Thanksgiving weekend. Yeah. Well, what can you do? That’s when the cruise returns, that’s when we return. Ah well. At least last night went smoothly – because of course we were docked all night. We were packed and ready early, had our last dinner out on the back deck surrounded by staff and crew (we almost feel like staff since we’ve been eating in the buffet every night and they are out there too – thankfully it’s been warm enough weather for us to all sit outside).

Now breakfasted (again with staff and crew out back who have been up super early to go through immigration even though this is their only port in the US and they aren’t coming back but heading directly to S. America – go figure), we wait for our appointed time to go through immigration and head to our airport transfer. Our disembarkation port changed from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami a few weeks before we sailed due to heavy congestion at the Fort Lauderdale port. The Oosterdam is only a 1-stop disembarkation/embarkation port so they didn’t have any clout and were shuffled to Miami. Isn’t’ really a problem as Ft. Lauderdale airport is just as close as Miami International – but because of the change, HAL offered their airport transfer really cheaply. Thus, we are using the ship’s transportation.

Immigration goes smoothly – as in non-existent. Wave the passport at CBP and off we go. It is a bit of a CF out in the parking lot trying to find the right bus, but eventually we all get sorted out by airport and airline. It takes forever though before we are finally driving out of the port and on our way to FLL.

It is an easy drive, and approaching the airport you can actually see the port where there are an amazing number of ships there. Every berth is occupied, we think there are 15 ships. Oh this airport is going to be a crazy crowded mess!

Once we finally arrive at the airport, we are at the 2nd terminal stop and have to sit on the bus waiting forever for the first terminal people to get their luggage sorted. That was entertainment in and of itself.

We’ve got plenty of time, we aren’t worried, it is just frustrating/comical/eye-rolling watching all these old folks try to find and then tote these bags. Sigh. This is why we are doing this now while we are old, but not that old!

Finally released into the correct terminal, we get all checked in really easily and speed through TSA (shockingly). We thought for sure it would be a crowded nightmare, but no. All was fine. I meant the airport is super crowded, airside there are tons of people milling about. We must have just hit a sweet spot, and we are not complaining. Now that we too are airside, we have our morning exercise as we find the restaurant that serves as the “lounge” here in FLL. Surprisingly they don’t have a dedicated Priority lounge, but we get $28 each at the restaurant, so we figure it will be a good time waster and will provide us lunch. And it does that, except note to self – ALWAYS ask how much the wine costs. Holy Guacamole. The wine cost more than the meal. These prices are ridiculous – it is always this way in US airports, I know, but having just come from Europe where everywhere – including the airports – is so reasonable for food and particularly beer and wine….it just irritates the bejesus out of me. Sigh.

Time wasted, we get more exercise heading over to our gate which is 2 terminals away. We’ve been checking the American app as well as some other airplane tracking apps and our plane is majorly delayed. So delayed in fact they keep asking us to rebook our connecting flight to Asheville. Hmmm…what to do? We figure we’ll go to the gate, see if we can get some additional details, then make a decision. Everything we see keeps saying delay, delay, delay. And there is a long line at the desk. So, while we are standing there, not moving, we take our chances and rebook onto the later AVL flight, even springing for extra cost exit row seats on this first flight so we are closer up to the door for a quick exit. Ohhhh, we’re living the high life now!

Seriously, that line never moved. It took so long in fact, they started trying to get us to go to another gate to get help. Normally we’d not get out of line, you know how that always goes! But we took them up on it, because we really only needed our new boarding passes for our upgraded seats and new AVL flight. We had to cross a line of passengers waiting to board another flight – which I thought would turn ugly fast, but didn’t and managed to confirm our flight change and get our boarding passes printed and…..find another less crowded gate to now wait the extra hour and a half we have until boarding. Ah well. It all started out so lovely….

At the appointed time we head to the gate where the plane has just arrived and passengers are disembarking….and disembarking…and disembarking! Every time we think they are done, more come strolling down the jetway. Come on people! We don’t want to miss our new flight. Sheesh.

Finally ready to pre-board, the attendants wheel the 23 wheel chair passengers (yep, 23!) down the jet way, only to return about 5 minutes later as the Pilot has found something he wants to check on the plane. Oh now. Come on. Please do NOT do this to us. We immediately start looking for hotels – I mean it’s the weekend before Thanksgiving, this could be a scrum. We do find a couple that aren’t too bad, but luckily, they fix whatever it is and the 23 wheel chair passengers go back down the jet way. Yay.

After that, it is all easy and smooth flying to Charlotte where we arrive late, but with plenty of time to get to our AVL flight. Then the quick jaunt (42 minutes or something like that) home. Our bags arrive safely. John is there to pick us up and we are home and sorting through all the contraband, i.e., food!, we brought home, by a little after 8pm.

A successful end to a fabulous odyssey! Looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving and December before we are on the move again, because, of course, we will be very, very soon……