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.
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