Mitsugirly needed to ESCAPE from the cold weather
Day 8: SATURDAY December 21: Time to go
So our last day onboard and they were officially kicking us off. I'm honestly never in too much of a hurry to get off and today we had a LATE LATE LATE flight home. Normally we will hang out with the family or cruise friends on the pool deck until it's time to go but for some reason today was different.
This was our view when I woke up. It was somewhat cloudy for the most part and a little warmer than the last few days but still very windy.
The seagulls were busy catching fish that was churned up in the water from the ships coming in.
We got dressed and headed up to the buffet for breakfast.
I didn't bother to take pictures of our breakfast that morning because it's been the same most mornings and you've seen it all before. At this point, I'm usually just so over the picture taking process and ready to go home.
HOWEVER, I want to bring something to your attention. Remember the conversation the hubby had with the head chef the day before about the bacon not being crispy?
This is what we would see today:
There was a section for "soft bacon" and a section for "crispy bacon" divided by sausage just so you noticed a difference.
The hubby said "Now see, they do listen to customers concerns or complaints". I told him "Yea, they want to make that lasting impression on you and all things will go back to normal the next day". I would be interested in knowing if they still have this onboard.
Our flight wasn't until 5:45pm so even though we weren't in a hurry, like always, I still just wanted to get off and head to the airport.
We went back to the room and gathered our things and even though the color of our tags were brown, since I'm platinum we are able to get off at any time.
In the wheelchair I went to get in line. They had a special line for those in wheelchairs and it bypassed a lot of people. I felt bad about it. I gather our cards to ding out...but wait, where is Sakari's? It wasn't in her lanyard around her neck. Oh no! She thinks she left it back at the room. We waited and let her run back to the room and not only did she find her keycard but she had also forgotten her school ID, left in the door/light slot. Oops. I guess it's a good thing she had to go back. (She wasn't the only child that had done this. We were all forming our own line of parents waiting for their children to go retrieve their keycards from the room).
By this time everyone that we bypassed and more had made it ahead of our wheelchair line and now I didn't feel so bad about it. Everyone was moving very quickly through customs and dinging out and off the ship.
We get down to the port area with the luggage and we are looking everywhere for the brown color. Oh no, I started to remember that when you are Platinum, you go to customer service and grab a Platinum bag tag. Oops. We waited and waited. There was no brown.
The hubby went over to one of the porters and he said "Oh, those are this way" and led us out this huge door where we would find our ORANGE tagged baggage. Oops again. Man I'm all confused today.
We headed out to the madhouse lot where you catch your taxi's and shuttles. When we had signed up for pick up service with the hotel, they had given us stickers to wear. It had the number on it to call for pick up and the bright neon green allowed the driver to notice you and stop.
We waited for quite some time. I'm not sure if I'll use this service again in the future. The only reason we did was because of my wheelchair. I will always catch an Uber in the future as I have done in the past. It's just so much quicker than waiting on a shuttle service.
When they finally pulled up, the bus was loaded. Immediately the people with empty seats spread out and acted as if they were asleep. Give me a break. You are not sleeping! I seen the lady peak every once in awhile. No one bothered to move over and we were forced to split up. They were so rude.
It was a long silent bus ride with the people "sleeping" no longer asleep. Imagine that!
I love this area with all of the paintings and graffiti. Some day we are going to come down early enough, rent a car, and drive/walk around this area. I have always wanted to see it.
At the airport, it would be a VERY long wait. At least I had a wheelchair to sit in and we snacked and snacked and then seats finally became empty and everyone just sat on their phones and talked to friends/family back home, watched videos and so on.
When it was time to check in our luggage we did so and went to security. Man they really put you threw the test when you are in a wheelchair. They ask me to stand and walk to the body xray machine. They ask me to take my boot off so they could xray it. I told them I could hop along if I was barefooted but certainly not in a sock as they were telling me to do. If I slipped and fell....oh my. I removed my sock, hopped to the xray, then hopped back to my chair on the other side. They patted me down, they xrayed my boot and it was longer than if I would have stood in line. It's quite the process!
Once inside and right before boarding, I wanted to use the restroom one last time. Sakari went with me and we decided to stop at the little store to get snacks. I bought Twizzler for the trip.
Sakari wanted Skittles.
When we returned to daddy, he said "I bought you girls something to snack on while on the plane. I didn't know what you would want so I guessed and hope it's ok".
Here's what he got me and now I had 2 bags.
See this is why we are married. We think exactly alike in almost everything we do. 😄
We got onto the plane first and took a seat and then we were off for our very short flight over to Tampa to catch a connecting flight. We were pressed for time with the connecting flight and I wasn't sure it was going to go with the wheelchair. I decided this flight to just check my wheelchair at the gate and use one of theirs between flights instead of having to wait on mine.
The SW worker grabbed a wheelchair and pushed me up the ramp and into the airport. I told him I wanted to stop and use the restroom and so on and ask if he HAD to be one to push me. I had previously asked this question on here about having a wheelchair and if my hubby could push me. I was told they don't allow it and they would have to be the one to push me inside the airport and they won't just allow you to go off on your own in their wheelchair. His reply was "do you have someone that can push you?" "Yep, the hubby and my daughter". "Ok then"...he stopped pushing and gave it to them. So there ya have it.
Now they made an announcement on the plane that there were 6 people on the plane that were connecting to Ohio and we need to "move quick and get there, no stopping for the restroom, no stopping for a snack or drinks" because there was not much time. There were people running to get to the other plane. I was already there and the connecting plane wasn't even in yet!!!
Also, that plane isn't going to go anywhere until they get your luggage off the other plane and load it on the plane you are switching to. But all was good.
I feel so sorry for these people standing out in the rain all day, directing the planes. They have to get soaked.
Off we went on the second leg of our flight and on our way home.
Pulling into Columbus airport and I was so ready to get home and also to eat.
HOME SWEET HOME! It was a successful trip on a broken leg. Whew!