Thinking about Meadowhall, what's the longest time you've been stranded somewhere?

[chomalungma]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-50341846

Overnight in a shopping centre?

I spent 3 days in Pittsburgh airport many years ago because of snow. Apparently is was the North American Blizzard of 2003. The only food we could get was from the restaurants. Couldn't leave the airport at all and the hotels were all full near us. The person I was with was not my cup of tea either.

But I am sure other people can easily beat that.

No. No payout at all Justapatchofgrass. Everyone told me to claim, even though we weren't inconvenienced, so I did, but it was refused on the grounds thst it was exceptional circumstances.

10 hours on a dual carriageway due to snow. Schools closed and had to get young teenage son to pick up primary one child and take him home. Partner was stuck in neighbouring city for three days. The kids cheered when I finally made it home.

Sorry, this is a hideously middle class stranding.
I have been stranded for 5 days with my DH on our boat. We were sailing to the Isle of Man when the boat developed a mechanical problem so we made a detour into the nearest harbour on the NW coast to fix it. That was done in 2 days but by the time we were ready to leave an unexpected bad storm had blown up and it wasn't safe to leave for another 3 days, by which time we had to abandon our holiday and sail back home. There was literally nothing to do where we were stuck so we were playing board games in the boat, occasionally venturing out to walk a couple of miles to the pub or the fish and chip shop in driving rain and gale force winds. It wasn't the best holiday I have ever had, though at least we were safe.

17 or 18 hours in Gatwick due to "fog" then they'd "missed their takeoff slot," when the fog had cleared at destination and apparently it wasn't possible to request a delayed takeoff . We ended up being bussed to a ferry to go as foot passengers.... to Jersey. I think that I was slightly hallucinating by the time we got there. £30 compensation (was before EU261).

We were snowed in our village for 4 days during the Beast from the East. No one could get in or out, the local shops were empty. It was a really happy time, couldn't get to work, no school, no cars on the road. We were pulling the DC along the roads in sledges, sledging at the park and meeting up with friends.

Our car broke down when were on holiday in a rural area in France and we could make our ferry, stayed an extra 5 days. Again, not a great hardship (after we'd sorted out work and getting the car fixed). It was very expensive to get the car running though, we almost abandoned it.

Went in on a Tuesday morning to be induced and didn't have the baby until Friday evening. So 4 days if that counts.

I also was good few hours in Rome Airport, all staff just disappeared and all the passengers were left standing in the queues and sitting on thier suitcases at the check in. This went on so long and then we got word back that the Pope had arrived and all the staff had gone out to wave at him. I wished they had announced it and we could have all gone out too! Anyway they all arrived back a few hours later but there was huge delays.

Two days in Oban when a hire vehicle broke down and the garage that it was towed to didn't have the parts in stock and had to get them sent up from Glasgow.
We got a hotel room paid for by the hire company and spent the time getting drunk with the paparazzi who were staying there in the hope of getting an interview with Princess Diana's mother who lived in the area.

Three days on a tiny Thai island with just one very basic hotel where the weather was so bad there was no way of getting a boat off.
Luckily it was a fairly friendly lot of people- a smallish group tour. After a lot of sitting In the bar watching the rain everyone started pairing off! I had to arrange a hasty roommate "swap" once it was clear my roommate Rachel was going to end up with sexy Steve. Everyone paired off except for me and Lorraine from Bolton. We played Scrabble for a very long time.
Lorraine - not seen you since but if you're here you'll remember that too!

17 days in a very untouristy part of sub-Saharan Africa after the volcano - only one flight a week, and didn't make it on to the first one. To add to our woes, because of sanctions there was no way to get additional cash but you couldn't use cards at all. Luckily, there was no legal alcohol so I was spared despair at not being able to afford any

9 hours on the motorway just outside Bordeaux during the gilet juane protests with no access to services so no loo or possibility of a drink. Couldn't get out of the car as motorbikes were constantly driving up and down the queue. Nightmare.

30 hours in New York in summer clothes when we missed our flight connection. It had been 30 in Orlando and it was freezing in N.Y. so we were stuck in a hotel room for the duration until our replacement flight was due. I was so stressed I was ill the entire flight home

Loads
Stuck in London , thankfully with our lives intact on July 7 when we should’ve been travelling home that evening from kings x
Son in law was at the Russell Square hotel and wasn’t allowed to leave till 4 pm as it was a crime scene.
Hotel allowed us to keep our rooms and didn’t charge us extortionate prices. Got home the next day.
Won a competition to see the tall ships race on the tyne from a boat.
Had to be up ridiculously early to get to newcastle to be ferried by bus to the boat.
From 9 am till 6 pm we were stuck on that bloody boat till the last Tall ship had left and it was decidedly chilly on there. Plus the anchor wasn’t holding properly so the skipper had to keep grinding away at the engine to keep us in position every couple of minutes. I don’t know what it was like for him but exhausting for us. Couldn’t drink as I was driving. Was like a prison sentence.

I too was taken into hospital on a Friday after my waters broke. Then everything stopped till Monday when I finally gave birth to my son.
Wasn’t allowed home or anything...was exhausting And scary in case he didn’t make it.

Stuck at airports too many times. Once in Florida with three septuagenarians. Mum was struggling and the director of the airport allowed us into his office to rest. It was Sanford airport and everything closed down for the night. Just awful.

One time I wouldn’t have minded being stranded was in Florida when Travelcity collapsed. I was staying in my own house but no ...not to be..monarch came a rescued us. Another week would’ve gone down a treat.
But properly stranded like the person in the Western Sahara which sounded grim..no nothing like that.

My mother still occasionally speaks with horror about the time she was stuck at anchor in Tobermory harbour because of a storm. I think it was about 48 hours and it was too rough to take the dingy in to shore, so they must have been knocked around at anchor for the entire time. It's over 30 years ago now, so it must have been bad if the memory is still popping up.

I once got snowed out of home when I was at university, so late teens. I was going out for the night with my friend who lived in a shared house on the other side of Dublin and planned to stay overnight with her. We woke up in the morning to a huge snowfall and I had to stay two more nights.

Then boyfriend now DH was stranded in Bedford overnight, en route back to Cambridge. Heavy blizzard conditions in the east, no mobile phones (1970s). I was supposed to be meeting him at Drummond St bus station and battled against the elements to get there but there was no sign of any activity. It was a worrying night for me.

Turns out they had been very well looked after in a community hall by the WRVS, with tea, sandwiches and blankets!

18 h stuck in the middle of nowhere on a train.
It was the GDR/BRD transit line and there was an accident on the line before us. The train went backwards to a parking rail. We couldn't leave the train and the guards (not railway) outside made sure we stayed in.

8 hours at Aberdeen airport

Oh actually 36 hours at Paris Orly airport which is akin to being stuck at Aberdeen. It’s like the shit internal one. Nothing to do

About six hours at Birmingham New Street station, when high winds caused almost all trains to grind to a halt. I sat in the bar, smoking (because you could in those days) and periodically making forays out when there were rumours of trains departing. In fairness, it was a great situation for people-watching. I should have arrived at my destination at 11:30am - got there at 9pm.

I got trapped for 4 hours in a revolving entrance door in a hotel while cleaning it. It was a Sunday so took ages to get someone in to restart it. There was a short circuit and the door was too heavy to manually push. Lost my actual mind as I'm claustrophobic at the best of times, they had to put screens up so I didn't upset guests.

A week in India during the Icelandic ash cloud incident in 2010.

Stuck for 24hrs at a new York airport. I believe I had enough for a small bag of fries. I was 18-19 staying in America for three months and had ran out of money. Thankfully I had got home the next day.

4 hours in a multi-storey car park because someone had managed to get their car stuck on the stupid, narrow, corkscrew-esque exit ramp. Was easily the most boring 4 hours of my life!

9 hours on the M25. It was May and baking hot in the car. Horrible.

There are worse places to endure a delay but never mind!

Our plane from Barbados to London was snowed in at Gatwick, and couldnt' take off.

Rather than spend eight hours in an airport, we asked a taxi driver to take us to the nearest beach. So we had an unexpected day chilling out in Oistins: sunbathing then having one last dinner under the stars.

2 days on a tiny island in the Baltic sea off the Estonian coast. Was there to create habitats for natterjack toads. Massive storm meant we couldn't leave our very basic huts, and the compost toilets flooded. I drank a lot of beer and played lots of card games. When the storm stopped there were no longer any toads alive to create habitats for!

We got stuck 24 hours in a pub in Somerset due to flooding. We had stayed overnight the night before but were unable to leave. We sat in front a nice log fire with wine and full wi-fi and had sausages sarnies etc and then had to stay an extra night. It was bloody marvelous!