SATURDAY, 7/19/14
Today is our last day on the ship, and it’s spent at sea. We spend most of the time relaxing and getting ready to disembark tomorrow for our flight to the US. We have to figure out how to pack since they want our bags set out before 11pm tonight. We’re flying to DFW, and then on to Baton Rouge for a few days, so we have to figure out what we’re taking to Louisiana, and what we’ll leave in our bags with the kids at DFW when we go through.
It’s been a great cruise! The excursion days were pretty long, but we’ve seen so much. This has been a memorable 12 days.
SUNDAY, 7/20/14
We’re eating breakfast at 6:00 am, waiting for the ship to clear customs. They call our group at 6:40, and we load the bus for the trip to the airport.
The Schipol Airport is not the easiest airport to navigate. All boarding passes are self-serve (no desks or clerks), and the lines are long. Then we get in the line for baggage check, which is also self-serve. There are big bins where we load each individual piece after we scan our boarding passes. Each piece is done individually. If everyone knew how to work the bins, it would go quickly, but most of the people seem to be like us, confused.
We get through immigration, and arrive at the gate around 9:00 am (for a 10:45 flight). The gate area is entirely enclosed and security scanners are set-up at the entrance to each individual gate area. Chairs are inside the enclosure, but none are outside. The gate security doesn’t open until 1 hour before we depart, so we have almost an hour to stand in a line waiting to go through security before we can sit. People are sitting everywhere on the floor and against walls, waiting for the area to open. It finally opens and we get through and have a chance to sit down. I’m curious if it’s more efficient for the airport to have individual gate security or one large security area for the terminal. This system doesn’t seem easier for the passengers.
The seats on the KLM flight are really narrow. I know we’ve been on a cruise and might have added a pound or two, but not that much. We can barely squeeze in. It’s an uncomfortable 10 hr. flight, even with the additional “5 inch legroom” upgrade we purchased.
The luggage exchange at DFW airport with Courtney works perfectly. She takes all our big pieces and we keep two smallish bags for the two nights in Baton Rouge. She drives us over to another terminal for our BR flight and we enjoy another romp through security. After all our long flights this summer, the one-hour flight to BR is really short. Robert picks us up and shuttles us to mom and dad’s new abode. It’s my dad’s 89th birthday, and Kathryn, Christopher, Susan, Robert, Geoffrey, Nicholas, Judy, and I enjoy a short visit before bedtime.
Now that we’re back in the US, I’m going to take a short breather from blog writing, and pick it up when we get back to Beijing.