My sophomore year of high school our band was supposed to go to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We had a week planned out filled with sight seeing tours, small concert performances, and lots of relaxing on the beach. Since our group was so big, half of the group flew to Atlanta while the other half (my group) flew to Miami from Minneapolis before taking off for Brazil. We get to our first destinations okay and then board the plane to go to Brazil. The plane gets delayed due to mechanical issues, so we are stuck in our seats waiting around. An hour goes by, then two, then three. At this point the plane is getting really stuffy and we are all starving. Finally they tell us that the air traffic control workers in Brazil have decided to go on strike so our plane can’t take off.
We get off the plane and are stuck in the airport for the night trying to rebook another flight. It is pretty late at this point and we still have a big group of people so the airport assigns us an empty conference room to nap. The people out in Atlanta couldn’t get a hotel because they were all booked due to the Final Four tournament going on at the same time. The room was FREEZING and all we had were our carry on bags and the c****y pillow and paper thin blanket to sleep on. In the morning we are still trying to book a flight but it’s not looking good. Thankfully the weather was nice in Miami so we sat outside for a while. After spending a whole day hoping to get a new flight our directors are unable to book us a new one.
So now we have to figure out how to get home. Well, the only flights open are from Orlando to Minneapolis. So they book us a hotel in Orlando and we get a coach bus to ride there. On the way the AC breaks and it feels like a sauna on this ~3hr bus ride. When we get to the hotel we are able to relax, but still only have the clothes we wore (I didn’t pack an extra change of clothes with me) and no other belongings. We finally get a flight back to Minnesota, but without our luggage because it still got sent to Brazil! We later find out the strike that prevented us from going was only 24 hours long.
TLDR; Supposed to go to Brazil for Spring Break, had to go back home to cold Minnesota while our luggage still ended up in Brazil. Worst Spring Break ever.
