Saturday, August 26, 2023
Today is going to be a very
long day for us and neither of us slept very well last night so the day didn’t
start off too well. We got up at 7:00 AM
and after getting ready, had our last meal in the Neptune Lounge. Instead of going through customs in the terminal,
we are going to do a face-to-face meeting with customs in the World Stage on the ship. This was great news as the terminal in Boston
is a bit small and on our last visit in 2016, it was very hectic and crowded.
We had previously filled out a questionnaire
on flight times and then the ship sent out a debarkation instruction sheet assigning
group designations based on the time you needed to get off the ship to catch your flight home. People who carried their own luggage off the
ship were in the first group followed by those with early flights. We didn’t have an early flight, but we had
signed up for an airport transfer that included a tour of Boston to help us
kill some time, so we were in one of the early groups; the fifth group to
leave.
Each group was first called called first to
the immigration meeting and again when they could get off the ship. We were called just before eight for the
immigration meeting and made our way to the World Stage for that. It was very well organized, and we were
quickly done and then returned to our room to wait to be called for our
debarkation.
While we waited, our room
stewards, Mus and Annus, stopped by to say goodbye and we had a nice chat with
them. They were some of the best room
stewards we have had and did an excellent job.
Our group was finally called to debark, and we made our way to the
gangway and off the ship. This was also
well organized and instead of the usual mass of people trying to get off, it
was an orderly process, and we were quickly off the ship.
Once in the terminal we had to
find our luggage, which took a while as there was a lot of luggage to look
through. We finally found our luggage and a
porter to help us carry it out. Two of
our bags would be shipped via Luggage Forward so we found the representative
just outside the terminal door and turned over those bags to him, and then made
our way to the bus for our tour / airport transfer and, hopefully, our last bus ride
for a while.
Our tour of Boston was supposed
to leave at 8:30, but things are never on time on debarkation day, so we didn’t
actually get going until a little after nine.
The first stop on our tour was right back where our trip started in
Boston, the Copely Square Fairmont Hotel and Trinity Church. This was mostly a bathroom break as the hotel
doesn’t mind tourists using their bathrooms.
Val and I mostly just stretched our legs a little bit as we had spent a
lot of time here already.
The rest of the tour was from
the bus and while much of it we had seen, it was still interesting. One thing new to us was a drive through
Cambridge and Harvard, which is a very nice and historic area. We also drove by MIT, but it wasn’t nearly as
impressive as Harvard. Our guide was
very good and a longtime resident of the area.
He was a true New Englander and had many interesting facts and stories
about the area and some personal stories about his own experience growing up here.
We completed our tour and then the bus drove on to the airport. One
disappointing thing about Boston Logan Airport was that when it was originally
built, they didn’t make enough clearance at most of the terminals for buses to
drop people off, so we were dropped off at the only terminal that did allow
buses. There is a shuttle service that
runs between terminals, but the buses were full and there were a lot of people
waiting for the shuttle. Several buses
saying "drop off only" passed us by and people were starting to get impatient and
angry. Val and I had plenty of time, so
we were prepared to just wait it out, but when one of the drop off only
shuttles stopped somebody started loudly complaining and the very nice driver
said for everyone to get on and he even helped with loading the luggage. It was a little crowded, but Val and I were
just going to the next stop so there was no problem for us.
We got into the terminal and
found the American Airlines check-in and found that because we were flying
first class, there was a special line with no waiting. That and with our PSA Precheck, we breezed
through check-in and security and were at the gate area before noon.
Our flight didn’t leave until
4:50 PM so we had an almost five-hour wait.
Val and I had anticipated this and cashed in some of our American
Airlines Advantage miles for one day passes to their Admiral’s Lounge. The Admiral’s Lounge is a place out of the
main terminal for people in the higher echelons of the Advantage program and for
first class passengers who are flying internationally.
It was well worth it, and I
would absolutely do it again if we had a long wait for our flight. It was a very big room with comfortable
seating including desks if you have work to do.
There are ceiling to floor windows lining two sides of it looking out on
the tarmac and the nearby gate and other activities. Best of all, there was food and drink
available at no cost. There was quite a
variety of food and what we sampled was very good. There were also very clean restrooms with even
showers available if needed.
When we arrived, there weren’t
many people there and we found some nice, comfortable seats by the windows
where we could see flights arriving and departing. All the seats also had electrical outlets and
USB ports for phone and computer use. It
was a long wait, but this made it tolerable and even enjoyable.
When it got near boarding time
for our flight, we made the short walk to our gate and within fifteen minutes,
we were on the plane. The pilot warned
us that there would be turbulence, but it turned out to be a very smooth
flight. We arrived in Phoenix right on
time, but we had only an hour before we boarded our connecting flight to San
Luis Obispo. Another advantage of first-class
seating, you’re not only the first ones on the plane, you’re the first ones off,
which was important as our departure gate was quite a ways from our arrival
gate.
As soon as we got off the plane,
we made the long walk as quickly as possible and arrived with plenty of time to
spare. The flight to San Luis Obispo was
fairly short and we even arrived ten minutes early. Our friend Doug was picking us up and by the
time we got our luggage from baggage claim, he was out at the curb waiting for
us. Thanks again Doug, we really
appreciated it especially since you had to drive down from Atascadero and it
was after 10:00 PM.
It was a little after eleven by
the time we got home, and Val and I were very tired. We had gotten up this morning at 4:00 AM
Pacific time so we had been up for eighteen hours, and we were ready for some
sleep. After getting a few necessities
out of our bags, we called it a night and slept in our own bed for the first
time in almost six weeks. Travel is
great, but it always feels good to get home.
