Traveling Home

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

We played some slots and then cashed out. We then went to dinner in the Lido. I had the lamb and beef kabobs with the spicy noodles again. Chuck had the roasted chicken. We each got a piece of carrot cake for dessert.

After dinner, we went to the first set of the Rolling Stone Rock Band and then went to the comedy show of Wayne Cotter in the BB King lounge. He was very funny.

We said good-bye to our stewards and favorite waitstaff and said we hoped to see them again in September when we plan to be back on the Rotterdam.

We then called it an early night. We made sure we had what we needed for the morning (don’t want to leave the ship in a bathrobe because you packed all your clothes), tagged the big bags and put them in the hall for pickup. We would see them again in the port terminal (fingers crossed).

I woke up before the 6:00 alarm. We were just pulling into the port. Last time, we were already docked when we woke up.

We went to the Lido for breakfast. It was crowded and there weren’t too many smiling faces.

At 7:30, the cruise director announced that the ship had been cleared for disembarkation. Our number was called at 8:00. According to our paperwork, we could have waited until 9:00 to leave if we wished, but we were ready to go.

Facial recognition was used to get off the ship and through customs. We found our bags in the terminal easily this time which is sometimes not the case.

There were many taxis lined up outside the terminal, and we were quickly at the airport since it is located so close to the port.

We used the outside baggage kiosk to check our bags. Inside, there was a CLEAR line for us to use but the general boarding line was not busy either.

We had to take our shoes off at security, but I could leave my laptop and Kindle in my backpack. Once we passed through security, our gate was right around the corner from it. All very different from the Atlanta airport.

From the time we left our room on the ship to the time we got to our gate – 30 minutes. Amazing.

The flight left on time, and I watched Disney’s Strange World mainly because it was one of the few movies that was less than two hours long. It was okay.

Once we collected our bags in Atlanta, it was about 2:10. I thought we would have a long wait until our 3:15 shuttle. However, we lucked out. The 2:15 shuttle was still at the airport, and he had room on it for us. Yay!

There was no issue getting back from the airport to the shuttle company main office, and after a quick stop at Krystal to pick up burgers for our dinner, we pulled into our driveway – home sweet home.

We were greeted by Pumpkin in his usual fashion after we have been away – a combination of love and disdain with a lot of loud meows.

Now, I’ve got 18 days to get ready for our next cruise. Until then:

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm, and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if we only seek them with our eyes open” – Jawarahal Nehru