Trade Show: Canceled. All Travel Plans: Changed.
Florida Trip Travelog #15
About to leave Orlando - Mon, 26 Sep 2022, 11am
It's ironic that I decided not to check my work email or messages until after breakfast this morning. It's ironic, because if I had I probably wouldn't have enjoyed such a delicious and leisurely repast. Instead I only saw the updates when I got back to my room around 8:15am and settled down to work for the day.
*sound of record scratch*
CANCELED. EVERYTHING IS CANCELED.
That's basically it in 4 words.
The conference organizers at my company made the decision late last night to cancel the conference. We employees were directed to either cancel our trips if we hadn't left yet, or rebook to return home ASAP.
And to think I was enjoying the view out my balcony just moments earlier....
I checked with my airline right away. The earliest they could accommodate me was Wednesday. I changed my flight from Friday to Wednesday morning and hoped that would be soon enough. While the hurricane won't make landfall until Thursday, winds and rain in the area could be severe enough by then that flights will be canceled.
My department VP reached out to me on Slack and asked if I needed help. "Just rebooked to Wednesday," I told him. Long story short: "Get out sooner if you can," he responded. "Do whatever it takes."
"Do whatever it takes" is a risky phrase. I'm very resourceful about travel. I can find things that are fast... and also expensive. Flights from Orlando to San Francisco were nearly sold out today and tomorrow. I could have left in 3 hours on a first class ticket for $1500. That didn't seem like the right use of company money, though. It's not in my nature to spend like that when more reasonable alternatives exist.
The reasonable-r alternative in this case was to fly home Tuesday from another airport a few hours away. I found a flight out of Jacksonville for the same money I already paid. Yes, I'd have to pay to rent a car one-way, refuel it, and stay in a hotel overnight, but those added costs were still several hundred less than the premium for a flying out of Orlando.
After getting busy with various travel engines I have now changed all my travel plans. I have a flight out of JAX on a different airline, tomorrow. I've canceled my Wednesday flight out of MCO (that was already changed from Friday). I've rented a car to drive from MCO to JAX. I have a hotel next to JAX tonight. And my bags are packed and I'm about to go downstairs to check out of this hotel 4 days early.
Update: Some of my European colleagues chose to stay at the hotel and ride out the storm. I understand their thinking; it's a long trip for them both ways. Many of them weren't planning to leave until Saturday or Sunday anyway. Plus, those water slides look like so much fun. 😅 Orlando being 85 miles from the Gulf Coast it's not going to see storm surges... though it might experience localized flooding due to heavy rains and power outages due to power lines downed by trees blown over in the wind. I advised them of this and suggested they make sure they have stashes of food and bottled water in their rooms just in case.
About to leave Orlando - Mon, 26 Sep 2022, 11am
It's ironic that I decided not to check my work email or messages until after breakfast this morning. It's ironic, because if I had I probably wouldn't have enjoyed such a delicious and leisurely repast. Instead I only saw the updates when I got back to my room around 8:15am and settled down to work for the day.
*sound of record scratch*
CANCELED. EVERYTHING IS CANCELED.
That's basically it in 4 words.
The conference organizers at my company made the decision late last night to cancel the conference. We employees were directed to either cancel our trips if we hadn't left yet, or rebook to return home ASAP.
And to think I was enjoying the view out my balcony just moments earlier....
I checked with my airline right away. The earliest they could accommodate me was Wednesday. I changed my flight from Friday to Wednesday morning and hoped that would be soon enough. While the hurricane won't make landfall until Thursday, winds and rain in the area could be severe enough by then that flights will be canceled.
My department VP reached out to me on Slack and asked if I needed help. "Just rebooked to Wednesday," I told him. Long story short: "Get out sooner if you can," he responded. "Do whatever it takes."
"Do whatever it takes" is a risky phrase. I'm very resourceful about travel. I can find things that are fast... and also expensive. Flights from Orlando to San Francisco were nearly sold out today and tomorrow. I could have left in 3 hours on a first class ticket for $1500. That didn't seem like the right use of company money, though. It's not in my nature to spend like that when more reasonable alternatives exist.
The reasonable-r alternative in this case was to fly home Tuesday from another airport a few hours away. I found a flight out of Jacksonville for the same money I already paid. Yes, I'd have to pay to rent a car one-way, refuel it, and stay in a hotel overnight, but those added costs were still several hundred less than the premium for a flying out of Orlando.
After getting busy with various travel engines I have now changed all my travel plans. I have a flight out of JAX on a different airline, tomorrow. I've canceled my Wednesday flight out of MCO (that was already changed from Friday). I've rented a car to drive from MCO to JAX. I have a hotel next to JAX tonight. And my bags are packed and I'm about to go downstairs to check out of this hotel 4 days early.
Update: Some of my European colleagues chose to stay at the hotel and ride out the storm. I understand their thinking; it's a long trip for them both ways. Many of them weren't planning to leave until Saturday or Sunday anyway. Plus, those water slides look like so much fun. 😅 Orlando being 85 miles from the Gulf Coast it's not going to see storm surges... though it might experience localized flooding due to heavy rains and power outages due to power lines downed by trees blown over in the wind. I advised them of this and suggested they make sure they have stashes of food and bottled water in their rooms just in case.