Going on cruises always involves air travel and while the cruises are wonderful, flying is not always a pleasant experience.
Everybody knows about Air Traffic Controllers. They are the guys who sit in the towers and try to keep airplanes from running into one another. Most of the time, they get it right. But lesser known are the Gate Traffic Controllers and they are mean bastards.
The Gate Traffic Controllers go to special schools and spend hours trying to make sure that when a plane passenger arrives on a connecting flight, he or she is forced to walk the longest distance possible to reach the next gate. Never in the history of air traffic has a passenger landed at one gate and found the gate to his next plane directly beside the first one. Rather, he lands at Gate A1 and is directed to Gate Z-20 – about 4 ½ miles as the crow flies. Using the latest in technology, they plan it so that if the passenger can run a 4-minute mile, he will reach the next gate exactly 1 minute before the stewardess slams the doors shut. If he or she must use the bathroom, they miss their flight
On the rare occasion that the passenger manages to sprint from one end of the airport to the other and make it just in time, the Gate Traffic Controllers suddenly change departure gates and chuckle as the desperate passengers are forced to sprint back to their next and distant gate.
As I said, Gate Traffic Controllers are mean bastards.
