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| Finally landed at our final destination |
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| The last lily |
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| Beautiful San Diego harbor |
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| Calm and warm today |
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| Local vessels |
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| Boat harbor |
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| Hotels |
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| Naval ships |
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| Naval Museum |
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| San Diego skyline |
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| The pier was busy |
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| Hotels |
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| Gangway extended to the terminal |
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| Important stop |
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| Guests waiting to debark on the promenade deck |
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| Sante Fe Railroad |
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| Highrise |
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| Amsterdam docked |
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| A classic way to sail |
The dining room was almost empty of guests when we went this morning at 7 am. It was open for service from 6:30 to 8 am for those who chose not to go to the Lido. Service was excellent, but also sad, as many of our everyday waiters came by to say goodbye. Some of them are also going home like us, after a 9 or 10 month contract with the cruise line. You can bet they were extremely happy this morning.
When we got back to our room from breakfast, our final statement was in the mail slot. How did we know that the final complimentary Pinnacle dinner would be charged to our account? They did give us the 50% off, but it should have been free. Luckily, there were only two people at the desk disputing their bills. It only took 10 minutes to get it verified through Tina, the manager of the PG. Funny thing, another couple we know was doing the very same thing....getting the charge taken off of their bill. Guess they think we have nothing else better to do. Worse yet, we could have missed it and been out the money. Not the best way to end your epic voyage.
The time for our exit was about 9:45 am, but this did not look like that would happen, because some of the non-US citizens had not responded to the call for the customs officials. There were a total of 30 passengers missing or still sleeping. By 9:30 am, Gene began calling these folks by room number and name, until they finally showed up by 9:45am or so.
Now this is where things got squirrely. Gene called the expedited guests first, or those who chose to take all of the luggage off by themselves. This group began lining up at the kiosk on deck two, but for some unknown reason, were going nowhere fast. OK, now the suite guests holding pink # 1, which included us, were called to exit. So we got in line behind the expedited group, going nowhere fast. More of our group were trying to get out of the forward elevators, but could not because the lobby was full of people and suitcases.
As if that was not bad enough, the shore excursion manager let the tour folks go from the Queens Lounge to get off to go to their buses. Now the stairwell was plugged, and none of us were going anywhere soon. That 's when Gene appeared at the end of the line, with a puzzled look on his face, obviously not aware this was happening. He made his way upstream to the security guard at the kiosk to find out what was up. Whatever he did or said, the line began to move slowly. However, he quickly announced to the rest of the remaining guests NOT to come to deck two until it was cleared.
And that is one good reason not to book a flight early out of a debarking port. You never know what to expect. Come to think of it, more stuff happened this morning that we did not see coming as well. Once in the terminal building, we asked where our luggage was stacked. Usually, our group has their bags separated from the crowd, because ours goes Fed Ex. Well, the HAL rep said he believed that our luggage had already been picked up and was gone. That would be too easy. So we checked to see if that was right, and it was not. We found 6 of our bags, but one was missing. One of the smaller ones had been placed in the wrong pile. So we gathered them all together, and the agent said to leave them there....we did not have to lug them through customs. Satisfied that this was OK now, we breezed through the official's line, handed off our customs form, and located a taxi right outside the terminal.
Boy, was it going to be a hot day or what? Every time we have landed here, it has been foggy. Not today, since the temperatures were already climbing to the high 80's. It was nice to be at the airport, where it was cooler, and we would have time to relax before our flight at 1:30pm. Yesterday, our travel agent had confirmed our flight to San Francisco, and nothing had changed. But guess what? Upon logging in our number, we found our flight had been changed to 4:30pm. What's with that? So we went over to an agent at the end desk, who told us our flight had been cancelled due to the fact the plane never arrived. Darn.
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| Heading towards the airport |
But.....we were early enough to search for an earlier flight. Just by sheer luck, there were two seats available, not together, but who cares, on a flight leaving at 1:30pm. Great, we took the seats, and figured we had about 1/2 hour to make it to the gate. Ahhh, not so fast. One of us got the TSA free sign on their ticket, but one of us had to go through regular security. Having been really careful about packing, it should have been a breeze. Guess what....it was NOT.
My small HAL duffel, packed full of leftover prescriptions, some delicate costume jewelry, documents, and laundry would not pass inspection. The screener called for a bag check, which took a few minutes. I was taken to a table, where another screener began taking stuff out of the bag piece by piece. I did not ask what they were looking for, because you never know how they are going to interpret your inquiry. So silence is best in this case. Except, the time was ticking away, and I was afraid of missing the flight at this point. Anyway, she took a tub full of my jewelry in containers to the screener, who ran it again. Then came back and repeated the process with more stuff. Turned out the problem was with a small tin that I saved that had cookies in it, figuring it was good to take the shell jewelry home in. Not a good idea, because it was the metal that set off the xray machine. Learn something new every time we fly.
Finally joining up with my better half, who was stroking out on the side lines, we figured we had 15 minutes to make it to the gate in time for boarding. If it wasn't for this flight also being delayed by 1/2 hour, we would have missed it. So, it did end up being our lucky day after all. We boarded, and took our seats in the back of the plane. Glad this was not a 5 hour flight, but for one hour, it was fine. We left by 12:20pm and landed before 1:30pm in sunny San Francisco.
Calling our son from a pay phone in the baggage area, he arrived within the hour after getting our message. Sure was nice to see his truck coming, and even better to be on the freeway before the worst of the commute traffic hit. There was a backup downtown, but it gave us lots of time to catch up on family news.
We arrived home around 3:30pm, and soon saw what the spring rains had left for us..........6 to 8 foot tall weeds in the back pasture. The bird pens looked like a jungle surrounded them. We will have our work cut out for us for the following weeks, but secretly, we enjoy every minute of it. Except for the stickers and the pollen. We did not miss that.
Will let you all know when our luggage arrives VIA Fed Ex and how much of it makes it through in one piece.
