I could not get a good cell signal in the cabin so I quickly…and quietly…got dressed and went out by the Terrace Pool. It was a bit of a shock to realize that it was still dark and much cooler. The sky had just a slight hint of color as sunrise was approaching. Off in the distance I could see the lights of another ship following the Emerald into port.
It didn’t take me long to log into the SW Airlines app on my phone and…surprise…we were in boarding Group B! I took some time to check my email and voice messages and by the time I returned to the cabin, Bob was awake.
The four of us had one last breakfast at the buffet…sitting in our usual spot in Café Caribe. So convenient when our cabin was just one deck below. After we retrieved our luggage from the cabin, we said goodbye to Kent & Laurel. Due to our travel plans, we were in different groups to disembark.
I was impressed with how Princess organizes their disembarkation groups. Sometimes on Carnival it feels like a free for all on the last day. Kent and Laurel had requested an early group. They were renting a car at the airport and driving to Tampa to spend a few days with Laurel’s parents before flying back to Illinois. Bob and I had a 2:00 pm flight scheduled back to Minneapolis (via Milwaukee) so were not in a great hurry to leave the ship. Our group was to meet in the Explorer’s Lounge and needed to be ready to disembark by 9:00.
Coffee and water was available while we were waiting and there were plenty of seats for our group. There were announcements over the intercom that boarding was running behind schedule, but our group was still called shortly after 9 am.
Things were going smoothly until we got to the door of the ship and the line stopped. And we waited. Eventually we were able to leave the ship and slowly…very slowly…make our way to where we could pick up our luggage.
Finding our luggage was no problem, but then we got into a very, very long line to go through customs. I timed the process and it took us almost an hour and a half from the time we left the ship until we were outside of the terminal. From others we talked to, this was not the norm, but who knows what caused the problem.
It was a little after 10:30 when we arrived at the airport, printed our boarding passes and checked our luggage. I had noticed on the departure screen that our flight was running a little late and I mentioned to the agent that I was concerned about making our connection in Milwaukee. She began checking flights on her computer and agreed…there was no way we would get there in time.
She began searching on her computer and found room on a flight that was leaving at 11:15 and would actually get us back to Minneapolis an hour earlier than we had planned. Great…but could we make it through security in time to catch this flight?
Just as she started to print new boarding passes, her computer went down. She went to another computer…no luck. Then she left to try a computer in some back room…again no luck. At this point I resigned myself to the fact that our wonderful cruise was ending on a very sour note.
A couple of minutes past 11:00 she was finally able to get into the system and print our boarding passes. As soon as she did she said “follow me”. We took off running. For you older folks, think O.J. Simpson style. She took us directly to security and then left to try and retrieve our checked bags from the original flight.
Bob made it through security OK and I was relieved when they said I didn’t need to remove my shoes. All was going well…UNTIL...the TSA agent said “we are going to have to search your carry-on bag.” Apparently there was something “suspicious looking.” I was watching the seconds on my watch tick by as she opened the bag and pulled out…my salt from Bonaire. Apparently small packets of a white substance get noticed.
She swabbed down the insides of the luggage and no amount of pleading on my part was making her go any quicker. She finally declared that I was no longer a terror suspect and we ran like crazy to the gate where our flight was just finishing up the boarding process. As we did, the SW agent caught up to us and said she was able to pull our luggage from the first flight and it already been loaded onto the new plane. Hallelujah! Way to go Southwest!!
Our new flight actually had two stops…in Pittsburgh and also Chicago…but we did not have to get off the plane. After the majority of the passengers got off in Pittsburgh, we were able to snag exit row seats with lots of leg room. All in all we were on the plane for a solid 7 hours…but the time went fairly quickly…and we did arrive back in Minneapolis an hour ahead of our original schedule.
My sister from St. Louis had scheduled a flight to arrive at MSP at about the same time as ours so she could celebrate Christmas with our family. By us being on the earlier flight, this worked out even better than we had planned.
The process of getting the shuttle back to the hotel where we had left our car went smoothly and it didn't take long to drive to our son's house. Although it was hard being thrust back into winter, we had a wonderful weekend celebrating an early Christmas with our kids and grand-kids.
As far as Caribbean cruises, the southern islands are my favorite and our wonderful ten day cruise provided us with many souvenir memories!
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