That was the phrase on a cute Finding Nemo magnet that appeared on our door with about 2 nights to go in the cruise. As always, we rose early on debarkation day. Christine was first out onto the balcony. I believe we were coming up on the channel back into Port Canaveral at the time. I joined her as we slowly crept back to our berth. Its such a quiet time on the ship.
We performed the final packing of our carry-ons, got dressed, and went back out to watch the ship being tied-off. Always a neat orchestration. The little forklifts were ready to pounce, as soon as the first one got the ramp over to the Magic. And the dance began: bags off, produce being unloaded from trucks, other provisions being offloaded onto the pier, and a supervisor's cart (complete with umbrella) being unloaded to the pier. Once again, this was all going on below our starboard-side aft stateroom. There were some dropped bags, but the worst thing we saw was a slight collision between 2 of the forklifts. Looked like somebody got an earful after it, too.
Another of our debarkation day traditions is breakfast at Topsiders. Bidding a final, lingering, farewell to our room, we trudged to the elevators. Needless to say, not many were taking them up. We gathered our food (fewer options than any "normal" day), and took a seat inside at the back. Once done, we headed over to the port side to walk out.
Back at the elevator lobby, Christine said, "why don't we take one last walk on deck 9". So we did, walking up the starboard side, and gazing at the activity so far below. You could tell that things on deck 9 were getting cleaned and prepped for the next cruise. At the forward elevators, we went down to 3, where we then headed back towards the debarkation point. A hearty farewell from the CM's, our survey completed in detail, and we stepped back into Florida.
And now, a pause for some editoral comment to
DCL (I know they're out there, lurking, drinking in my every word): Please place the survey into the staterooms earlier than you do. Perhaps the last morning. Getting back from dinner, and plotting how to pack/get to Shutters/do we see the show/get to bed/etc. doesn't leave a lot of time for a well-crafted survey response.
Down the hall that, just one week before, brought such promise. The right turn to the escalator. As we descended, we spotted Porter Don, who'd helped us last year. He was at the bottom of the other escalator. He told us that the fine young gentleman at the bottom of our escalator would be happy to help us, so we requested his services.
This year, we found all of our tagged bags on the first pass, and were off to the Customs lines. There was a man ahead of us who had far too many bags to be traveling alone. The CM asked him where his family was, and he said they'd be right along. "The entire family must present together. Don't get into line until you have everyone," he was instructed. I believe I recall him not heeding this advice, and getting punted back into the que by a Customs agent. With barely a glance at our tediously completed forms, we were through.
With our porter and cart full of luggage as our fullback, we followed along in his wake, as we headed to our pickup point. We planted ourselves amongst some of our DIS friends, and began to wait. It was after 8, and I don't recall the exact time, but our pickup was for 0900.
Next: Continuing the long journey home, but at breakneck speeds!
