Our flights home at the end of our 25th wedding anniversary holiday consisted of a hop from Orlando international airport, via New York JFK then onto Manchester airport.

The first sign that it would not be a straight forward journey was a 3 hour delay to the departure time from Orlando due to bad weather in New York. Once we were airborne all went well until we were 20 minutes from landing. The pilot announced that due to bad weather we were to maintain a holding pattern just outside the New York area. As we circled the airport we could see the bad weather. A huge rain storm cloud had settled itself over New York and refused to move. The lighting from the cloud was unbelievable. Lighting seemed to be constantly leaving the cloud in all directions including upwards. It was a lighting storm to compete with any we had seen in Florida.

As we circled we noticed that we were not the only plane in a similar holding pattern. If you have see the film Die hard 2 were numerous planes circled the airport trying to land you will get the idea. It was now dark and all that could be seen were the lights from all these planes, very un-nerving.

The pilot announced that he and most of the other planes needed to refuel and as a result we were diverting to Norfolk Virginia. The only problem was the airport we were to fly into was closed. We arrived at Norfolk Virginia and after waiting 2 hours on the tarmac a fuel lorry arrived to refuel the plane. Shortly after refuelling commenced the passengers in front of us noticed a liquid pooling on the tarmac beneath the plane. It was brought to the attention of a stewardess who tried to convince us it was condensation. A statement that was brought into doubt when a few minutes later 2 fire trucks and patrol car approached and stopped at the pool of liquid. It would be safe to say that by now most of the passengers were now aware of the problem and a number had started to panic. This wasn’t helped when the fire crews started to deploy absorbent booms around the liquid and our plane was coupled up to a tug ready to be moved from the immediate area.

The tension on the plane as we were moved was incredible with many passengers wanting to open the emergency exits and leave the plane.

We eventual left North Virginia and arrived in JFK.

We were expecting a delay and some problems at JFK but we weren’t even close.

(See our unexpected New York stop over)

Brian Pearson

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