Well, after all of the anticipation, the day has finally arrived for us to begin this adventure. Today started out like an ordinary day, Stephanie had to go to work for a few hours, and I was up early to complete the final packing and then to mow the lawn. It was both a work of art and an exercise in patience to get the large suitcases to their 50 lb.maximum weight limit, needing to pack 100% of the items that were going in those bags for the final weigh in, including our toiletries, which were not items we could pack for good until we were ready to depart. It was amazing how little it takes to make that final one pound adjustment, but we finally were able to get both bags to be exactly 50 lbs., at least according to the combined scale reading taken while holding them and standing on our bathroom scale, then deducting our actual body weight.
Of course, my plan to have the carry on bags “almost empty, except for some shoes”, did not pan out, not even close. It was not a matter of available space in the larger suitcases, the weight limit was our enemy. The carry on bags ended up being entirely full, to the extent that we were placing small items inside our packed shoes to maximize space. At least we knew we would be able to redistribute items into the larger bags once we were back on the ground in Los Angeles, once we were no longer dealing with the airlines imposed weight limits. We will be able to expand the larger bags and have plenty of room for adding items to them once their weight is no longer a factor.
We departed for the airport right on time at noon. At least we knew that the weather was not going to be a factor in the air travel, it was sunny here and clear skies in both Atlanta, our connection point, and in Los Angeles, our final destination. We only had a slight issue with the check-in at the Delta counter, which we knew was most likely to happen. We had to explain the reservations being separate due to the limitations on the Delta online system, mine was totally paid for by miles, Stephanie’s was a combination of miles and money. The discussion was centered around the one free checked bag, and the reservations being made on our Delta AMEX card, which enabled us to get the benefit of the one free bag. However, in the end, it all worked out, and we did not pay any baggage charges. Then came the real challenge, would our bag weighing efforts be accurate enough for the Delta scales. One bag was perfect on the scales, weighing in at a solid 50 lbs., but the other seemed to want to fluctuate between 50 and 51, but nothing was said by the gate attendant, both bags were accepted without question, and off we went to the gate for our flight.
Once at the gate, the attendants were making announcements about the flight being full, and offering to check any carry on bags to the final destination for free. We decided we would take advantage of this offer, and we went to the desk and checked our carry on bags through to Los Angeles. As it turned out, we were really glad we did. The plane for the Atlanta flight was an older Boeing 757, with ultra small overhead bins. In addition, even though we had an early Zone number for boarding, by the time we got to our seats, the overhead bins were full. It has become really competitive to get carry on baggage storage space on almost any flight since the airlines first imposed the baggage fees. We both had to put our back packs under the seat, which was fine for this short flight.
The flight to Atlanta left on time, and arrived on time. We arrived in Terminal B and had to go to Terminal A for our next flight. On the way, we stopped to get a sandwich wrap at one of the restaurants. We knew we had a short layover, and by the time we got to the gate, boarding had already begun, and our boarding zone had already been announced. Once again, by the time we got to our seats, a lot of the overhead bins were full, and we would not have had enough space for both the carry on bags and for our backpacks, it was tight just for the backpacks. This was another older generation plane with mini sized overhead bins. Once again we were thankful that we had taken advantage of the offer to check the carry on bags.
Flight to Los Angeles
The flight to Los Angeles was smooth and uneventful, the weather was clear the whole way. We actually landed a little early, but the plane went to a terminal that was under construction, and it was a little confusing to navigate through all of the temporary passage ways. We actually had to go over to an adjacent terminal to claim our bags. We had been forewarned about the longer than normal walk to baggage claim, but in the end, it was not really that bad. Within 10 minutes we had all of our bags in hand, alleviating any worries about lost luggage.
The next step was exiting the terminal to find the “Super Shuttle” stop outside in the transportation area. We found the representative, and checked in with our prepaid reservation and waited for our shuttle van to arrive. It came within 5 minutes and we were off to the hotel. Unfortunately, we were going to San Pedro, and all of the other passengers were heading to Long Beach, which is actually farther away from the airport than our destination. Clearly this was an example of majority rules, so we had to be patient while we made three stops at Long Beach hotels for our fellow shuttle passengers. Long Beach was indeed farther away than San Pedro as witnessed by seeing the San Pedro exits pass by on the interstate as we headed over to Long Beach. It ended up being a nice diversion, other than the additional time. We took some passengers to the Queen Mary, which is the old retired ocean liner from yesteryear that has been converted into a hotel, restaurants and shopping areas. It would have been nice to see the ship in the daytime, but it was still interesting.
We finally made it over to the Doubletree in San Pedro, and checked in. We were able to glean some information from the Super Shuttle about the process of getting back to the airport after the cruise is completed. We have a time specific reservation, but the driver indicated we could get on an earlier shuttle if we were able to disembark the ship earlier than our reservation time. At least we now know we have that flexibility.
Check in at the hotel went smoothly, the best part being the fresh hot chocolate chip cookies that Doubletree is known for. We inquired about the free shuttle to the ship for Saturday, and signed up for earliest available time slot, which was 12 noon. We had hoped for an earlier shuttle, but they were already booked. We also asked about the hotel shuttle for our shopping trip to the grocery store, and were told it was available, so we headed for our room to drop off the bags and get ready for the last chore, grocery shopping for supplies to take onto the ship.
This is where, as Stephanie likes to say ” the wheels fell off”, trying to coordinate the shuttle ride to and from Von’s, the local grocery store. Apparently, the shuttle driver is also the bell hop, and there was a flight crew from Tahitian Airlines leaving for the airport, and he was scheduled to help them to load their luggage, and would not be available until after 9 PM. Our other choice was a taxi, so we had them call one and we had to wait for 20 minutes for the taxi to arrive. It was a classic case of which would happen first, the taxi arriving, or the bell hop finishing his luggage loading duties. One thing we learned, it is hard to be patient when you are tired, and we were both tired after having traveled all day. Finally, the taxi arrived and off we went to the grocery. At least we knew that the hotel shuttle would pick us up if we called, and that by the time we finished our shopping, the bell hop/driver should be completed with the his other task.
The Von’s was a nice store, and at 9 pm at night, was eerily quiet. Not many shoppers were out at that time of night. Luckily, they are open until midnight, so there was no concern about our getting there before they closed. We stocked up on our supplies, and called for the hotel shuttle, and surprisingly, we were picked up within 10 minutes. So in the end, the shopping adventure turned out well, just taking longer than our tired minds and bodies had wanted.
We finally turned in about 10:30 PM, it indeed felt like 1:30 AM to us with the three hour time difference. It had been a long day, but we were able to accomplish everything we had set out to do, and in the end, nothing really went badly, and we were thankful for that.
Tomorrow morning, we will expand and repack the large suitcases so we can add the grocery store purchases to the carry on bags, and be ready to head over to the ship at our scheduled noon shuttle time.