DAY 8: Sunday December 17: Our last and final day on board and making our way back home.  

Ok, time to get this review wrapped up. 

Since we were unable to dock last night as they had wanted to, I totally expected to wake up and be at the port like always. They always want you out of your room by 8am so I sat the alarm for 7am. However, I just couldn't sleep and I was bright eyed and bushy tailed by 5am today. They family was still sound asleep so I decided to try to take a quick glance at the tv weather/route channel and seen that we were doing circles out in the ocean and not docked yet. Did our captain get a little tipsy last night? I just wanna know if he broke any glasses like I did.

I decided to take a shower. That always helps relax me. I mean I still had 2 hours before the family wakes up and I really didn't know what to do with myself sitting there in the dark. After my shower I did end up relaxing and falling back to sleep until the alarm abruptly woke us all up at 7am. 

I went to go look outside and we still were not in port. Oh yikes! What is going on??

I mean the weather didn't look THAT bad out, but I'm not an expert in weather and sea conditions. It looked as though the sun was trying to come out. The waves were a little high but the weird thing was in didn't feel windy out on the balcony. Like no wind at all. Maybe the other side was the windy side.

One last glance at the tv weather channel would seem as though we were heading in now.

Well, I guess it was time to go up and get something to eat. Since we were not in port yet, we decided to leave behind our one packed bag instead of lugging it around with us. 

Just like the first day of the cruise, this day the buffet would be PACKED with wall to wall people and no place to sit. I'm pretty sure we circled the entire place three times before we found a table. 

There's also another thing that I seem to notice on the last day of cruises we've been on, the eggs never seem to be cooked all the way. Are they just trying to roll out the food as quick as they can on that last day or is it because they can't keep up with the amount of people that are all eating at the same time? I opted for boiled eggs this morning instead. I figured it was a safe option. 

After the fiasco of a breakfast, we headed back to the room. It's times like this I'm glad we had a balcony, instead of an interior, to keep an eye on what was going on outside. 

It was now 8am and we could see other ships out in the distance as well. I guess no one was docked at this point. 

We were told that we would take on the pilot by 8am to head into the Port of Miami.  

There was some rain off in the distance but it was not raining on us. I guess that was a plus at this point.

Bing bong* the captain came on and made an announcement, which of course no one could hear. It was followed up by our trusty loud speaking lady:

Well alrighty then, I guess that's not happening now. 

As we sat in our rooms waiting for further announcements and watching the tv screen, like it was a movie you just couldn't walk away from, each time we seen the ship turn and head away from the port... we heard a knock on the door. It was Christopher with a piece of paper. They had now changed the debarkation times for everyone. Our 9:45am Gray tags had now been changed to 12:15pm.

If this doesn't show people one of the scenarios that could happen when cruising and the reason you should never book an early flight then I don't know what does. I honestly felt really bad for those that had early flights. I usually try to book anything after 12 noon after a cruise just to give us plenty of time to get off the ship, ride to the airport, check in and wait around for a flight. I don't like to be rushed and I'm always a prompt person when it comes to anything I do...ask the family who watches me stress if we cut things too close. 

It was starting to look really icky out now. 

Then another announcement came to say that we had to turn back again and the weather was too bad for the pilot to take on the ship. They would keep us updated when they knew more. 

The seas were rough and fog was starting to set in. You could see 5 other ships out here waiting with us in the distance. All cruising in circles in limbo.

It was now 9:40am and Sakari decided she would head back up to the buffet to see if there were any snacks available. She's a boredom eater and we were definitely bored at this point. 

When she returned, it looked like she was having breakfast #2 because that was all that was out still.

Sometimes it would get so foggy we couldn't even see the other ships that was sailing with us.

They started making announcements that they had put together activities for everyone to do in the atrium and other places. We decided to stay in the room because we didn't know how long this was going to take and I wanted to be able to go out on the balcony to assess the situation a little better with each announcement. I also wanted to watch the tv screen to see where we were at. I noticed a lot of other people had opted to do the same because everyone was on their balconies at this point. 

As I updated the fine people here on cruise critic about our situation, they also kept me informed. I was told the weather in Miami last night was almost like a hurricane with high winds and rain. I was informed that there were actually 8 ships that were scheduled in the Port of Miami, so this was affecting a lot of people. Also, all the ships had requested tug assistance to be able to port. 

The sun started to come out and things were clearing up some and I was informed that the Oasis had made it in and two tugs were headed back out for another ship assist. 

Then we started to see Miami again. Where we next to come in?

The water started to turn a lighter shade of blue and I knew at that point that we were heading in, which was confirmed by someone on here watching the webcams.

Oceania Insignia was coming in right after us.

Yep, we were getting closer! 

The water seemed pretty calm in the channel as we pulled in. 

We watched the tug go by us. Hmm, I guess we were doing ok on our own?

We turned and headed into the docking area.

Coming into port, look at all the brightly colored shipping containers. It was a rainbow of colors as we pulled in. The hubby threw out the correct name to me "Those are intermodal shipping containers babe"...Oh, ok then. Thanks for the lesson my little trucker.

I'm still watching the tv screen and seen that the Oasis was docked and within site of us.

Passing by this pretty new building for MSC under construction. 

They were hard at work on a Sunday and digging their way to China by the water. 

The beautiful Oasis already docked

Maybe one of these days we'll make it on her after our booked cruise was cancelled due to covid that year. 

NCL was in site and we had safely made it. It was now 11am

MSC Divina was already docked as well. 

We were the third ship to dock today and ended up being the first to do so without tug assist. One of the cruisers made a comment "I guess your Captain pulled a hold my beer and watch this" move and I'm pretty sure I spit my pop out at this point when I read it. 😄 

I then noticed that Oceania was coming in but they had turned to the left to dock on the other side of the port. I guess I didn't realize there was a dock over there??

Does anyone notice anything in the picture above? 

I HAVE MY OWN DOCKING SPOT!!!!

I feel so honored NCL! Thank you! I think they done this especially for me. You want to know why I think that? BECAUSE THIS CRUISE PUT ME AT SAPPHIRE STATUS WITH NCL! Yep, I have officially moved up in the ranks. 

This is the welcoming committee and they were very vocal. I'm pretty sure they were congratulating me.

Well since we came in so late, I'm pretty sure at this point that we would not be getting off at our last scheduled time of 12:15pm. They still had to clear customs and get everyone else off the ship first. 

I figured this would be a safe time to head out of the room and bid our goodbyes to our balcony. I did one last sweep around the room to make sure we had everything and double checked the safe. I took one last picture of a surprise I left behind for the next cruiser:

Then we headed up to the buffet because they had made an announcement that they had prepared lunch for everyone. We might as well get something in our bellies one last time because from here on out it would be on our dime.

As we sat in the dining room, we had a table with a great view of the other ships making their way into port.

Carnival Celebration had safely made it back.

Grandeur of the Seas was coming in at 1:20pm:

Before long, we had all made it into port safely.  

We sat in the buffet dining area as they started to announce the colors for people to get off. At this point I had a meeting with the hubby and we made the executive decision that no matter what the cruise is, no matter what time our flights were scheduled for, we would be getting our VIP Platinum/Sapphire tags from now on. We may not necessarily get off during those early bird times, but want to have the option if we needed to...in cases like this because we were now going to be the last ones off the ship, which was going to cut things close...in my eyes at least. 

I started going over the times they might announce when we could disembark, calculating how long it would take us to get an Uber, the ride to the airport, how crazy the airport was now going to be with everyone from every ship arriving at the same time, and the lines...oh the lines. Would we even make our flight?? I wasn't sure at this point. Our flight leaves at 4:55pm, which means we would be getting on the plane at 4:25pm. Remember, when flying with Southwest, there are no assigned seats. So, if we are running down the aisle to catch the plane after boarding has begun, we might not even get seats together. I started to prepare my family for this scenario while the calm hubby just reassured my anxiety driven self that it was going to be ok.

Around 1:30pm security started coming around and telling everyone that we needed to leave the buffet because they needed to start cleaning up and preparing for those getting on the ship today. We were told to head down to The Local. When we got there, there was a very small line of people getting off. We sat in some chairs as we watched people coming and forming lines. I started to panic again. Hmm, should we just get in the line? This line is getting really long now and backed up. We decided to go ahead and jump in line and hope for the best. Would they question us? Would our luggage be out there waiting on us? I didn't know and didn't care at this point. I was getting off this ship!

It was now 1:45pm.

We were following the line for about 5 minutes before they announced "Passengers with Gray luggage tags and anyone else on the ship may now disembark." Whew! I think we're safe.

The line kept moving at a good pace and by 1:55pm I could see the "bloop" guy at the stand to scan our key cards. There's hope in my eyes. I wiped the tears away and put a smile on my face. 

At 2:05pm we were entering the building:

However, the lines were backed up again and now moving slowly. I'm not sure what was going on and that worried look returned to my face. We had made it inside the glass building, but we weren't going anywhere. We stood there for what seemed like forever! 

When the line finally started moving and we were able to get our luggage, it was now 2:23pm. YIKES!

It was easy to spot our luggage...I mean we were part of the last group off the ship so it wasn't like there was a sea of luggage in the building still. 

Yes, there was a long line here as well, but it moved quickly and before long we were out of the building. Whew!

Now to schedule an Uber. We have learned by previous mistakes to schedule an Uber XL and this time it was cost us $43.06 for the short ride to the Miami airport. This guy drove S-L-O-W and I was a little panicky at this point. We eventually arrived around 2:50pm and was surprised to see that the lines for Southwest wasn't all too bad. However, the kiosk machines only had a few working for some reason, but we swooped in and got our luggage tags and boarding passes and then into the line to drop off our luggage. By the time we were finished there, the line had become extremely long and I was grateful that we got there when we did.

I was never so happy to jump in the A boarding line and get on the plane in time...all sitting together!! 

I had to get that "boarding the plane good luck" picture and at this point I don't think Sakari was too thrilled about it. 

We watched the beautiful bright sun setting while we were in air during our 2 hour and 20 minute flight to Nashville. It looked like we were back out at sea again.

We only had a short delay at Nashville and then we were headed home to Columbus.  

We arrived safely back at the Columbus airport at 9:50pm and it was good to be back home again. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the review and found it informative, enjoyed the pictures, the things we did in ports and maybe even put a smile on your face and a little laughter in your hearts. 

Who knows where we will head off to next. It's time to do some research and planning I guess. 

May all of you have safe travels and happy cruising in your future! 🛳️🌴