May 6th - Debarkation

Sad, oh sad.

We were sad to see our vacation end. We set our bigger luggage out the night before to be picked up so in the morning we got ready and just had our carry ons and a small roll-on luggage. The debarkation wasn't nearly as bad this time around as it was the last time. We were able to go to the Mermaid's Grill and have breakfast. We just took the luggage with us so we wouldn't have to go back to our room. Afterwards we went down to the Taj Mahal where Jerome had promised to entertain everyone during the debarkation process. We were there for quite a long time. They kept calling different groups and different colored tags to debark until we were among the last group to be called. When it was time to go we got through customs fairly quickly and were able to locate our luggage. We'd had a reservation for a shuttle to take us back to the airport, and they'd called to make sure everything was ok and to see what time we would be ready. Well, we waited and waited for about a half hour, I'd talked to them twice and they still hadn't shown up so I called them back and just cancelled as they said they were probably 30 minutes out still. There were numerous shuttles available for us to take that we could have grabbed, so we just got one of those and headed to the airport.

Our flight didn't leave until that evening, but we felt we didn't have quite enough time to rent a car, sightsee around L.A. and then make it back to the airport in time, so we decided to just stay the day at the airport. What a nightmare! The airport is so disorganized and dirty. We got in a long line, waited about 45 min., got to the counter for self check-in, got to the part about luggage and found out we were too early to check our luggage in. The guy behind the counter kept ignoring us until finally Chad was able get him to talk to us. He told us to go to another line, so we did. While heading over to that area we were stopped by an employee, told her our situation and she directed us to another line. We were in that line for quite a while when another employee asked if we were in the right line. We said yes, we were told go there. She wanted to know our situation to be sure, so we told her and were told that we were in the wrong line. She directed us to another line! Grrrr..... We waited about another 45 min. in this other line and were able to check our luggage in and be done with it. The guys doing the x-ray machines were rude and we had problems regarding Derek's dvd player. Finally that was all straightened out and we went and got lunch and then made ourselves at home in the waiting area. I met a nice couple across from us who had been on our ship, so we chatted off and on. I read for a bit and then helped the kids with their homework they'd put off until the last minute. Chad and the kids decided to wander around and I sprawled out and took a very long nap, I was so exhausted. Later I decided to wander around, so Micki and I went to the gift shops and I bought myself a mocha not knowing that Chad had already bought one for me. We finally took off for San Francisco, before we knew it we'd landed and then got to wait some more. Everybody but me had been snacking, so I went and got myself some soup from the Soup Company, of course shared that with my begging kids. We were among the first called to board, but as we got to the plane the flight attendant was saying "no, no", we're not ready yet. We went back to the confused ticket lady where she wrote down our names since our tickets were already taken. We wound up being almost an hour delayed, I think the crew was late getting there. We saw Derek's Kindergarten teacher and her family on the plane. They were going home from a vacation in San Diego. Derek thought that was neat. We got home around midnight, the pilot said he took a shortcut but we did have to wait for a couple of other planes scheduled to land so we did a lot of circling. Chad and Micki took a taxi home while Derek and I waited for the luggage. We live close to the airport and figured it would be cheaper for him to go home and get the car, found out it wouldn't have been much more for Derek and I too, but oh well. It took a while to get our luggage and then we loaded it up and got back home.

Next vacation ~ wherever that may be ~ here we come!