How do an 87 and 89 year old get home from Freemantle?

[Seasick Sailor]

2 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

 

Cat.. we could both be in the movie. You can be the cheerleader and I'll be the one showering praises on Copper! 

 

Ok. Silly stuff over for now. It's been a sad day for our HAL cruisers.. tried to add a bit of fun..

Now going to make my famous comfort meatloaf for my sweet husband. 

God Bless us all. 

[HAL4NOW]

2 minutes ago, Seasick Sailor said:

 

Ok. Silly stuff over for now. It's been a sad day for our HAL cruisers.. tried to add a bit of fun..

Now going to make my famous comfort meatloaf for my sweet husband. 

God Bless us all. 

Comfort meatloaf sounds perfect, maybe with mashed potatoes.

[rjbean4]

“They are the most amazing group of people. All of the cheerleaders, all the people who were giving me information, the people doing play-by-play with the flights,” Kinder said. "Everybody was just so helpful. They made what would have been a very scary and difficult situation a hundred times better just by being there.”

 

In light of everything going on around us reading this paragraph makes me feel like this was me. One of my contributions was doing the screenshots on my cell phone of their flight using my FlightRadar24 app. Then I was using that picture to post on the thread from my cell phone. So I was doing posts all day either from my cell or from sitting in front of our desktop computer. When it came time for the ATL - TPA flight I had checked ahead of time to see what the approach had been for incoming flights at the time and determined that there was a pretty good chance they were going to go right over us which they did. I really did go outside to look for them approaching and literally went right over where we live. It was almost dark at this point and had good visibility so with the strobe lights flashing I spotted them pretty easily. Then it was a continuation along the west side of Tampa Bay down to a area over the southern part of the bay when they started to circle back to the north on final approach for landing on 1 L. This is a standard approach for 1 L at TPA. Once again I am proud to have been a part of this CC team effort. One of the comments my mom used to say was that we would be on & off of airplanes like people get in and out of cars. Yeah because of our connection with NWA. These days adopted by Delta.

 

Red Tails Forever !!

Edited March 28, 2020 by rjbean4

[puppycanducruise]

Thank you for posting the link to GMA.

I've read this thread from the beginning, and so glad to read the happy ending.

Best wishes to everyone.

Stay healthy.

[cat shepard]

7 hours ago, rjbean4 said:

“They are the most amazing group of people. All of the cheerleaders, all the people who were giving me information, the people doing play-by-play with the flights,” Kinder said. "Everybody was just so helpful. They made what would have been a very scary and difficult situation a hundred times better just by being there.”

 

In light of everything going on around us reading this paragraph makes me feel like this was me. One of my contributions was doing the screenshots on my cell phone of their flight using my FlightRadar24 app. Then I was using that picture to post on the thread from my cell phone. So I was doing posts all day either from my cell or from sitting in front of our desktop computer. When it came time for the ATL - TPA flight I had checked ahead of time to see what the approach had been for incoming flights at the time and determined that there was a pretty good chance they were going to go right over us which they did. I really did go outside to look for them approaching and literally went right over where we live. It was almost dark at this point and had good visibility so with the strobe lights flashing I spotted them pretty easily. Then it was a continuation along the west side of Tampa Bay down to a area over the southern part of the bay when they started to circle back to the north on final approach for landing on 1 L. This is a standard approach for 1 L at TPA. Once again I am proud to have been a part of this CC team effort. One of the comments my mom used to say was that we would be on & off of airplanes like people get in and out of cars. Yeah because of our connection with NWA. These days adopted by Delta.

 

Red Tails Forever !!

 

Of course it is you! I can never thank you enough for sharing the happy ending with those of us who could not be there.  When I toasted that night - one of my toasts was to you.

[neuronbob]

I am relatively new to the forum, but have found this thread one of the best I've ever seen in 25 years of Internet forum reading.  I'm a physician and kept up until Sunday, but had to work all week.  I finally read through the rest of the thread, and even went to Deb's Facebook page to witness the reunion.  

 

I just want to say, what a great group of people here.  That is all

[Kindergirl]

@neuronbob thank you for what you do and please keep safe. Our hearts and thoughts are with all the healthcare workers, whether right on the front line or behind the scenes, you are our heros. Perhaps I shouldn’t be speaking for everyone, but give. The people in this thread I feel confident in my statement. 
@rjbean4, of course I was speaking about you. I did mention your name specifically to Tom during our conversation. You and @Copper10-8 were our eyes and ears in the air!

 

At this time my thought are with those on the Zaandam and those transferred to the Rotterdam. I now know how fortunate my mom and Jim were to be home. ❤️

[MMDown Under]

1 hour ago, Kindergirl said:

@neuronbob thank you for what you do and please keep safe. Our hearts and thoughts are with all the healthcare workers, whether right on the front line or behind the scenes, you are our heros. Perhaps I shouldn’t be speaking for everyone, but give. The people in this thread I feel confident in my statement. 
@rjbean4, of course I was speaking about you. I did mention your name specifically to Tom during our conversation. You and @Copper10-8 were our eyes and ears in the air!

 

At this time my thought are with those on the Zaandam and those transferred to the Rotterdam. I now know how fortunate my mom and Jim were to be home. ❤️

Does your mother and Jim suffer jet lag?

[#55worktoplay]

Deb,

 

Wow, I followed this thread in the beginning but only just came back today and have caught up from when you arrived in Florida, I had a little catching up to do!

 

I am also from Ottawa and I was quite concerned that you were thinking of driving down on your own, next thing I read you are there!  I have to say you sure made it there so quickly.

 

This thread has brought so many tears of joy to my eyes it is truly amazing.

 

Kudos to each and every poster and as others have said John (Copper) is a gem!

 

Your parents are amazing at making it through that very long journey and yet get off the plane in Tampa looking unscathed.

 

Wonderful ending to this story!

 

[Kindergirl]

@MMDown Under it’s hard to tell what is jet lag and what is just exhaustion from the stress and the journey but they have been catching up on lots of sleep. Slowly things are aligning themselves to our timeline. 

[MMDown Under]

1 minute ago, Kindergirl said:

@MMDown Under it’s hard to tell what is jet lag and what is just exhaustion from the stress and the journey but they have been catching up on lots of sleep. Slowly things are aligning themselves to our timeline. 

Exhaustion is to be expected after the long haul flights home from Fremantle.  Lots of sleep is best recovery.

Jet lag is another thing altogether.  It is when you are still operating on the time zone you left, despite being in another time zone.  My family were usually over it in a day or two.  Me, it takes about 10 days and I travel long haul annually.  

[Kindergirl]

Wow! That must be very challenging. No, they seem to have sorted out the jet lag (thanks for the explanation) and are managing to sleep at night. Thanks for asking. 

[rjbean4]

11 hours ago, cat shepard said:

 

Of course it is you! I can never thank you enough for sharing the happy ending with those of us who could not be there.  When I toasted that night - one of my toasts was to you.

Yeah I felt like it was and couldn't help but shed a few tears. I did eventually drink to mission accomplished. I had been  telling my mom what I was doing on Monday and then the end result. She said how proud of me she was for doing it and read some of the thread to her which goes to show that I was putting my aviation knowledge to use that I have learned in my life. Not only did my dad fly for NWA but so did my uncle so for quite a few years there were two 747 Captain Bean's that flew. My mom also as she was a flight attendant or actually a stewardess back in her days on the stratocruisers. Then there is also my cruising knowledge as we have cruised with HAL now for over 32 years and over all 37 years because of other cruises with other lines before that. I know we will all get through this. After all, mom and I were on the Rotterdam trans Atlantic back in September 2004 when we really did go dead in the water for 3 hours because of Hurricane Karl. The way we were moving around till we got going again is something I have never forgotten. 4 days at sea turned into 6 and had heard there was a million dollars worth of damage on board. Thing of it was too was that there were so many people on board from Florida like us (Not originally as we are from the Twin Cities) we knew how to clean because of tropical storms that we had already been through at home prior to the cruise and there was one more that came through Florida while on board. Then on top all of it  we had bad weather between our stop at Halifax and when we ended in NY. By then everyone was so ready to get off and go home.

 

 I will say too that we are not scheduled to cruise again till our 20-21 holiday on Nieuw Statendam and after all of this I have said to mom that it could make us think a little more about going as well as her age. Think its time for the cruise lines to re think their final payment and cancellation policies even though we always have the insurance. It also appears the cruise lines are going to extend the shutdown and some have already announced it. 

Edited March 28, 2020 by rjbean4

[sue1898]

@Kindergirl did you see this on the cruise Critic Facebook page? 

[hobo1937]

5 hours ago, sue1898 said:

@Kindergirl did you see this on the cruise Critic Facebook page? 

There was a link to this article on Google News

[MMDown Under]

It is wonderful to have "some good news" in these difficult times.  Everyone really cared about this elderly couple and their frantic daughter on the other side of the world. Then Angels started to rise to the occasion and demonstrated the "power of one".

[Kindergirl]

No I didn't.  Thanks for posting @sue1898

The folks and @Copper10-8 are famous!

I've been worried.  My mom started to feel sick on Saturday and of course, with all the travel I assumed it must be covid.  But, Sunday she felt a bit better and more so on Monday.  Today she seems good so fingers crossed it was just the travel.

Thanks again for drawing my attention to this.  I think People.com want to cover the story too. 

You know why?  'Cause you are all AMAZING!

Cheers everyone, I hope you are all well.

[cat shepard]

10 minutes ago, Kindergirl said:

No I didn't.  Thanks for posting @sue1898

The folks and @Copper10-8 are famous!

I've been worried.  My mom started to feel sick on Saturday and of course, with all the travel I assumed it must be covid.  But, Sunday she felt a bit better and more so on Monday.  Today she seems good so fingers crossed it was just the travel.

Thanks again for drawing my attention to this.  I think People.com want to cover the story too. 

You know why?  'Cause you are all AMAZING!

Cheers everyone, I hope you are all well.

 

Deb,  Happy to hear Cathi is feeling better.  And you all should be famous! I was thrilled to witness it live. It was an amazing outcome - all started by the love of a daughter.

 

Stay well.

[Copper10-8]

46 minutes ago, Kindergirl said:

................................

I've been worried.  My mom started to feel sick on Saturday and of course, with all the travel I assumed it must be covid.  But, Sunday she felt a bit better and more so on Monday.  Today she seems good so fingers crossed it was just the travel.

......................................

 

 

Great to hear Mom is feeling better! Give her my best please and you hang in there!

[puppycanducruise]

So glad to hear your mom is feeling better.  Heck, anyone half her age would need a few days to recover.

[seaoma]

@Kindergirl Thanks for posting an update! I imagine you were a little nervous on Saturday. I know I would have been. Glad to hear that it didn't last and I'm glad you are still in Florida with them.

 

I would never have imagined that your first post would have turned into the story it has. There are truly some amazing people on CC(Just a quick shout out to @Copper10-8!) and I'm glad the ones you needed the most found their way to your thread.

 

 

[Kindergirl]

Thank you all, and may I say that the four people who have posted since i updated are at THE TOP of my angel list.  @seaoma, @cat shepard and @puppycanducruise you have all been so supportive throughout this whole adventure.  Don't think I didn't notice how kind you three are.  @Copper10-8 isn't so bad either. 😉

[cat shepard]

32 minutes ago, Kindergirl said:

Thank you all, and may I say that the four people who have posted since i updated are at THE TOP of my angel list.  @seaoma, @cat shepard and @puppycanducruise you have all been so supportive throughout this whole adventure.  Don't think I didn't notice how kind you three are.  @Copper10-8 isn't so bad either. 😉

Trying to earn my wings! Stay well!

[ger_77]

Great to hear your Mom's feeling better, but I'll bet you're still worried about what's going to happen to them through all this.  Know your friends are still here cheering you on, wishing good things for all of you.  Now back to sewing masks. . . . it seems the authorities are starting to change their tune on the wearing of masks as a precautionary measure.  I'm trying to get ahead of the game at least where my family and friends are concerned.  Take care!

 

Smooth Sailing! 🙂🙂🙂

Gerry

[Kindergirl]

Another one of my faves.  Thanks @ger_77  I so love that you are sewing masks. Thank you!