Stranded in Tulum: Calgary traveller faces several cancellations while trying to get home

It was supposed to be the perfect getaway to Mexico —sun, sand, and a much-needed escape. But for one Calgarian, stuck after days of flight cancellations, trying to get home has become a nightmare.

Bryce Drohan took the love of his life on a vacation to Tulum last week, but their return WestJet flight to Calgary on Saturday never took off.

Drohan says the reason given for the delay was a mechanical failure. Two days later, he and over 150 fellow travelers were still enduring what he describes as an unimaginable ordeal.

“While we’ve been in transport and while we’ve been at the airport, it has been horrendous,” he says. “One family last night, her kids were incredibly hungry, they’d gone nearly six hours without food or water.”

“So that family spent $97 USD to buy three bottles of water and three bags of chips.”

Drohan says he’s very disappointed with the lack of communication from WestJet. He says no one seemed to know what was going on at the Tulum airport and after hours of waiting, some buses showed up to take them to a resort for the night.

He says a new flight was scheduled for Sunday, and they finally boarded—only for that flight to get cancelled too.

“Pilot got back on and said he has communicated with the tower,” says Drohan. “The tower wanted the entire flight to stay on the plane and sleep on the plane overnight.

“We were already told there was no food and no water on the plane. And we’ve got seniors, children, obviously, travellers.”

With the airport closed for the night, the passengers were left stranded yet again, according to Drohan. This time, surrounded by National Guard officers but no airport staff in sight.

“A lot of people got really stressed last night, because while we’re all waiting for these busses, there was no staff,” he says. “The only thing we had was National Guard people around us.”

After days of chaos, Drohan’s plane finally landed in Calgary on Monday.

In a statement to CityNews, WestJet confirms there were multiple cancellations due to unscheduled maintenance. The airline says airport and hotel workers helped “minimize the impact of these travel disruptions.”

Drohan says he plans to demand compensation from WestJet, calling the entire ordeal a complete failure in communication and customer care.