Tampa 2021: Diary – Day 5

This would be our last full day in Tampa. Tomatico and I would leave earlier the next day to get to the squash tournament, while the rest of the family would leave closer to 5pm and would have most of the day to enjoy the sun and beach. My brother in law had managed to take the day off so we had fewer interruptions and he could join us for the fun!

Mini-Golf

After breakfast we decided to head out to the mini-golf place I had seen on my run the previous morning. My wife decided to check out the town and do some window shopping so us boys were on our own.

It was a 10 minute walk to mini-golf. As expected it wasn’t terribly busy mid-morning on a Thursday, though there was one group in front of us that was pretty slow. To their credit, the boys stayed patient and focused on playing their own game. They didn’t get frustrated when their shots didn’t go in and everyone hit at least one hole in one!

The course was pirate-themed like nearly every other mini golf course ever built, but was well done with some elevation and water features. Our youngest got three holes in one during his round and was killing it!

By the time we finished it was getting close to lunch. I texted my wife and she had found a seafood place called Cooters that looked promising so we met her there.

Lunch and Afternoon “Fun”

There wasn’t much of a lunch crowd and the restaurant looked a little sketchy from outside, but we had a nice meal on the patio. The seafood was fresh and had generous portions at a reasonable price. It seemed like it was a popular local place. It had to most “Florida” name ever.

During her morning shopping my wife had gotten a flyer for a local urgent care that did COVID testing. We needed tests for travel back home in order to avoid quarantine. While technically the tests were optional recommendations at the Massachusetts state level, we needed the tests for the school district.

When we got back to the hotel I called the Urgent Care office and verified they could do a test for travel. I had read that some places would only do tests if you were showing symptoms. Lucky for us they could do what we needed so we called a Lyft to get us there.

When we arrived at the office we went inside and found a tiny waiting room with a half dozen people waiting already. I had to fill out endless paperwork while we waited, but luckily they took our insurance so we didn’t have to pay for the tests.

While we waited there were a half dozen local high school students that came in to get tested because they had been at a party or concert where there was a case. It felt like we were in our own little super spreader event, but fortunately we were brought into an exam room to have our vitals taken and get the nasal swab.

Overall, it took about an hour, but we didn’t have anything else planned other than resting in the room to avoid the heat of the day anyways. With our tests done, we headed back to the hotel.

Dinner, Packing and Last Minute Changes

Back at the hotel the boys went to the pool for one last swim before dinner while I had some last minute reservations to update.

While we were at the Urgent Care, I had checked my email and seen that the earlier flights I had booked for Tomatico and myself had been canceled as a “duplicate flight”. I believe what happened was that since we were still on the itinerary for the evening flight with my wife, I wasn’t allowed to also book the noon flight so they “helpfully” canceled it on me since it was on the same airline.

Luckily I had other options. United also had a direct flight to Newark though it was at 10am instead of noon. I was able to book it last-minute with points. Leaving earlier meant meant we would cut our vacation a little shorter, but it would give us more time to practice. It was more points than I would have liked but the tickets themselves were expensive and I had already committed to leaving earlier. That’s what points are for!

Additionally, since Tomatico and I were traveling separately from the rest of the group, we needed to pack our clothes in the same suitcase and make sure we had everything we needed for the tournament. We emptied one of the suitcases and starting packing our stuff. We also packed whatever else we could fit in that the rest of the family wouldn’t need to lighten their load.

I organized the clothes we’d need for the next day and started organizing the electronics. It was a new experience because we usually travel together and don’t have to split up things like phone chargers and cables!

For dinner we decided to split up. My wife went with her brother to a bar that had live music while the boys and I went back to Crabby’s for a final (excellent) meal. Afterwards we stopped to get ice cream in a store in the hotel complex but it wasn’t as good as we had hoped. Oh well.

Back in the room we got ready for bed and packed our last remaining clothes.

On Hold with JetBlue

When I checked in on the JetBlue app for my wife and our youngest (but NOT Tomatico and myself) I saw that the seat assignments had changed and my youngest was sitting by himself in a middle seat in a different row from my wife. I finally worked out that Tomatico was slotted into a seat with my wife and my youngest with me, but since we weren’t going to be on that flight he was alone.

I decided to call JetBlue to try to get that sorted out. Unfortunately I was on hold for almost 90 minutes. I almost gave up but was glad I didn’t. The agent I was finally able to speak to was awesome and extremely helpful. I explained that two of us weren’t going to be on the flight and that I had called the previous day to cancel those two but was told I couldn’t. She said that didn’t sound right and confirmed with her supervisor that we could in fact cancel Tomatico and my tickets and get the points refunded.

After a few minutes of trying to sort that out on both my side and hers we were able to get the tickets correct. It basically involved me un-checking in everyone on the ticket so she could make changes. We then worked on getting the seat assignments fixed and she was able to move my wife and youngest to the same row and even able to move my brother in law to their row. I was thankful that she got that sorted out and I even got my points refunded for two of the tickets.

Apparently the policy is that for round-trip tickets, you can’t cancel part of the ticket without rebooking the whole thing. My ticket was a one way ticket. I’m glad I booked it that way but disappointed the previous agent I talked to didn’t know the distinction.

When I finally finished with that call everyone else was asleep and I was ready to call it a day. Thankfully we wouldn’t have to get up super early, but we’d be getting up before the rest of the family. We’d have a long day of travel ahead of us!