Marysunshine

My grandaughter and I were scheduled on flight 53 at 7:30 am on AWA on Friday, 8/10. Announcement that flight 53 will be delayed due to mechanical difficulties. We have to make a connection in LAS so I consult the gate agent. She offers us a $200.00 voucher to be bumped onto the 8:30 which should still get us to LAS in time for the connection. Turns out the 8:30 is late and we won't make it. They call a supervisor. Now we will be put on an AA flight 15 nonstop to SFO. Great! So we find a shuttle to get us to the AA terminal and bless AA we leave at 11am, on time with a 2pm arrival. Not bad, only one hour late. So now we go to the awa terminal to get our luggage and guess what??? No luggage. Where is it? Noone knows. BUT what they do know is that we have to file the lost luggage papers with AA. So--back to the American terminal and file the papers for the lost luggage. We finally leave the airport at about 3 PM and ask where is a shuttle to Fisherman's Wharf. They direct us onto a waiting shuttle. What noone told us is that some shuttles go directly to Fisherman's Wharf while others go EVERYWHERE! Thus we got a free 2 hour tour of the whole city being the last passengers to reach our destination. It is now 5 PM and we have finally arrived at the Sheraton Fisherman's Wharf. Very nice people, easy check-in, they even give me a requested upgrade--only what is the upgrade? This upgraded room isn't even as nice as my cheap room at the Golden Nugget in Vegas. It's on the 4th floor? Does that make it special. Oh well, I appreciate any kindness at this point. Easy evening-no luggage to unpack.

We try to purchase toiletry items and underwear but it seems we would have to go into the city and we are much too tired. So we have dinner at a place called Tarantino's which was fine. My grandaughter loves lobster and it's difficult to know which restaurants have whole lobsters each day. Then we purchase tee shirts to wear and some to sleep in.

Call AA at 6:40 am and our luggage is at the awa luggage counter. The truck starts at 7 and we should have our luggage by 11am the latest. Ha! Great fun morning. Ignored the lost luggage: took my little honey to the Brown Bear Factory, Ripley's Believe it or Not; Wax Museum, lunch at the Rainforest Cafe and then check for our luggage. NO LUGGAGE! So we're off to our tour of alcatraz. Now this is a very interesting tour once you can climb the uphill battle. Very fun thing to do. Finally onour return to the hotel, we have LUGGAGE! Wow, a shower, wash our hair, all clean clothes, everything. We felt we were in the lap of luxury. Dinner at Dante's on Pier 39. Very nice indeed. Day 3, my grandaughter's aunt who lives in SF took us on a tour of golden gate park, places I've never seen: a live herd of bison, waterfalls, lakes,the on to the city and a tour of that. Went to the Cliff House for lunch and a small dessert place back in the city. Very nice day and then dinner back at Dante's because they had the lobster. This night though, my honey gets a little rash from too much shellfish.

Day 4 is the best of all. We have breakfast on Pier 39 at the Eagle Cafe (very overrated Place). Saw the 30 minute San Francisco Experience movie; then went on the motion simulator turbo rides (even grandma had fun), two rides on the venetian carousel, shopped for a few goodies for the other grandchildren. Then back to the Rainforest for lunch. Following that she did the bungee/trapeze ride. We showered, changed and had dinner at Pompei's Grotto. A very nice Italian restaurant on the wharf. We bought loads of unnecessary goodies for her: a pearl in an oyster that they rob you on cause you buy a charm and chain to go with it; her name on japanese rice paper; etc.
We pack that night cause tomorrow it's off to Vegas where my big honey and her Poppy is meeting us. No problem with this flight. We're off on time and arrive on time. Couldn't believe it. In Vegas we took her to the Tournament of Kinds at the Excalibur; paid for rides on the floats at the Masquerade Village and that was pure FUN! We felt like we were in show business. It was awesome. Then to Caesar's Palace and the Fall of Atlantis and the ride: Race for Atlantis (another motion simulator ride). Next day Lance Burton Show which was great, Freemont Street Experience and lots of swimming in the 106 degree weather. On departure from LAS we had long before ordered wheelchair assistance for my husband. None available--16 passengers waiting for them. Finally he walked and we made it. Trip home was unremarkable just that we were sad it was over. But there will be a lot more trips to look forward to. We have a cruise scheduled for October. This time we fly AA.

Travellin_man

Thanks a lot for your report - travelling with kids CAN be less stressful than travelling alone with the right attitude.

blairvanhorn

Thank you for your report. I'm happy you had a great time in my favorite (and "home") city.

Your granddaughter sounds very nice; what made you "tolerant"? Just asking because my nephew (7 years old) is currently test-driving my Mom.

l etoile

What a great grandmother! A few years ago we celebrated my son's birthday in Las Vegas with one of his friends. We went to the dinner and magic show they have underneath Caesar's - Caesar's Magic Forum, I think it's called. It's really a fun show for kids because it's very intimate - they do magic tricks at your table and then you move around to different small theaters for more. The boys loved it. If you make it back there with your granddaughter you might keep it in mind.

Marysunshine

Thgnks everybody. blairvanhorn--what made me tolerant is trying to be a role model for my grandaughter. Under normal circumstances I would have been having a tizzyfit: cursing, fighting with people, but I didn't want her to see that or feel that that when we are frustrated we may behave inappropriately, so I held my breath, counted to ten each time things went wrong and reminded myself I was setting an example for someone I love very much. Hope that answers your question! I was tolerant of what was happening, not my grandaughter, she's my pride and joy.

blairvanhorn

Marysunshine,

You answered my question perfectly - thanks. Your grand daughter is very lucky.