Grand Africa Cruise - Debarkation and Our Journey Home

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

 “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”  -- Mark Twain

We were up bright and early and after our last breakfast in the Neptune Lounge, we waited for our turn to get off the ship.  We are flying out of the Miami airport and because our plane doesn’t leave until 3:40, we chose to do a Miami city tour before being dropped off at the airport.  Yesterday we received a letter saying our time to get off the ship at 7:45 which would give us time to claim our luggage and get to the bus before our 8:30 tour starts.

The cruise is over.  We sail from Puerto Rico to Fort Lauderdale.

Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale.

The ramp to get from the ship into the terminal.

Usually when they give you a time to get off the ship they say wait until your group is called, but on our letter yesterday it just said get off at 7:45 so after waiting a bit we decided we should just get off.  Big mistake!  It turns out others had the same idea we had, and it was very crowded, and they weren’t letting anyone off until their group was called.  We didn’t know what the delay was, but we stood around for almost an hour before they finally let our group go.

As we walked across the walkway from the ship to the terminal, we saw why there was such a long delay, the terminal had no power.  When you get off the ship you end up on the second floor of the terminal building and need to get down to the terminal floor by elevator, escalator or stairs.  Neither the elevators nor escalators were operating since the power was out, so the only way down was the stairs.

We had a few people in wheelchairs or walkers on the cruise, so this created a huge problem in how to get them down to the lower level.  They had to be helped or carried down the long set of stairs and it took quite an effort by the terminal staff.  Also, almost everyone getting off had their carry-on luggage so even for those of us able to walk down the stairs, it was still a bit challenging.  It was also quite dark with the only lighting being supplied by emergency lighting and flashlights.  Eventually we made it to the terminal floor and went to find our luggage that was left in areas designated in colors around the terminal floor.  We were in the red group for example.

The one good thing was that since we had gone through immigration in Puerto Rico, we didn’t have to go through the regular customs check and our luggage that was being shipped via Luggage Forward went directly from the ship to Luggage Forward. That made things a lot easier.

I found my bag, but Val’s was nowhere to be found.  We looked through other groups and all around the terminal, but it just wasn’t there.  There were other people doing the same thing which was unusual as there are typically no problems with luggage getting off the ship.

When we asked about it, we were told that all the luggage was off the ship, and we should go fill out a form for lost luggage.  We figured someone had grabbed it by mistake and hoped that it would be returned.  After filling out the form, we headed out to find our bus for our tour of Miami and transfer to the airport.  I felt bad for Val as I knew how I would feel if my luggage had disappeared.

It was about a half hour drive from Fort Lauderdale to Miami and our guide talked both about Fort Lauderdale and Miami as we drove.  Once in Miami we drove around the various districts while our guide filled us in on the city. 

While we were touring Miami my phone rang and it turned out to be a person from the Holland America shore staff telling me that Val’s bag had been found.  It turns out that all the luggage hadn’t been taken off the ship and the missing luggage had been part of that missed collection of bags.  This was very good news, but there was no way we could get back to Fort Lauderdale to collect it so I asked if it could be brought to the Miami airport where we could get it and they said no, but they could ship it to us.  That appeared to be the only thing we could do so we said OK.  Val and I were very relieved that it was found, but we were a little wary about how it would get shipped.

After that news, we felt much better and started to enjoy the tour.  We made one stop at the beach but couldn’t really do much due to our late start.  We also made a stop in the Little Havana area that looked interesting and if we ever visit Miami again, we thought it would be worth spending more time there.

We stopped in Little Havana.

Finally, it was time to head to the airport where we would be dropped off for our flights.  We had never been to Miami before, so the tour was very interesting to us.  The guide was very knowledgeable and had many interesting stories to tell so she certainly added to our enjoyment.

When we arrived at the airport we quickly got checked in and through security, but we found we had a very long walk to our departure gate.  We started at C1 and had to walk all the way to C46.  We found out later that if we had gone up another level there was a sky train that could have gotten us there much faster and easier.

We were both tired after we got to our gate as it was a long walk, especially with having to lug our carry-on luggage along with us.  We were both hungry and thirsty, so Val went and got us some snacks and drinks while I kept watch of the luggage and then we settled down for the hour's wait until it was time to board.

The boarding process was a bit disorganized as no one could understand the gate announcements.  The women doing the announcements had an accent which wouldn’t really have mattered except she spoke very rapidly.  We were flying first class which meant we would board first, but being unable to make out what was being said we waited.  Finally, as we saw a few people boarding we decided to go ahead and were soon on the plane.  It was a full plane, so it took quite a while for everyone to board, but we took off just a little late.

The plane left at 3:40 and about an hour into the flight they served us a pretty decent lunch.  We were quite hungry, and it tasted pretty good to us and filled us up.  We arrived right on time in Dallas where we had to change planes to get back to San Luis Obispo and home.

We had about an hour and a half layover in Dallas, but our return flight was in another terminal and this time we were smart enough to take the sky train.  It worked very well, and we were soon at our departure gate.  We had another wait until we boarded, but the time went by pretty quickly.

The boarding process was much more organized for this flight and the announcements were made very clearly.  It was another full flight, but again we got to board first and settled in while the plane filled up.  We were asked if we wanted the meal they were serving, but we weren’t very hungry so decided not to eat.

It had been a very long day and we were getting tired, and it seemed to take forever for the flight to end, but it finally did.  We picked up my bag at the baggage carousel and then found our friend Doug who had generously offered to meet us and drive us home, thanks so much Doug!

It was 10:30 when we finally got home, and we were very tired as it was 1:30 AM in the east where we had started.  Everything was in order at home and it felt good to be back on familiar turf again.  We were in bed by 11:00 and it felt mighty good to be back in our own bed again.  It was a little depressing to have our adventure be at an end, but on the other hand, it sure felt good to be home.

Luggage Follow-up

I wanted to follow up about Val’s missing luggage.  The day after we got home, I received a call from Holland America saying her bag had been shipped FEDEX overnight and we would have it the next day and sure enough, it arrived as scheduled.  That was a big relief and I commend Holland America on how well they handled it.  It was unfortunate that it happened in the first place, but they made up for it by making the effort to get it back to us quickly.