The Crazy Plane

The “Crazy Plane” 

Our five day journey from Spain to Bahrain on the rotator 

The military has what is called the “rotator” which is a plane that stops at the same destinations every week, or every other week. These destinations are mostly military bases, or airports nearby bases. Specifically, here in Bahrain, the rotator is a airliner contracted through the military but is not ran BY the military.  Most frequently, this mode of transport is used for people moving but when there is open spaces, you can fly for free (or a small fee). During off-peak travel season, you’re very likely to get  a seat. Therefore, we took “advantage” of this situation to fly to Spain (FOR "FREE"!!) But, as the saying goes, nothing in life is really for free. Little did we know, we were in store for quite the trip!  This specific rotator flies to Spain, Italy, Greece and Bahrain every week. 

Getting to Spain: Catching the rotator is a pretty simple process day-of. You are basically flying space-a. Show up in evening hours, fly: Bahrain, Italy (Sigonella), (Rota) Spain. All flights went smoothly! I was a long night of travel and Roman did not sleep that entire time. We left Bahrain around dinner time, and arrived in Spain in the early morning. 

Customs typically stamps passports when you arrive at the terminal but it was 5:00am and they were not there. We were then told we needed to go to the police station (a 20 minute or so taxi ride- not cheap!) to get our passports stamped .... BUT they didn’t open till 0900. We had a 0845 train to catch to Madrid, so we skipped the stamps. We like to live dangerously! This lead to a lot of speculation between us the rest of the trip about what would happen when we arrived back to the airport without stamps. To answer this question: nothing! If flying commercially that would probably be a different story. 

Catching the crazy plane home: 

We took a 7 hour train ride from Barcelona to the train station nearest Rota. Then, we stayed overnight at the Navy Lodge to catch our flight the next day. Nick did some of his laundry and offered to do mine, but I didn’t want to mix colors so I only gave him 2 things of mine and Nicolette’s. I would regret that later on!! 

Day 1: We show up at the terminal at 1100 on a Wednesday. The flight was supposed to take off around 1400. We checked our baggage and headed to wait in the food court area. The flight kept getting delayed and we were told not to leave the terminal as we may be boarding at any moment. The airline paid for $15 per family member (including Nicolette) of food for our dinner that night. People were starting to drink up all the beer, and they were bringing new cases in. They had boxed Sangria which also became a favorite of the tired, displaced passengers! The line was so long (imagine 100+ people trying to eat at the same food court that has 2 places to eat)… we had our food finally by 830pm.  Everyone on our flight originated in Norfolk, and were moving to different overseas locations with their families. We were all displaced, with no place to call home! 

At 10:00pm they said the plane would not be fixed and we would be taking off tomorrow. They would not cover our hotel because we were “originating” out of Spain. Meaning, that’s where we were starting the trip. Those from Norfolk, would be getting free rooms. We had the option to wait 3 hours for our bags to be offloaded, or go to the hotel. We chose to just go straight to the hotel. I was able to quickly book a hotel room on base (NGIS) but they only had single rooms available, so we booked 2 rooms that connected. We took a taxi to NGIS (mind you, its the middle of the night) and we have a stroller, infant seat, back pack and diaper bag)… They check us in but tell us our rooms are actually in another building that is a 10 minute (1/2 mile) walk… so we trek on over there. We arrived about 2330, the beds were super high off the ground so we lowered the single mattresses onto the floor. I bunked up with Nicolette, and Nick got the pleasure of sleeping with stinky Roman whom had been playing his butt off at the playground all day! We only had the clothes on our backs (except for Nicolette, and one outfit for Roman, since I had extras for her in the diaper bag). We woke up, walked around base for snacks, and diapers and showed back up at noon.

Day 2: Flight time was supposed to be 2pm but got delayed, repeatedly. In fact, they stopped updating us on the flight time all together. I think they figured it was better to stop making announcements since there was no new information. The big problem was we were told not to leave the terminal. WiFi was not working because there were so many people waiting. Roman was playing hard at the park with other kids, having way more fun than he had our whole vacation. Meanwhile, we were making friends with people on our flight. The airline paid for our lunches again, and by 1600 they decided to cancel the flight for the day. 

At this point, we were told that they would pay for our room because we were manifested on the flight. We weren’t sure if this was true, but it was such a disaster with so many people we figured we would jump on the bus and hope for the best! We were able to get our luggage and rushed (by the airlines) onto a bus that took all families to a hotel about 5 minutes from the beach in Rota, Spain. The single travelers were sent 2 hours away to a hotel in Seville, Spain. When I say rushed, I mean they were having people RUN to the buses. I had to hold the closing door open for Nick. We ended up swimming, going out to dinner/dessert, walking on the beach, and taking a super fun crazy loud “train” ride through the city with our new friends we had made! This is one part of the military that I love, the instant friendships we formed! Even though we had our luggage, we only had 1 clean outfit each left. I washed some clothes in the sink for the next day and hoped they would dry in time! 

Roman with friends in Rota, Spain at hotel pool 

This is when we actually got to board the plane for the first time. This plane was over 20 years old, it was falling apart. The seats still had ashtrays in the arm rests, the tray tables were broken, the seats would not all stay up-right and the emergency exits looked used!! 

Day 3: Buses came and picked us up at noon, and we were supposed to take off in the afternoon. Re-checked our bags, and waited around some more. Finally, around 4:00pm we start boarding.  We boarded an aircraft that had been sitting on a runaway in 90 degree heat for 3 days, and no air conditioning! Something was wrong with the external power, so the cabin had no A/C. It was sweltering hot in there… cabin crewed started providing water and cold towelettes for people to put on the back of their necks. I asked a flight attendant (FA) what the heck was going on, and that it was very unsafe for my 3 month old and young child to be in that heat! She explained the external and walked away. A few minutes later we decided that it was too hot for the baby, so I walked to the front of the plane to stand by the open aircraft door to catch the “breeze”. The FA didn’t realize that I was behind her, and was mocking me to another FA! I let her know I was behind her, and that it was completely unprofessional. She tucked her tail and apologized. That flight crew was awful and completely unsympathetic. The food served was (2) ham sandwiches per person on white bread, with green unripe bananas and a candy bar. Someone said they saw the cafeteria making the sandwiches with their bare hands. 

Arrived in Naples, Italy by 1000pm and everything was closed. We were there a few hours till we started boarding a HOT aircraft once again! The flight crew was new and very apologetic and allowed me to stand and catch the night breeze with the kids by the open aircraft doors. There was a inconsistency on the manifest, and who was on the plane so this delayed us by over an hour. We sat in the plane while they counted, and recounted several times. It’s a security issue because if someone is not on board, but their luggage is, it’s a warning flag. They eventually got it sorted out, but I overheard them saying they were worried the pilots would time out by the time we got to Greece. 

Day 4: Sure enough, we arrive in Greece at 0400 and were told that there was problem with the plane, and that the pilots were timed out and leaving. 

On the tarmac in the morning in Grece

The terminal they were dropping us at did not have food, so they offered to feed us breakfast on the plane. It was much cooler in Greece (about 75 degrees) so with the aircraft doors open, the cabin was a better temperature than in Spain. We were served rotten milk (in bottles that came with our breakfast box) and “french toast” which was so soggy and mashed up that it looked like and tasted like mashed potatoes. It had a slice of hot dog on top as well. At this point we were all too tired and hungry to even be mad. Everyone was cracking jokes, and laughing at the fact we were abandoned by the pilots, and stuck in Greece on what appeared to be the world’s oldest plane. 

Broken seat and our "french toast" breakfast

We all kept mentioning how used this emergency door looked!

The FA offered us snacks, and came to notice that the “snack” mix bags for were from another airline that isn’t even in service anymore! No one knew how old these snacks even were. It made for some laughs from us all. 

After dropping us at the terminal, we waited without any information, quarantined in a small room for a few hours. Someone from the base showed up and said they were working on hotel rooms, but there were so many of us, and Greece is in tourist season, they were having problems finding places. There was back and forth about wether or not we would be getting our bags… and finally by noon they took us out of the room to stand in customs to get our passports stamped. We were STARVING by this point! Customs was confused since some people had passports, some used military ID, none of us had a stamp from Spain… it was crazy. Getting our bags was even crazier. There were so many bags from our flight that it took over an hour for everyone to find all their bags and get what they needed. We were taken to buses who took us to a hotel, we show up and the hotel was not expecting us. Nick took the lead and started gathering names and how many people we had. They had enough room for half of us, so we called security for the base, who got ahold of whoever the person was in charge of this madness… they had us get back on the bus (mind you, we’ve taken our luggage off and on the bus twice now) and drive us 90 minutes around the island to a new hotel. 

At 1500 we arrived at the hotel (remember, we landed at 0400) The bus ride was very beautiful, but we were starving, hungry and smelly. We arrived at a 5 star resort! It was BEAUTIFUL! We had a nice room, but some people had suites with private pools and ocean views!! We ate for free at the buffet lunch and dinner. We were told we would be leaving at midnight. Everyone was SO mad about this. Why have us get our luggage and go through everything we went through, to leave the hotel after 7 hours? Eventually, we got word that we wouldn’t leave till 0500. 

Day 5: At 5:00am we are loading up on the bus again with our luggage and kids and arriving at the airport 0630. Checked our bags and headed to all small quarantined waiting room area, once again STARVING. No news or information till after 1030 when we finally started boarding. We got on the plane again to find out that there was something wrong with the computers. They powered the aircraft down several times, this took over an hour. Once again, we are all speculating about whether or not we will be actually leaving today. I start freaking out about our safety to the point where the FA have to come and give me a safety talk, ensuring me that the aircraft will not leave if it’s not safe. Finally around 1200, we take off. Landed safely in Bahrain by 3:45pm

New friends we made on the flight 

At the end of the day, we got a free night in Greece at a fancy resort, and made friends that I know we will keep in touch with forever. Surprisingly, everyone stayed calm even at the most frustrating times and It felt like everyone on the flight became a family. You really get to know people when you spend 12+ hours a day with them in planes and small waiting rooms. 

Nicolette got one heck of a first family vacation. 

And for those who were continuing on to the last stop of our flight... we ran into someone on base who said they were delayed 2 more days and put in a nice hotel. The crazy plane never ends....