Fun In The Airport

After the not-so-fun embarkation part of our cruise, we were a bit wary as to how the debarkation would go.  Apparently the people leaving the ship last Saturday spent hours getting through customs and to the airport.  We decided to do our best to avoid all that.  We should have remembered one of the Davidson Rules of Travel - if you think you need extra time, you will get to your destination many hours before you need to; however, if you think you have plenty of time, you'd better be checking the flight schedule for a flight the day following your scheduled flight ... because you're probably going to miss it.

So, we decided we would keep our luggage and walk off with it rather than have to wait for it in the luggage room.  All walk-off passengers were told to go to one of the lounges at 7am.  We did and waited a bit and then walked off - and to a waiting cab.  The whole process took about 10 minutes. So we ended up at the airport about five hours before we were scheduled to leave.

Just to give you an idea, we got to our gate and the only people down there were the cleaning crew and a few of the kiosk employees.  There weren't even any other passengers down there yet.  If only they had lounge chairs there, we could have taken a nice long nap.  Instead we had a few snacks and I bought a book to read on the way home (since we would be flying over the ocean for around 90 minutes and I needed the distraction).  Eventually (and I mean hours later) more passengers showed up, and eventually we boarded our plane for Tampa.

We had a short layover in Tampa and soon we were headed home.  Time to unpack the suitcase and sleep in my own bed for a new nights before ...  You know the drill - stay tuned!

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Today is a gift because: safe, smooth flight over the ocean; great book ("Natchez Burning" by Greg Isles) to keep me busy during the flights; short wait in Tampa; sleeping in my own bed