Day 8 - Debarkation/Fly Home - March 30, 2013

We had Priority Debarkation, could be off the ship first (around 7 am) but our flight wasn't till 2:45 pm so we planned on staying on board till about 11 (when they make everyone left get off). Ends up this was a good plan.

We'd put the suitcases (2 checked and 1 carryon) the night before and only had one carryon and my purse and a totebag in the room.  We had our last room service coffee, checked every drawer and nook and cranny one last time to make sure we left nothing behind and headed to breakfast on the Lido. This was about 8:15. They recommendation is to vacate the cabins by 8:30 at the latest as the room stewards have to change over all the rooms by noon - 1:30 for the new guests coming on.

Announcements were coming over the PA for various zones to debark.  There were 30-something zones, plus various special categories (guests going on excursions after debarking, guests who'd checked their luggage clear through to home (Luggage Express) and Platinum guests, decks, etc.

By 8:30 people had left, were leaving or were up on Lido or on the Promenade waiting for their zones. Customs kept getting backed up and so the zones were delayed.  Also, a Coast Guard inspection (routine, they have one every few months routinely and today was the designated day), was to take place before the new passengers could board.

For breakfast Byron had eggs and fruit and I had pancakes, yogurt and fruit. After breakfast I went to Guest Services and stood in line to check to see if my phone had been found. It had.  It was found on the floor of the dining room, had fallen out of my pocket during dinner the night before (just like I thought it had).  Phone in hand, I went upstairs, and was able to get 3G. Free internet was at hand!

We waited around on Lido and ran into the people we'd toured with in Belize and visited with them a bit.  Zones were called slowly, very slowly.  Finally about 10:45 they announced that it was time for everyone to leave and we disembarked.  This was the last thing to go right for the next couple hours.

Once we were off the ship we went to the luggage pick up area, picked up the luggage and got in line. There were a few hundred people in the cruise terminal at this point (in the customs area) We were chatting with the people in front of us when a woman came up and took us to a shorter line. Well, we thought this was dandy. And we commenced talking with the people in front of us.  Ends up this line too a long, long time. Other lines were moving quickly, this line was moving *very* *very* slowly.

We *finally* get to the front of line, by this time there were maybe 50 people in the terminal (if that) and present our documents to the customs agent.  He was *not* friendly. He took my passport and Byron's license and birth certificate and started punching buttons on his computer. He was asking Byron where he worked and what he did and basically ignoring me.  He then said we had to come with him.  By this point there were only about 3 other people in the cruise terminal.  Off went went to the search area.  Hmm, an adventure I thought. Hey, best to make the best of any situation, right"?

We put our suitcases where we were told and the customs agent started going through  Byron's suitcase one item at a time and feeling in pockets and such.  He squirted suntan lotion on his glove and smelled it. He questioned my nitro (I have a heart condition and have had two heart attacks) and asked me why I needed it. I told him.  He said it's for heart conditions, I agreed, said I had one and he let me have it back. He was looking in the naproxen bottle we had. He went through a second suitcase. He asked us if we had more than $10K in cash with us (um no,...... I wish, we'd have played in the casino or bought more souvenirs or something.....).

He started to go through my suitcase and I asked him how one became a customs agent, he was prior military and I told him our son was going into the Air Force next year. He'd (the customs agent) had been AF and I asked where he'd been stationed.  After awhile he got nicer and figured that we had nothing to hide (and we didn't) and he sent us on our way.

At this point NO ONE was in the cruise terminal except us, one couple who were having documentation issues (were missing a green card or something) and an older gentlemen.

Having had this adventure, I was really glad we had a 2:45 flight as it was about 11:30 at this point. We go out, get a cab ($25 flat rate for both of us to the Miami airport).  We check in to our flight and get to our gate with an hour to spare.

We fly Miami to Charlotte, (have a quick and not very good lunch at a race car bar/grill in the B concourse) fly Charlotte to Denver, land at Gate B7 and have less than 20 to get to gate B90 to take the little plan from Denver to Colorado Springs. Ends up we made it, but the luggage didn't.  We landed in Colorado Springs late (had left late due to mechanical issues).  No one on the Charlotte-Denver flight who took the Denver-Colorado Springs flight (about 20 people) had their luggage.

We got home about 11 pm Mountain time (1 am eastern) having left the ship 14 hours earlier.

We received our luggage the next day (March 31, Easter, about 4 pm).

It was a great trip! We had adventures we had some odd things, but that makes life more interesting, right?