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| Good bye England! |
At about 8:00 I thought I would get a go-cup of tea down in
the Atrium Bar and then wait my turn. We
were supposed to be out of our cabins by eight anyway. I had already been up for three hours so why
not. Lucky I did! As I approached Laura, our favorite bartender
on this trip, Tiffany, Shore Ex, saw my orange tag on my carry on. I always put one on it in case I set it down
and forget it. Oh my goodness! Apparently, although they were twenty minutes
behind at 6:30 they were now 15 minutes ahead!
I went straight to baggage claim where a funny thing happened.
If you have not sailed before you may not know that when you
leave the ship all the bags are color coded by when you are departing and then
gathered in a huge blank hall on shore.
They are not generally on conveyor belts like in an airport. All the greens together, all the orange and
so forth. As I entered the hall, it
might have been because I t was because I was nearly last, a gentleman started
walking toward me with my bags. I think
it was because my luggage is bright red with big white polka dots and I was
carrying my under seat bag --- that matched!
He could see me coming for a mile!
The hour and a half bus ride ended with some being dropped
at a bus terminal include Peter and Maureen.
They only live about a two hour drive away. As we went from their drop off to ours we
wound through the most massive extensive parking system and hotel system I have
ever encountered! Heathrow is like a
whole other city! We even passed two
‘petrol’ stations without leaving the airport property.
Check in for British Airways was quick and easy. The young lady confirmed my window seat and
also added my Frequent Flyer Number for American Airlines, their partner. Then everyone goes through various security
points and waits in one giant lounge.
Restaurants, rest rooms, and access to gate concourses are all
here. Hanging above clusters of seats,
each of which has access to a charging station, are electronic bill
boards. Each of these has about 50
upcoming flights listed. As planes leave
flights move up on the list. About one
hour before you will take off your gate location will be added to your flight
number. Then it will also tell you about
how long it will take to get to it. Once
there the glassed in waiting areas cannot be exited. Along the way there were signs warning that
this was the last kiosk for food and then the last rest room.
In the glass enclosure there were four waiting areas and you
are told which matches your row on the plane.
Everyone was very divided up into specific sections. But it didn’t end there! Once your row number group was called the
access agent told you whether to use door A, B, or C! Extremely fast loading of 500 passengers in
20 minutes and away we went! The plane
had 16 doorways. I guess that is 16 rows
of exit seating. Amazing!
The movies were good, the food was excellent. Since this is a daytime flight even the
Magnum bars were delicious and, of course, on BA there is no trouble getting a
cuppa!
Once the flight landed in Miami my woes began. It was my own fault and I know better. Global entry let my bypass hundreds of people
in the immigration lines and proceed to the security screening. Then I remembered I had an apple from the
ship I had not eaten. It wasn’t critical
to receive a yellow tag in my passport but it is embarrassing. Escorted through another door I waited for my
bags behind the carousel. A few other
people came through that way. A nice
police officer who was not busy explained the process and was careful to
explain I was not in custody although there was no exit.
It took almost an hour for my checked bags to come off the
plane. Probably because of leaving the
ship early it was one of the first on. I
was directed to Station 5 Passport clearance.
The officer read the tag that said “1 apple”. He directed me to “Agriculture Inspection"
where they simply looked at my passport after a very short wait and took the
yellow tag. Me being me, thanked them
for their service.
Exiting that area I got directions to go up in the elevator
to level 2, go outside and find the hotel shuttles. I pressed 2, exited the elevator and the
building and wandered around at taxi and Big Blue Shuttle pick up. I reentered and asked again, was directed to
a different elevator bank, to press 2, and exit again. Here I waited at Door 7 for the already
called La Quinta Inn & Suites Hotel van.
Then I waited. And then I waited
some more as every hotel in Miami – Dade circled past me over and over. After 3 calls the van finally came. The gentleman loaded my bags and we went
Sam’s Club, then Walmart to pick up fellow guests! Shirley greeted me at the desk and explained
that when they don’t have airport pick-u[s they accommodate those who want
rides to other places! That is very nice
but I was at the airport waiting.
The outcome was that although my flight, scheduled to land
at 7:10 p.m. was early in arriving, slow luggage service, my own stupidity
which caused a very tiny delay, misunderstood question by the first information
lady, probably due to a language barrier (her speaking Spanish and me speaking
Tired Tourist) and her not understanding that I was looking for hotel shuttles,
and the generosity of the La Quinta to take people wherever they wanted to go,
meant I got to the hotel about 10:30!!!
A hot bath, Lots of hot tea, and it was night-night time for
me. Keep in mind that due to the 5 hour
time difference and according to what time I had gotten up in the morning it
was not quite 23 hours of awake and travel.
I can’t say I was terribly excited about doing it all over again
tomorrow!
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