The Longest Game of Hurry-Up-And-Wait

I've reached the end of my cruise recap, which probably makes some of you very happy! :)

We arrived back in the USA on Saturday morning, and we woke up in time for the sunrise. (BOTH of us woke up in time for it this time.)

And then we started to see land!

So the process for leaving the ship was as follows: we had to be out of our room by 8:30 a.m. so they could start cleaning them for the next round of cruisers coming in just a couple of hours. But we couldn't leave the ship until our deck was called. So we had to basically hang out in an atrium with all our luggage until they called our deck.

Super early in the morning, we went to breakfast, so we could have that out of the way:

He was going for crying. I told him it looks like sneezing.  After we ate, we went back to our room to pick up our luggage. Easier said than done.

And we proceeded to stand in that atrium for TWO HOURS, waiting for our deck to be called. (Bottom line: we were on deck twelve and they started with the bottom.) It was a fascinating study in people to watch stressed out travelers cut each other off for elevator rides.

They finally called our deck, so we herded downstairs and off the ship. The line to get through customs was forever long, as was the line to wait for the shuttle. I think we lost about another hour from getting off the ship to getting on the shuttle.

We weren't sure our bus driver was going to make it. He was not the most in-shape man (no judgment!!) and there were a LOT of heavy suitcases to load on that bus. By the time he got on there, he was huffing and puffing and struggling to breathe for real. I asked the guy next to me if he knew how to drive a bus...just in case.

The Orlando airport was nearly my undoing. I've always heard Atlanta is the one you want to avoid (and so far I have) but WHOA. Between departing cruise ships and end-of-Disney weeks, that place was packed.

Hello, security.

The monitor estimated 60-65 minutes to get through the line, but some guy moved us to a different line and we got through in 35. We had just enough time to split a McDonald's meal and grab Starbucks before heading to our gate. And I'm pretty sure we were only at the gate for about 30 minutes before boarding. I was SO GRATEFUL Ryan hadn't booked any earlier of a flight.

We ended up in the back row again, and this time Ryan lined up a movie for me to watch.

It did help that I practically know this one by heart, and it's really funny. The guy on the other side of Ryan checked on me partway through the flight, because Ryan told him I was anxious, and Ryan said to him, "Oh she's got her snack and her movie, so she's fine." I'm essentially an overgrown toddler.

There was a big box of Ritz Bits in the overhead bin across from us, and Ryan's other seatmate was so excited about them. Then the attendant told him, "Ohhhhhh sorry. That's for the next flight to Phoenix. You're a pretzel flight." That cracked us up so much!!

Ryan did get in a quick nap despite my anxiety:

And these two photos best sum up the difference between Florida and Indiana:

This would also be why I changed clothes in the Indianapolis airport bathroom. Goodbye, shorts. Hello, jeans AND jacket.

Eyeroll.

My sister and brother-in-law came to pick us up and returned us to our car. We drove home to a very angry cat! :)

And that completes our vacation recap. Thanks for cruising with us! (If you have any questions on our ship, ports, or anything else, just holler!)