Today we are heading home after a good but different cruise experience because of the pandemic. As usual, I didn’t sleep soundly ahead of a travel day and was woken by my alarm at 5:30 am.
Debarkation
I made it to the Royal Cafe for coffee shortly after 6.
Then found most of my family on 10 having coffee. We were coming into Miami but it was not until 7 am that we fully docked. Five of us went to the main dining room for breakfast after it opened. I had pancakes with sausage.
I wasn’t so hungry this early in the morning. Afterwards we said our good byes and headed separate ways. I got my carryon’s out of the cabin and headed to the Schooner bar for group 2 (airport transfer). My group was called off shortly before 8:30 am and I quickly found my bag and was through the immigration check.
After loading the bus, we waited and waited as our driver insisted he couldn’t leave until the bus was full. He also admitted it was his first time doing this run. Finally after 45 minutes and a near passenger revolt, he took off for the airport.
When pulling up to the terminal, the bus passed Sister M and my nephew who were outside. Yes, they all made it to the airport before me due to the bus driver issue. Sigh!
Travels
Thanks to having gold status on American I was able to use the priority line for my bag check and boarding passes. Then headed over to the TSA precheck line which had to wait. My first leg was Fort Lauderdale to Florida. I found my gate and decided to eat at the nearby restaurant.
I was ready for comfort food so grilled cheese and tomato soup fit the bill.
The line to get into the Golden Bear Grill was quite long by the time I finished eating. Then I waited another 45 minutes before boarding started. The flight was uneventful and I had several hours to wait in Charlotte thanks to delayed flight to San Diego.
The good news is that my upgrade came through for this longer flight and I was comfortably seated in an aisle seat in First class.
The meal and service wasn’t that great (their chicken is so dry) but I wasn’t crowded. I don’t remember what we had for dessert or if I even ate it. There’s no photographic evidence. 😉
Once in San Diego, my bag came out quickly and I made it out to the ride share area. It was early enough I just had to join the queue for Lyft and show the driver my code. Little did we know that life was going to change drastically for us both as we chatted about if gyms would close (his wife was a fitness instructor) and how the school closing will affect his work schedule.
I’ll close out this trip with a final thoughts post next week.
Click on the debarkation instructions image below for the full PDF.
Leave a Reply