Saturday Nov. 11th…that’s OUR ride baby, “where the h*ll did they park our minivan!!”, and an unbelievable ending to an unbelievable trip
I wake up bright and early Saturday morning and we’re still moving. I take my last shower and say goodbye to the shower curtain…tomorrow I’ll be back to showering with a glass door, thank God!
It’s getting close to 7 a.m. when I’m supposed to be in Shutters picking up my stuff. I’m really worried that it will be crowded so I forego drying my hair, throw on some clothes and run up there. I see Bahar right away and she goes behind the counter and gets my pictures. My Christmas cards look awesome…I’m so psyched!! I’m so glad I used the pirate font for the “Yo Ho Ho Ho” and had them crop the picture. It pays to be a pain in the as*!!
I was hoping to see Christine up here so we could all take a picture together but Bahar informs me that Christine hasn’t been up here yet. She hands my camera off to another Shutter’s photographer and we get this:
I say goodbye to Bahar and she gives me her email address (which I lost somewhere before we even got home!!). Back down to the room I go where Chuck is awake but the kids are still sleeping. There’s a soft knock on the door that I can barely hear. It’s Christine asking if I’ve been to Shutters yet. I accompany her back to Shutters to get another picture and say goodbye again. Bahar is excited to see us both and literally grabs her co-worker to take the picture. He’s confused about how to work my Olympus and we have a good laugh over how he’s supposed to be a photographer.
Christine asks Bahar how to pose so she doesn’t get a double chin and Bahar, who has obviously had no sleep whatsoever, puts Christine in a chokehold and says “this will hide your double chin!!”
After our picture, Bahar gets Christine’s stuff. Her cards came out really cute too. The photoshopping of the clip-on tie was a complete success. You’d never know the shot almost made the slot of doom!! There is a slight problem as one of Christine’s 8x10’s that needed reprinting is not in her packet. Bahar promises to print another one and mail it to her (which she did…it took awhile and we thought she forgot but it did come a few weeks later).
We say our last goodbye’s as it’s getting really crowded in Shutters. I wonder if Bahar would remember us now?
Back to the rooms again where everyone is awake and getting ready. We have stopped moving and Chuck looks completely relieved of this fact. I check around the rooms to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything. We watch the workers outside our porthole getting ready to load all the supplies for the next cruise. We see a few fully decorated Christmas trees and crates upon crates of pineapple ready to be brought aboard.
We say goodbye to rooms 2624 and 2622 and meet the Boots out in the hallway. We look for Elsa to say goodbye but another stateroom hostess tells us she is getting off the ship for her holiday and didn’t she tell us this? Well no, she didn’t mention it but then again, we didn’t really have too many conversations with her either. Christine is freaked out because she still has Elsa’s tip envelope. She’s mortified that Elsa will think they didn’t tip her, especially when Chuck tells her we gave her our envelope yesterday.
Christine goes to guest services to try to get Elsa her money before she leaves. The rest of us head up to Topsiders to get some breakfast. It’s not crowded at Topsiders at all and much to our surprise, they have quite a selection of food up here. I’m so glad we didn’t wake the kids up to eat breakfast in Parrot Cay!! While the omelet station is closed, there is hot food on the buffet so it’s not just a continental breakfast.
We enjoy our very last meal on board and send everyone to the bathroom before heading off the ship. We make our way to the lobby where I grab a whole bunch of character luggage tags that now function as ornaments for our Christmas tree. We follow the way to customs and our luggage…it’s really over, I can’t believe it!!
We arrive in this huge room where there are little piles of luggage scattered all about. It’s obvious to me that we missed the crowd as there is not all that much luggage left. A porter guy comes up to us and asks us what character. “Minnie” we tell him and we follow him to the Minnie section and find our luggage. Fortunately all 6 pieces are here and has survived my packing blunder of not marking them “1 of 6”, “2 of 6”, etc. Whew!!
He piles our luggage on a cart and we follow him over to the Customs people. I have my envelope all ready with our paperwork but Mr. Customs Guy just stares at us. The staring is making me a bit nervous especially since Chuck wanted me to get passports but I balked at the cost. I hesitantly ask Mr. Customs Guy if he wants to see our birth certificates. He says, “nah, I can tell you’re related.”
“You can?” I answer, thinking that we really don’t look all that much alike. My kids don’t look like each other at all.
“Sure”, he answers, “I just look at the noses, the noses are all the same. You can go through.”
I look up at Chuck’s nose and over to my kids’ noses and then back to Mr. Custom’s Guy. “Thank you”, I say quickly as we walk past him. This is right up there with our last Customs experience leaving Canada 4 years ago. We were driving across the border at 3 a.m. and as soon as we stopped the car and rolled down the window, baby Kevin started screaming (yes, he spent most of his infanthood screaming, does this surprise you?). Again, I’m all prepared with birth certificates but the noise was just too much for the guy and he couldn’t tell us fast enough to drive away. Do they ever actually look at the paperwork?
Mr. Porter Guy takes our luggage all the way outside to where we need to meet our 10-passenger Happy Limo van. The Boots follow close behind us with their luggage. I get the cell phone from Chuck to call the Happy Limo people because we are here a half an hour earlier than I told them. It feels weird to talk on the phone. It’s been 7 days since I’ve held a cell phone to my ear and it’s unfamiliar. Vacations are funny that way.
I tell the Happy Limo phone person that we are waiting at the port and that we are a little early. The connection is not good and I can barely hear her. She says something about a limo, then static, then something about 15 minutes, then more static. I tell her I can’t hear her, could she repeat it. More static, then something that sounded like upgrade, then more static, then nothing, which I notice that I’m now disconnected.
Huh?
I call back, get the same lady, but the static is gone. I apologize and tell her that I couldn’t hear her, we are waiting for a 10-passenger van at the
Disney Cruise Line terminal and that we are out here early. She then tells me that our driver should be there in about 15 minutes and that we should be looking for a black super-stretch Hummer limo.
“A what?” “But we’re supposed to get a 10-passenger van.”
She laughs and says we’ve been upgraded for free.
“TO A HUMMER?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
I turn towards my group and shout “WE’RE GETTING A SUPER-STRETCH HUMMER LIMO!!!!!!”
The kids all scream at once, making the Happy Limo phone lady laugh out loud. She tells me our driver’s name is James and to call back if he’s not there in 15 minutes.
I thank her and hang up. I’m smiling from ear to ear. That’s a pretty cool upgrade. Happy Happy Limo!!
The kids are excited at first but it takes James more than 15 minutes and the whining is starting. We see a few other Happy Limo rides pull up, including a few very ordinary 10-passenger vans. Our flight is still hours away so we’re not too worried. Finally we see a Hummer Limo off in the distance. Is that it? Is that our ride?
The Hummer pulls up, the driver jumps out, I give him our last name and he nods. Yeah baby, this is OUR ride!!
James goes into the trunk, opens the back door, and lays out the red carpet. Oh my God, we can’t stop laughing. Christine and I are positively giddy!! The kids enjoy pretending they are celebrities on the red carpet.
James takes one look at our luggage and asks “is this all yours?” Chuck tells him it is and walks over to see how much room there is. The kids pile inside where “Finding Nemo” is playing on the TV. The rest of us pile in and we add a suitcase and a few bags to the inside of the limo. We made it fit.
Here are the kids enjoying our ride to the airport:
Here is Chuck enjoying life back on land:
We pull up to the curb at the airport and the moment we stop, a lady puts her face right up against the tinted window of the Hummer, checking her hair and her face in the reflection. She’s making all kinds of faces right in front of us and we are just sitting there laughing hysterically. Then James opens the door and the guys jump out to help with the luggage. Keith gives the lady a thumbs up and says, “everything looks good”.
You’d think she’d be embarrassed making all those faces with us in there, right? Nope, she keeps on checking herself out in the window even after Keith made fun of her. I swear I almost peed myself.
We take some more pictures with the Hummer and the guys tip James a Hummer-like amount. We lug the luggage into the airport and over to the JetBlue check-in. They tell us it’s too early to take the luggage and show us where we can leave it. Chuck is not one to just leave stuff unattended so he sits and watches it until it’s time for them to take it.
Meanwhile, Christine notices that the kids don’t have their jackets. She and Keith argue over this fact for a while until they determine Keith put them down on top of a luggage pile in the customs area and forgot to pick them back up.
I suggest we go into the
Disney Store and get a phone number to call the port. How hard can it be to locate two navy blue jackets with a big ESM on the back and Kyle and Alyssa written on the front that’s left sitting on someone’s luggage? The Disney Store people give them a phone number but it’s just an answering machine.
We go through security and make our way to the gate. We have almost 2 hours to kill. The girls get busy finishing the rest of their homework while Christine and I separate our first grade boys and listen to them read the books their teacher assigned. Neither of them forgot how to read in the past week! Kevin plays some gameboy while the other four work. Keith and I wait on a long line at McDonald’s for some lunch. By the time lunch is finished, it’s just a little more waiting until boarding.
There is an uncomfortable moment where the window seats are discussed and Stephanie says she wants to sit next to me. I think the girls had too much togetherness and Steph was looking for some alone time. We work it out with Stephanie and Tommy getting window seats. The flight is uneventful. I try to convince Steph to watch “The Princess Bride” on TV but she’s not interested. “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to Die.” How could my very own daughter not want to watch a classic such as this?
We land at JFK, make another bathroom run and make it to baggage claim. We get some of our bags right away. We wait a little longer and the Boots’ bags come through. We wait some more for our other two bags. We wait some more. We speak to other people from our flight who are waiting. There are still quite a few people waiting with us. We wait some more. This is getting ridiculous. Just as I am about to go to the office to start asking questions, new suitcases appear on the carousel. People from our flight are getting their bags. We wait for ours. They finally appear and we can move on with our lives.
I call the number for Avistar so we can get the shuttle. You are not supposed to call until after you collect your luggage…good thing I remembered that rule, it’s been a full hour since we arrived at baggage! We wait outside where it’s a bit cold for the Boots children whose jackets are somewhere in Florida.
An Avistar shuttle stops about 50 feet before us. A whole bunch of people jump on this shuttle that is 50 feet away. Now let’s review…we are 9 people, 6 suitcases, 2 rolling duffles, 2 garment bags, 3 backpacks and a princess suitcase. The question is…do we move all that the 50 feet to this shuttle that seems full of people and luggage? Or do we stay put and maybe he’ll stop for us or perhaps another shuttle will be coming any minute? The possibilities seem endless. My husband of course wants us to move everything and everyone while I am quite content to stay put and have the shuttle driver drive another 50 feet.
An hour watching a baggage carousel has not helped the situation any. Chuck moves with some bags while I stay with kids and bags. At least this has helped the Avistar driver understand that we are the group he is supposed to find. He stops for us. Will we fit? Yes, he thinks we’ll fit.
Luggage gets loaded, people smoosh together, we are about to drive away. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a man jumps on the shuttle…all by himself, no kids, no luggage. It’s Jason!! We have to stop meeting like this! He tells us it’s their family’s strategy for him to get the car and them to get the luggage and wait. Nope, not us, we are a “no separate” family in airports.
We chat about the cruise and I find out that Jason rebooked on board. Sooooo jealous. So so jealous!! We arrive at Avistar and make sure they have the information needed to retrieve our cars. The Boots’ car comes relatively quickly and they want to know if they should wait. It seems strange after doing everything together for so many days. But there’s no reason for them to wait, no reason for us to drive home together. We still have more than an hours drive ahead of us.
We say our goodbyes and wave them off. Another family that was on the shuttle with us gets their car and drives off into the traffic of the Belt Parkway. Jason’s minivan pulls up and we say goodbye to him as he heads back into the airport to get his family. Another shuttle pulls up and we’re joined by more people.
We watch as some of them get their cars before us. I go inside to ask about our car. The lady behind the desk says it’s coming. I go outside to wait some more. Every person on that second shuttle gets their car and drives off.
Another shuttle comes and we wait with the new people. When their cars start coming, I start to lose patience. I go inside to ask again. I remind them that 3 shuttles have gotten cars and we are still waiting. She radios someone and tells me they are on their way. From where, New Jersey?
It’s getting cold outside so I wait inside with Stephanie and Kevin. They start eyeing up the snack machine. They whine that they’re hungry. I’m so aggravated…it’s been forever since we’ve landed. We should be home eating a real dinner. I tell them we’ll get something to eat on the road…no way am I spending a dollar on a bag that has 5 pretzels inside.
I can’t stop looking at the clock. I wanted to pick up the dog tonight but it’s getting too late. We are still over an hour from home. When another shuttle pulls up and those people start getting their cars, I lose it. I start yelling, complete with f-bombs…I am pissed!!
Chuck has been waiting outside most of the time, remaining pretty calm. Usually in situations marred by incompetence, one of us freaks out and the other is quiet. Fortunately this is one of those times. He is aggravated too but I’m the crazy lunatic throwing f-bombs in front of my kids!! Finally, finally, we see our minivan pull up.
We get out of there with no NYPD involvement and head towards home. We are positively starving but we’re on the road and we’re not stopping anytime soon. I do what any self-respecting mother would do and grab the bag of Halloween candy I had stashed in my backpack before we left home. Kit Kat anyone? Snickers for the driver?
We drive along the Southern State parkway and talk about our next vacation. I poll the kids and ask them would they rather do a
Disney Cruise, Disney World or a combination of both. To my surprise, they all say Disney World. Then, Tommy backs off and says both. They loved the cruise but as Steph points out, it’s been “so long” since we’ve been to the parks. Interesting.
We talk about what to eat for dinner and we decide on pizza. I can’t for the life of me remember the number for the pizza place. How long have we been away? Everybody is tired, cranky and hungry. It’s way too late to pick up Shenzi. She’ll have to sleep one more night at the dog sitter. As we get closer and closer to home, we all feel a little better. I can’t wait to get inside my house and relax. It’s hard to believe this day started on the cruise.
We finally pull into the driveway. WE’RE HOME!!! I hit the button for the garage door and we pile out of the car. The kids run up the steps to the door, Tommy gets there first. He turns the knob and my brain prepares to hear the familiar buzzing of the alarm.
“It’s locked,” he says.
“What??” I say as I look at Chuck who has turned stark white.
Chuck’s color goes from white to pure red as he walks the steps to the door and tries it for himself. Yup, that door is obviously locked, I observe.
It’s this moment that I bust out laughing. Oh my God, after an entire day of nothing but traveling, we are now locked out of the house. It’s so impossible that it’s hilarious. We’re standing in the garage but we’re still not home!!
Let me back up here to give a little background info for this scenario. My niece had left her car at our house while she went out of town for a job. She was coming back to pick it up and was sleeping over for one night while we were away. Chuck didn’t trust her to turn everything off so he asked his dad to come by to check on things after she left. He also didn’t trust my niece to NOT lock the door between the house and the garage so he gave his key to his dad so his dad could get in to our house if my niece locked it. Chuck specifically told him NOT to lock that door, that we’d get in with the garage door opener. But my father-in-law never saw a door he didn’t want to lock, even though HE had our key to it.
You just can’t make this stuff up.
Chuck, playing this through in his head and realizing that it was his dad who locked us out of our own house, doesn’t see the humor in the situation. Now it’s his turn to freak out and freak out he does. Let’s just say my kids heard more curse words on November 11, 2006 than they have in their entire lives. Chuck’s letting them fly every which way while he’s slamming his shoulder into the door trying to break it open.
Tommy starts crying cause he thinks we’re locked out forever. I herd the kids back into the car and wait for Chuck to finish abusing the door. After testing the soundness of the lock with his 250lb+ frame, he comes back into the car and slams the door. He tosses his cell phone at me and tells me to call his mother.
Of course I get his mother’s voicemail and leave a pathetic message about how we’re locked out of the house and they have our keys. We get back on the road and head toward his brother’s house. I call ahead and tell his brother what happened. He busts out laughing and I’m grateful I’m the one on the phone to hear it.
We make it to his brother’s house in about 15 minutes and he meets us in the driveway with the keys to our house. He used his key to my in-laws’ house and found our keys laying on their counter. We come in to use the bathroom and what does my future sister-in-law say to me at that moment? I’ve been traveling all freakin day with 3 kids and an irate husband and she actually says to me, “Oh my God, your hair’s so frizzy!!”
We drive back home, keys in hand. We actually get inside the house this time. We get and eat our pizza and go to bed. I’m a complete zombie until 9:00 in the morning when a child puts the phone to my ear and I hear an exasperated voice asking “when are you coming to pick up your dog?”
THE END 
Postscript:
Yes, it’s finally done. I must have the record for the longest time to finish a trip report. At least I finished it before “Deathly Hallows” was released!! A few things:
1.
DCL did find Kyle and Alyssa’s jackets and mailed them back a few days later.
2. The Christmas cards were a huge success, I got so many positive comments.
3. I haven’t even printed any pictures of this trip, no less think about scrapbooking it.
4. Chuck is not too keen on another cruise although he did say he’d be willing to do a 3 day just to get back to CC. I priced it out and it’s just so darn expensive for 5 people to cruise for 3 days. Now that I’ve finished this trip report, I can officially plan the next vacation. I kept true to my word and didn’t book anything. Right now it looks like it will be WDW, probably the Polynesian again. I’ve renewed at TourGuideMike and I’m ready to plan. April of 2008, spring break is after tax season, hooray!!
I’m certainly no J.K. Rowling so if I’ve left any loose ends, let me know and I’ll address them! Thank you for sticking with me over these long 8 months and reading my crazy story.
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Kudos to you for going out there to see it, but where is your picture?
What a wonderful trip report Linda thanks for taking the time to write you are very talented. Ok now get on with the next chapter...pretty please
