My trip began with my flight to Florida being canceled because of Hurricane Helene.

I was scheduled to leave on Thursday, 9/26, to arrive in Florida in time for one day and then fly with our 10-person group to NYC to board the ship on Saturday, 9/28. The trip had been planned for over a year. Our first cruise was canceled in January, and we were able to re-book another cruise on NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) I have long wanted to do a Fall Leaf tour of the East Coast. Having been born and raised in Southern California and then spending eleven years in South Florida, changing leaves is not really something available to see in the fall in either of those locales.

Since my flight to Florida was canceled, I could change my flight to, wait for it, a RED-EYE to New York, JFK airport, arriving at 8:30 am on Saturday, 9/28.

As soon as my flight to New York was confirmed, I called the cruise line, as my flights were included in the cruise package. I’m glad I called because I was told that if I missed the flight to New York from Florida, my entire trip would have been canceled. LOL, that would have been a mess.

My son-in-law drove me to the airport on Friday night. The traffic was horrible, but we made it, and I was able to get to the gate well before boarding. I lugged my carry-on down the ramp and to my seat and put my bag in the bin overhead. Two young twenty-somethings were sitting in my row on the other side of the plane. Three seats, aisle and three more seats. A trio of friends came down the aisle to find these two sitting in their seats.

‘Oh, we want to sit together. Can we sit here? You don’t mind, do you?’ Well, the trio said emphatically, NO, those are our seats. One of the girls said, ‘Oh, but I have the middle seat, and my friend is sitting in the row behind.’
One of the trio had a seat behind and agreed to change and sit with his friends. The other girl had the middle seat in my row. Well, a gentleman who sat behind the trio chose to trade with one of the girls. They got their wish, they got to sit together.

The gentleman moved to the middle seat in my row. Oh boy, as the flight went on, he began to fall asleep, and the ‘man splay’ happened. His legs encroached on my area, and I had to move my legs closer to the aisle to keep from bumping him. One small blessing: He didn’t snore. I was able to get maybe one or two broken hours of sleep.

Exhausted, I scheduled a car service to take me to the port for the ship. On the way to the boat, I got a tour of Manhatten. Wow, some streets are narrow, and people double park, etc. What a mess. I did arrive at the port in plenty of time.

Unfortunately, my friends were not as lucky as a bus that was taking people to the ship broke down, and their bus was rerouted to take the passengers on the broken bus to the port and then return to the airport to pick up all of the Florida people waiting for transport to the ship.

The group of friends finally made it aboard the ship well before sailing. We met for a well-deserved welcome aboard drink.

Our first stop at Martha’s Vineyard was canceled as the seas were too rough for us to ’tender’ to the island. Our next few stops went well, and we had a good time—lots of sights. The fall leaves were turning, and it was quite a sight. (We don’t see much of that in Southern California).

On Sunday, 10/6, the track for Hurricane Milton was forecasted to go toward Florida again. On Monday morning before our next tour, 4 of us were proactive and asked for a waiver to leave the ship on Tuesday, our first day in Quebec. We could re-book a flight on United out of Quebec for 12:30 Tuesday.

Late on Monday night, I booked an Alaska flight from Newark to LAX for Tuesday night. My friends planned to fly from Newark to Orlando, rent a car, and drive home before Mr. Milton arrived. They asked me to join them, but I declined. “I want to get to Newark and then fly home from there. My previous plans were to return to Fort Myers and spend a few more days with my friends and see some other friends.

While we were in line to get our refunds from the canceled tours, several people were in line for service on Tuesday morning. They were finding out that their flights out on Wednesday had been canceled, and they might only be able to fly out on Friday or Saturday.

My flight home wasn’t until 7:30 pm, so I was at the Newark airport from 2 pm until we finally boarded. I treated myself to a first-class seat. I have only flown first class a few times. I was glad to have a comfy chair and treated myself to one drink, a vodka and cranberry. I was able to get a little bit of sleep.

I arrived home a little after 2 am. Fortunately, I could open the gate, and the driver took my more oversized, checked luggage to the front door. I closed the gate and headed back to my house. LOL, the dogs didn’t even bark—some watchdogs.

I’m glad I chose to come home. My friends survived Hurricane Milton with little or no damage. They didn’t have any power for a few days and had to boil their water, but other than that, they came through the storm okay.

So, my trip began with Helene and a Red-eye flight to New York City and ended with Milton and a long late-night flight back to Los Angeles.

Welcome home.