One Happy Camper Goes to Dance Camp - Part 3

PLANES, CARS, SHUTTLES AND EVERYTHING ELSE
By One Optimistic Camper


Day Two and I am still here in New York, but I think I am kind of getting the hang of getting around the small section that I am traveling in. I’m learning the ropes so to speak. I have learned that my luggage will in fact be arriving ahead of me. Lucky bag, it caught an earlier flight on Aer Lingus. I discussed with NWA the possibility of me joining my bag on that flight, but it was already booked. It only left about 3 hours earlier with a stop in Dublin and landing in Shannon only a short time ahead of when I am scheduled to arrive on Delta.

Upon reflection, and after several discussions with NWA, I have come to the conclusion that something out of the ordinary happened yesterday. Several employees remarked about never seeing so many cancelled flights. Someone else mentioned something about Air Traffic Controllers and there was a spot on TV last night about passengers stranded for 4 days in Brazil who took eventually took over the airport. I can relate to that. I was standing in Delta rebook line with many passengers like myself who had sat on runways for up to 4 hours with no sign of bad weather. There was definitely some talk about organizing our line to deal with the essentially understaffed, uncaring, and aloof rebooking agent who would suddenly disappear from the ticket counter with no replacement for extended periods of time. I think the level of discontent in that rebooking line was eventually significant enough for the agent to call in some back-up.

I am now fairly certain that despite being a bit late to check in to my flight to Shannon, Delta had overbooked the flight and had given my spot away. I gathered this because of something the agent who rebooked me said about arriving 3 hours early to check in today because they were overbooked. I said “excuse me? what do you mean you are over booked. I have a confirmed, paid for reservation with flight insurance to boot! “ Then for the next 5-10 minutes she proceeded to tell me she did not say they were overbooked. I argued back, but I’m sure you did, I heard you, that’s exactly what you said!!

Realizing she was not going to admit to it I decided I was so tired, so hungry and thirsty I was hallucinating. After a good night’s rest, I realize that is exactly what she said, but technically she couldn’t admit to it. Obviously taking me for a real flight newbie (and even worse one of those naïve people who thinks the rules of airline travel are fair) tried to clue me in. I must have appeared as my children used to appear to me when they would whine “But that’s not fair”, and my sage parent reply to them was “Life’s not fair kid, get used to it”. My husband even remarked before I left that he had heard something about the planes being overbooked this summer. Of course I just thought he was just trying to rain on my parade. I again went through my spiel about having a paid for, confirmed reservation with flight insurance to boot!

What a difference a meal, a shower, and a night’s sleep makes. I have accepted the reality of my situation and am prepared to make the best of it. After checking out of the hotel, I came directly to the airport to check in. I’m really not going to trust that 3 hours is enough, I’m prepared to check in 6 hours early. My next goal is to buy something to wear because I will be issued a lost luggage voucher if I present receipts to NWA so I might as well buy something from an overpriced airport store.

A very nice thing happened while speaking with the hotel clerk about contacting LaGuardia or going to LaGuardia to find my bags. I was explaining the situation to her when she told me to hold on for a minute. When she came back she said she used to work for Delta and had just called them and said I definitely had a reservation now. I didn’t quite understand what she meant until later. When I initially checked in before going through customs and the agent printed my boarding past there was a number of a row and seat on it. I didn’t realize how special it was until I saw a large line of people standing in line to check in. When I went to join the line, the person ahead of me told me I didn’t need to check in because my boarding pass already had a seat assignment. I now understood what the hotel clerk had done for me. I had been like all these people standing in line. Whoever got there first got to go on the airplane until it was full. The previous day I was unlucky to be one of the last people to get there so therefore someone else was put on board.

So it appears that at last I will be flying to Ireland. Until then.

One Happy Camper Goes to Dance Camp - Part 2

Follow "One Happy Camper" along as she attends Irish dance camp. Here's the second posting:

WHEN EVERYTHING THAT CAN GO WRONG GOES WRONG
By One Not So Happy Camper

I am by nature a planner. In fact, half the fun of a trip for me is planning it. I know that planning reduces stress and less stress is a good thing while traveling. But there are those occasions when events start a domino effect with the end result being all the best laid plans are for nothing.

Today was obviously one of those days for me. My first inkling of a “change in plans” was when I went online to NWA to check-in ahead of time and print my boarding pass. I was very surprised to find my flight to Memphis, then to La Guardia had been cancelled. Instead I was being sent first to Memphis, then to Detroit, and then LaGuardia. All this was happening 40 minutes later than my original arrival time. There didn’t seem to be much I could do about all this. I had figured in 3 hours between arriving at LaGuardia, traveling to JFK and boarding my flight. I had pre-booked my transportation from La Guardia to JFK and had been assured it was only a 20 minute trip

What I didn’t count on was a delay for no real apparent reason from my departure point other than the pilot saying something about not having enough people to help put the luggage on, followed by “since we have been delayed in leaving, we will have to stay on the runway a little longer since we lost our place in the landing line”.


Since we were late leaving, we were of course late arriving. And being late arriving, we were now again late leaving. I barely made the connection in Detroit. But I did make it and wrongly thought it would be smooth sailing from this point on. I suspected that it was a good possibility that my luggage might not make it. I was right. After standing pathetically next to the luggage conveyer belt until the last bag left made its second trip around, I went to the lost baggage office to file my claim and indicate where to deliver my luggage when it made it to New York as did all the rest of the people who barely made that connection as well. While I was to receive some reimbursement, I had no idea of where or when I would be able to purchase additional clothing. What was very troubling was the fact that all NWA additional flights to New York had been cancelled for the day meaning my luggage would not be arriving until tomorrow.

I contacted my transportation and within a short period of time was at JFK. Yet despite arriving more than one hour until the flight, but just under the 2 hours required check in time, the flight to Shannon had been closed, and I was just out-of-luck. I was directed across the street to the Delta counter to rebook my flight. That is where I stood in line for at least another hour plus while an announcement over the intercom ran every 10 minutes or so about boarding the flight for Shannon. I wish.

I did contact NWA while in line and the agents apologized for the inconvenience and deposited 10,000 bonus miles into my account. They also assured me if there was any problem with Delta it would be handled. There wasn’t too much problem with Delta other than the only flight that they had leaving for Shannon was the next evening at the same time 9:10 pm. That would still put me into Shannon in time to start the program, but I wonder with jet lag if I will be just be a walking zombie.

By this time it was after 10 pm and with all the delays I had yet to have anything more than two glasses of water all day. I traveled to the main terminal to attempt to put together a game plan, find something to eat, and pick up what I might need.

With what energy I had left, I tried to contact NWA to see if they could or would arrange an earlier flight to Ireland, but they were so overwhelmed with calls I would be automatically disconnected after holding for a short time. I was overwhelmed, discouraged, and miserable. After contacting my family to let them know what was happening, I received a pep talk from each of my daughters. They assured me it was going to be the greatest week of my life and that it would all work out. They became the parent to my child at that point.

I quickly decided that I would go insane if I had to be at JFK for another 20 hours. There wasn’t a comfortable chair in the whole terminal. I decided to find a room as close to the airport as I could find and book it overnight. The hotel had a free shuttle so transportation was made a little easier. And it is very close to the airport giving me a little less to worry about for later today.

So a few hours later, I am grateful to be comfortable, fed, and soon to be well-rested. Maybe by tomorrow my luggage and I will be reunited and get to make the trip together. Until then.

One Happy Camper Goes to Dance Camp

Damhsóir brings you our newest contributor -- "One Happy Camper" -- who is headed to Ireland for Irish "dance camp." We'll update the site soon with all of our camper's tales. Until then, follow along on the blog for regular updates:

IRISH DANCE CAMP ISN’T JUST FOR KIDS ANYMORE
By One Happy Camper

I’m an avid Irish dancer. Chances are good if you are reading this you are too. No need to say more. I’ve been dancing for 10+ years and my love of dance does not appear to be waning.

For the past 5 years, summer and Irish dance camp has been a tradition for my two daughters and me. My oldest daughter worked as a counselor for 5 years at a well-known Irish dance camp. My youngest daughter attended the same camp as a camper, and I worked in the camp health station along with another camper’s mom for five years as well. Kelly and I not only worked well together but became great friends. It became a tradition. “Same time, next year” was all that needed to be said.


However, somewhere along the way my oldest daughter graduated from college, got a real job and couldn’t take summers off anymore. Then my youngest daughter discovered cheerleading and basketball. There didn’t seem to be any point in going to camp with a daughter who had not had her dance shoes on for the entire year.

Kelly experienced a similar set of events with her daughter who graduated from high school, took on two summer jobs, and prepared to go away to college this fall. It was really sad to realize this would be my first summer not going to Irish dance camp.


While randomly surfing the internet I revisited a site for University of Limerick’s summer program BLAS,(meaning "flavor of" according to a gaelic to English translation.) It was described as a one to two week intensive program in the study of both Irish music and dance (and you had to be age 16 or older to attend). It was in fact an Irish dance camp for Adults! My sadness about losing one tradition gave way to great optimism to starting a new one.

I overcame my feelings of guilt for doing something special for myself (which seems to be intrinsic to motherhood) and signed up to attend the BLAS Irish dance program for a week. So with bags packed and passport and tickets in hand, I will be leaving for Ireland on Saturday and touching down at Shannon airport early on Sunday morning. Class starts Monday morning with registration, a campus tour and then class placement.

I will keep you all posted daily on how it all goes. Until then!

"You might be an adult dancer if...

... your idea of a fantastic vacation is doing Irish dance for 8 hours a day in Ireland."

COMING SOON! A Damhsóir reader (and soon to be contributor) jumps into "Irish dance camp" with both feet and shares her experience with us. More details coming later this week...

Feis Review: Old Dominion Feis

Rachel J has submitted a feis review for the 2007 Old Dominion Feis which we've added to the Damhsóir Forum and the Guide to Feiseanna:

What a nice feis for adults! It was held in Jeb Stuart HS in Falls Church, VA and put on by the Maple School.

All the adult solos were run back to back on the same stage, progressing thru all levels in one dance before moving onto the next dance. We were on the largest stage in the gym and the only wooden platform one.

Go to the Old Dominion Feis Review on the Forum.

Revolution: The Show

What happens when you take "Trading Taps" from Riverdance waaaaaay beyond the next step and kick it into the future?

Revolution, the show.

Check out their website for a video of the fusion of Irish, tap and rock-n-roll. Rumors are the show will be playing NYC later this summer -- we'll keep an eye out for updates!

Washington Post Dance Critic takes on Riverdance

In Sunday, June 10th Arts section of the Washington Post, dance critic Sarah Kaufman had an article about Riverdance. The show is returning to Wolf Trap Park for the Performing arts for the 10th time this summer.

In the decades before "Riverdance," Irish dance had become stodgy and decidedly uncool. "It was a bit hand-knitted in its whole aspect," said Angela Bourke, a professor of Irish language and literature at the University College Dublin. It was taught to Irish children in previous generations as a form of cultural pride, with mothers spending their Friday nights curling their daughters' hair and sewing the costumes, Bourke said. But most young students tended to give it up eventually.

Here's a link to the full article.

When the Ghillie is on the Other Foot

In the Irish dancing realm a MAID is a "Mother Addicted to Irish Dance." The term usually refers to those who live vicariously through their dancing children. What happens when a MAID (or a DAID - a dad) takes to the dance floor for their own classes?

As a parent of an Irish dancer one of the most common questions I hear is, “Did you Irish dance when you were young, and is that why your daughter dances?” No, actually it’s the other way round in reverse.

Damhsóir presents the first article from our newest team member, MegaMAID on what happens when the ghillie is on the other foot. Go to the article...