Amuial’s Go International Summer of 2023
I started this blog for our RV Trips but this summer we decided to go international. I’ve decided to document this trip on here as well, if you’d like to follow us on our journey.
We were supposed to fly out on 6/7/23 but our kids passports still hadn’t come to us in the mail. We applied 3/8/23 and expedited the process. 2 weeks before our departure date I called them panicking. They said since it was already expedited they couldn’t do anything further and we had to just wait. They said once it was approved and shipped the system would update the status and we could track it when it was shipped. One week before our departure date and still no passports and the status online still said “in process”. I called the passport department panicking and again was told they could not do anything for us and there are no appointments available in the whole US where we can go and have them printed for us. 6/2/23 I really started panicking and started calling them daily asking for an appointment, still no appointments. By 6/5/23 I was pissed and called them like 5-6 times a day and wasn’t getting any responses so I started calling everyone. I called 2 congressman’s office, I called Senator Mark Rubio and Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis, some friends of friends that had connections….literally anyone I could reach out to I DID!!! Everyone was supposedly trying to help BUT nobody could get us an appointment.
6/6/23 we decided to drive to Miami. We went to the passport agency in Miami at 5:30 am on 6/7/23 and waited in line. (Our flight is tonight at 9:00pm in Orlando). When they opened at 8:00 they said they no longer allow any walk-ins no matter what the situation is and the only way to get an appointment is by calling the passport department phone number that I had been calling for 2 weeks. We went to my in-laws house and just kept calling everyone we knew and the passport number begging for an appointment. We were right down the street!! Still no appointments and by the way, everyone we had spoken to along this whole journey were all rude and a bunch of ***holes!!!
We finally got a girl on the phone at the passport department and said there aren’t any appointments and just to let you know at this point it’s like winning the lottery to get an appointment. She said once someone cancels their appointment and it’s available in the system all of the agents are fighting for the same appointment and by the time they enter your information in the system the appointment is gone. She said it’s nearly impossible to get.
We were all so devastated and sad to be missing this trip we had planned and paid for and waited forever for. We were going with Guys family (my husband) and they were all bummed for us. I had to call and cancel our flight that we were supposed to be flying out of Orlando, FL at 9pm 6/7/23. We then had to call and cancel our hotel in Barcleona. We decided to sleep in Miami and then wake up and head back home to Ocala the next morning and just wait for the passports. At 7:00pm I checked the status on the passport website and it said SHIPPED but no tracking information. So I called them and sat on hold for 3 hours (they close at 10pm) and they never answered. I woke up and called them at 8am the next morning (still no tracking on website). I was on hold with them for 2 1/2 hours when I got a notification on my phone that someone was at our house. I looked at the camera and IT WAS UPS!!! I thought, that can’t be our passports already can it? I called my neighbor and he ran over to the house and opened the package and gave us the amazing news that it was the passports!!! 🥳
We grabbed our stuff, threw it in the car and headed home to get the passports. On our drive I got online and prayed we could even get a flight that would get us to Barcelona to board our cruise on Saturday by 3:00pm. Luckily they had the same flight we were supposed to take the day before, only doubled in price 🙄. We would get to Barcelona Friday at 4:30 and we would make the cruise for Saturday!! PWe had to get home and grab the passports and get back to Orlando airport no later than 8:00pm (this is when the CHECKIN counter closes). My dad was supposed to drive us the day before but couldn’t help us out today. Now, we have to pay $500+ dollars to leave our car at the airport for 40 days and we have to park in a parking lot off property and take a shuttle to the airport. Anyway, it should have only taken us 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to the airport but of course it was rush hour AND an accident AND road work 🤦🏻♀️. Turned into a 3 1/2 hour drive. We pulled in to the parking lot at 7:40pm. We have 20 minutes to run with our suitcases from the back of the grass/gravel parking lot to the shuttle station. Once we boarded the shuttle we had 10 minutes, it was 7:50pm, to get to the
CHECKIN counter. We were so stressed!!!
Once the shuttle pulled up Guy told me to just run and him and the kids would follow with the luggage. I ran in and upstairs and got to the CHECKIN counter at 7:58pm. They lady said “oh you almost missed it”. I wanted to cry!!!
We ended up being able to upgrade our seats to first class (there were only 4 seats left and all together) 😊 so we get checked in and headed to security. Long line and only 1 person checking IDs and boarding passses and only 1 security thing opened. We patiently waited. Once we got through security we were hoping to grab some food or snacks for our 8 1/2 hour flight since we hadn’t eaten a meal all day. As we were walking down to the gate we could see employees looking at us, they were holding the plane up waiting for us, so no food for us. On the plane we go!! ✈️
Once we arrived in London we had to get our luggage and go recheck in since we booked with a different airline for the second leg. There was some kind of mix up with our bags. I had already paid for them but there was no record of that. So we ended up just telling them we’d pay for them again and fix it later. After 1 hour of working on these bags we get them checked in. Go through security and and get to our gate 10 minutes before boarding. Absolutely exhausting!!!
We only told Guys brother we were coming and to not tell his parents. We wanted to surprise them (they were so sad we weren’t going to make it). He was able to get us a hotel room at the same hotel for us for the 1 night. Anyway, we land in Barcelona and get a taxi to our hotel. We put our luggage in our room and found his brother. His brother called his parents and they were at the market in Las Ramblas. So, we walked there from the hotel and when they saw us they started crying. They were so happy we were able to make it!! 🥰
WOW, what a journey and so stressful!!! Now….where’s my drink and let’s get this vacation started! 🍹
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