Today we leave the wonderful Viking Neptune and travel home. It was a beautiful and sunny day at the port this morning when we woke up.
We set our alarm for 6:15 AM to give us two hours to get ready, eat some breakfast and get ready for our long travel day. I was actually up before the alarm, we had not slept that well from about 5:00 AM due to the noise of the thrusters as we berthed at the Port of Los Angeles near San Pedro.
I showered and then woke Stephanie up. After dressing, we headed up to the World Cafe to get some breakfast. Since we had a long travel day, we just ate a light breakfast of toasted bagels with creme cheese, and some yogurt. It was nice that the buffet was not crowded, we easily found a table and had a peaceful breakfast.
We went back to the cabin to finish getting ready and to make sure we had all of our remaining gear packed. Since we do not have a carry-on suitcase, we had to make sure everything we needed for this morning we were either leaving behind as trash or packing up into either my camera bag or Styephanie’s backpack.
The disembarkation instructions indicated we needed to be out of the cabin by 8:00 AM, and the designated waiting area to disembark was the Atrium on either Decks 1, 2 or 3. They want everyone out of their cabins early so they can be cleaned and ready for the new guests that will be embarking today as early as 11:00 AM. We had heard early on in the cruise that about 600 new passengers would be arriving today for the World Cruise out of the 928 total, so roughly 300 people were remaining aboard from this cruise to continue on the World Cruise. We did see information during a port talk on our TV that everyone had to get off the ship this morning sometime to go through Customs and Immigration, even if they were staying on the ship to continue.
At 8:00 AM, we left our cabin, leaving behind a tip for our cabin stewards thanking them for helping us to have a great cruise.
We headed down to Deck 2 since it was the deck where the information screen in the elevator showed where the actual gangway to get off the ship was located. It was crowded, but not bad. They were calling people by numbered color codes, and when we got there, they had already called some groups with the color code of black. We were Purple 1, but we did not have a list of all of the colors to tell where we fell in the order of disembarkation.
Next, they started with Green 1. Since our disembarkation time was listed as 8:15 AM, we assumed that they had not called any purple colors yet, and later, we found that to be correct. About every 5-7 minutes, they called another group. In the end, there were four Green groups called, and then they called our Purple 1 group. We had gone over to be closer to the gangway shortly after they had called Green 4, thinking Purple had to be next, and it was. We wanted to be closer to the gangway so that we did not have to get stuck behind anyone who was having difficulty walking. It was a good plan, the walk on the gangway after we left the ship was quite long, and then we had a fairly long walk in the terminal before we went down an escalator to where all of the luggage was grouped by color code inside the terminal. We did get stuck behind one man who really was struggling to walk. It was ironic that we were also behind him and his wife when we had boarded the ship initially, they were in our same group that was bussed to the ship from the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. Apparently, they were waiting for someone to bring him a wheelchair, but he had already walked up the actual ramp into the terminal.
We finally made it down to the luggage claim area and headed into the room labeled Purple. Inside, we saw Stephanie’s suitcase sitting out by itself, away from all of the other suitcases, which was odd. We initially thought it had been pulled for some type of inspection, but when we got to the bag, we immediately noticed that the Purple 1 tag was missing. Somehow, it had been pulled off, so I guess that they were not sure which purple group to put it in. Mine was with the rest of the Purple 1 bags, so I retrieved it and we headed to Immigration.
There was not much of a line, so it did not take but a few minutes before we were at the immigration officer’s station. He checked our passports and took photos of us, and we were done. We headed onward, thinking there might also be some type of Custom’s agent, but there was none. I guess they have really streamlined the process, we did not even have to fill out any type of custom’s form. On a side note, we had tried to use the Customs & Immigration App to pre-submit all of our information this morning, but that App only works in four ports in the entire USA, and this was not one of them.
We headed outside the terminal and over to the Bus labeled Purple 1. On the way, they were asking everyone which airline they were on, and making everyone’ Purple tags with an Airport terminal number. Stephanie had no tag, and I had removed mine in the terminal. Luckily we had two spares and we put them on our suitcases. Unfortunately, the second one we put on Stephanie’s suitcase also broke, so I had to tie it on. They needed to mark the bags with the terminal number so the bus driver could load them onto the bus by terminal, making it easier to retrieve them when we got off.
We got on the bus and headed to some seats near the back of the bus, trying to be away from people as much as possible. We had seen and heard a lot of people coughing when we were waiting in the Atrium to disembark, so we knew people were sick on the ship. It did not take very long for everyone in the Purple 1 group to board the bus, and it was only about 2/3 full.
The bus left soon after and we were on our way to the airport. Traffic was moving along well until we exited and got onto a different interstate, and the traffic on it was really heavy. It was stop-and-go for quite a ways, and then started to pick up a little right about the time we got to the exit for the LAX airport. Traffic was even heavy getting to the airport from the exit, but once we were at the terminal area for departing flights, it was not as bad.
We were the first stop for the bus at Terminal 3 for Delta. About half the people on the bus got off here with us. We retrieved our suitcases and headed inside to check-in. We had actually checked in online last night and had already paid our $60.00 baggage fee with our credit card. That made it a lot easier and quicker. We were looking for a bag drop area, and found it inside the terminal to the right of the normal check-in line, which was really long. Before we could drop off our bags, we had to use a kiosk to get our baggage tags. We each individually scanned our electronic QCR code on our phones that we already had for boarding passes on the Delta App, and the baggage tags were printed out. It took a bit to figure out how to attach them to the suitcases, we had to peel off some portion of it to expose the sticky side. I think I pulled off more than we needed because in the end, all of the back of our baggage tags was sticky, including the part we put around the handle on the suitcase. I think we were only supposed to pull off some small ends so the entire tag was not sticky, but it still worked. We kept the part that contained the baggage claim tickets and also put some of the small stickers with bar codes that came with the luggage tags onto the bags, we were not sure this was necessary, but they seemed to do that when we normally check in, so we followed suit.
There was a baggage drop-off line next to the kiosks, but we were directed by an attendant to go to an escalator and head upstairs to drop off our bags there. We were not sure why, but we complied. There was less of a line upstairs, but it was some type of automated system to scan the baggage tags and weigh the bags. We were not sure how to use, it so we had to watch other people ahead of us. The system called for using an “electronic ID”, and we were not sure what that was. In the end, it was just the electronic version of our boarding pass on the Delta App. Stephanie went first. We placed her suitcase on the belt for the machine where an outline of a suitcase was printed, and then she scanned her boarding pass at the kiosk. The belt moved indicating it was scanning the bag for the tag and weighing it. For some reason, it did not scan the tag correctly, and we had to start again. Someone came over to help and they put the suitcase on its side, and that seemed to work. The bag weight was 50.2 pounds, within the acceptable range.
Next, I placed my bag on the belt, and made sure my baggage tag was folded up so it was easy to read. I scanned my boarding pass and it went through without a hitch. My bag weight was 50.3 pounds. We knew we were close to the weight when we used our luggage scale, it seemed to be about a half-pound low compared to the weights we saw on the airline scales for both the flight to Ft. Lauderdale, and also on this flight.
Next we headed to TSA security. We had to show our boarding passes on the phone, and since we had electronic boarding passes, we were directed to the right side of the line entrance. We never figured this out because we walked the entire way to the other end and had to go past another person checking boarding passes before we entered the security line. There were several stations along the corridor to enter, and we picked the second one. A TSA agent checked our ID’s and then we were directed to the security scanning line. It was a different system, there were four stations where bins were being distributed automatically under a shelf. People could go to any open spot in front of the belt feeding the x-ray machine. Of course, we had to take everything metal off, and also put our shoes in a bin and we had to pull the computer or any tablet out of any bags.
After dropping off everything for the x-ray, we went through a body scanner. Everything went through without any issues, and we retrieved all of our gear on the other side and got redressed.
Our flight was leaving from gate 135, yes that is correct, 135, and we found the signs directing us there. It was very long walk. We ended up in a completely different terminal by the time we got there, and apart from a few moving sidewalks, we had to walk the entire way. Brandon had given us a paper copy of some Delta Lounge passes he had that were expiring soon, but we never saw any signage for the lounge. We did pass by a lounge for another airline on the way, but not Delta.
We finally got out to gate 135 and then figured out why it was so far out. Apparently, we were now in the International Flight Terminal, and when we got to our gate, a flight was already boarding there to go to Tahiti. We finally figured out from the Delta App that our plane to Atlanta was originating in San Salvadore, and that was why we had to go to the International Terminal. It was now about 11:00 AM, and we still had quite a wait until our 2:15 PM flight to Atlanta.
Once the flight to Tahiti left, our gate was completely empty. For some reason, this portion of the terminal was older and not as well maintained, There was no power available in the gate seating area either, and the bathrooms were small and not well cleaned. We finally found that we could do a search on the Delta App for anything located inside the airport. It would also give you directions and an estimated time to get there. We put in Gate 135 as the starting point and the Delta Lounge as the destination and the app said it was a 17 minute walk there, and the lounge was back in the area where we had first gone through security in Terminal 3. Since we were not sure if the printout would get us into the lounge, we were not willing to walk that far back and then have to walk out here again, so we did not even try.
Stephanie tried to use an outlet in our gate area that was near a table, but it did not work. We were getting hungry, so we split a Caesar chicken wrap and some Cheetos, and some bottled water. Ouch on the airport pricing!
We did walk a short distance back onto a newer area of the terminal we had passed through earlier and it was much nicer, the seats had power connections to charge our phones, and the bathrooms were much bigger and cleaner. Before we left, we did see that the plane we were flying to Atlanta had arrived from San Salvadore, so at least we had an airplane. Now we just had to wait until it was time to board.
We headed back to Gate 135 when we were about 30 minutes from the designated boarding time. The gate area was pretty full, but we found some seats by the boarding gate.
At the designated time for boarding, they started to board anyone who needed assistance. Before they were all on board, an announcement was made that the airplane had some type of maintenance issue and was being taken out of service. That was not good. This was the last flight out of LAX to Atlanta, and we were already on the last flight from Atlanta to Columbia. We were told by the gate attendants that the airline was trying to figure out a plan and we needed to wait about 30 minutes before they would know what was going to happen. We checked online to see if anything else was available, and there was nothing, so we were stuck waiting to see what Delta could do. We were not sure if we were going to be stuck here for the night, or if we would make it to Atlanta and be stuck there.
About 30 minutes later, they informed us that another plane was available and was being brought over to our gate. That was good news, but it just depended on how fast that plane could be ready and boarded. We had about a two-hour layover in Atlanta, so we still had some time to make it all work.
It took a long time before the new plane was brought over, and then it had to be cleaned before we could board. In the meantime, we saw that our connecting flight from Atlanta to Columbia was also delayed due to bad weather in the Southeast, so the schedule was still workable, but time was passing by. Since this was a slightly different version of the same airplane we originally had, a Boeing 757, we noticed on our Delta App that our seat assignments were changed from middle/aisle to window/middle. We looked at the seating chart on the Delta App and saw there were a bunch of Comfort+ seats available, so Stephanie went up to see if they would move us to an aisle/middle in Comfort+. The gate agent said that those were reserved for people who qualified for set upgrades, but we could get an aisle/middle near the rear of the plane. Stephanie needed her ID to make the change, so she came back to get it out of her backpack, but I told her that seat change was just going to make it take longer to get off the plane once we got to Atlanta since they were farther in the back, so I did not want to change. She went back to tell the gate agent, and then they moved us up several rows to another window/middle seat, but at least we were closer to the front in case we needed to hurry off the plane to make our connection. We did find a place on the Delta App that listed all the people waiting for upgrades, and we could see that out of the 22 seats available for upgrade between first class and Comfort+, all of them were assigned by initials to passengers who qualified, and that was not us! We hoped that maybe our row mate in the aisle seat was one of the people on the upgrade list and we would not have someone else in our row. Obviously, someone with more Sky Miles priority than us had forced a change where we had lost our aisle seat on the new plane.
We were finally able to board the plane about 90 minutes later than our original boarding time. Once we were onboard, we had to wait for a catering truck to finish loading at the front of the plane, and then, unfortunately, it moved to the rear of the plane to load things there. Nothing like missing a connecting flight because of the catering truck.
We finally were all loaded and we left the gate. The flight time was estimated to be three hours and thirty-six minutes, so that was encouraging, it had originally been scheduled for four hours. We did see from the Delta App that our suitcases had been loaded onto the plane, so that was good news.
We had asked the flight attendant when we boarded if she could check and keep us informed on our connecting flight and possibly assist us to get off the plane quicker when we landed. Many of the other passengers were already going to be stuck in Atlanta for the night, we had heard many of them trying to make changes to their flights up at the desk while we were waiting for the new plan to be ready. For many, they were told that would just have to get help once they were in Atlanta. Supposedly, since this was a mechanical issue, any cost for a hotel overnight, meals, and transportation would be at the expense of Delta.
The flight attendant did come and talk to us one time during the flight, but then nothing happened afterward. The flight was good, we watched some movies on the entertainment system. We landed in Atlanta at about 10:50 PM and still had a chance to make our connecting flight. Unfortunately, the flight attendants did nothing to help anyone who was still trying to make a flight get off the plane faster. Then we got stuck behind a lady needing a wheelchair, so that took another five minutes to get off the plane, could anything else happen….
Once we got into the terminal, there was one, yes one person there to try and help everyone on our flight to check on their connecting flights. We got into line behind two other people. The gate agent had said that if anyone’s flight said “delayed” next to it on the status screen to let him know and he would tell us the actual departure time. Fortunately, he told us our flight was delayed until 11:40 PM, and we should have enough time to make it. It was 35 minutes from our current time, but we had to go from the A terminal to the D terminal to Gate 7.
We started walking as fast as we could to the center of the A terminal to catch the train to the D Terminal. It was a pretty long walk to the train, and then we walked down the moving escalator to try and make up as much time as possible. We had to wait about two minutes on the next train, but it moved quickly, I estimated it was only about a minute between terminals from the time the doors closed until the next time they closed at the next stop.
We made it to the D Terminal and thought we would not have far to go to Gate 7, but it was pretty far from the middle of the terminal to that gate. We were walking as fast as we could, we were not going to run, it was not an option. As we got close to Gate 7, we could see the gate agents looking at us, and we waved to them to let them know we were on that flight. Everyone was already boarded, and once we got to the gate, the agent told us to relax, we had time, they were still waiting on the pilot.
We boarded and the flight attendant on the plane could see we were winded and offered us some small bottles of water, which was nice. We got to our seats in Row 16, and it was nice that we had only two seats on our side. We even still had overhead bin space for our bags. The co-pilot was already on the plane and he had already announced that the plane was ready to go as soon as the pilot arrived. He said the pilot was on another flight from Iowa and had just landed, so he was on his way, and got there pretty quickly. We waited about 10 more minutes after we got seated and our pilot finally arrived.
They were still loading luggage, but we were able to confirm through the Delta App that our bags had made it onto this plane. We were not that worried knowing they would be delivered to us if they did not make the connection, but that was another potential thing to deal with once we got to Columbia if they had not gotten loaded in time.
The flight was short, about 36 minutes, and we landed without incident, other than it was a little windy coming in to land and the plane was moving around a lot.
In the end, we were only about 45 minutes later than the original scheduled landing time. That was way better than having to spend a night in Atlanta and fly home the next day.
We headed to baggage claim and our bags came out shortly thereafter. Once we claimed our luggage, we took the escalator back up to the departure level and walked across the road to the parking garage, and then out to the surface lot where I had parked our car. Stephanie stayed with the bags right outside the garage and I walked out to get the car, that was easier than crossing several medians with our luggage to get to the car. The car started fine, that is always a lingering thought, and I drove over to pick up Stephanie and the luggage.
We headed for the payment window, we knew we needed to go through a line with an attendant. I had not been able to get our prepaid parking voucher to scan when we originally parked, so I had to take a ticket to get into the lot. I explained all of this to the attendant and she said that was the right thing to do. She wrote something on the ticket and then scanned it and said we were good to go.
It was now about 1:10 AM, and for some reason, there was hardly any traffic on the road! It was now starting to rain, and it was still windy. On the drive home, on one of the smaller connecting roads, we had to stop and pull over to the side to get around a dead tree that had fallen across the road from the storms that had come through Columbia earlier this evening. There had been warnings for strong thunderstorms and also a tornado watch. Luckily, there was just enough room to get around the tree on the grass shoulder, but I went by quickly, not wanting to get stuck in the saturated grass.
The rest of the ride home was uneventful. We were just glad to be home tonight even though it was late.
We unloaded our suitcases from the car and headed inside. We finally found Sophie, she was hiding under our bed for some reason, maybe the earlier storms had frightened her. She was glad to see us and stayed with us constantly as we settled in. We both showered to get rid of the travel grime and after that, we felt much better. We were tired and did not stay up much longer, besides it was already 2:00 AM. At least we were still a little adjusted to West Coast time, so that helped.
It had been a long travel day and that is always exhausting but even more so having to worry about delayed flights and missed connections.
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