Getting Home

Sunday, 4/30 - We arrived at LA, and had to find out where our gate was. We only had about 1/2 hr to get there. Turned out it was down this big hallway, turn right, down the escalator to a smaller hallway, take the elevator up to another small hallway, then through a doorway to a small room that had 2 gates in it. I nearly missed it because I saw 'Gate 41B' before I noticed 'Gate 41A'. We needed 41A. We sat down in the cramped quarters to wait, and I got my sweater out of the carry-on suitcase and put it in my carry-on bag. In case the next plane was also cold. The boarding ramp to the plane was extra long and convoluted, but eventually, we got to the plane. We didn't get to sit together here, either. I shoved my cpap and bag under the seat in front of me, buckled my seat belt, and tried to get some sleep. This was another 5-hr trip, to Orlando. Shortly after take-off, the staff came around with cookies and drinks. Since I hadn't had any breakfast, I made the most of it. I think I managed to doze some of the time. Shortly before landing, staff came around again to offer coffee or water. I should have taken the water; my sinuses felt completely parched, but I passed.

We claimed our baggage and went to find our shuttle for our parking lot. It took some doing, but we finally connected with it. The shuttle driver was not the most pleasant person in the world. Our car had been sitting in the hot sun for over a week, and the remote clicker wouldn't work; we had to open all the doors with the key. Then as we drove home, we kept hearing the locking mechanisms going off and on. John finally got it to stop by hitting the 'lock' button on his door handle. Our first place for stopping to eat was super busy, so we went to our 2nd choice and got something to take home with us. Watched an hour of tv while we ate and went to bed about 9 pm.

PS. Monday, 5/1 - we discovered we had both come home with covid.

Pearl Harbor & Getting on Our Plane

 

Pearl Harbor

Saturday, 4/29 - John got up about 5:45, having had a miserable night. Went for breakfast at the buffet, then gathered our carry-ons and made our way to the disembarkment station. Around 8, we were sent off the ship to claim our luggage and find our tour bus. John nearly had a panic attack because he couldn't find our car keys. We were given a short tour of some sights in Honolulu, then given about 4 hrs to explore the Pearl Harbor Memorial. We saw 2 short movies and took a boat over to the USS Arizona Memorial, where we spent about 15 or 20 minutes. We didn't know if there would be a place to eat at the airport, so we got a sandwich apiece at the snack shop and finished with a look through the gift shop, where I bought a tote bag. By then, John was getting tired, so we slowly walked back to the bus and waited for the rest of the people to show up. The tour bus dropped us off at the airport at about 1:30. Our plane was scheduled to take off at 10:59 pm, so we had a long wait before we could check our luggage and go through TSA. There was no place to eat outside the TSA, so we were extra happy we'd had sandwiches to get us through.

Getting on Our Plane

John searched every one of our suitcases and the carry-on bag for the car keys, which we finally found. We discovered we could get our suitcases checked in 6 hours before the plane took off, so about 5 pm, we hopped up and got started on that. TSA was its usual nightmare for John, or more so, because the x-ray machine claimed he had metal somewhere, and they had to pat him down. Happens to me all the time, but I think it's the first time for him. Then we started walking to our gate. It was a long walk, made even longer by the number of stores that were already closed. We finally came across a restaurant that was open, so we stopped and had burgers and sodas. $50! Just before we got to our gate, we came across a news stand that was still open, though we had passed a couple that had already closed. We sat down and waited. Eventually, I went to that news stand and bought a bottle of water. When I got back, John asked, "Couldn't you just use the water fountain right over there?" My reply was, "The airplane doesn't have water fountains."

There were more people trying to get on the plane than they had seats, including a pair of parents and their 3 young girls. The clerk was looking for volunteers to be bumped so these extra people could get on. As we were checking in to board the plane, this family apparently figured out they wouldn't be sitting together, so they had to go back to the clerk to get something done about that. John and I didn't get to sit together, either. We had a 5-hour flight to LA, and I thought the plane was cold, so I didn't manage to get any sleep. John tried to get some sleep, I could see him from where I was, but I don't know if he managed it.

Monday, 8/15 - Getting Home, Part 2

I don't think either of us got any sleep. The benches were made of cold, hard rock, and every time I started to doze off, somebody would walk by, and either their heels clattered on the floor, or the wheels on their suitcases were insanely loud. 

Sometime around 4, we got up and went to find the Canadian TSA place, which opened about 5, so we spent some time standing in line in order to stand in line. We got through that, and found our new gate. Hubby said he would go and try to find something for us to eat. I noticed a restaurant right across the hall was opening, and I asked if they accepted food vouchers, and they said yes. So we got a decent breakfast, although it took more than the $40 in vouchers.

Our first flight of the day was to Boston. I think it was pretty uneventful, but I was trying to doze, so a dozen screaming monkeys probably would have struck me as uneventful.

I don't remember much about the airport in Boston, except we were changing airlines. We had to walk all the way out of one terminal, through another long terminal, and into a 3rd terminal to get to our gate. I felt like we were doing a marathon, except we didn't have to run. Walk fast, yes, but not run.

We finally got on the plane to take us to Orlando. Here, too, I was trying to sleep, or at least relax, so I really don't remember much about it except that it seemed long.

Once we got back to Orlando, and got our luggage, then we had to wait for the shuttle to our parking lot. All this time, I was worried they would try to charge us for another day of parking, because I had said we would pick up our car at 1 am that day, and here it was, late afternoon. But nobody said a word about it, so we got in our car and drove home, picking up some burgers on our way home.

It took me 2 days to recover from this last 'adventure' of this particular cruise. Now, as you read this blog, I am finishing up another cruise. No long-distance flying required this time! The ship starts and ends in Port Canaveral, about 1 1/2 hours from home. Wish us luck.

Sunday, 8/14 - The Long Way Home

It was only a hop across the pond. How exhausting could it be? Unfortunately, it got complicated.

We got up and had a quick breakfast, then went down to claim our luggage and get on the bus to take us to the airport. It was not the slickest conversion from ship to bus that we've ever had; the people herding the passengers onto the buses had to ask us twice what airline we were taking so as to get us on the right bus. Then I think it was a 2 1/2 hr drive from Southampton to Heathrow. The airport is nearly as confusing as the one at Barcelona, and their version of TSA nearly came to loggerheads with hubby, but eventually we got through that and found our gate. For some reason, even though we were sitting next to each other on the plane, hubby and I were in different groups for boarding. So we both had to wait until the latter group was called, because I can't lift my overnight bag into the overhead bins. I'm just too short, and my shoulders no longer will lift that high.

The flight from Heathrow to Montreal was pretty uneventful. I was looking forward to actually getting home that night, even though that meant being up and awake for about 24 hours. Once we got to Montreal, we had to take our overnight bags and go through US customs before we could find our gate for the flight to Orlando. Part of that involved riding up an escalator. Here I was, juggling 3 bottles of water, a cpac case and an overnight bag, and when I lost my balance on the escalator, I just kept tumbling down to the bottom. A nice man in a uniform (not a security uniform) came over and helped me up, made sure I was okay. I had lost a shoe, which had ridden up the escalator without me. Hubby went up the escalator to claim my shoe. The uniformed man showed me where the elevator was, and then rode up with me to make sure I was okay. I was shaken a bit, but not too badly stirred.

Shortly after that, we arrived at the US TSA outpost, and I had to throw out all 3 bottles of water, because you can't take food or drink past that point. Then came US Customs, and that was even more of a madhouse. Everybody had to get in one big line, but as flight times started approaching, the crowd handlers would call out for people with that destination, and they were rushed to the front of the line so they could make their plane. If they had just had 1 or 2 more customs officers working the booths, that probably wouldn't have been such a big problem.

Eventually, we got through that, and then we found our gate for our flight to Orlando. We were just trying to decide if we had any time to grab something—chips or a drink or something—when they announced our flight was cancelled. We were lead down a couple hallways, and told to go downstairs and claim our luggage. No word on which carousel our luggage would be on, so hubby was wandering around this huge stadium-sized room, trying to figure out where our luggage was. I got to sit on a bench with our 2 overnight cases and 2 cpacs.

People were getting notices on their smart phones of what flight they had been shifted to, but our phones don't work outside the US, so we had to find the counter than handled such things. We happened to stumble on the counter we needed and got in line just before they started hollering at people to go upstairs to the ticket booths. An hour or more later, we were given our tickets for the 2 flights it would take on Monday to get us back to Orlando. We were also given $40 in vouchers for food, and a voucher for a hotel, and they told us what door to go out of to find the shuttle.

We stood outside that door for at least another hour, but the shuttle from our hotel never showed up. We noticed a sign that gave telephone numbers of hotels with shuttles, but a) our phones don't work outside the US, and b) there was no telephone number for the hotel we were assigned.

We went back inside. The airport was shutting down. So we found 2 benches next to other, shoved our luggage between them and tried to get some sleep. It was 11 o'clock or later, and we figured we had to be back by 4 am to catch our first flight. Good night, all.

Getting There - August 3rd

 I did everything I could to ensure we had a smooth flight to Iceland. We left the house at 10 AM for a 4:19 PM flight to Chicago, we had 3-hour lay-over in Chicago... What could go wrong? We checked in with our airline and got our boarding passes about 11:54, but couldn't check our bags until 12:19 PM. So we drug all our luggage to the closest food court to get something to eat. Then we drug all our luggage back to the ticket counter and got our 2 biggest suitcases checked in. When we went through TSA, it surprisingly wasn't very busy, but it seemed to take forever to get through it anyway. We went to our gate, arriving about 2 hours before they were supposed to start boarding. I sat down to wait with our carry-on luggage. Hubby, who works hard to get 10k steps walked every day, would sit for about 2 minutes at a time before getting up to go 'walk-about'.

Coming back from one of his walks, Hubby noticed our flight was delayed by 20 minutes. Not to worry; we would still have plenty of time to catch our next flight in Chicago. About the timie we should have started loading, the airplane finally came in. We heard an announcement that our flight was delayed until 5:30, and they would start loading at 4:30. Too late; it wasn't even 4 PM yet, and people were lining up to start loading.

The pilot was very wishy-washy about what time they were going to take off, even after they loaded everybody on the plane. They finally took off about 6:30 or so, more than 2 hours late, because of a storm in the Chicago area that was slowing everything down. They had to fly around the storm, and landed about 9:15, about 3 hours late. Luckily, the flight to Iceland was 'slightly' delayed, and we managed to hurry to the next concourse before they shut the doors, but had to check our carry-on luggage. BUT one of those held 2 laptops for us to use on the cruise, and they had to come out and be carried by us onto the plane.

So, we got situated in our seats and breathed a sigh of relief. Then the captain announced they had a minor mechanical problem, and hopefully, it would soon be fixed. We finally took off about 2 hours late and settled in to watch some movies.

Italian Cruise 2021 - Day 9

Sunday, 10/24 - Getting Home

Remember, I said we had to get up by 5:30 on this morning? And that that was the equivalent of 11:30 the night before at our hometown? This truly was to be a lo-o-ng day.

We went to the only place to eat that early; the Irish pub in the casino. We got there before the big rush as others came in to eat before getting off the ship. After eating, we left the ship and claimed our luggage. The Barcelona port actually had luggage carousels for claiming your luggage.

After that, we took our bags outside and got on a bus to go to the airport. It was, of course, very dark. The bus dropped us off outside the ticketing center for the airport. We went inside and had visions of 'Grand Central Station' in our head, though we've never been there. I'm not sure 'Grand Central Station' does the place justice. Each airline had 1-2 windows to take luggage and issue tickets, and hundreds of them were packed into peninsulas sticking into the lobby. But we couldn't figure out where to find the window we needed. Thankfully, John wandered off to the restroom, and when he came back, he had found the window we needed! Hooray!

I honestly don't remember how we got to the gate to wait for our airplane. From the time we left that window until the time we boarded the plane is a big blank spot in my memory. Did I fall asleep? I doubt it. I vaguely remember getting up out of a chair to try and figure out if it was time for us to get into line to board the plane. It's hard when you don't speak the local language, but the airlines made it easier by holding up signs as to what group could now get in line.

The economy class of this plane had 9 seats across; 3 on the left, 3 on the right and 3 in the middle. John and I were in the middle seats. I wanted to sleep, but I don't think I did. Shows I had been watching on one airline going over were not available on this airline coming back. In fact, there was very little of interest for me to watch. I know they fed us once, but I don't know if they fed us twice, like the trip over. Maybe it was a meal and a snack.

Anyway, we got on the plane about 11 AM, and we got to the Atlanta airport about 6 PM. We had about an hour to get to the gate we needed for the next leg of our journey, and it seemed to be on the opposite side of the airport. Before that, we had to claim our luggage, take it to the next room and turn it over to catch our next plane, then we had to go through another TSA checkpoint. Then we walked forever (with memories of Rome going through my head) and then I finally convinced John to take the train, or we would never make it to our gate. We barely had time to sit down when we reached our gate.

Times are approximate here; I've thrown out the paperwork that would have confirmed them for me, and we were very tired, having been awake for about 18-19 hours. But we got on the next plane about 7 PM and probably got to the Orlando airport about 8 PM. It probably took us an hour to claim our luggage and grab the bus to where we had parked the car. I remember it was rainy in Orlando, and when we got to where we had parked our vehicle, it was standing in at least 4 inches of water. The 'pond' was bigger than just our vehicle, too, there were several cars sitting in it.

So about 9 PM, we got in our car with our feet all cold and wet, and the windows quickly steaming up, and we started home.

We stopped for hamburgers to go on our way, and ate them when we got home, then watched a little television to relax. We finally got to bed about 11:30 PM - 24 hrs after we had gotten up!

And that was our trip to Spain and Italy, mostly Italy.

PS. Remember when this journey began, and we were rushed to get through TSA, and lost John's shoes and my belly bag? We couldn't claim them when we got in on this day, because the Lost and Found department had already closed. But we drove back the next day about noon, and I was able to claim both items. Phew! What a relief!