Due to a cargo plane crash blocking the runway at Tokyo Narita International Airport, Team Stars & Stripes arrived on Monday afternoon to discover their flight to Los Angeles was delayed ‘indefinitely’.
But it’s not all bad news. When the team saw the Tokyo Bay Sheraton Grand Hotel near Disneyland, where they are staying overnight while awaiting a rescheduled flight home, frustrations were tempered considerably. Any time there is an all you can eat buffet, especially with food as mouth-watering and diverse as what was on offer, football players are a happy bunch.
So, for those parents eager to collect their student-athletes from airports across the country, and for media planning to interview players early this week, there is the latest plan:
Thank you to all of you for all your hard work in trying to get our kids back to the states safely! These are circumstances beyond your control and we appreciate all of you!
By: Barb & Rodney Day on March 23, 2009
at 8:20 pm
As a 23-year travel agent, I can assure parents that Singapore Airlines will come through for our kids and we’ll see them routed safely and timely!
My husband, daughter and I had just left Tokyo’s Narita airport only a few hours before the crash, so it was very emotional for us to view the CNN footage and think that those circumstances might have happened to us, or to the team’s flight.
I have spoken by phone to my own son (#10-Brandon Meckelberg) and he is completely confident that Patrick Steenberge and Michael Preston have everything under control! He was actually excited that they were all staying at the Disney hotel Sheraton Grande, and mentioned the all-u-can-eat buffet, as well as mini golf!
Ironically, we had just spent 5 nights at Tokyo Disney, staying at the Hilton, next door! Although they can’t fit a theme park visit into their extra stay, I know it was somewhat comforting for the players to be looking out their hotel window at Cinderella’s castle, space mountain, and a more familiar “Americanized” view, rather than a firey runway!
Of course, the downside is that the boys will miss another day or two of school, but as seniors, I’m sure they will catch up! (We were so beat from layovers & jetlag that I let my own daughter stay home today, too.)
It was an amazing experience for these young men (& some of us families) and we will never forget it! Thanks Patrick S. and Coach Scurran for looking out for our kids, and for providing this wonderful opportunity!
~Joanie in Wautoma, Wisconsin
By: Joanie in Wisconsin on March 23, 2009
at 9:19 pm