Warning: Picture- and Whine-heavy post ahead.

January 12 – I boarded the plane in Nanaimo at shortly after 5 am…anticipating the next 3 weeks of fun and relaxation with friends. Winter had finally arrived on the island, and our pilot announced he wanted the plane to go through a second bout of de-icing before we took off for Calgary. This meant arriving in Calgary and at the next gate breathless from sprinting through the airport, where the jet to Toronto waited.

Only to be told that we (there were more guests than just me needing that Toronto plane) were to step aside as the gate agent continued to check in guests arriving AFTER us. Spouting some policy about needing to be in the airport 45 minutes before take-off, the gate agent told us we were being rebooked. (Which was BULLSHIT. I’ve been on WestJet flights where they held the plane to accommodate passengers making tight connections.) Yep, they gave our seats away – probably to crew – and I was booked to fly to Toronto AT 6:30 PM THE NEXT DAY. No discussion except to tell us that we were on our own and WestJet was doing nothing for us as it was deemed a weather event that we “missed” the flight, and they weren’t liable.

FINE. Shit happens and this wasn’t going to ruin my trip. After making sure an underage guest was not left to twist in the wind by the heartless gate agent (they managed to get her out the same day once they realized she was only 16), I went to find myself a hotel room and make the best of things. Getting on another flight was not going to be an option for me as the Departures board was full of delays and cancellations due to the extreme cold weather Calgary was experiencing. The airport Marriott managed to get me into my very expensive room by 10am.

I’d only been there for an hour and already my eyes and nasal passages were inflamed and burning from the lack of moisture in the air. I went to look for eye drops and nasal spray in the airport – found the eye drops only – and also found an oasis of moist air:

The next day my 6:30 pm flight time came and went. Delayed until 10:45pm, eventually. I was cheered when I finally saw the plane come up to the gate. That didn’t last long, as the gate agents announced they were “just waiting for some crew members to arrive”. This dragged on for a bit until they finally announced the flight’s cancellation due to the lack of crew. We were told we’d be booked into hotels, transportation would be arranged, be given food vouchers, and rebooked to fly out the next day. All this information to come via email to our devices. The only emails I got were the food vouchers and a rebooking to fly into Hamilton, not Toronto. By now it was around 1 am, and my fellow passengers were drifting off to fend for themselves.

So I did the same. I booked a flight out with Porter for 730am the next morning and cancelled my WestJet flight. Then I decided it was not worth finding a hotel room anymore and tried to get some rest in the terminal, instead.

Sunday morning came eventually, and I gave up on any sleep myself a wet-wipe “bath” in one of the family washrooms and went to find my gate for the Porter flight to Toronto.

I must tell you I was an unwilling witness to snippets of so many peoples’ sad travel experiences during the time I spent in the airport. I heard people on their phones talking to family, hotels and travel agents about having to cancel their vacations/travel plans altogether due to the delays. It helped stopped my own personal pity party put my own woes into some kind of perspective. The travel clusterfuck caused by the extreme weather made the news, and I vowed to never grace this airport again if I could help it.

Joanne and I had a teary reunion at the Toronto airport and tried to make the best of my now-abbreviated stay with her. I think we succeeded! Laughs and good meals were shared, as well as a spa day at the Elmwood, downtown.

And – in the blink of an eye it seemed – I was on another fucking jet with CJ, and we were heading south, to Barbados.

One of the racers happened to be CJ’s nephew – whose team took first place for their class of boat. Woohoo!!! After the race, he and his wife graciously took us on a tour of the island for a day. We stopped at Earthworks Pottery, Animal Flower Cave, Limegrove Mall, and other island must-sees during our day out. Although we have been to many spots on the island during our years of coming here, these were all new to us and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. CJ’s sister Marilyn also joined us (and got a room at our same hotel) and it was lovely to spend time with her again, not having seen her since she and CJ visited me in the fall. CJ and I have been friends since we were 7 years old and I’m always happy to be folded into her clan.

My friends Jackie and Adrien had also come down to Barbados (first visit for them) and I tried to divide my time such that I got to hang with everybody, equally. Jackie and I booked a catamaran cruise for one of the days we were both at the hotel, and it was a lot of fun to swim the wrecks and observe the sea life there, again.

We also snorkelled off of off the beach at the hotel. A fellow guest educated me on how much tropical fish loved to eat bananas! Here is a 2 minute video (watch as much as you can stand) of me (with Jackie) feeding the reef fish:

For an introvert like me, this vacay was incredibly people-y. And thus, over before I knew it. It was a bit of blur. An enjoyable blur, but a blur nonetheless.

Soon (too soon) I was back on a plane to Vancouver (bypassing the Calgary airport, deliberately of course). I had a very long layover before my flight to Nanaimo was scheduled so I decided to cancel that leg and grab a ferry to the island instead.

And, when I went to Arrivals to retrieve the carry-on bag that I was forced to check (due to a very full flight), I was informed they didn’t have my bag. WTF?!?!?!

I had an AirTag in the bag so I called up Find My app on my phone, and it told me that my bag had already left the airport and was travelling (probably on the SkyTrain) far away from me. For the next 12 hours, I held onto the delusion thought that someone had mistakenly taken my highly distinctive bag and would return it to the airport at their earliest opportunity. I did also make a police report, in the meantime. Long story short, after a couple of days of angst and many conversations with many lovely police officers (truly, I was impressed by their diligence), my luggage seemed to settle on Hastings Street in Vancouver, and I disabled the AirTag. My stolen luggage was irretrievably LOST to me.

So, all of the beach clothes, swim wear and jewellery (and much, much more) you see in the above photos are gone forever. And I am waiting (not so patiently) to hear from WestJet about the claims I have made for the cancelled flights and the stolen luggage. Not the best travel experience, but I had been reminded on this trip how many had it much worse than me.

Will I travel by air again, after this series of unfortunate events? Not soon, but eventually is inevitable I suppose. Road tripping and stay-cationing is looking very good (and so much less stressful) to me right now…

How about you? Have a travel tale of woe to share? Let me know in the comments, if you care to!

Rock on,

The WB