Actor James Van Der Beek who is best known for his portrayal of Dawson Leery in the WB series Dawson’s Creek was travelling on a Delta flight from New York City to Los Angeles and got stuck with his wife Kimberly Van Der Beek and their five children.
The 42-year-old actor took his Instagram to share the experience of how they tried to keep their children happy during the total 11-hour delay of the flight.
James took flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport on Saturday afternoon and according to him due to mechanical problems with the aircraft they had to wait on the tarmac for three hours.
Later, they were told that they’d need to change planes as the issue with the plane’s hydraulic system could not be fixed.
“We were out on a bus back to the terminal,” James wrote, noting that the bus didn’t have air conditioning to beat the city’s 91-degree heat.
He did not get another aircraft anytime soon and had to wait for another three hours in the terminal before taking a bus.
Now to get the new crew for the plane the flight mad an unannounced landing around 3 a.m. in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was 4 a.m. when they landed.
“Despite all the apologies for all the inconvenience they’ve caused, they don’t have a gate agent here to let us off,” James explained as a Delta pilot announced that jetway troubles were adding further delays.
“A lot of kind, good people working for this airline… doing their best and trying to help,” James added. “Management, however? Could use some improvement.”
“As frustrating as it was, James, Kimberly and their kids appeared to take the waiting well and keep their cool. They even “made a lot of new #TravelFriends,” James joked.
“One piece of advice I once got that seems to hold up: Whenever you’re frustrated by something out of your control, do your best to empathize with the people on the receiving end of that frustration — especially when they’re not in charge,” James wrote. “It’ll add years to your life.”
“Takes some effort and everybody slips up in moments, but I think it got me through today,” he added. “That, and knowing my kids were watching me.”
“People kept asking how we were doing this with five kids… I kept secretly wondering how they were doing it without them,” he wrote on Instagram, captioning a photo of him, Kimberly, and their kids, “#mycrew.”