It was a short night, but I had to wake up early to make sure I could get on a shuttle. They were supposedly starting at 7:30 AM. I was able to see the sunrise from my balcony.
I started the day by going to breakfast at the Windjammer (buffet). My stomach wasn’t 100% so I had a donut and a very light breakfast. I took some pictures of the fancy food at the buffet. I’m not sure this is typical, I know the lobster and filet mignon on the first day is not typical.
I walked around the ship one last time to get some last minute photos.
I went back to my cabin to get my things and proceeded to get off the ship and go through immigration.
Immigration was easy, they were using a facial recognition system, I didn’t even need to use my passport.
I am not sure if I was a few minutes too late, but when I got to the bus I was the first one on and was told it would leave at 9:00 AM. I got my laptop out to do some work and waited. Eventually at 8:30 AM the bus left for Miami.
Despite being told the trip would take 35 minutes it was closer to an hour due to traffic (it was a Monday after all). My flight wasn’t until 12:30 PM, so I was still fine.
The bus dropped me off not in front of the Southwest terminal, but a short walking distance away. I noticed my ticket didn’t have the TSA Pre check on it, so I waited in the line at the Southwest terminal to update it.
I was still very early and had a huge bottle (one liter) of Evian water, so I plugged my laptop and phone into an outlet and went to work.
Eventually I went through the TSA checkpoint. It didn’t take too long and then I still had some time at the gate where I could continue working.
Apparently Miami isn’t an airport Southwest has a permanent gate, so they didn’t have the boarding number signs. It was still fairly easy to line up. I forgot to check in until after I returned to the ship yesterday (probably around 5 PM) and so my boarding number was C-4. I was a little worried about finding bin space for my carry on bag since it had my laptop, but when I got on the plane not only did I find bin space, but I managed to get an exit row seat. Granted it was one with limited recline, but it was still an exit row seat with extra legroom.
The flight was a little bumpy at first which cased the seatbelt sign to stay on for longer than normal. Ordinarily this isn’t an issue for me, but ordinarily I don’t drink a liter of water before getting on the plane. I was able to get relief eventually, and then they gave us a small snack mix bag and a coke.
I watched the movie Motherless Brooklyn and just barely finished it before landing in Houston.
The parking shuttle arrived just as I was walking to it and soon I was driving back to the house.
It was a great trip and I was shocked as to how much I was missing by picking cruises by the exotic locations as opposed to the ships themselves. The ships are as much a destination as are the countries.
