Sadly, our trip is over, and it is time to go home. We woke up on time at 6:15 AM and started getting ready. For one last time, I went for breakfast sandwiches at the International Café, and we ate breakfast as we finished getting ready. We finalized the luggage packing and took one final weight measurement, and both bags were right at the 50 pound limit. We had actually gotten more into them than we thought. We had been prepared to leave behind our bottles of sunscreens and trip information brochures had we been overweight, but we were able to get everything packed and still be within the airline weight limit, but just barely.
We were assigned “Walk Off G”, which was to meet at the Casino on Deck 6 at 6:45 AM, for walk off at 7:i5 AM. We decided to just go at 7:15 AM and walk directly off. There were not many people doing the walk off here in New York, so it was actually very easy and manageable, especially for getting elevators to get everything down to Deck 6. Walk off in a port like Ft. Lauderdale is really difficult, it seems like a large percentage of passengers sign up to walk off, and getting an elevator is almost impossible when everyone has luggage.
Once we cleared the gangway, we headed into the terminal to go through customs and immigration. There were already some passengers getting off to claim their luggage inside the terminal by this time, and we hoped the lines for immigration would not be too long. We had planned on an hour in our schedule, based on some of our experiences in Ft. Lauderdale. We were scheduled to meet our Carmel Limo outside the terminal at 9:00 AM, and could not be late.
The Customs and Immigration lines were very short, there were at least 15 agents there to check our passports, and the lines for each agent were only a couple of persons deep. We were through customs and immigration in about 15 minutes from the time we had left the ship, quite fast. As we headed out the exit, we were supposedly “randomly” selected to get our bags checked by customs, although he looked at Stephanie’s passport like he was looking for something specific, like a marker or tag for additional inspection. We headed into the special room, and had to fill out a customs declaration form, but just with my name and birthday, and then signature. He told us to select any one of our bags for the x-ray machine, and I selected mine. I guess they were looking more for agricultural items, or other prohibited items more than duty free exemption overages, they can’t really see those on an x-ray readout. There was nothing illegal in our bags, so there was nothing to find, and we were allowed to leave once the bag went through the x-ray machine.
We walked out of the terminal and over to the waiting area for transportation pick-up. It was only 7:45 AM, and we had a long wait until our ride arrived at 9:00 AM. There was not too much traffic arriving to pick up passengers when we first got to the pick up area, but as time passed, it started to get really backed up with taxis, private vehicles, buses for transfers through Princess and even a couple of tractor trailer delivery trucks. I decided to call Carmel and ask for an earlier pick up time, and the dispatcher said a driver would arrive in about 20 minutes, still about 30 minutes ahead of the original 9:00 AM time. I should have called earlier, since it was really starting to get congested by the time our driver arrived.
The ride to the LaGuardia Airport was uneventful, it was a nice sunny day, so we did get a nice view of the Lower Manhattan skyline on the way. The traffic was not too bad, there were some congested areas from road construction, and we arrived at the airport in about 30 minutes. The cost of the limo, which was really a minivan, was $45.00 and we added a tip. Overall, we did not think that was bad, and was much less cost than the transfers through Princess, and we could schedule our time.
We checked in at the airline counter, and one of our bags was 50 pounds on the scale at the check in desk, and one was actually slightly higher, but we have found that most airlines allow up to 51 pounds for any potential scale error. Now we had a long wait for our 1:00 PM flight. We could certainly have scheduled an earlier flight, but there are some limitations on earlier flight times through the Princess EZAir system, they limit the departure time to allow what they deem as a sufficient time to get off of the ship and to the airport. We could have easily made a flight by 11:00 AM, especially since it was a Saturday, and traffic was not that bad to get to the airport. .
We waited outside of security in a food court area. There were outlets for charging portable electronics and computers, so we charged up our phones and used the free airport Wi-Fi to catch up on email, etc. We knew we wanted to eat lunch before we boarded the 1:00 PM flight, but it was too early to eat now. We were not sure how many restaurants were in the gate area after security, so at about 11:30 AM we got a bite to eat, Stephanie had a bagel with cream cheese and I got a Caesar chicken wrap, which was good, but had too much dressing on it, and it did not sit that well on my stomach.
We finally decided to head through security and go out to our gate. Security was not that busy, but there were two x-ray lines and only one full body scanner that everyone had to go through, so that line got congested. It was a little discomforting because our items going through the x-ray were getting backed up after scanning, and were some distance away from us, so it was difficult to keep track of them while waiting to go through the body scanner. Someone could easily grab your bags, and walk off with them, although they are in a confined area and could probably be tracked on security cameras, unless they went into a restroom, rifled through any valuables and ditched your bags in the stall.
I went to get my computer and camera bag, and the camera bag had apparently been tagged for additional checking, so I had to follow the TSA agent over to a special table. Most likely, this happened because I had forgotten to remove my quart baggie of liquids and gels form the camera bag. I also left in my tablet, which I usually do at other airports, but apparently in New York, it is not allowed. They opened my bag and swabbed it for explosives, and also separately swabbed my tablet. We had never been selected for two additional screening in one day on any trip before, one in Customs at the cruise terminal, and now here. Welcome to the Big Apple. Of course, everything was cleared and we went over to another table to put back on our shoes, belts, and other items we had removed.
We headed to the gate area and were glad we had eaten in the main terminal, there were only a couple of small sandwich shops in the actual gate area. We boarded our flight to Charlotte on time and the two hour flight was uneventful. It was not completely full, but still seemed to take forever to deplane once we arrived in Charlotte.
We had a little over an hour layover in Charlotte before our flight to Columbia. Of course, we arrived at Gate B, and our flight was in Gate E, the farthest one away. Gate E is for all of the small regional commuter jets, and that was what we were flying on to Columbia. Stephanie needed to take some items out of her backpack, we knew it would not fit in the really small overhead bins on the regional jet. She was carrying all of out purchases from the trip, some of them were fairly delicate ornaments, and we did not want to have to check the backpack outside at the stairway to the plane before we boarded.
This flight was also uneventful, and quite short. We arrived on time, and headed to baggage claim to retrieve our luggage. It took a long time for any of the luggage from our flight to get to baggage claim, probably due to all of the plane side checked bags that had to get unloaded first, and given to the passengers inside the jetway bridge right after arrival. Our bags finally appeared, and we were glad that we did not have to deal with any lost luggage.
We called mom, who was already in the car pick up holding area at the airport, and we were on our way home in a few minutes. It had been a tiring day, airplane travel is always stressful, and the long waits did not help. We could certainly have gotten off the ship a little later, but seeing how congested the waiting area had gotten outside, we still thought the earlier time was better. Much later, and we would have also been impacted by passengers arriving for the next cruise.
We were glad to be home, and relax. We did start unpacking and also started some laundry, but for the most part, we watched football on TV and ate pizza for dinner.