I know you've heard this before, but the worst part of the cruise is that they make you leave. It took no time at all for me to be spoiled by not having to cook, clean, entertain, etc. Now THAT'S a vacation.
On the final day of our western cruise, I woke at about 5:15 as we were coming into Port Canaveral. It looks very different in the dark. Jim went to declare our two extra bottles of alcohol at 6:30. Since the additional fee would have been a couple of dollars, the agent waived it. Our bill was delivered under our door, and since we'd put a credit card on our account when we signed in, it was all taken care of.
By 8:30 we were in the atrium, leaving our lovely ship
I must admit that debarking was painless. We went down to the luggage area that is arranged by color and by room number, so it took us about three minutes to find out bags. Then we had to wait a couple of minutes for a porter. The porter was great; he loaded up our bags, took our customs form and walked us through customs. The customs agent asked where we were all born, and we were through, quite painless. The porter had us out to the parking lot where Jack from Tiffany Towncar was waiting for us. I thought we'd have to tie one of the suitcases on the roof (they got bigger with all our treasures), but they managed to put everything in the trunk. We were at the airport by 10 am easy.
If we were to do it again, I would have arranged to a day room at the hotel on the airport. Our flight didn't leave until 5 and the ticket counter (Alaska) didn't open until 3:00. We took turns exploring the airport and watching the luggage.
After some waits at the ticket counter and on the tarmack, we took the long flight to Seattle, where we had to take a later flight to Spokane. Fortunately this flight was short. We arrived in Spokane at midnight. Thankfully the hotel is close and we were in bed by 12:30. We had a different room on the return trip, so the mattress wasn't squeaking with every little wiggle, of course we were so wiped out by this time, it wouldn't have mattered.
We woke Sunday morning and made the 3-1/2 hour drive home, arriving just after 1:00 p.m. It's good to be home and the pets are wild to see us.
Now that we are home the whole week seems so much like a dream. We will go again, but we have to wait until 2006 so we can save up. It was an amazing vacation and I have to thank everyone on these boards for helping me to plan and make our trip as carefree as it was. It was so nice to have everything arranged ahead of time and to know what to do and where to go immediately when we got on board.
One tip I forgot to pass along earlier, take your camera everywhere on the ship. Photo ops come at the most unexpected times. Take the camera to the shows, not to use at the shows because that's not allowed, but because characters seem to congregate outside afterward.
My daugter asked me tonight how long until we go on the cruise again. Hmm, let's see that would be about 730 days, now where's the link to that countdown timer...
Thanks everyone
On the final day of our western cruise, I woke at about 5:15 as we were coming into Port Canaveral. It looks very different in the dark. Jim went to declare our two extra bottles of alcohol at 6:30. Since the additional fee would have been a couple of dollars, the agent waived it. Our bill was delivered under our door, and since we'd put a credit card on our account when we signed in, it was all taken care of.
By 8:30 we were in the atrium, leaving our lovely ship
I must admit that debarking was painless. We went down to the luggage area that is arranged by color and by room number, so it took us about three minutes to find out bags. Then we had to wait a couple of minutes for a porter. The porter was great; he loaded up our bags, took our customs form and walked us through customs. The customs agent asked where we were all born, and we were through, quite painless. The porter had us out to the parking lot where Jack from Tiffany Towncar was waiting for us. I thought we'd have to tie one of the suitcases on the roof (they got bigger with all our treasures), but they managed to put everything in the trunk. We were at the airport by 10 am easy.
If we were to do it again, I would have arranged to a day room at the hotel on the airport. Our flight didn't leave until 5 and the ticket counter (Alaska) didn't open until 3:00. We took turns exploring the airport and watching the luggage.
After some waits at the ticket counter and on the tarmack, we took the long flight to Seattle, where we had to take a later flight to Spokane. Fortunately this flight was short. We arrived in Spokane at midnight. Thankfully the hotel is close and we were in bed by 12:30. We had a different room on the return trip, so the mattress wasn't squeaking with every little wiggle, of course we were so wiped out by this time, it wouldn't have mattered.
We woke Sunday morning and made the 3-1/2 hour drive home, arriving just after 1:00 p.m. It's good to be home and the pets are wild to see us.
Now that we are home the whole week seems so much like a dream. We will go again, but we have to wait until 2006 so we can save up. It was an amazing vacation and I have to thank everyone on these boards for helping me to plan and make our trip as carefree as it was. It was so nice to have everything arranged ahead of time and to know what to do and where to go immediately when we got on board.
One tip I forgot to pass along earlier, take your camera everywhere on the ship. Photo ops come at the most unexpected times. Take the camera to the shows, not to use at the shows because that's not allowed, but because characters seem to congregate outside afterward.
My daugter asked me tonight how long until we go on the cruise again. Hmm, let's see that would be about 730 days, now where's the link to that countdown timer...
Thanks everyone
