<p>Has anyone had issues in the past with winter weather and making it to auditions? If you're driving to an audition, I know you can work around a storm by going early. But what about flights? Do you just buy refundable tickets, keep an eye on the weather, and keep your fingers crossed? My biggest fear is a blizzard during Unifieds or an important audition and having flights cancelled. How did you deal with that? Thanks.</p>
<p>It happens. If I recall correctly, it happened several years ago and many people here were affected. Be sure to schedule flights so that you arrive the day before (at minimum) at Unifieds. It doesn’t happen often but the possibility is there and, like illness, is one of the risks of doing all, or most, auditions at Unifieds</p>
<p>Agree that you should schedule to arrive a day ahead especially for Chicago Unifieds. In the winter, unless we are flying TO Chicago, we avoid flying THRU Chicago - they tend to get more than their fair share of winter storms and flight cancellations.</p>
<p>We never book refundable tickets because if there is a storm and flights are cancelled, the airlines will rebook you (and everyone else). But for auditions, I did try to book the earliest flight in the day, so if there were cancellations or delays, there would be other flight options; plus, we were less likely to be stranded by late afternoon storms… This typically allowed us to set up department visits and/or class observations the day before the audition.</p>
<p>We did miss two auditions because of the huge snowstorms two years ago, in February. We had planned on driving to them and possibly could have made it - but maybe not - it was kind of sickening really. </p>
<p>As they were late in the year, we couldn’t reschedule - it wasn’t necessarily that the schools wouldn’t (though one did not have any other times and couldn’t reschedule and would not do private auditions by request, like some will) but that every weekend after that was already jam packed and there just wasn’t any more time.</p>
<p>There is a lot of debate about auditioning for your favorites early versus late, but this would be one argument for scheduling what you think might be your best schools early, so that you have a chance to reschedule in case something happens.</p>
<p>As a California mom, this was a source of much worry for me. I had never even driven in the snow! We ended up making several cross-country trips. Landed in snow in detroit but the roads were clear to the Michigan auditions. And this CA girl managed just fine in a rental car taking it nice and slow. Chicago was cold during Unifieds, but our flights got in and out without problems. Hardest part for us was dealing with flights with heavy coats/boots for the cold. It was an adventure.</p>
<p>It’s so important to schedule your flights to arrive the day before and take the earliest flight of the day. If it’s a hard winter in NY and Chicago, even the one day cushion might be cutting it close because if flights are cancelled everyone had to be rescheduled and want to be on the first flight out. Be flexible if you can- if O’Hare is closed, see if the airline can reroute you to Milwaukee, Indianapolis or St Louis, reserve a rental car the moment you know and drive in (slowly and carefully!). We drove to all undergrad auditions and it was a terrible winter-a 3/12 hour drive took 8, while a school that was 5 miles away from home required a drive of 45 minutes- you do what you have to.
Now D will be doing grad school auditions this winter and going by herself so I’ll really worry!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses…!</p>
<p>I scheduled my auditions in January/early February so if it came down to it, I could have my audition reschedule for another day. Luckily, the weather was nice that year although I remember driving through a snowstorm at midnight for an audition once! Not something I hope to repeat.</p>
<p>My D auditioned from November through February all over the country and we had one minute of snow flurries in NYC in February. Last Winter was especially warm, but I’m not sure what this year’s forecast will be for the North East and Mid West. I never paid extra for refundable tickets…they were expensive enough to begin with!</p>
<p>2 years ago I gave us plenty of time to get into Chicago - but who knew that we would be snowed in and unable to fly from Dallas to Oklahoma City? So after flying from Hawaii to Dallas (landing at 6:00 am with an audition at 2:00 at OCU) - it became clear that we were going to be unable to fly to OCU and make the audition. I ended up renting a 4 wheel drive vehicle (at an exorbitant rate as it was Superbowl week-end in Dallas) and drove to OCU (scary drive - down to 1 lane most of the way) and made it in time for the last audition slot. We did not even have our suitcases - fortunately my D had packed a dress in her carry on and borrowed my boots - ran in - got a quick warm up and auditioned. Here is what was important: I had a phone number of a person that was organizing the auditions and was able to call her and tell her our situation - they were in contact with us throughout our drive and knew that we were on our way (we were 3 hours late). By the time we arrived there - most people knew our saga and were very accommodating. I am pleased to say that it was also one of my D’s acceptances so in the end it was all worth it!! We stayed the night in Oklahoma City and had to get up at 3:00 am to drive back to Dallas (it was a skating rink) the next morning to catch our flight on to Chicago. Haha - my pulse is racing just recounting this story!! Be prepared for ANYTHING!!</p>
<p>^^^I’ve been waiting for you to post alibabba. :0)</p>
<p>It’s a cautionary tale:-) I can laugh about it now…</p>
<p>See, that’s exactly what worries me! Nice to know (some of) the schools are so accommodating, and now I know to bring phone numbers. I can’t believe you had the courage to drive from Dallas to OCU in a snowstorm given that you are from Hawaii, alibabba808! I take it you have not always lived in the tropics? I live in MA, and grew up in NY, so I know snow. But I still don’t want to have to do what you did.</p>
<p>It’s funny, monkey13, I remember very clearly sitting on the floor of the airport and thinking - really?? All this work and money to apply to the school, schedule the audition, fly to the mainland and then not be able to get there??? I had this brief moment of - I guess it was not meant to be. But my Daughter was just sitting there looking at me wondering what was going to happen and I thought - okay - what are the options? I was going on pure adrenaline for the next 36 hours. It is amazing what we are capable of doing when it seems that there is no hope. I didn’t even mention the part about the rest of my multiple destination ticket from Dallas to Chicago to LA then home to Hawaii being cancelled when I arrived back in Dallas (after being assured by multiple people at American airlines that it would not be cancelled for not taking the OKC segment). Talk about a melt-down at the ticket counter - needless to say our ticket was re-booked!! And yes - I am originally from Canada and have a lot of experience driving in poor weather conditions (although I was a little out of practice).</p>
<p>Mom power! Good for you. I have had one of those melt downs at the ticket counter in Dallas…LOL. Maybe we should all get together and write a book…Tales of a Stage Mom (but not a stage mom in a bad sense, of course). Thank goodness for those Canada winters and the training it provided! (BTW, there was a boy from Hawaii on the Baldwin-Wallace thread wondering how to afford auditions…I don’t envy your distance! You and ParadiseMT, from Guam.)</p>