Early this morning, we all got a disembarkation package in our mail slots. We have a post cruise hotel stay with an approximate debark time of 9:30am. Actually, the later the better since check-in time might be in the afternoon. Now that we have all been cleared through the US immigration inspections, getting off on Saturday morning should go much smoother. As we previously mentioned, the shipped luggage will not have to be claimed in the Ft. Lauderdale terminal. That is a big deal, since in the past, that was the worst part of going home.
Anyway, we have been given green #1 tags to use on any luggage we may be taking off with us. We chose to ship everything – a total of nine pieces of luggage. Whatever we need for the overnight stay will fit in our hand bags. We also got a message with important information for those of us using the Luggage Forward Services. It stated there had been a change of plans for the tags being provided for that shipment. So now HAL rip-proof tags are being produced onboard with their logo, our last name, and stateroom number. Nothing else. Oh yeah….thanks for your patience was added. Usually, we are provided with real shipping labels (either Fed Ex or UPS) complete with our names and address. We are not quite sure how this is going to work unless it is all done with a QR code or something similar. One of us jokingly said these tags will be the same ones they always use. Who knows?
After working on yesterday's photos and packing some more stuff, we went off for a much needed promenade walk, followed by a trip up to the Seaview Pool. The weather gods have been kind to everyone with mostly blue skies and some drifting clouds. Captain Friso has been taking some credit for the nice weather and low swells, so we will give him that. The humidity is still with us, but no where near as high as yesterday in the Old Town of San Juan. Looking forward, the sailing will continue the same all the way back to Florida. Then Kimberly came on after the Captain, like she always does. After a run-by of the afternoon's activities, she mentioned that the special luggage tags were being delivered as she spoke. So we went down to our room, to find Dedi delivering envelopes to each of his rooms. And guess what we found in the envelope? The same old luggage tags with a label attached with our name and room number. They were numbered from one to nine and we were to attach these to each piece of luggage. No joking…the same tags.
We suppose that the guest service desk got slammed with phone calls asking many questions, because Kimberly came on the speakers again to explain the tags and please do not write anything else on them, like an address. An educated guess is that someone fouled up and did not get the real printed tags in time to bring them here. Our next deduction is that somewhere along the line, these bags will be scanned with our names and room number and have a "real" tag attached with all of the info. At least we hope so. Just in case they go astray, we added a slip of paper in each bag with our name and address and a phone number. No other explanation was given for the change of plans.
During the afternoon, we locked and tagged six of our suitcases and put them outside the door to be picked up. This was a great idea because waiting until the final evening left a hard job for the fellows who had to move it all well past midnight. The last three will go out tomorrow evening after dinner.
Here is a twist for you all to hear. There was a crew talent show held in the World Stage at 2pm. We always go, but were still deep in photo sorting and final packing. Figuring we could watch it as we always do on our room TV was not to be. Later at her 5pm talk, Kimberly mentioned that a DVD would be available to purchase with both the passenger talent show along with today's crew show. Really? Boy that is sure not the way it used to be, making us wonder how solvent HAL is these days. They are figuring many ways to squeeze the last few dollars out of the guests in our humble opinion.
Dinner for us was in the Pinnacle Grill, the last one for this cruise. Going at 8pm, we noticed the room was pretty full. We ordered our favorite salads and steaks followed with a shared slice of Key Lime pie. At 8:45pm there was a chocolate wow or a chocolate surprise in the World Stage. Of course, we were in the middle of our dinner, so missed it.
The Flyrights delivered a farewell show promising a whole new performance. We missed that also as dinner ran overtime. At least we do not have to put the clocks back tonight as we are already on the correct time for Florida. Four hours back in a week's time is too much too fast. But that is part of travel….like it or not.
Bill & Mary Ann
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