An appropriate title for today's report is going to be DOD, or Day of Delays. As many of you know by now, we are able to debark the ship at any time we wish. That is, of course, after the US Customs and Border officials completed their job of clearing the guests that were from foreign countries, intransit guests, and the crew members. Since so many passengers were from Canada that were on this sailing, that group was large enough to have 17 numbers assigned to them. And as always, there were at least 6 guests who failed to show up for this mandatory face-to-face inspection. So instead of beginning the debarkation process at 8:30am, it was delayed until 9am. Those who were expedited, first in line, were not allowed to leave as expected, and believe us, the tempers began to flare.
We were up very early and ready to get breakfast in the dining room at 6:30am. The waiters were ready, but the cooks were called to the inspection, so we had to wait quite a while before our meal arrived. At least our flight was short and after 1pm, so we were in no particular hurry. But the more we thought about it, we knew it would be wiser to get ourselves to the airport in case something changed with the flight.
So off we went, down to deck two, and squeezed in with the rest of the guests who thought they were going somewhere. That was about the time, the missing people were summoned. You know, that's when you see some folks who lose it with anger issues. Especially when the elevator doors opened and there was no place to go. Deck two and much of the stairwell was jammed. The poor people trying to get back to their rooms were more than upset, but at least the crowd let them through as they had no luggage with them.
So it was around 9:30am or so, when they let us go, which looking back was not all that late. That is one good reason not to book flights in the morning if you can avoid it. No guarantee you will make it to the airport early enough. Now the good news, was that the San Diego airport is only 3 miles away, and there are always plenty of taxis and vans to get you there. We had no problem getting a driver to take us to the airport within minutes.
Thinking we had plenty of time to make our flight which was scheduled to leave around 1:15pm, we soon discovered that the flight was grounded, and we had to switch to another flight. The agent muttered something about poor weather in San Francisco. But now, we were on a plane that was leaving within 20 minutes. Good thing we had TSA pre-approved, and that line was moving quickly for a change.
What we did not know at the time, was that this flight was also delayed. We found this out when we got to gate 43. They also muttered something about weather conditions, and now the plane would depart at 12:15pm. Still not bad, although we did begin to get concerned that this could go on all day. That did happen to us once in India, where our flight out of New Delhi was delayed for over 8 hours. Boy, was that a long day.
OK, so we boarded the plane finally, only to get settled in our seats, then get asked to debark. Oh come on……We did think it was strange that this plane was only half filled, giving us the impression that perhaps they were combining flights to have a full plane. Who really knows? The end result was that back in the terminal, we discovered we would be leaving at 1:45pm. This better be the final answer, we thought.
And it was, and guess what? The plane was almost completely filled. The good thing was that it was a short flight and smooth as glass. We ended up coming into SFO by 3:30pm to a very wet tarmac from recent rains. But now we had to contact our driver, who had followed what he thought was our progress on a different flight. Long story short, we do not own a cell phone, and once we got to the terminal in San Diego, there were no courtesy phones. And going online at the airport did not give us access to emailing. We only hoped our driver had a way to track our change of planes.
Nope, he did not, so once we landed, we called and he said our flight was due in at 5:15pm. Only it was the wrong flight. He had sent his driver elsewhere for our original time at 3pm, but at least there was a ride coming by 5:15pm. Thank goodness, there are still courtesy phones in SFO. So we passed the time with goodies from Starbucks, and writing this report.
So the saga continued from the time our driver came around 5:30pm. We were very happy to see him, as he had been here much earlier according to our original flight plans, but had to leave. Anyway, we loaded into his SUV and were off to stop and go commute traffic, as was expected. Making matters worse was the wet weather, and the excess holiday travelers. Our driver said the rush to get to holiday destinations began in earnest today, naturally.
There are a few ways to get to the Bay Bridge, and at any given time, it can be a gamble as to the right one to choose. Today's choice of leaving the freeway was not the best one, since traffic came to a halt using the side streets downtown. Then, when we finally got to the bridge onramp, a motor home stalled, blocking the way. Geeze Louise……what's next? The CHP showed up and maybe ½ hour later, they moved the motor home. From there on, the traffic flowed, getting us to our door shortly after 8pm. What a sweet surprise we had, when we spotted several candy cane street decorations in front of our house. A kind neighbor had put them there. If our flight back and the drive went OK, we should have been home by 5pm. Last word of advice? Always expect the unexpected, and be prepared to go with the flow. And would we ever plan a trip so close to the holidays again? Probably would think twice about it.
As we usually do, we shall follow up with one wrap up report, then resume the travels on January 1st. In the meantime, happy holidays to everyone and a most wonderful New Year too. We will be back, so stayed tuned…….
Bill & Mary Ann
