Ireland 2019: Travel Day

We are traveling to Ireland on American Airlines with Danny's brother Travis, his wife Christy, her sister Tracy, our friends Sandy (a travel agent who arranged the trip) and Greg, Sandy's mom, Greg's parents and more new friends.  We are connecting in Shannon, Ireland with a pre arranged tour with CIE tours. It is their Irish Heritage and Dromoland Castle tour. We flew out of Nashville and connected with everyone else in Philadelphia where we were to take our overseas flight to Shannon. We boarded our plane and flew away only to turn around after 20-30 minutes and fly back to the airport. There was an issue with something related to the plane and the pilot did not feel comfortable flying over the ocean with the problem. We were told that they would call in a mechanic and we would then be on our way. After sitting on the airplane for awhile, we were told that we could exit the plane and stay near the gate in the airport so that we would know when to reboard. After awhile, we were told to go to another gate I think because they were putting us on another plane. Then we were told that the flight crew we had were then over their allotted hours and a new flight crew would need to be called in. We were well after midnight at this point and apparently a new flight crew was either not available or just not called in because around 1:30 or 2 a.m. our flight was officially cancelled. We were told that we would be rescheduled, but after an hour on the phone and also at an agent desk all we were left with were empty plans and a hotel voucher. As we waited on the bus for the hotel, Danny managed to secure a flight sequence for the two of us that was quite involved and would mean changing airports in New York, but we would actually get to Ireland sooner than we had been told on our phone call . We slept with those plans but during breakfast the next morning, Sandy was able to organize a plan for her group and Danny managed to get us on the same plane with them so off to Ireland we went. Our flight this time was uneventful and we arrived in Shannon 1.5 days after we were originally to arrive. This was sad for all of us because we missed seeing the Cliffs of Moher! I suppose that one day we might be able to return and see it. Needless to say, American Airlines is on my bad list right now! We ate dinner tonight at our hotel and it was good. Either that or I was especially hungry!