The next morning we found ourselves in Port Canaveral near the Fantasy and the Sovereign again. We had to take our hand luggage to 8:00 a.m. breakfast (second sitting) and then disembark directly from the restaurant. We easily found our other luggage in the area designated for our group of staterooms (grouped by number), assembled it on a cart and had a porter take it to the customs officer (where we simply placed the customs forms into a slot) and to the Delta area (tipped the porter $2 per bag). We had been told that about one of every 8 or 9 people would be checked by customs--we didn?t see anyone stopped. Very smooth and fast disembarkation procedure.
And Delta had just recently re-begun checking baggage at the port (whew!), so we didn?t have to deal with luggage until we arrived at home in Kalamazoo! The Delta baggage person at the dock told us we could check all the baggage on the dock but then would not be able to change our flights. There was a much earlier flight, which we had rejected because of fears of not necessarily making it to the airport in time. Perhaps we could have taken a chance, dragged the luggage with us, and tried to get onto the earlier flight. But then, it might have been totally sold out and we?d be on the 3:45 anyway. That?s likely, because our 3:45 flight was heavily oversold (remember, we saw 3 cruise ships disembarking at Port Canaveral, and then in addition there were all those people going home on a Sunday after their land vacations, too).
We took the Disney transfer bus to the Delta area at the Orlando airport and left the scooter with the Delta baggage claim office, as previously arranged. I think by this time it was about 9:30 a.m. Our plane left at 3:45 p.m., so we had 6 hours in the airport, groan.
Getting onto the flights required repeatedly showing our IDs. In the Orlando airport I was not able to walk the few steps through the metal detector, so I was patted down by a female security person. Otherwise, nothing special about security for us. Oh, just one thing: my hand luggage contained a coiled extension cord which had been used to recharge the scooter overnight. The security guards asked about that, but they accepted the explanation without demanding the suitcase be opened.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable vacation.
And Delta had just recently re-begun checking baggage at the port (whew!), so we didn?t have to deal with luggage until we arrived at home in Kalamazoo! The Delta baggage person at the dock told us we could check all the baggage on the dock but then would not be able to change our flights. There was a much earlier flight, which we had rejected because of fears of not necessarily making it to the airport in time. Perhaps we could have taken a chance, dragged the luggage with us, and tried to get onto the earlier flight. But then, it might have been totally sold out and we?d be on the 3:45 anyway. That?s likely, because our 3:45 flight was heavily oversold (remember, we saw 3 cruise ships disembarking at Port Canaveral, and then in addition there were all those people going home on a Sunday after their land vacations, too).
We took the Disney transfer bus to the Delta area at the Orlando airport and left the scooter with the Delta baggage claim office, as previously arranged. I think by this time it was about 9:30 a.m. Our plane left at 3:45 p.m., so we had 6 hours in the airport, groan.
Getting onto the flights required repeatedly showing our IDs. In the Orlando airport I was not able to walk the few steps through the metal detector, so I was patted down by a female security person. Otherwise, nothing special about security for us. Oh, just one thing: my hand luggage contained a coiled extension cord which had been used to recharge the scooter overnight. The security guards asked about that, but they accepted the explanation without demanding the suitcase be opened.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable vacation.
