Waiting for baggage is the absolute worst part of traveling. Without a doubt, it seems like the longest, most drawn out part of your journey. You want nothing more when you reach your destination to get your suitcase and move on, but you stand and wait and wait and wait.
Our flight from Orlando was do to arrive at Midway around 10:30 Friday night but do to unforseen thunderstorm in Ft Myers we were delayed and didn't arrive until near midnite. After deplaining we made our way to baggage claim to begin our predestined baggage waiting period. In an attempt to make our departure quicker, Adam went to get the car from the parking garage so that when we had collected all the suitcases we could make a swift departure.
It was late and everyone was tired and wanted to get home. Some of the people waiting for their bags were very aggressive in getting up to the carousel to retrieve them. One particular gentleman was so intent on being the first to get his bags that he kicked the emergencey shut off button at the bottom of the carousel and it came to a screeching halt. Not exactly sure why this shut of button encased in plastic so that it just couldn't be bumped, but it wasn't and now no one was getting their bags.
So about 10 minutes later maintenance finally got the carousel running again. We had managed to retrieve 3 of the 4 bags we needed when disaster struck again. The bags came up from a lower level on a conveyer belt and then toppled onto the carousel that went round and round. A car seat came to the top of the conveyer belt, however a strap and buckle that was sticking out from it got caught where the conveyer belt wrapped back under and the carousel came to a screeching halt again. A maintenance man showed up a few minutes later but couldn't get the buckle unwedged from the conveyer. After a few attempts he gave up. One of the passengers who was waiting for his bag jumped up on the carosel and pulled and tugged until he finally dislodged the belt and buckle.
People started hollaring at the maintenance man that the problem was fixed. He then got on his radio and cell phone trying to get someone from the depths of the the baggage department to get the carousel going again. We waited and waited but nothing happened. People started to get irrated and the comments began to fly. One guy jumped up on the carousel and was trying to look into the hole from where the conveyer belt hurled the bags up to the top to see if he could see his bag I guess. The maintenance man didn't like that and very loudly told him to get off the carousel. The guy yelled back that he had to get somewhere. It was midnite, who has to get anywhere at midnight. Or it was midnite, didn't we all have somewhere to be!
After what seemed like an hour (but in reality was probably 10 minutes) the conveyer belt and carousel started up again. Luggage began to pass by us once again and low and behold there was the last piece of luggage we needed. It has actually already gone by once and we all missed it.
It would have been nice to have known that the last piece of luggage we needed was just on the other side of the carousel from us, but hey, had we seen it we would have missed all that drama!
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