After we had some coffee (and wildly used our AT&T internet...yay!), we returned to the cabin to pack up a few last minute things and were out of it by 7:30am. I think that's the first time in nearly 100 Princess cruises that we managed to be completely out of our cabin that early. Go us! We returned to Panorama Buffet with our roll aboard luggage and had breakfast (fresh strawberries and toast with cottage cheese and orange marmalade for me). We spent some time saying goodbye to the waiters and galley crew in the buffet and then swung through the Club Restaurant to do the same. The Pacific Princess crew is the best!!!
Finally, about 9:15am we walked off the ship (for the last time? Who knows?) and walked right through immigration (another plus of a smaller ship) and found our luggage sitting alone, the last of its luggage tag color code to be picked up. Just the way we like to do it; it's much easier to be toward the end of the disembarkation process! We pushed our luggage through pouring rain and puddles to the shuttle area where a Prime Time Shuttle was waiting for us. We have used Prime Time in LA every time we've sailed in or out of that port and find their service to be excellent.
Traffic was heavy and the rain didn't help, and it took awhile to get to LAX, but we had plenty of time. We checked our suitcases and settled down in their chairs with power outlets to ABC (always be charging). Southwest offers free TV on most of their flights, and G was desperate for some Law and Orders but I was happy making more progress with that audiobook I've been listening to. Once at our home airport, our three large suitcases were on the luggage carousel by the time we reached it and the UberXL we requested was there to pick us up in just four minutes.
It's kind of surreal to arrive home after months away. Part of me could be convinced that we had never left home in the first place but another part feels like we've been gone forever. We walked into a house with no issues and immediately turned on the water and turned up the hot water heater and turned on the refrigerator. The funniest thing was seeing the detritus of our quick trip home after Nice spread all throughout the house: receipts to be submitted for reimbursement on the desk, baggage claim tags and boarding passes from the flight home from Nice on the kitchen island and even part of a half gallon of ice cream that G had forgotten in the freezer (luckily in a freezer bin so clean up will be easy). Those few days at home in mid-October were a blur.
Even though it's just temporary, it is so good to be home. To sleep in our own bed. To use our own (separate) bathrooms. To reconnect with friends. I'll post a wrap up to our seventh season of cruising in a few days. Tomorrow the work will start, but this evening we are basking in the glow of 100 days of memories and a successful and safe homecoming.
Life is good. :-)
