Friday, May 16th
Back home at last. Sad but also nice. One does so like to be in one’s home, even if being home means no more endless buffets and constant lounging. Well, our day started at 7:30am. Hard yikes! But we did it, got ourselves up and dressed, packed up our phones and pajamas as the last items to get put in the suitcase and we were ready to go by 7:45am, just when the attendant stopped by the room to make sure we were, ya know, up and aware that we needed to get out by 8am. We did indeed know that and we were just on our way out! We were not on our way to the Schooners Bar where we’d been told our group number 10 would be allowed to wait until it was announced, but instead to the Windjammer for one last hurrah! As it was on the way, we stopped at the towel return station to return our towels only... no one was there. A guy who worked there did show up to speak to me and another guy trying to return his towels, but he didn’t seem to understand what we were saying about needing to have our return of the towels documented. He couldn’t log into the computer so he just wrote our room numbers down and said that would be fine. I had some doubts, so when I got to the Windjammer (I’d sent Jess ahead while I sorted the towel thing out) I asked someone there and they said towel stuff was being handled on 5.
I found Jess, who had acquired 2 donuts and a pain au chocolate and found a small table for us to set up at. I wouldn’t set up there but instead dropped my luggage with her to hit 5 and tell them about the towel situation. I got an elevator for the way down but it was CRAZY packed by the time I arrived on 5 and I knew already I was gonna skip that for the return journey up. On 5 I went to guest services because I missed the giant Towel Return station set up RIGHT next to it, but I was directed there shortly after getting in line by a woman going up and down the guest services line directing people to where they needed to go, which was very useful because I was indeed in the wrong line and glad to know it before I waited! I talked to the woman at the towel stand and she marked me down for having returned the towels so life was good! I braved the stairs for 6 floors and emerged on 12 a little worn, but glad that was handled. That’s what I get for waiting until the last minute!
Back at breakfast I got some coffee, using the last hot cocoa pack we’d brought, and Jess and I ate and chilled, enjoying our last moments in the Windjammer. Our number was called shortly after I got back up but we were in no hurry to get off the boat, having no connections to catch, so we lingered for a while after that, finishing our donuts and saying goodbye to our lovely cruise. Around 8:30am-ish we decided it was time to go, so we collected our meager luggage and headed out. We didn’t want to mess with the closest elevators, as they were jam packed, so we crossed the pool deck to the aft elevators which proved totally empty. On the way I found the list with my name on it by the towel stand and marked myself off, as I had sorted the matter downstairs and didn’t want to cause confusion. We made it to 4 in no time, with really no one else joining us on the elevator, and began deboarding. As we left the boat a woman went up to a staff member and was like “We still haven’t gotten our luggage” to which she was told the luggage was back at the terminal. Like, duh? Why would they return your luggage while you’re still on the ship? Why would they take it the night before just to give it back to you in the morning BEFORE you leave the boat? What did she think that was about? Fascinating logic.
Off the ship we make it through the winding ramps to the terminal where there’s a fairly large line but it’s moving pretty quickly as people locate their luggage and head towards the ID stations. Now, there’s two lines, one for people with passports, one for people with birth certificates. The birth certificate line is technically shorter, but moving slower, as that process takes longer. Jess and I have passports, so no worries, we’re trucking along. As we approach the front there’s like 6 ID stations and the one just to the right of us is... empty? Like, no one has gone that way. A staff member tells people to fill in all the space, that all the lines are open, so I make a beeline around the people in front of me who are just standing there and hit the ID station. The people who were in front try, I think, to get in front of me again, but they have some HUGE luggage and a stroller so they can’t maneuver around. And like... you snooze you lose chief, you guys were literally holding up the line blocking people from moving but also not filling in the space like you were told to.
Jess and I had our passports out but it turns out we didn’t need those as they just do some biometric face scan thing to confirm you have an ID (I guess that’s what some of all those passport check stops were when we were boarding) so we do the scan and our face dings as ok to pass through, but the line is held right then because people who have progressed past that point had all, for some reason, stopped before the exit door so there’s a giant bottleneck of people by the exit door blocking people from exiting as they, I dunno, try to figure out what to do next? We don’t mind waiting, we’re at the front of the line and we’re in no hurry, so we’re chill, but the ID attendant at our station notices the people behind us, giant suitcase and stroller crew, pulling out a birth certificate. She tells them birth certificates have a separate line, something which has been hollered and explained by staff then ENTIRE time we were in line! I mean people REGULARLY said that birth certificates need to go to the other line. They ASKED people if they had any. But these people behind us were like “No, we have passports, it’s just him”, and they pointed to the baby in the carriage. The staff member said if they had a birth certificate they needed to go to the other line, to which the guy behind us was like “But this is a baby??” Uh... ok? Your baby is a person. With a birth certificate. Which needs to be verified at the correct station by the correct personnel. As the baby can’t go on it’s own, one or both of it’s parents need to stand in line with him. How did they think this worked? Why do people assume their babies aren’t whole human beings too? How would the person at the passport only stand be able to verify the baby’s birth certificate when they’re not the person trained to verify birth certificates? People are. Wow. So dumb.
Anyway, after that little ha-ha the bottleneck cleared as police and security showed up to tell people to move it or lose it and Jess and I at last make it outside! Where we immediately overhear some guy on the phone going “They won’t let me back into the building!” I have to assume he left something behind, maybe his luggage if he was just plowing through the line without listening or looking at anything, or maybe he has someone’s ID stuff that they need and can’t reach them because he left before them. Whatever the case may be, uh, yeah my dude, they don’t let you back in? Sorry, but... again, more Wow at people. Having passed him and a slew of other people navigating the great outdoors, and after rescuing one persons fallen sunglasses and one families fallen rubber duck which had both fallen off their luggage, we were back at the parking garage! The line for the elevator was insane, so we hiked up our suitcases and up we went the 4 flights of stairs to the rooftop access to find our beloved car waiting for us! Packed up inside and ready to go it was only 8:50am. Incredible!
The drive back was fairly easy, but only after we got past a section where our GPS kept telling us road names that were not, in fact, listed anywhere? We made one wrong turn because we didn’t see the road the GPS was telling us to turn at, but worked out that the road was just... not called what the GPS thought it was called and the next time that happened with a different road we worked out what road it meant and got ourselves back on track! After and hour or so we were finally home! Home for the speed unpack we take such pride in! We were done unpacking with the laundry on by 11am! Then it was time to relax, recuperate, and reflect on what fun we’d had and what were thinking about doing for our next vacation. Hey, can’t start planning too early!
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