fo the taxi and zipped up to the check-in desk. There was a lady there, last call hadn't been called. We made it.
Except we hadn't, check-in closed 40mins before take off we had arrived 38mins before. After 5mins of argument there was no hope, the airport was diserted, we could see all the passengers for our flight on the otherside of the glass window, no-one had yet boarded, but our airline smelt money to be made, no chance were we getting in.
We had to re-purchase tickets at full price for 5 people, stay a night in a desolate hotel, deal with upset children and all that entails not to mention the expense of it all.
I have never flown with 'that' airline again and will never do so either.