I Love Comedians with Guitars, a Magic Trip Report

[jenseib]

Sept. 29, 2012, Sat. ~ Day 9

This is the worse day for most cruisers. Time to go home, or at least get off the ship. And sadly, the whole atmosphere is so different this day. It even feels like the crew, who you have come to love and know, now want you to get the heck off this ship. LOL

I woke up EXTREMELY early. We didn’t have early breakfast, but we did have to get our things together, plus I wanted to see us pull into port.

I actually didn’t sleep well. One of those nights where you think you might miss getting up on time, so you get up all the time to check the clock.
About 5 AM I gave up and went out to the verandah to take a look. We were now making our way to the port. I quickly grabbed my camera.

It was so dark. I took a ton of pictures and the all pretty much look the same. Pitch black with a few lights in the distance.

I decided to head up to the top and take some pictures from there, and not disturb Lisa.

I had never seen this before, so a quick shot was needed.

As we got close to port, it was just beautiful and peaceful. Again, not many people were out and about. Also, the weather was a bit chillier today and it had the feel of rain.

Pictures don’t do justice to the beautiful lights all around.

The docking was amazing. We pulled into the port and then we had to make a 180 turn to park the ship so it was facing to leave. It was dark and my pictures are not great, but I can’t tell you how amazing this was. I swear it looked like we barely made clearance in the narrow channel.
I was running from front to back and watching. It really was a neat thing to experience.

 

[jenseib]

 

[jenseib]

Again, I can’t even stress how amazing it was to see this happen. I was so happy I was up early and got to see it.

I took a couple of more shots on the deck before I headed back to the room.

A few pictures of the pool and slide rules.

And then I put my good camera away for good. The rest of the trip my pictures are taken on my point and shoot. And sadly that means a lot of blurry pictures.

I went back to the room and we both got ready and made sure everything was packed. We checked and double checked. We packed my carry on and my extra duffle with our things and decided we would check both of those in at the airport, so I packed my big Dooney purse and backpack and Lisa’s small duffle and her purse with everything we would need for the flights.
This is one reason I love South West. The 2 free bags per person was really a great thing to have.

We still had time before breakfast and before we had to be out of the room, so we took a look out on the balcony.

Here comes that Carnival ship we had been sailing along most of the way back. I wondered why it came in so much later than we did, but maybe they only allow one through the channel at a time.

And yes Boys and Girls, that IS the Carnival Triumph. Who knew in just a few short months she would have so many problems.

I suddenly felt the need to take more pictures of our room

 

[jenseib]

I took many more, but they are all extremely blurry, and you have seen pictures of it already.

We were ready and Lisa wanted to be sure to vacate on time so Rodrigo would be able to come and clean and get our home ready for the next round of guests, so we headed out.

Many people were in the atrium waiting to disembark.

Chris, one of Mary’s friends, had kept her luggage with her the night before as she wanted to get off the ship early. Her daughter was coming to pick her up and she needed to be to work by 11. She said she knew it would be cutting it close, but if she could get right off first thing, then it would be ok. That didn’t work though. We had a slow up with customs. I think the thought was they would be off around 7:30 or so. It was already 8 and many people were getting restless.

Then we heard this announcement.



This was not true. There was still something holding them back and they couldn’t get off. We ran into Chris who was not so patiently waiting in a VERY long line on the other side of the elevators. And someone had dropped a bottle of booze and it really reeked in the area. We said goodbye to her and found a spot to sit.

Why I took this picture of myself, I have no clue.

While waiting we headed outside to watch the Triumph makes its 180 turn.

I talk in this video, but I swear it doesn’t sound like me. Maybe I was horse that day.



Dolphin! (kind of like Squirrel! on Up!, as soon as you see one you lose concentration on everything around you)

 

[jenseib]

Again, this was very interesting to watch. Our ship was better though!

They already were starting to work on the ship.

 

[5thGenTexan]

I think I mentioned before, we sailed on the day you got back. It was a nasty rainy morning and I was the one who unloaded our luggage in a downpour. It rained off and on the whole week, but we still had a blast. Just looking at the last few photos you posted I could feel a pit in my stomach and it wasn't even my trip. I have it BAD!!!

 

[jenseib]

I think I mentioned before, we sailed on the day you got back. It was a nasty rainy morning and I was the one who unloaded our luggage in a downpour. It rained off and on the whole week, but we still had a blast. Just looking at the last few photos you posted I could feel a pit in my stomach and it wasn't even my trip. I have it BAD!!!

I felt so bad for those getting on the ship that day. My first Dream cruise was a day like this, even worse, with a downpour all day long. Did they do your sail away party in the Atrium then?

 

[jenseib]

We decided to head down to breakfast. HOLY COW! It was a mad house. The first seating was still in there and the ship still wasn’t letting people off. I think at one point they did start to let those off who had their bags, but our bags weren’t clearing customs yet, so the atrium was packed with people trying to get off the ship and others trying to get in line for Lumieres. We were told we had to use the side entrance because the atrium was too full.

We squeezed down the hall and had to ask people if they were there for breakfast line or leaving the ship. Luckily the breakfast line was shorter. Somewhere along the line we did run into the other girls as well.
We stood for quite a while, shoulder to shoulder with our fellow shipmates. Finally we were allowed in.

And guess who shows up? Chris! She said they still were not letting her off the ship, so she might as well sit down and have breakfast while she waited. It was nice to see her one last time.

Breakfast is VERY basic on this last morning. They want you to get off the ship as fast as you can, well normally they do. This day was not the norm.

I didn’t take food pictures. I was just done with it at that point and my point and shoot doesn’t do a very good job. Brook however took a photo of all of us.

And then I took one of her so she wasn’t left out.

You can see in the picture that people are still out in the atrium waiting to get off the ship.

I do believe that someone said they only wanted bacon on this morning and the guys brought out like 2 HUGE plates full. LOL. So bacon was passed around for all.

At some point during the meal, we noticed the people moving and announcements were made as well. Chris finished up and said good bye and headed out.

Once we finished, we said our good byes to the waiters.

These guys were just fabulous and really worked well together. I would recommend this pair to anyone.
They were fun, prompt, and good!

I took a quick blurry shot of the mural in the room.

Time to head out. We wasted as much time as we could in the restaurant, but it was now clearing out. Sadly though, there was still a wait to get off the ship. None of us wanted to leave, just wasting time standing there, so we headed to deck 4 to waste some time.

We took turns using the bathrooms and then an announcement was made that the ship was fueling and no smoking was allowed on the ship. Well we had to see this.

 

[jenseib]

A look at a very empty deck 4.

A few more shots.

As you can see, this day matched our moods, grey and yucky.

It was now time to go. I had stated a few times when planning this trip that I wasn’t getting off the ship till I was kicked off and I would be kicking and screaming the whole time. Well I was partially right. We heard an announcement that all remaining passengers HAD to get off now. What a bummer!

We gathered our things and headed out. The plan was that we would use a porter. Typically using a porter means a getting through customs easier and not messing with your bags. I think it’s worth the $10 or so dollars I would tip him to do this. Amazingly the line for porter users was extremely long. Like to the steps off the ship long. I was shocked. And we decided to head straight to baggage claim on our own. I doubled checked with Lisa as she was already pulling one of my carryon bags, and she was fine with it.

I took this quick picture, though technically I don’t think you are supposed to.

As you can see, almost all the bags are gone. It was VERY easy to find ours in the middle of nothing. We got in line for customs, using the passport line. That one also moved much faster. We spotted Peter, our cruise director in civilian clothes getting off the ship. He must’ve been going to spend some time in port on his own for a bit.
We got through customs easily. I am often nervous about going through, though I have no reason to be. It’s just a nerve racking kind of procedure.

After customs we lost Brook, Carolyn, Susan and Shelly. Brook was riding back with them as her flight was later than ours and they planned to stop for food and then drop Brook off at our airport before going off to theirs. So with that in mind, we didn’t look for them, but it would’ve been nice to say good bye one last time.

Outside it was a mess. It was raining and a ton of people lined the sidewalk. I told Lisa that I would fetch the car and come back and pick up the bags. BUT I couldn’t find the stinking shuttle. I asked on cast member and they directed me out in the middle and of course it was raining. I asked someone else; who said no this was for Disney buses and pointed me further down. I asked another person and he said no that wasn’t the parking lot shuttle either. Finally I found it on my own and it was not anywhere near where they pointed me. How could these people not know where the parking lot shuttle was located? I was a bit ticked off. Then I had to wait a while, thankfully under shelter. Most people were bringing their luggage right on the shuttle which took more time to load and less room for people. I did make it on the 2nd shuttle though.
I was let off very close to the car and got in. But now the task was to find my way out. They waved me in a different direction than where we came in at, so I went the other way. Only to get in a line and once I got to the booth they told me this was the line for people arriving. UGH. That can only happen to me. She directed me on how to get out, but again I had guys telling me I was going the wrong way. I had to stop and roll down the window a couple of times and tell them I was leaving. They all seemed puzzled by this. I know I wasn’t the only person leaving, but yet I was getting the runaround. Believe me; I would’ve loved nothing better than to stay on that ship!
FINALLY I got out and on the road and made my way to the terminal. There was quite the back up, but I finally inched my way up there and of course the person in front of me parked way back, even though they could’ve inched up about 6 more feet. I just left the back end of the car hanging out and Lisa started rolling the bags over. We jammed them in the car, waited for the slowpokes in front of us and then pulled out once again. Lisa said she never saw the rest of the girls and wasn’t sure where they went. And about 2 seconds later we saw them standing along the other side of the terminal and Lisa rolled the window down and shouted goodbye and no one heard us! LOL

I gave Lisa my camera and told her to shoot a few last pictures as we drove off.

We weren’t exactly sure how to get back to the airport. We did have some google maps and sort of remembered our way in …but we had done so much weaving, going wrong ways on one way streets that we weren’t exactly sure. But we found our way to the main road easier than the map had told us and looked for highway signs.
Off we went in the pouring rain. That drive pretty much sucked. I don’t like driving an unfamiliar car in pouring rain, but we did OK.

Along the way we needed a bite to eat, so we stopped off at a Burger King I think, or some sort of Fast Food place. We made a potty stop and ordered some food and kept going. As we got closer we made a stop to fill up the car before returning it. The rain had stopped now pretty much. I filled it up and Lisa paid, saying that she never would’ve gone on a trip like this if I hadn’t invited her. That was nice. By the way, gas was much cheaper here than at home.

We got back to the Enterprise office and turned the car in and then headed on the shuttle bus over to the airport. We were dropped off near the SW counter and we checked in. We checked all 4 bags in and were happy to be rid of them for a while.
I texted Brook and she said they had stopped off for a bite, but were already heading to the airport. I was surprised how close behind us they were.
Inside we waited in quite a line for security. When we had walked by it on our arrival, no one was there, today was much different. Very busy!

Once we got through we headed to our gate and sat down for our wait. Not too much later I got a text from Brook. She was at the airport and her gate was near ours, so she came over and we chatted for a bit longer. She checked about getting on our flight, as we both were stopping at Midway, and she could, but nothing earlier for her to get back to NYC, so she decided to keep her flight as is and just explore the airport after we left.
Brook had the CUTEST pair of shoes on. I asked her where she got them and she said on the ship. How had I missed these? So cute!

Sadly I looked at them while I sailed on the Dream in Nov and I needed an 11 to fit comfortably and they only went up to size 10. I crammed my feet in a few times hoping something would change, but they still hurt. At WDW I looked at World of Disney and found a Men’s pair, but it only had a tiny Mickey on them and was not nearly as cute. Total Bummer!

 

[jenseib]

It was our time to board and we said one last good bye to Brook and headed out.

Our flight was a normal flight. I took a few pictures out the window on our first leg.

I always find these kind of shots with the engine kind of creepy.

And after about 1 ½ - 2 hours we were landing in Chicago.

I don’t think our layover was too long. I think we had time to take a potty break and get settled in for a bit and once again time to board. This is where I ran into a lady who clearly had a late boarding number and went right up in front of most people. I had to laugh, but oh well, if it’s that important to her, then let her go.
Most of this flight was dark and luckily this flight was only about an hour.
We landed and headed to find our bags. The airport was so empty at this hour. I texted my Aunt and Uncle who were picking us up (as Amanda, my sister was out of town for the weekend), and let her know we had our bags and we found them right away. Her husband is from Poland, and he can be hysterical at times. He just pulls in and parks right in the middle of the road there. LOL. People honk and he doesn’t even care. We quickly loaded and jumped in the car. Aunt Laura was worried about us making the drive home that night. She kept saying we could spend the night, but both of us just wanted to get home. We got back to her house and loaded my car and she gave us directions to some fast food in the area and then how to get back to the highway.
We got our food and headed down the spookiest road ever. I can’t remember if it was raining, or just really dark, or both, but this was a hilly curvy road with trees lining both sides and darn scary. Finally we found civilization and made our way to the highway.

The drive was LONG! We did have to make one stop for gas and once again Lisa paid. I told her she didn’t have to, but she insisted. She asked how much it would take, and I said I had no clue, and she said, well you are getting $27 worth because that is what I have handy. And the funny thing is, it took like $26 and some change and I think we forced the last bit in to make 27.

I must say the last half hour was brutal. My back was hurting, I was tired and getting uncomfortable from sitting all day. I had to open the window a bit and roll my shoulders to keep awake. I vowed then that for my Nov trip coming up, I would be spending the night in Columbus, since once again we had an evening arrival. This was just too hard.
We made it to Lisa’s house around 11 PM and we got her bags out and fished through mine to find the stuff she had packed in there as well and said a goodbye and on to the 6 minute drive to my house!
I arrived home with Skip asleep and Claire laying on my side of the bed wide awake and waiting for me. She was a very happy girl to see her Momma home. I gave her something small (don’t remember what) and told her that her other prizes would have to wait till the next day. We hugged a bit more and then I put her to bed and hit the hay myself. Yes, Skip was happy to see me too and we chatted a bit, but I finally told him I just needed to sleep. But I could tell he missed me, which was nice.

I gave Claire her prizes the next day and she enjoyed them. (We also had my niece’s b-day party that day too). And in only 5 weeks we would be off on a family adventure at WDW and on the Disney Dream!

Thanks for sticking with me and helping me relive this wonderful vacation with my friends. There is talks of another future trip as well. Hopefully it will all work out for all of us!

 

[epcotisbest]

I followed along until the very end. Thank you for sharing.
Since there is talk of another trip, hopefully there will be another trip report like this one!

 

[jenseib]

I followed along until the very end. Thank you for sharing.
Since there is talk of another trip, hopefully there will be another trip report like this one!

Thanks so much for folloing. I do have another TR going right now. It's a WDW/ Disney Dream report. I haven't gotten to far into it yet though. It's in the WDW trip report section, I believe.

 

[5thGenTexan]

I felt so bad for those getting on the ship that day. My first Dream cruise was a day like this, even worse, with a downpour all day long. Did they do your sail away party in the Atrium then?

We dropped our luggage of earlier than our boarding time because it was raining so much and the cover on my pickup bed isnt water tight. We tried to park at the enclosed parking I had reserved across the street, but for some reason we decided to hold off a bit. It had been many years since I was in Galveston, like I was 13 years old and I am 38 now. Back then we went to the railroad musuem that is right there close to the cruise termimal and I wanted to check that out again. So, we killed about an hour doing that all why it was still raining. By this time it was getting really close to our boarding time, so we went to park and then proceeded to check-in. Went through security and check-in, then walked right on the ship. It was still raining a bit so we headed up to Topsider's for a little lunch action before the cabin was ready. At 1:15 it was good to go and we finally got in and settled down a bit. (Hauling around carry-ons, 2 year old in a stroller, and 4 year old will wear out a person quick. ) By the time it was sail away party time the rain was done and everything was going as planned up top. My wife and two year old stayed in the cabin for a bit of a nap while I took my 4 year old girl up to watch the show. It was her very FIRST time to see Mickey and crew in real life and I think it blew her away a litlle.

 

[jenseib]

We dropped our luggage of earlier than our boarding time because it was raining so much and the cover on my pickup bed isnt water tight. We tried to park at the enclosed parking I had reserved across the street, but for some reason we decided to hold off a bit. It had been many years since I was in Galveston, like I was 13 years old and I am 38 now. Back then we went to the railroad musuem that is right there close to the cruise termimal and I wanted to check that out again. So, we killed about an hour doing that all why it was still raining. By this time it was getting really close to our boarding time, so we went to park and then proceeded to check-in. Went through security and check-in, then walked right on the ship. It was still raining a bit so we headed up to Topsider's for a little lunch action before the cabin was ready. At 1:15 it was good to go and we finally got in and settled down a bit. (Hauling around carry-ons, 2 year old in a stroller, and 4 year old will wear out a person quick. ) By the time it was sail away party time the rain was done and everything was going as planned up top. My wife and two year old stayed in the cabin for a bit of a nap while I took my 4 year old girl up to watch the show. It was her very FIRST time to see Mickey and crew in real life and I think it blew her away a litlle.

I know about just hauling carryons around. That alone is a pain. Glad you guys had a great time