Well the time has come when everything has come to an end. The Zuiderdam sailed slowly towards the final port of San Diego, but not before picking up the pilot at 5am. We did see this because both of us were up well before our alarm clock went off at 5am. We were docked around 6am, an hour ahead of the scheduled time of 7am. This was a good thing because we had recently received a notice that the US Customs and Border Protection Inspection could take a longer than normal time. They wrote, "In layman's terms, from start to finish, the entire process may take up to 4 hours". We were highly discouraged from booking early flights or other travel arrangements before 11:30am. If you had not reserved your flights at this point, good luck.
The best news was that the ship was cleared before 8am, but only the expedited guests (those who pulled their own luggage off), would be allowed to leave. Up to that point, no luggage had been unloaded in the cruise terminal. By the way, we understand there are 49 guests continuing onward for the Panama Canal re-positioning cruise. Our President's Club buddy Howard is one of them. We will see him at the hotel in Ft. Lauderdale right before the world cruise leaves January 3rd. We also learned that the Panama Canal cruise has over 1700 guests. A pretty full house.
Our final breakfast was good as usual, although many of the regulars must have had other plans, like room service or the Lido. Our waiter Raj as well as Remco the manager, made a sweep through the room to say goodbye to all of the guests. They are both headed home today and Remco may be on the same flight to SF that we are on. Upon leaving, assistant manager Alejandro gave us both a hug. Hope to see her on a future cruise, since she was a lot of fun as well as good at her job.
Last evening, we confirmed our pick-up ride from SFO to our home. Every detail is in place, and now all that is left is wait for the time to leave, which for us is as late as 10am. By then, finding our luggage should be easy.
When we saw the Diamond Princess coming into the harbor of San Diego, we decided the better time to leave the ship would be 9:30am, just in case that ship was cleared quicker than us. Most all of the luggage colors and numbers had been called off by now, and we breezed right through security and down the gangway. Henk and Maja were down at the bottom of the escalator, saying goodbye to the guests. We got hugs from both of them, promising to see each other soon, then off we went to find the three bags. But first, we had to present ourselves to the immigrations folks who had a counter set up on the way. We did have our passports ready for inspection, but we did not need them as the agent used the facial recognition screen instead. Dropping the masks, it took seconds to get an "OK" for each of us.
With luggage in tow, we went right outside, got a taxi, and were to the airport within 10 or 15 minutes. We had until 1:47pm until our flight left, but getting to the airport was a good move. It was crazy busy, unless it is like that everyday. We guessed that with the Thanksgiving holiday coming up next week, many folks were flying somewhere for that event today. Checking in was easy, although one of our bags was ever so slightly over-weight, while the other two a bit under. The agent said it was OK. For the first time, we noticed there were scales along the wall near the United counters for the people to check the weight. Such a good idea, that way you could divide things up and not worry about over-weight charges. We got our boarding passes, then proceeded back outside to wait in the sunshine.
We had until noon or so, before we had to go back inside the building. Walking the length of the terminals and back again, we sat outside near the International Terminal for a while. Then we had a surprise……Francisco, the dining room maitre'd came from inside and chatted with us for a bit. He was on his way home to Indonesia, a much longer and convoluted set of flights than we had. We had a good conversation regarding food-related subjects as well as serving techniques. We could tell he loves his job, and he does it well. Bet we meet on another ship in the future.
Then we had to line up for the security check. There were no signs showing things we always used to do, such as separate your small liquids, take out computers, take shoes and jackets off, or empty pockets. We did end up doing all of the above except the small baggie of liquids. One of us was chosen to do the special xray, probably because of the fact I did not take off my shoes, as it is too difficult wearing a tight backbrace. Anyway, I passed the test, and we were free to go.
It seemed that our flight might be delayed, because the plane was late in arriving. But when it did land, the turnover was quick but we still ended up losing 20 minutes or more. That time was miraculously made up in the air because we landed at SFO right on the money. Within minutes, we retrieved our luggage, and met up with our driver. On the road by 4pm, we ran into the normal commute traffic, and it took up to three hours to get home. Our driver said he thinks the traffic has gotten worse than before Covid hit in 2020. Anyway, we pulled into our driveway about 7pm and were happy to be home safe and sound. However, it was really cold. We have six weeks to bundle up before we head off to the nice weather again. Until then, thanks for joining us on another fun journey from Glaciers to Palm Trees!
Bill & Mary Ann
