The quality of our sleep was decent despite some neighborhood clubs pumping out some jams into the late hours. It’s definitely more of a party island. While we have certainly had a few hiccups with transportation on this trip, one thing that has worked out quite well is the weather. It was another beautiful warm sunny day in the Caribbean. We grabbed a couple of pastries at a nearby attached market. I guess people stay at the Hilton Vacation Club for a prolonged period of time and it acts as a sort of extended stay. Interesting concept I guess.
Checkout time was 10am and our flight wasn’t until 320pm. The best we could negotiate was a noon checkout for no extra charge. Either way we had a lot of time to kill. Having a feeling that no updates had actually been done to the terminal in the last four years since we were last here, we elected to just loiter outside as we observed scores of people chaotically enter the terminal. It made for some interesting people watching. When we felt there was a lull, we went to do the passport verification at the counter.
Then we pulled off to the side again to kill a few minutes before throwing ourselves into the customs and security lines. There was a young woman in line near us who was freaking out about missing her flight that wasn’t departing for another hour. Nicole and I seem to encounter these types of people quite frequently and then find that they’re actually on our flight. In this case, she was going to JFK, but we do seem to observe quite a large disconnect between what we and other people view as a “tight connection.”
Once through security, we emptied into a terminal building that has somehow become more constricted and chaotic than it was in 2019. People were everywhere. Two small bathrooms were meant to somehow accommodate the thousand or so people in the terminal for 6 U.S.-bound flights that inexplicably all leave at the same time. Conditions were actually kind of inhumane. Nicole and I attempted to find a spot out of the way — of which there were few. They had all this time to get construction sped up during the pandemic and there is no visible progress in any area. In comparison, LAX somehow managed to build a new satellite international terminal, a new Delta terminal, and is near completion of a peoplemover train running around the whole airport. Even LaGuardia, under the often-incompetent New York Port Authority completed its new terminal building. What went wrong in St Martin?
We eventually boarded the Delta 757-200 bound for Atlanta. We had separate seats in the back, but we were in the same row. I was supposed to have a window seat on the left side of the plane, but it was already taken. Nicole was supposed to have the aisle on the other side, but it too was taken. That in a nutshell described the clientele that one often finds in Caribbean destinations. At the risk of sounding like some kind of elitist, I felt like I was surrounded by amateur travelers and absolute trash. And that’s before the woman next to me put both of her feet on the seats in front of her while finishing a small wine bottle she brought on board (a federal offense), and then ate an entire large can of nuts and two bags of cheese crisps. I watched a few episodes of Fauda, an Israeli show about a special ops group that often finds itself in chaotic and often violent situations. This was far more calming than to glance left and see a middle-aged woman spread-eagled and drowning in nut dust.
The plane mercifully landed in Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International. Using Global Entry, we had little difficulty in transferring to our next gate. I think Atlanta thinks of itself as a much better and more efficient airport than it actually is, but given what we just went through, it seemed far superior . . .that is until we got to the Spirit gate area. It was delayed for about an hour — for reasons we are still unsure about because no announcements were ever made. Our plane had come from Orlando and that seemed to be part of it. Either way, we got seats together on the Spirit A-320 NEO over to LAX. The flight was fine other than the elevated level of discomfort that one expects when flying Spirit. The added bonus came when we landed in LAX an hour behind schedule only to find the gate unavailable. I checked which Spirit flights might be departing soon and nearly all of them were delayed. We also saw another Spirit aircraft taxiing around in circles along with us. It wasn’t really an endorsement for Spirit. Also, I’m quite sure at least 1/3 of our plane had Covid/flu/bronchitis. The coughing was next level.
Despite Spirit’s best efforts, we eventually arrived back home and alive. I guess this is the price one pays for a few days in paradise. Reflections to follow.
passports & pepto bismol 