At the end of our summer holiday in 2007 we were due to fly from Orlando to Manchester via New York (JFK) but our flight was delayed several hours due to bad weather.

Many outbound flights from JFK had also been delayed. We arrived at the terminal in the early hours of the morning so we were expecting some problems in the airport. Understatement of the year.

If you can picture the crowds at a theme park on a very busy day and they had all just suddenly decided to go to the arrivals / departure lounge at JFK then all stop and either stand, sit or lay down you will get the idea. People had set up camp on every available area of floor space in the departure lounge and adjoining corridors. We had to physically step over dozens of people to reach the Delta information desk.

When we arrived at the desk there were in excess of 300 people all in one line. It took nearly 3 hours to reach the front of the queue and be informed that our connecting flight had departed so we had to rebook our flight for the following day. The representative also informed us that we could retrieve our suitcases but it would probably take another 2 – 3 hours to find them. We didn’t take her up on her offer.

By the time we left the desk the queue had grown to an even longer length than when we joined it.

It was difficult to estimate the number of people in the departure lounge but we guessed it to be around 3,000.

We decided to try and book into a hotel. All the hotels we contacted or managed to get through to were fully booked (due the airport problems). We decided the solution was to take a taxi back to the hotel we had stayed in when we began our holiday.

So here we were in New York, under the shadow of the Empire State building in the not so early hours of the morning, no luggage (that would be of any use to us) arriving in the same hotel we left 2 weeks previously.

To say we felt strange about the whole experience doesn’t really describe how we were both feeling.

The following day we were exhausted but we did a quick shop for essential items and had an excellent and unexpected day in New York.

We went back to the airport with some trepidation not knowing if their would be seats for us on the plane.

It was clear when we arrived that the flight was over full. Some passengers from the previous day had just turned up expecting to board the flight. They were disappointed.

Boarding of the plane was about to begin when we herd our name called over the PA system. Thinking the worst we checked with the Delta agent only to be pleasantly surprised that we had been upgraded to 1st class. I can honestly say that we saw very little of the actual flight. We had our silver service meal then we both slept (with our noise reducing earphones on) until we were 45 minutes from our arrival at Manchester airport.

Our flight home had been one of the longest and most eventful we have ever had and most defiantly one to remember.

We originally had the idea to chill out at our house and during our stay visit other parts of Florida.

After Carol had done her flight costing routine with the Internet she concluded that it would be cheaper for us to do a hop and stop than it would be to fly from Manchester direct to Orlando. It worked out £40 each cheaper.

When Carol had finished she presented me with the following itinerary.

Depart Manchester airport direct to JFK airport, New York. Stop over 3 nights.

We booked a room in the Metro hotel one block away from the empire State building.

Depart JFK, New York, direct to Toronto, Canada. Pick up hire car drive to Niagara Falls. Stop over 2 nights.

The Marriott hotel at Niagara Falls (16th floor) directly over looked the falls.

Depart Vancouver, direct to Miami, Florida, Stop over one night.

Pick up rental car drive to Islamorada Key, Florida. Stop over 2 nights.

Ragged edge resort motel, overlooking the Atlantic.

Drive to West coast stop over one night in Naples. The biggest bed we have ever slept in.

Drive to our house10 night’s chill out.

Fly home from Orlando airport direct to Manchester airport.

I briefly thought (for about 0.01 of a second) that I should point out that the additional costs we would have staying in the hotels ‘we’ had chosen would far our weigh any savings we would make on our flights. However I could see Carol was now in full flight making the arrangements so I thought if I wanted to reach our 26th wedding anniversary I had better keep my thoughts to myself. After she had finished making reservations at hotels, booking flights and renting cars we could barely contain ourselves. The thought of us visiting and seeing some of the ‘must see’s’ in life in one holiday was beyond belief.

When we made our plans, decided what we would do and were we would visit we anticipated that all might not go as planned and alterations to our itinerary may be encountered. It turned out fate had some additional items on our agenda which proved to be every bit as memorable for very different reasons.

I can highly recommend a hop and stop holiday. For us it was totally exhausting but the sights; experiences and memories will stay with us forever.

Brian Pearson