“Not a Cent”: Stranger Drives Overnight to Get Mother and Daughter to Carnival Cruise After FAA Grounding

Friday’s nationwide shutdown of all outgoing flights caused chaos all over the country. Travelers trying to make it to their cruise ships on time were not immune.

A mother and daughter were stuck in Atlanta during the FAA grounding, on their way to a birthday cruise out of Jacksonville that they were sure to miss entirely due to the outage.

But a woman who had never even met the mother and daughter was willing to drive 10 hours just to make sure this birthday cruise would not be missed.

Rachel Kleinbach and her daughter Kaycee are from Buffalo, NY, and were heading to Jacksonville, Florida for a special birthday sailing. This trip carried extra meaning.

“My husband passed away about 3 years ago, and we go on cruises in his honor, and I sprinkle a little bit of his ashes in the ocean every time we go,” Rachel told 11 Alive.

Then Friday’s nationwide FAA ground stop hit. Around 3:30 PM ET on November 13, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a rare nationwide ground stop after technical problems with air traffic control systems.

Officials pointed to issues involving overloaded switches and routers, with possible ties to ongoing upgrades at sites including ones in Texas and Arkansas, but the root cause of the issue is still being looked at.

Either way, safety came first, so planes stayed on the ground, along with hundreds of thousands of travelers.

The grounding was finally lifted around 8:15 PM that night, but the backlog still led to more than 12,000 flights being canceled, with more flight cancellations and delays running well into the weekend.

Stuck in Atlanta

Thousands of passengers were stranded at airports across the country, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where Rachel and Kaycee found themselves stuck.

Their connecting flight options disappeared, and even though they planned to arrive a day before the cruise’s official departure date, it wasn’t looking good.

Still, Rachel was determined. “I’m going to do whatever in my power to get me and my daughter there,” she said.

Then a chance conversation with a complete stranger changed everything.

She started talking with a man at the airport, and they found they had some things in common.

“We just happened to start talking, and he has a brother with Down syndrome, and I have a daughter with special needs, and I work with special needs kids, and my daughter works with special needs kids, so we just bonded, and that was it,” Rachel explained.

The man called his sister to see what could be done to help the mother and daughter out.

The sister then decided to drive five hours from Jacksonville up to Atlanta to pick them up. She then drove through the night all the way back to Jacksonville, another five hours.

The family even opened their home so Rachel and Kaycee could rest for a while. “They let us stay at their house this morning,” Rachel said. “We got there about 6 AM. Slept for about three hours, and then they drove us 45 minutes to the port.”

Cruise ship tracking data shows that Carnival Elation was the only ship in Jacksonville on Saturday, November 14. The ship began a 5-night sailing that is scheduled to visit Half Moon Cay and Celebration Key.

“Amazing People” Wouldn’t Take a Cent

Rachel could barely put into words how she felt about the help. “They were so… I can’t even begin to tell you. Like they are, they’re just amazing people,” she said.

“I’m so grateful, so grateful and so appreciative. And they wouldn’t take a cent from us, not a cent.”

In the middle of one of the biggest air travel disruptions since 2001, a couple of strangers turned a huge disappointment into an awesome feel-good story that any cruiser can appreciate.

The fact that someone would be willing to spend over 10 hours driving, money on gas, and an almost sleepless night for a mother and daughter to enjoy a cruise together is just the kind of news we love to see.