Day 78,  The Long Road Home

PACKOUT

We finished packing early this morning.  We will be leaving 7 suitcases and 3 boxes in our room that will be FEDEXED back to Imperial Beach once the ship arrives in Fort Lauderdale.  

We will be traveling with two checked bags, two carry-on bags and our personal items.   At first we were only going to take carry-ons, figuring that we would only be in transit for a few days.  But after all the news about people getting quarantined for 14 days at various points in their journey, we decided that taking one checked bag each would give us maximum flexibility in that event. 

Our final room service breakfast was delivered a little after 8 AM as requested.  One feature of Holland America that we absolutely love is that they allow us to stay in our cabin and get a normal room service breakfast on the final day.  Too many other cruise lines seem eager to kick us out of our cabin ASAP and cut back services on the final day.  Not Holland America and we like it very much.

GROUP YELLOW ONE

They started calling off departures around 8 AM.  We had YELLOW ONE as we had asked to be in the final group,  but we weren’t sure about the order of the colors.  I called the front desk and they told me that Purple 3 would be the group that was called right before ours.  Our flight to Sydney wasn’t until 3:20 PM so we had plenty of time. 

I had arranged for a driver to meet us at noon, back when I thought we may be able to control our own departure time.  Once I learned we were leaving early, I sent the driver a message via WhatsApp and he said he would be able to leave early, and pick us up on 40 minutes notice. 

NOTE:  Having a smart phone with a data plan overseas is not essential, but gives you more options and flexibility.  WhatsApp is used by most tour operators all around the world and learning how to use it at home will be helpful when you are in a different country. 

Based on the delays yesterday, we expected the offload schedule would slip, so we were ready for a long wait.  The periodic announcements kept reminding us to have our flight documentation ready for inspection.  I guess they wanted to make sure that we had plans to leave and didn’t expect to hang around Australia longer than necessary.

The offload seemed to be moving along much quicker today.  Our group was called around 9:30 AM and we gathered up our final items and got ready to leave our cabin.

FINAL CHECKLIST

After we doubled checked that our labels were secure we completed our final cruise ship departure checklist.  

• All the electrical outlets – Empty
• Nothing under the bed – Check
• Nothing in the drawers – Check
• Nothing in the closets – check top shelf
• Nothing in the safe
• Nothing still hanging on the walls.

The gangway was located today on Deck 3 in the atrium. When we arrived, there were only a handful of people in the area.  We spotted one of our favorite entertainers, Alana Conway, waiting with her Harp.

THE STROLL!

As we headed off the ship we were greeted by Henk and Hamish who bid us safe travels.  

A peppy, upbeat tune was playing over the speakers on the Promenade Deck as we turned to head toward the gangway.  Much to my pleasant surprise, most of the ships officers were lining the promenade to bid us farewell.  The music inspired me to do my best to imitate the “stroll” dance from the 50’s and I ‘jived and juked’ down the promenade one last time.  The assembled officers all smiled an cheered as we danced off the ship, one final time – at least until next time!

Once on land, we walked thru a very empty terminal and down some escalators to the exit. 

WELCOME TO WESTERN AUSTRALIA!

We had expected a long process with the Australian Border Forces and were fully prepared to document our future travel plans.  The Officer only glanced at our customs declaration, not bothering to examine our passports, before waving us along with a smile.

Once outside the terminal we observed that the taxi queue was over 100 people long and we were glad that we had made arrangements for a driver to pick us up.  For a while, very few taxis were arriving, but after about 15 minutes, there was a steady stream of cabs and the line started to move a little more quickly.

TV NEWS

I was approached by a reporter and camera man from Channel 9 who interviewed me for about 5 minutes.  They were interested in learning if there were any sick people on the ship and seemed to be fishing for something newsworthy.  I had nothing but praise for the ship’s crew and how we were being treated and welcomed in these difficult times.  They posed for a picture and then they were soon on their way.

Our driver, Steve, arrived soon afterwards, and we had a pleasant 40-minute drive to the airport. 

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

Once inside the airport, we were able to tag our luggage ourselves using the boarding pass on our phone.  A kiosk scanned our boarding passes and then printed out our luggage tags. 

There are conveyors nearby where I scanned our boarding passes once again and then scanned our luggage tags and off the bags went!  Total Self Service!  Since we are flying domestic, there wasn’t any need to clear Immigration or Customs here.

Kathi, aka, Scrapnana, shared our ride to the airport, but since her flight was not until 11 PM she had to remain outside security and we bid her a fond farewell.

Once thru security we discovered our tablemate Susan, along with friends Rich and Sandy at one of the restaurants.  Their flight was also much later, but they managed to get thru security early since they already had boarding passes on their phones and the people running the security gates don’t look at their departure time.

We ran into a few other people from the ship who were a little peeved at their airline because they were denied access to the business class lounge despite having paid extra for business class tickets.  It turns out that since their flights were not until 5:30 AM the next morning, they weren’t allowed into the lounge until 4 AM the next morning.  Hard to explain why the lounge was so picky under these circumstances.

We boarded our flight around 3 PM and once again noticed that we were on the same flight as Alana Conway, the wonderful Singer/Harp player. 

Our flight was pleasant and not crowded.  No one was in a middle seat and many people had a row to themselves.  Everyone was warned not to switch seats as they needed to be able to track where everyone was sitting.  I suspect that if someone eventually tests positive for Corona, they want to be able to keep track of who was sitting nearby.

SYDNEY

We landed in Sydney on time and were soon at the gate.  As we left the jetway, I noticed a women standing near the exit with a clipboard and examining us carefully as we walked by.  At first I thought she was some sort of health inspector until I spotted her blue Holland America polo shirt. She was Helen from the HAL Care team, who was available to assist HAL passengers on our journey home.  She helped us with some advice on how to get to the International Terminal and the Rydges Hotel where we will spend the next 3 nights until our flight home. 

As we were waiting for our bags, we spotted Alana Conway one last time heading home with her harp.

Not wanting to wait for the shuttle, we took a taxi to the Rydges Hotel ($25 AUD). As it turned out we avoided the massive line at the Hotel check-in that lined up behind us once the shuttle arrived.

Our room is nice and couldn’t be more convenient.  We are right across the street from the International Terminal.

Off to bed as we start our time in Sydney waiting for our flights.