36 Hours to Fly From Minneapolis to Paris On One Plane

Paris, France
Crown Plaza

Bill and I arrived in Minneapolis, and the walk from one gate to the other was very long.  While it was just lightly raining we knew the winds were bad as the plane bounced around during the landing.

The plane from Minneapolis to Paris started boarding at 3:20 pm.  We were very pleased with our seats and the efficiency with the boarding of the plane.   

Minneapolis was bracing for a Nor'easter storm and had cancelled school that morning in anticipation of the snow storm due to arrive later in the day.  As I looked out the airplane window I could see the rain starting to change to snow.  The plane was de-iced and we anticipated an on time departure.  By the time the plane had been de-iced the snow was really coming down.  The captain announced that the airport was bringing in heavier equipment to clear the snow off the runway and we'd be on our way.  Shortly after the runway had been cleared the crew announced that we'd need to be de-iced again and then we could take off.  

After the second deicing we left and started down the runway.  The crew announced that they would be coming back through the cabin to visually look out the windows to check the wings deicing.  I knew something was wrong when more than one person kept visually checking the wings.  I was right!  Pretty soon, there was an announcement that the plane needed to be deiced again.  There was one ahead of us, so we'd be next in line.  By now, I'm beginning to wonder if we will be able to leave.  

We start out again for the runway and then there is an announcement that they need to return to maintenance as a sensor was malfunctioning.  They believed it could be easily repaired and thought the problem had to do with all the deicing.  The flight attendants served bottles of water.  We returned to the gate and were told we could get off the plane if we took all of our belongings and stayed near the gate.  We decided to continue to sit on the plane.

By now it was completely dark.  The repairs were made and we had fuel added as the engines have been running all these hours.  We were deiced again, by now it is past 8 o'clock.  We were once again ready to go except they had to wait for a hand delivered receipt for fuel as the electronic one wasn't working, but at least once we are deiced, we'll take off.  

We once again start out the runway only to have the crew once again say "I'm sorry".   We now received a second bottle of water from the attendant.  The repair didn't work, but stated that they would wait to see if maintenance would approve them.  All this time we've been on the plane with nothing to eat, strapped in, with seats in their upright position.  Finally, we are told to retrieve our belongings and deplane.  

Once we walked down the ramp, we saw the whole plane load of people listening to someone tell us that we will be given hotel vouchers and the plane will be repaired.  It was chaos at this point.  There was nothing to eat, all the food vendors had closed up.  They were trying to get hotel rooms for everyone.  We were lucky as they handed us a hotel voucher out of the second batch.

We walked down to transportation and were lucky to find the hotel had sent a shuttle for us.  Others were trying to find a cab.  It was about a 30 minute drive to the hotel.  It was after midnight by the time we checked into our room.  At this point we were too tired to even be hungry.

The following morning we took the shuttle back to the airport at 10 am even though our flight wasn't scheduled until 3 pm.  Did I mention that the luggage was all left on the plane so if you needed anything out of your packed luggage you were out of luck during the night.

We had to check in again with our passport.  Remember those great seats, well even though we had the same plane we ended up with seats in the middle aisle.  We always take the two seats on the sides, so I get a window and Bill gets an aisle.  The agent said we would be in the same general area, but she would not assign us the seats we had originally (?) and she didn't know about gate assignment at that time and we would have to wait for it to be assigned.  

We walked back to the night's previous gate and I talked with an agent working on a Hong Kong flight.  She was unaware of the previous day's problems.  She changed our seats assignments back to the previous ones.  

As we sat there, the previous day's passengers started arriving.  There was an announcement that they had pizza and sodas for everyone due to all the problems on the plane.  Today was another day, and things were looking up.  We had the same crew and they all looked more relaxed today.

As we boarded the plane a little after 2, we were given a bag of fancy chocolates  with a letter telling us how  we could take a Seine River dinner cruise in the next 3 days due to all the problems we had.  Those who had connecting flights could get a dinner at the airport with a voucher.

The crew announced that we'd push off from the gate as soon as we had some kind of weight thing signed off.  About a half hour later the attendants started passing out water. We were told that someone had to go into the luggage compartment and make sure that every piece of luggage matched those onboard.  It took over an hour but we finally were cleared to take off.  Only one plane ahead of us and we finally had wheels up.  You wouldn't believe the cheering!

The remainder of the flight was fine.....well almost fine.  Eight hours later we arrive in Paris.  I thought we taxied  a long time. When I looked out the window, it was raining, but we weren't close to the gates.  We had a "remote gate".  It was comical at this point.  In the pouring, windy, rain we had to climb down slippery steps and take a bus to the main airport.

Of course, being so far away, luggage took forever to retrieve.  Once the luggage was retrieved, six of us easily found our driver.  The drive was during morning rush hour and I must say that hour plus time was an experience.  

We were scheduled to tour Versailles today, but that has been rescheduled for Saturday.  George and Linda were able to tour it today.

 

We are exhausted, and my mind is having trouble trying to remember all the experiences since we left Monday morning.

Here's a view of our hotel.  We are on the top floor.

In this photo I'm standing by the entrance of the Crown Plaza Hotel.

Here's a statue across the the street from the hotel.  Sorry I didn't translate the sign.





The sun has come out, and I'm sure tomorrow will be much better. We are looking forward to our France adventure.

Turtle Safely......