Australia

         It all began with the QR code.  We checked into American Airlines for our trip to Australia and the lady at the counter said that we needed a visa before she could let us on board.  This has happened before so we knew that it was a simple and easy process.  I down loaded the app, applied for a visa, and almost immediately received a registration number but the lady insisted that Australia would email a QR code to me and that in order to get on the plane, she needed to scan that code.  We waited for over two hours and the code was not sent to us.  The plane took off without us and we went home.

        Tracey immediately called Norwegian when we arrived home and they said that we could meet the ship in Melbourne.  We would miss the first couple of days on the cruise but could still enjoy some of our vacation.  I booked a flight with Delta, avoiding American Airlines with the thought that they had given us some bad information.  Sure enough, the attendant from Delta barely even looked at our registration number and we were allowed on the flight.  When we arrived at the pier in Melbourne I found myself looking wide-eyed over the horizon, searching for our ship, as I had visions of strawberry daiquiris dancing in my head.  Only there was no ship.  The security guard at the pier said that Norwegian had cancelled the port in Melbourne due to inclement weather.  We called for an Uber and went back to the airport.

         So there we are, stuck at an empty pier with no phone service and no internet.  However, we had a Christmas angel on this trip.  Tom was an eighteen year old waiter who worked at a restaurant on the pier. He allowed us access to his hotspot and then generously handed over his phone for us to use.  Without that phone we literally had no way of getting an Uber or contacting Norwegian to ask them to buy us tickets for our flight home.  We were on Tom’s phone for at least two hours trying to figure out what our next move should be.  I assured him that, as we were using an 800 number, there would be no charge for our call to his phone, and then I slipped him a twenty dollar bill for helping out two strangers who were clearly in dire straights. 

        Our second Christmas angel was Peter, who manages the emergency phone calls for Norwegian.  The two hours that we spent on Tom’s phone was spent to ask Peter how we could get out of the mess that we were in.  He said that the ship had been diverted to Wellington and there were no flights available to meet our ship because it was only in that port for one day.  If we had only known that then we could have as easily flown from Louisville into Wellington as we did to Melbourne.  Peter promised to follow up with our case in the new year and told us to make detailed notes and to keep all of our receipts for when we filed a claim.  All that we were asking for was a reimbursement for the part of the cruise that we missed because Norwegian didn’t inform us of the change in the route.  Peter said that it was likely that we would get a refund and he booked us on a flight back to Louisville.

        Another Christmas angel was Natalena, the Qantas attendant at the Melbourne airport who arranged our seats back to the U.S..  She took our case seriously, labeling it as an emergency, and ignored the long line of people behind us.  “Don’t worry about the line,” Natalena said.  “We take one customer at a time.”  She gave us the best seats available, kept our layovers to a minimum, and made sure that our account was labeled “special needs” because Tracey is blind.  Tom, Peter, and Natalena were just three of the many angels on this trip who showed us small acts of kindness because we were clearly a couple in distress.    

        Actually, if it weren’t for missing the ship, we had a pretty good trip.  We saved $2,000 per ticket on our flight to Melbourne by having a day’s worth of layovers in Atlanta and Los Angeles.  Also, I thought that it would be better if we were in transit rather than sitting around the condo and feeling sorry for ourselves while waiting two days for the ship to arrive in Melbourne.  While in Atlanta we visited the Martin Luther King National Historic Park which features his grave and a large reflection pool.  Tracey was able to feel the wheel of the wagon which carried MLK’s coffin and the bullet hole in the pew where his mother was shot and killed.  While in L.A., we took a tour of the homes of the stars, like Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney, and the Santa Monica pier.  

        A trip like this is enough to tear apart even the strongest of couples so I am proud of the fact that Tracey and I didn’t turn on each other.  There was no permanent damage to our marriage.  The only thing that we really lost is time as we expect for Norwegian to refund at least part of our money for sending us to a port where the ship didn’t dock.  Also, we have several more trips planned through Norwegian so, while we are disappointed, it wasn’t a trip of a lifetime like it would be for a lot of couples.