Warning: supersized post! Plus spherical images and video using my new Ricoh Theta S!
For 2015 and beyond, Kaleb and I decided to split Thanksgivings and Christmases between our two families living on opposite coasts. Christmas was with Kaleb's family in Pennsylvania. Plans were meticulously arranged, but one can never prevent travel issues 100% of the time. We had been pretty lucky in the past, such as the time when we
barely made it home from Barcelona (and somehow scored free upgrades). Eventually we would need to pay dues...our flight to the East Coast was it.
I used miles to book economy award tickets on American Airlines from Sacramento, through Dallas (DFW), to Baltimore (BWI). All seemed well when we arrived at the airport on the morning of December 21, but when we were in line to check our bags, I got a flight alert on my phone saying our departure would be delayed an hour due to aircraft maintenance. When the ticketing agent learned of the delay, she told us that she doubted that we would leave before noon based on previous experience. If so, it would mean that we would miss our connection to BWI...not good. I still had hopes that everything would fall into place, since it always does, right?
At the gate, we saw our plane sitting a distance away on the tarmac, engine and lights on, so something was being checked. We waited for a while, then the announcement came that we wouldn't be leaving until noon. Just as predicted earlier! But of course, the planner in me had already looked up websites and figured out the details for Plan B. The next flight to BWI would land around midnight. This, plus catching an infrequent-at-night shuttle to the rental car facility, driving 1.5 hours to Kaleb's hometown, and then that same morning, drive an hour with his brother Jarrett and wife Kate to Longwood Gardens meant that it'd make more sense to land in Philadelphia (PHL), redeem Marriott points to spend the night at the airport hotel, and have Jarrett and Kate pick us up, since the gardens were 40 minutes away from there. I went up to the gate agent and requested our connection be changed to PHL, which was done easily, and at no charge since our itinerary was delayed. He printed out new luggage tags and asked what our bags looked like so he could run them down to the baggage area and re-tag them...what service!
I decided to wait until we actually landed in PHL before booking the hotel room...good thing, since the situation got worse. I got a flight status update email saying that our departure was now 1pm. This cut into our connection time in DFW, but I figured we could make it if we ran. A bit later, we noticed that our plane started to move towards the runway; the flight status online said that the plane departed! The gate agent informed us that the pilot was just running some checks and will be back, not leaving us behind. Not too long after that, it was announced that we wouldn't depart until 4pm, as a replacement part was on an incoming flight. There would be no more connections and we would have to spend the night in Dallas. The gate agent said that affected passengers should go to the customer service center at DFW to get hotel and meal vouchers.
Finally we boarded the plane and left for Dallas. By this time, we had waited 9 hours at the airport. There was no lounge so we were at the gate the entire time. This didn't beat our
12 hours at London Heathrow airport, but we were comfortably in the
Concorde Room then.
 |
| my seat in economy |
|
 |
| Dallas city lights |
|
We headed over to the customer service counter after landing, waited 15 minutes in line, then got our hotel and dinner/breakfast vouchers. The hotel (Wyndham Garden) was located off-site so I asked the agent if he could give us a hotel room at either of the Hyatt hotels on-airport, since we were leaving so early the next day. He said he couldn't do so, but that we could contact AA for compensation afterwards. My parents had been in a similar situation a few months prior: upon landing in DFW, they found out their connection to London was cancelled, forcing them to stay overnight. The shuttle took forever to get to their off-site hotel, and with their flight leaving first thing in the morning, left them with just a few hours to rest before having to return to the airport. Their experience made me decide to stay at the airport Grand Hyatt as we had such a tiring journey and our flight was departing at 6:15am the next day.
Our $12 dinner voucher was pretty useless as all of the food concessions were closed in our terminal. We took the Skylink airport train to Terminal D, where the Grand Hyatt was located. Fortunately, the
American Express Centurion Lounge was located in the same terminal and was open until 10pm, so we were able to grab some refreshments. Entrance was free using the
AMEX Platinum Card. Unfortunately, the hot food buffet stopped at 9pm, but there were few salad fixings, snacks, fruit and soup still available. The bar was open so Kaleb could get some refreshing local beer.
 |
| Skylink train |
|
 |
| light dinner and beer |
|
 |
| haven't had Shiner Bock in forever! |
|
 |
| the lounge sign is so small |
|
The airport
Grand Hyatt was located just outside of security and up an escalator. The front desk agent was very friendly and told us that we could use our dinner voucher at the bar lounge for a snack or drink if we wanted. Since we had already eaten at the Centurion Lounge, we passed on the idea, but we did pick up a cookie and hot chocolate from the lobby. He also gave us two complimentary bottles of Aquafina water.
 |
| complimentary cookies and hot chocolate |
The room was nice and had a view of the runway. Since it was late at night, there weren't many planes taking off so was quieter than expected. It was so nice to take a hot shower after a long journey!
 |
| a plane out on the runway |
|
 |
| two queen beds |
|
 |
| first time I've seen a yoga mat in a closet |
|
 |
| TV, safe, mini-bar |
|
 |
| mini-bar menu |
|
 |
| room control panel |
|
 |
| large bathroom with shower stall |
|
 |
| and separate bath |
|
|
|
 |
| bathroom light panel |
|
We got up at 4am, not getting a good night's sleep as the air conditioner kept turning on and off during the night. I had to set it to a constant fan mode to keep the noise steady.
After checking out, we headed down the escalator to the security checkpoint, where we found it was not yet open as it was early. We had to go to a different checkpoint, plus the
TSA Pre-Check line was closed, but at least the line wasn't too long at such an early hour.
Not much was available at 5am for us to use the $12 breakfast voucher. There was a Starbucks, but I wasn't in the mood for a pastry. I noticed TGI Friday's was open; there was no time to have a sit-down breakfast, but self-serve was available so we grabbed pre-packaged sandwiches, bottled drinks, chips and cookies. I noticed that the dinner voucher was good through today so I planned to use both vouchers and pay any remainder. It turned out that everything came to a total of exactly the amount on our vouchers - $24...what are the odds of that?!?
Our flight to Philadephia left on time...hooray!
 |
| a power outlet and entertainment system! |
We weren't too confident that our bags would make it since they were tagged with the past evening's flight information. Kaleb's luggage showed up early on the carousel; would mine be next? It ended up being one of the last bags off, but it made it, woohoo! Jarrett and Kate picked us up shortly afterwards. It was raining when we left the airport, but thankfully the weather got better as we got closer to Longwood Gardens.
For lunch, we stopped at
Two Stones Pub in Kennett Square. We all had mushroom soup as well as burgers and sandwiches, but I forgot to take pictures of most of it.
 |
| tasty cream of mushroom soup |
After our meal, we headed over to
Longwood Gardens, where Kaleb's mom was meeting us. We had visited
here last July, but this time the gardens were decorated for Christmas and it looked even more spectacular. I was excited to use my new 360 degree camera, the
Ricoh Theta S. Being able to take spherical pictures and video is great! If you are using a mobile phone to view this page, you should be able to move the phone in any direction to change the perspective in spherical images. You can also use your finger to drag the image around. If you are using a desktop or laptop, use your mouse to drag the image to change the view. Press the "play" button if needed to start the video or pan.
The conservatory by day: (pause the video to take a longer look and drag the image around) If you have iOS or don't have the app to play, you can watch it directly from YouTube
here. If it doesn't work well, open your YouTube app and search for "0pSKaj62DmU".
Longwood Gardens conservatory at Christmas time - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
We had an early dinner in the garden cafeteria; more cream of mushroom soup and other goodies. This soup was not as good as the version we had in their on-site
1906 Fine Dining Room on
our last visit.
 |
| it's missing truffle oil, shallots and chives |
After the sun went down, the gardens lit up...so beautiful! It's hard to capture it on normal camera, but at least the spherical images help a little to be there "in person".
Inside the Christmas tree made of lights (try looking "up" too):
Inside the Christmas tree made of lights at Longwood Gardens - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
Spherical photo inside the treehouse:
In the treehouse at Longwood Gardens during Christmas time - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
The conservatory at night in 360:
Conservatory at night during Christmas time - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
1 minute clip of the Open Air Theatre Christmas fountain show: (click
here if you cannot see the preview below)
25-second vid of model trains: (click
here if you cannot see the preview below)
After we left Longwood Gardens, we stopped by the
Herr's snack factory to tour their Christmas lights display (16-second clip, click
here if you cannot see the preview below):
The rest of the time in Pennsylvania was spent with family and friends. We got to meet Kaleb's newborn niece Arianna...what a cutie!
That was our trip! To follow up on the hotel reimbursement, I emailed American Airlines regarding our stay at the DFW Grand Hyatt, but their response was that since they did provide us with a hotel, no compensation was due for using an alternate property; however, they did credit my AAdvantage account with 4000 miles, so that was nice. We also got 6000 miles each for the delayed flight. Overall, the delay wasn't terribly inconvenient as we were still able to visit the gardens at the designated time, though I did have to re-book and pick up a rental car in Lancaster at a slightly higher cost than if we had gotten it from Baltimore.
Happy New Year! We'll be doing some local sightseeing when Jarrett and Kate come visit us in March...stay tuned...
***
If you came here from a Facebook or Twitter link, thanks for clicking the "Facebook Like" button below or retweeting!
Don't miss a blog entry! Sign up for updates direct to your inbox
here or add the blog to your
RSS feed.
Getting excited reading about these trips and want to go? Contact me at
yellowdogtravel at gmail d0t com for more information! Or if you've already put a deposit on a cruise through the cruise line, contact me to get more information on transferring the reservation to me to get bonuses like extra onboard credit or gifts. I have lots of happy returning clients - references always available.
Come check out my other blog "
What in the world is Kat Kong doing now?", documenting things other than traveling...sign up for blog updates direct to your inbox
here!
Previous post:
Day 3-4 on Norwegian Pearl repositioning cruise: at sea, disembarkation in San Francisco
