DD was launched. She is at UNC. The 2 Spirit Airlines flights were excellent

[Lanny]

DD was launched yesterday.  She went from our home in Cali, Colombia; via a connection in Fort Lauderdale, to the Raleigh-Durham International airport and to her dorm at UNC in Chapel Hill. She was able to check into her dorm in advance of the normal check-in day and is OK.   With the exception that she couldn't get the Red Pocket Mobile cell phone service activated while waiting in FLL for the second flight, everything went extremely well. She got the cell phone service to work this morning. I was very impressed with the Spirit Airlines Check-In process in the Cali airport.  Their Check-In process was about as good as it can possibly be.  When we made the reservation (early in April which is much farther in advance of when I usually book, which is 30-90 days ahead of departure) we paid for a Carry-On bag and also for one checked bag.  About a week before the trip, she realized that the Carry-On bag was going to be an issue, during her very long layover (6 hours) in FLL. Like if she went into the restroom, where would she put her Carry-On bag, because she also had a personal item, which was her backpack, with 2 Tablets and lots of important things?  The decision was made to check the Carry-On bag, as a 2nd checked suitcase.  We had to pay $23.80 USD extra, which I believe was for excess weight. The 2 checked bags weighed 30 Kilos which is 66 pounds. We had also paid extra for "Big Front Seats" on both flights, which makes the experience of going on Spirit Airlines much more enjoyable than their normal seats.  Thankfully, with the Internet, and the cell phone service, we can communicate with her and being "Empty Nesters" will be easier.  WhatsApp, etc.

 

[freesia]

Yay!

I hope you and your dw are doing okay.  I can imagine it's exciting, but also hard to have her so far away.  You've done such a diligent job preparing her.  Well done!

[MysteryJen]

Congratulations!

[Farrar]

That's got to be the first time someone ever posted online that Spirit airlines flights were excellent. 🤣

Congrats to her and you though, Lanny. I hope she loves Chapel Hill. I grew up around there. It's a wonderful area to be in. And UNC is a great school.

[Pen]

Yay !   Congratulations!!!

[mumto2]

Congratulations!  Glad yesterday went well...

[ScoutTN]

Woohooo!!!

[hshibley]

Congratulations. My girls loved their time at  Carolina. 

[PrincessMommy]

Congratulations.  Glad she made it safely.  

[alisoncooks]

Congrats! I just got home from the Walmart nearest UNC and it was a madhouse! LOL. I always forget how things are this time of year!

[mominco]

Yay!Congratulations to you all!

[Lanny]

4 hours ago, freesia said:

Yay!

I hope you and your dw are doing okay.  I can imagine it's exciting, but also hard to have her so far away.  You've done such a diligent job preparing her.  Well done!

 

Thank you. It was a little rough after we got home yesterday (that was about 5 or 6 A.M.) but we recovered. It must have been far worse, before the Internet and before that, Long Distance phone calls were often very expensive.  The Internet will make it a lot easier for us to be Empty Nesters.

Diligent job?   Wow.  Thank you!   DD and I agree that we got started way too late, with the university process.  A lot of things happened much much faster than we ever imagined. Considering that, we did well.

[Melissa in Australia]

congratulations 

[Lanny]

4 hours ago, Farrar said:

That's got to be the first time someone ever posted online that Spirit airlines flights were excellent. 🤣

Congrats to her and you though, Lanny. I hope she loves Chapel Hill. I grew up around there. It's a wonderful area to be in. And UNC is a great school.

 

Spirit Airlines is extremely safe and has a very young fleet and is very on-time. The flight from Cali to Fort Lauderdale each morning, I would say is 99% reliable, because any airline on any route on one given day can have an issue. Almost always, it leaves early. The flight from Fort Lauderdale to Raleigh-Durham also left a few minutes early yesterday, although just before that they had delays due to the Main runway is out of service being rebuilt (parts of it were built in 1943) and then after they took off, they had delays due to thunderstorms. As long as one reads the information and knows that they charge extra for EVERYTHING including a bottle of water, one will be fine. One must compare Apples to Apples. The other airline that could take her from here, with only one connection, and both flights on the same airline, American, has issues with both the Mechanics union and the Flight Attendants union.    I was really impressed with their check-in yesterday. Let us say there were about 145 passengers. There were about 5 or 6 Spirit stations open for check-in.  And one of the Security questions she asked DD I thought was pretty slick.  I was very happy that we only had to pay $23.80 extra for the luggage yesterday. 

Yes, everyone speaks well of that area and Carolina is as you say a top school. DD will thrive there.

[DawnM]

Wonderful!

[Lanny]

1 hour ago, alisoncooks said:

Congrats! I just got home from the Walmart nearest UNC and it was a madhouse! LOL. I always forget how things are this time of year!

 

As it turns out, my DD and her new roommate and the Mother of her roommate, may have been in the Walmart at the same time you were there... Her roommate is an International student (DD is an Overseas American, so she is not an International student, but there are a lot of things in common).

[RootAnn]

Lanny, I am so impressed with your daughter. Great job to you & your dw raising her.

Next time someone says something about how far away my DD is going to college (800 miles), I will be able to say it is nothing compared to your daughter's trek > 2200 miles! (Although lewelma's son takes the prize by going from NZ to MIT each year > 9,000 miles.)

I hope she appreciated your advice to pack one roll of toilet paper with her. :)

[Farrar]

Spirit Airlines planned to strand us in Ft Lauderdale. No one from our flight made it back on the same flight after customs. That let them board all the people they stranded the day before when they did the exact same thing. I later learned this is their SOP. So... I don’t really care if the planes are new. 

[hippiemamato3]

3 hours ago, Farrar said:

Spirit Airlines planned to strand us in Ft Lauderdale. No one from our flight made it back on the same flight after customs. That let them board all the people they stranded the day before when they did the exact same thing. I later learned this is their SOP. So... I don’t really care if the planes are new. 

We had similar experience with Allegiant. They dumped us at an airport 2.5 hours away from our intended one (and where we were supposed to pick up our rental car!) They never sent a bus or any transportation for the whole flight so we had to UBER 2.5 hours at 3 am. Ridiculous.

[YaelAldrich]

Carolina is my (and my husband's) alma mater!  Go Heels!  My father-in-law is a prof there in Sociology if she needs anything; she can reference me (Yael Aldrich).

[frogger]

Congrats Lanny! Glad everything went smoothly.

 

DS leaves tomorrow Alaska to Alabama. He is flying down. DH will give him a ride to the school as he is there for work so he will have a somewhat disengaged (focused on work) parent around. Which is good. You can figure things out on your own but can still call if you need an emergency ride or something.

 

 Now it looks like I won't even give him a ride to the airport. I suppose that is fine because I'm afraid I'll ball like a baby. 

[sheryl]

Awww, Lanny.  Congrats to your dd and we in NC welcome her!  What will she be studying.  Will she go home for Christmas break and summers?  Empty nesters - gulp!  I remember your posts talking about her high schooling (location, distance learning ?, etc).  

[Lanny]

17 hours ago, RootAnn said:

Lanny, I am so impressed with your daughter. Great job to you & your dw raising her.

Next time someone says something about how far away my DD is going to college (800 miles), I will be able to say it is nothing compared to your daughter's trek > 2200 miles! (Although lewelma's son takes the prize by going from NZ to MIT each year > 9,000 miles.)

I hope she appreciated your advice to pack one roll of toilet paper with her. 🙂

 

Thank you. Her roommate is from Asia.  I bet it will take her 2 or 3 weeks to get over the "jet lag". I believe the 2 flights from Cali to Raleigh, if they operated in a straight line from airport to airport are a combined total of approximately 2400 miles.  The actual flight from here to Fort Lauderdale is approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes to 3 hours 30 minutes, wheels up to wheels down, depending on Headwind and Traffic, etc. We are MUCH closer to South Florida than places on the West Coast of the USA are to South Florida.

Not sure if there was room for the big roll of toilet paper but she did take some with her.  She had wanted to take her Dell Latitude E6410 Laptop, which I had recently moved from Windows 7 to MX Linux, but it was too big and too heavy to fit into the "Personal Bag" that went under the seat in front  of her.  She will be getting a new Lenovo Laptop from the school, but she also would like to have a machine she can dedicate to Gaming, so we will look into that possibility.

KUDOS for the Wacom Bamboo Tablet we bought for her when she began in 6th grade in TTUISD in October 2012!  It was purchased for Math courses but she uses that for Art stuff now.  It made the trip along with her regular Tablet.

 

[Lanny]

9 hours ago, frogger said:

Congrats Lanny! Glad everything went smoothly.

DS leaves tomorrow Alaska to Alabama. He is flying down. DH will give him a ride to the school as he is there for work so he will have a somewhat disengaged (focused on work) parent around. Which is good. You can figure things out on your own but can still call if you need an emergency ride or something.

 Now it looks like I won't even give him a ride to the airport. I suppose that is fine because I'm afraid I'll ball like a baby. 

 

Thank you.  If your DS hasn't already left for the airport I hope that you will go with him.  When we parted, before she went into the Secure area for International flights (first Colombian Immigration and then Security) it wasn't a good moment for me and I didn't get to tell her the things I would have liked to tell her.  I had planned for us to stay in the airport until after her flight took off, but after she went through Immigration and Security, we communicated, and she didn't see any reason for us to stay in the airport, so we came home 1 or2 hours earlier than I had expected. I think we were home about 5 or 6 A.M.

After we got home that morning, it was rough for my wife and me, but once DD was in Fort Lauderdale and we were able to communicate, via WhatsApp, with her using the airport WiFI,  it was much better. And her frustration trying to activate the Red Pocket Mobile Cell phone service with the SIM card I'd gotten for her increased her stress and frustration and ours. And then after she got to Raleigh we couldn't communicate for awhile and were not sure if she'd been picked up and was in her dorm or where she was for awhile.  Communication is the key.

Your DS will not need to switch to a new cell phone provider and he is lucky that your DH is nearby. Good luck to him!

[Lanny]

5 hours ago, sheryl said:

Awww, Lanny.  Congrats to your dd and we in NC welcome her!  What will she be studying.  Will she go home for Christmas break and summers?  Empty nesters - gulp!  I remember your posts talking about her high schooling (location, distance learning ?, etc).  

 

Thank you!   She applied as "undeclared" or "undecided" or something like that.   We are EXTREMELY happy that she will be a "Tar Heel"   There are just a lot of things that clicked and made Carolina the best place for her, of the different schools she had applied to. She applied EA after they extended the EA deadline 3 (?) days, after the Hurricane last October. With Carolina things just seem to feel right and they make it as easy as is possible. As you know, for an OOS student, it's hard to get into Carolina, because of the 82% rule stipulated in NC state law.

Regarding coming home for Christmas. We are not sure for 3 reasons: One is the cost, one is the availability of flights, and the other is that she applied to be one of 10 Tar Heels who will go to Puerto Rico for a 5 night program in December and we are not sure if she will be one of the 10 at this time.  And next Summer will depend on whether or not she has a job she likes or wants to come home. If that's the case, I will make the Reservation as far in advance as possible because all of the flights from here to the USA are FULL now.

 

[Arcadia]

56 minutes ago, Lanny said:

  She will be getting a new Lenovo Laptop from the school, but she also would like to have a machine she can dedicate to Gaming, so we will look into that possibility.

 

Lenovo laptop has a screen flickering issue across models. DS13’s Lenovo Yoga just came back from repair. His screen issue started two months before the one year warranty ends. So if her laptop face the screen flickering issue (hopefully not), just RMA as soon as possible.

[frogger]

1 hour ago, Lanny said:

 

Thank you.  If your DS hasn't already left for the airport I hope that you will go with him.  When we parted, before she went into the Secure area for International flights (first Colombian Immigration and then Security) it wasn't a good moment for me and I didn't get to tell her the things I would have liked to tell her.  I had planned for us to stay in the airport until after her flight took off, but after she went through Immigration and Security, we communicated, and she didn't see any reason for us to stay in the airport, so we came home 1 or2 hours earlier than I had expected. I think we were home about 5 or 6 A.M.

After we got home that morning, it was rough for my wife and me, but once DD was in Fort Lauderdale and we were able to communicate, via WhatsApp, with her using the airport WiFI,  it was much better. And her frustration trying to activate the Red Pocket Mobile Cell phone service with the SIM card I'd gotten for her increased her stress and frustration and ours. And then after she got to Raleigh we couldn't communicate for awhile and were not sure if she'd been picked up and was in her dorm or where she was for awhile.  Communication is the key.

Your DS will not need to switch to a new cell phone provider and he is lucky that your DH is nearby. Good luck to him!

 

 

Life is a little complicated right now. I really wanted to take him. I don't have a livable home and have to interrupt the person I'm staying the night with at 1AM, if I take him due to it being a redeye and then I find out my youngest child is sick. 

 

Earthquakes really complicate things. 😁

That being said I will take time to say goodbye.

[CAJinBE]

Congrats Lanny. We just launched our younger dd today too. We still have one more week with the older dd but then she is back to uni too. Big changes ahead for us all.

[Lanny]

4 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Lenovo laptop has a screen flickering issue across models. DS13’s Lenovo Yoga just came back from repair. His screen issue started two months before the one year warranty ends. So if her laptop face the screen flickering issue (hopefully not), just RMA as soon as possible.

 

Thank you for that "heads up".   I will relay that to DD.  I suspect she will receive her laptop this week. That one is for school and other stuff.   She would very much like to have a laptop that is optimized for Gaming too.  A low end model, but one that is configured for Gaming.  I chatted with someone at the Dell Outlet this afternoon (a very long process) and am looking at one of their models the Sales Rep suggested. I think that's the lowest priced one.  So, awhile ago, I went to the web site of the Lenovo Outlet and wanted to Chat with them, but they GeoIPd me (we are in South America) and I am blocked from that...  I don't want to Chat with them so much that I will use our VPN in the USA to do that...   Not a good way for them to make me want to buy a Lenovo Gaming Laptop at this moment...

I am glad that the display issue your DS had came up BEFORE the warranty ended and not after!  The Lenovo machine DD will get from the school has 4 year on-site service (with hopefully a loaner machine if available) but the machine we buy for her for Gaming will have a one-year send it in warranty unless we pay more money for a better warranty.

Thank you again for the "heads up" on the Lenovo Laptop Screen Flickering issue!

[Alicia64]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! 💖😏💖

[J-rap]

That's great!  We've sent five kids abroad for school at one time or another, and they always went alone.  It takes lots more planning, for sure, but you feel so good about it (and relieved!) once they're where they're supposed to be.  Congratulations!

[Liz CA]

Congratulations! It's probably a little bittersweet. We raise them to become independent and then they leave. 🙂   But (as someone who has had an empty nest for a while), it's not all sad. You will likely find new things to get interested in that had to be put on the backburner during the baby, toddler and kid raising years. So begins the next phase of life...

Best wishes to you and your wife and of course to your dd for a wonderful university experience.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Liz CA

[Lanny]

DD received her Lenovo Laptop from the school and I believe today is the 2nd day of her session of the New Student Orientation program. Tomorrow, she has a job interview.  $10 per hour. She applied a week or 2 ago.

DW told me that when DD was a baby that I was hoping I would be able to live long enough to take her to pre-school. Now, hoping that I can live long enough to see her graduate from university.  🙂

I believe 3 of the students in RootAnns thread about acceptances who were accepted to Carolina did enroll there.

 

[Lanny]

DD called my wife awhile ago on WhatsApp which is the normal method of communication, but I think by accident she initiated a Video Chat. We'd never done that before. I'm not sure if it was intentional or by accident that it was a Video Chat.   She gave us a tour of her room and she looks very good and happy.  🙂 Today was the 2nd and last day of her New Student Orientation. This was the last one, for students coming from overseas. Tomorrow she has a job interview.

[Lanny]

She has her first job!   She interviewed last Friday and she was notified this morning (Monday) that she is good to go. Her first job interview and her first job!  She had applied 2 or 3 weeks ago. It is in a UNC facility and pays $10 an hour, which is a LOT more than I received on my first job.

[Kate in Arabia]

Happy things are going so well!  I'm in the US helping my second boy get set at his univ, it's quite a transition!  We had a different airport experience last year with my oldest, because I was the one leaving and left him behind at the airport.. it was pretty painful.  I anticipate this year will be the same if not worse, as I will be walking away from two. I'm sure I'll be in great shape on that first flight home. 🙄😉

[Lanny]

1 hour ago, Kate in Arabia said:

Happy things are going so well!  I'm in the US helping my second boy get set at his univ, it's quite a transition!  We had a different airport experience last year with my oldest, because I was the one leaving and left him behind at the airport.. it was pretty painful.  I anticipate this year will be the same if not worse, as I will be walking away from two. I'm sure I'll be in great shape on that first flight home. 🙄😉

 

He's very lucky that you could go with him and help him get settled! And, you, that you could see where he is and that he's OK.   The Mother of the Roommate of DD went with her to Chapel Hill. They live in Asia, so a very long flight (longer than yours?) and probably lots of Jet Lag.  Her mother stayed in Chapel Hill the first few days and then the roommate moved into the Dorm room with DD.

I'm sure that helped the mom of the roommate and also that her meeting DD, she could see that DD is a good person.

My DW, about 2 or 3 weeks before the trip told me that she would like to go along with DD and I told her I would watch the fare every day, and with luck it would come down, but it was increasing daily. Then she decided she would just go up to Fort Lauderdale with DD and come back the same day.  I explained to her that her needing to check-in for the flight back to Cali, 3 hours before departure, if something happened to the flight DD was on from Fort Lauderdale to Raleigh-Durham, she wouldn't be there with DD to help figure out what to do, which was her reason for going up there with DD, and that she would need to come back from Fort Lauderdale the next day, if she went to Fort Lauderdale with DD. 

My 2 biggest fears, before the trip were: (1) DD and her stuff getting safely from Raleigh-Durham International Airport into her Dorm at UNC and her checking into her Dorm OK (May God Bless and always protect the wonderful WTM board member (and family) who did that for us) and (2) That the flight from Cali to Fort Lauderdale would not be cancelled, because all of the flights to the USA are 100% full now. Fortunately, that SPIRIT flight is incredibly reliable and you could almost set your watch by it.  That happened to us on a Delta Airlines flight from Bogota to Atlanta, years ago, they had no aircraft and our flight was cancelled, but they were able to put us onto American to Miami.

There was great frustration on the part of DD that day because she couldn't activate the Red Pocket Mobile cell phone service (running on AT&T) in the Fort Lauderdale Airport, probably because of the sketchy WiFi and also it dropped out, and because of that, great anxiety on our part, after her flight arrived in Raleigh-Durham, because we couldn't communicate with her and were not sure where she was and what was going on.  She Activated the cell phone service the next morning, without issue, with stable WiFi in her Dorm room. It wasn't possible to activate that from here because AT&T doesn't have coverage here.

I hope that your flights back are smooth and have comfortable seating.

 

 

[RootAnn]

4 hours ago, Lanny said:

:DD and her stuff getting safely from Raleigh-Durham International Airport into her Dorm at UNC and her checking into her Dorm OK (May God Bless and always protect the wonderful WTM board member (and family) who did that for us)

Warms my heart that a member of the Hive helped like this. God Bless that family!

A Hive family living near where my DD is attending school has offered to be a family-away-from-home for my DD. DH & I met the Hive member & her DH when we moved DD in & are grateful to them for the offer. Another Hive member's DD is an upperclassman & her DD will likely check on my kid a bit. That makes me feel good, too. It is hard to have them away from home.