Europe, of the 2011 variety.

We're off to new lands!

Day 1
We boarded the first plane in Saskatoon at 8 o'clock in the morning! A bit too early for some of our tastes, but not too early to trick Sr. Mary into thinking that some of the girls were just leaving PA at 5:30! *cough cough Keisha* Our first flight was on an Air Canada Jazz flight, the little plane with the loud engines. Our entire group took up most of the plane! Forty people in a plane that holds about sixty.. It was a lovely sea of yellow. After we landed in Winnepeg, we wandered around the airport for about 45 minutes, then got onto a Boeing 747 for two and a half hours before we reached the gigantic and beautiful airport of Toronto. The most common activities? Sleep and movies! Most people seemed to be into The King's Speech and Harry Potter (the newest installment). At the moment, we are hanging out around Terminal 173, waiting for our flight to start boarding, which unfortunately won't happen for another 45 minutes. The Toronto Airport is a good place to be, though the internet takes forever to catch up on netbooks, as we learned by trying to keep you all up to date. Entirely worth it, however! We are all tiredly excited to reach our destination- Paris! Sadly, we will have to wait another eight hours before we can see the sights. Should be amazing!

Travel Meeting!

A meeting for all grade 11 travelers and their parents will be held on Monday, September 6 at 6:30pm. Please notify Sr. Mary if you will not be in attendance.

Time To Plan For The 2011 Trip!!!

The trip is scheduled during the Easter Break (Total of 16 days)
Cost: We are making every possible effort to stay at approximately $4800.00. We attempt to make our trips as all inclusive as possible. This means that the majority of entrance fees, excursion fees, good, hearty breakfast and the majority of suppers are included. The student is responsible for most noon lunches, snacks, water and spending money.
How much spending money is needed? That depends on each family. I encourage the girls to stay within $700.
Transportation: We will be traveling by air and by bus.
Deposits and Due Dates: Payments of $400 are due on each of the following dates....
June 28/10, August 31/10, September 30/10, October 30, 2010, November 30, 2010. These payments are all considered to be "non-refundable". A final invoice will be sent to you directly from the travel agency at a later date.

Getting Closer to Home

After waiting for so long it is finally time for the countdown; surprisingly, after the Delta flight form JFK to Prague was delayed by 3hrs the group made it back to America with only 1hr delay.
I have phoned Delta Customer Service and they confirmed that everybody made it on the connection flight from JFK to Minneapolis close to being on time (only 9 min delay).
This means the group will stay overnight in Minneapolis and fly out Saturday morning to Saskatoon.
Unfortunately we have not received the name of the Hotel where your daughters will be staying from Delta, so we have to rely on a phone call from the group to provide this information. We do know though, that they will be met by a Delta representative right at the gate who will arrange the transfer to the hotel after they arrive in Minneapolis.
Michael will stay in the office until the group has arrived and he knows that they are at the hotel! He will work in the office tomorrow and monitor the flight and assist if necessary (not that we think we will need this, but…) and I will take off to the airport to WELCOME THE GROUP back to Saskatchewan.
I hope this is the last news I have for you today, but given the situation that we been through a week of constant changes we will keep you posted.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us otherwise I will see you all tomorrow at the airport

Sincerely,

CARLA KOENIG
Travel Consultant
Lobstick Travel

The Plane Has Landed!

We received a call at 1:30pm (Friday) from Lobstick travel that the plane has landed in New York! We are waiting on details for the remainder of the trip home. Stay Tuned!

Good Bye Prague!

Just a quick update on the group’s return. Yesterday Delta flight 208 from JFK to Prague was 3 hours late in departing and arrived in Prague 3 hours late. Luckily, they were able to make turn in Prague in about 1 hour 30 minutes as opposed to the usual 3 hours, so we gained back some time. Based on the departure time out of Prague of 12:11PM, Delta at the moment is forecasting an arrival into JFK at 2:36PM (as opposed to the 3:05PM arrival they had on their website an hour ago). If they are able to arrive into JFK, earlier or at the 2:40PM arrival; they may have a chance to catch their 4:00PM departure to Minneapolis. They will be arriving at gate 4 and depart from gate 9, but they do have to clear US Customs & Immigration and security before boarding the flight to Minneapolis. It is also my hope that Delta may delay the flight to Minneapolis as our group represents over 1/3 of their passengers. We will have to play this one by ear as their flight gets closer to New York. Tomorrow morning we will contact Delta Customer Solutions and group department to reevaluate our options. Worse case the group spends the night in New York and flies April 24 in the morning from JFK to Minneapolis to connect with the flight they are already booked on to arrive into Saskatoon at 1:07PM. Best case they make their connection and overnight in Minneapolis. In either case, the group is out of Europe! If she has time, I have asked Sr. Mary to give the office a call once they reach New York. By then we should no where they are spending the night and can advise everyone.

Michael Bayda
Lobstick Travel

As of 7:00pm, Thursday, April 22

I have some good news and some well we shall see news. The good news is that Delta fl#208 JFK to Prague has now departed. The we shall see news is that it departed 3 hours late and now scheduled to arrive into Prague at 10:16AM. Due to the delay your flight from Prague to JFK is now scheduled to depart at 11:30Am arriving into JFK at 2:54PM. Your departure to Minneapolis is at 4:00PM, so the group may have to overnight in New York tomorrow night. This would not affect your return on April 24th to Saskatoon as there are morning departures out of New York that can connect through Minneapolis in time. I should also mention that these are all estimates and airlines have a knack for catching up on delays on long haul flights, so we will have to deal with this in the morning back here in Canada. I am going to grab a couple hours sleep now, before returning to the office around 7am Prague time. At which time, I will try and send you an update, if possible. If you are unable to receive emails, you can call the office at 1-800-665-0171 when you arrive into New York for further instructions. Have a safe trip home!

Sincerely,
Michael Bayda

Travel Consultant
Lobstick Travel

#4 - 150 32nd St. W.
Prince Albert, SK
S6V 7H7

Phone: (306)763-7415
Toll-free: (800)665-0171
Fax: (306)763-1335
Email: mike@lobsticktravel.com