Subject: Report # 137 San Diego, California May 16, 2016 Monday Overcast & 68 degrees
The Amsterdam sailed silently into the spacious harbor of San Diego early this morning…..sometime after 7am. Heavily-overcast, it appeared that the clouds were high, and should not present a problem with flights. Bad news, for those who are touring here today, or staying for a few days after disembarking, it looks like it will be a gloomy day. However, it could have been worse. Last year, when we got off, it was raining, and not lightly. Told it hardly ever rains here, we were surprised and unprepared for the flooded streets. Did not affect the flight as we remember.
We got up early, only because we wanted to enjoy one last served breakfast in the dining room. Besides, we could watch the customs and immigrations check happening in the King's Room on deck five. While we ate our Greek yogurt, fruit, and English muffins, we saw the non-US citizens begin to arrive starting with group 5. They always start with group 5, as there is no 1-2-3 or 4. Not one person in group 5 appeared, which was not a good sign. Continuing with 6 and 7, some folks began to file through. We found out later that over half the guests on this ship are from Canada. We know there was a lot from Holland, Germany, and England as well. We would not be allowed to leave this ship until every foreign passenger had gone through this check on the ship. The estimated time for this procedure was 9:15am. It went beyond to 10am before all of the folks complied. For three or four times, Gene had to announce room numbers and finally names before all were cleared.
We had gone out on the promenade deck in hopes of saying goodbye to the few folks we knew on this trip. We did see Peter, the purser, dressed in regular clothes (no uniform), ready and anxious to head to the airport for home in Philadelphia. However, he was stuck like us, waiting for the final clearance. He will be back on this ship for next year's world cruise, which is great news. We did see more friends Rich and Peggy, who were leaving the ship today too. They will also be back in January. Really nice folks.
With the ship finally cleared by 10am, we got our stuff and jammed in line on deck two to debark. The passengers leaving did everything they were asked NOT to do. Like start lining up at 8am, sit on the stairs, block the elevators, and line up down the hallway, blocking the doors to the cabins. Yes, we all had designated color-coded tags to leave, but you know how that works when everyone has to be first.
To complicate the situation, there was a mandatory crew drill, where the forward staircase was used for the staff to go down to the lower decks. The timing could not have been worse, but when these drill are scheduled, it was not taken into consideration that 500 people would be getting off the ship at that time. Could be that these drills are conducted with shore side personnel, and they are the ones that do not care about interruptions.
Once we checked out (with many sad goodbyes to the wonderful security staff), going through customs was a breeze. All we had to do was check to see if our bags were in the right pile (Fed Ex), and proceed to the line, where we handed off the customs form and had our passports looked at. Taxis and vans were lined up outside the doors, as always. The short ride to the airport took 10 minutes and cost $13. Plus a tip. Saved some money by not taking HAL's bus, which was probably still waiting to load the 50 or so passengers.
Our short flight home was delayed by over 40 minutes by the time we loaded the plane by 2:11pm. This time is was due to mechanical problems, something you definitely don't need to hear. The desk girl began to announce that there was little to no room left for overhead bags, even if they were the legal size. By the time we went to board, she stopped one of us, not running our boarding pass. If she got a report there was no more room, my bag would have been taken away. As it turned out, there was room for three more, so she let me go. We did notice than some of the rolled suitcases were much wider than others, but they let these people board with them. We say of it doesn't fit the mold, then take them away. Other airline do just that.
Oh well, it did end OK when we finally touched the ground at the San Francisco airport around 3:40pm. Ken ws waited right outside the baggage pickup area, and we were off for a 2 ½ hour ride home. An hour and a half longer than it should have been, but it was a good chance to catch up on news we missed for four and a half months.
We got home with enough time to take a look at the fallen tree and the weed growth in the back of the property. Yes, we will have our work cut out for us, but we have all summer to do it. The best we could do, was walk inside, close the door and scrounge up some dinner. Tomorrow will be another day to face the music……..a reflect on how much fun we had on this long cruise. Sure went by fast…………….
To be continued………………….
Bill & Mary Ann
Here we are in San Diego
Skies were overcast, but did clear up much later
Harbor traffic
Scenic bay of San Diego
Should be a good day for flights
Typical coastal high fog
Downtown San Diego
Harbor boats
Working harbor
The trucks are waiting to re-load the ship
First the luggage had to come off
One basket at a time
Flags from California & USA flag
Old way to travel
Star of India on the right
Home and our pool
Our weeds
Some weeds are nasty
Everything was still green
