Saturday, January 13, 2024
The alarm woke me up at 5:00. I was surprised. Typically, I don’t sleep that well prior to travel and I’m already up before the alarm goes off. Not today.
Pumpkin was ready for his breakfast. However, it wasn’t long before he realized that something was amiss in his kitty world. Mom wasn’t sitting in her recliner drinking coffee, and there was too much activity too early. When we wouldn’t let him outside, he scooted up under the chair and wedged himself against the wall to sulk.
We arrived at the airport shuttle office early. Unfortunately, the office restrooms were out-of-order, and I drank too much coffee this morning. Dang. It was going to be a long ride to the airport. However, before we got on the interstate, the driver stopped at a mini-mart for a quick bathroom and snack break. Disaster averted. We made two more stops to pick up passengers before we reached the airport. We arrived at the airport a little after 11:00.
This was our first time with TSA pre-check having received our Known Traveler Number a few weeks ago. We went to the TSA section and got in the CLEAR lane. The CLEAR lane is supposed to go faster than the regular lane by using biometrics, but they were updating their system. We had to review our information and take new photos. A few glitches with the CLEAR program and we were finally through Security. The TSA lane exits directly into Concourse T. We took the skytrain to Concourse A.
I also found out that we were eligible for Delta’s new Digital ID so we could have used that lane instead of CLEAR. Once it rolls out nationwide, we may drop the CLEAR membership. Right now, the Digital ID is only available in a few airports.
We had time to eat lunch at Chick-Fil-A at the terminal atrium. When we got to the gate, we found out that the flight was delayed 20 minutes and then it changed to 40 minutes delay. Sigh.
While we were waiting, the emergency lights started flashing and an announcement came over the speaker about a potential emergency and to stay alert for more messages. I started scanning for possible exits. About 20 minutes later, the “all clear” announcement was made. We never heard what triggered the alarm.
We took off about 2:20. I watched the Barbie movie and was pleasantly surprised at how good it was.
Once we had retrieved our luggage, we found the Uber pick-up point. The traffic wasn’t too bad getting to the Downtown Miami Hilton. The hotel lobby was very busy. Seems the hotel was a MSC cruise preferred hotel as MSC had a representative that was helping a number of people. I had picked out a room on the 7th floor, but we ended up on the 11th floor. It was OK. The elevators were quick. They only worked with your room key.
We were not hungry for a big dinner, so we just had a couple of beers and some chicken wings at BAR 1601 in the lobby lounge. Four 16 oz beers and the wings – $52 before taxes and tips. Welcome to Miami.
Once we were back in the room, we got the bags tagged with the ship information and we were ready to call it a night.
