We are home. HOME!! Why is this always the second-best day of our cruising season? After doing this repeatedly, I still don’t know why it is, but it is. I’m beginning to think we should just have departure day (the best day of our cruising season), and return day, since they’re both so great, and skip the in-between days.
Just kidding! I’m a little punchy after our very long day.
The alarm went off and I was in the World Fresh Marketplace getting coffee for both of us before 5:30am. We had discussed at length whether we’d shower this morning. Part of me wanted to take one of those really long showers knowing it would be the best I’d feel for a long time. But that would have required leaving some items out when we set out the suitcases last night, and then stuffing them in a checked bag this morning, or leaving them behind. We decided it wasn’t worth it. All we’d done is eat and sleep since our showers before dinner last night. It was a good decision, saving us a lot of time. I just put on sunscreen (of course) and wore no other makeup. I was facing a 26-hour travel day, not a formal night.
I loved getting off the ship so early today (I think we were the second group, just minutes after the ship was cleared by the local authorities). Usually disembarkation day means a nightmare in the buffet and on the elevators, but we missed all that. Before we knew it, we were on a bus driving through the streets of Sydney on our way to the airport. The day was warm and muggy, and it was hard to believe our roll aboards were packed with fleeces, jackets, hats and gloves. We’d be needing them when we arrived at our home airport.
I know there are cheaper ways to get from the Overseas Passenger Terminal to the airport, but we had an EZ Air flight at 11:15am, and I didn’t want there to be any question of whose fault it was if we somehow missed it. Plus, we didn’t have to pay any extra charges for our four large and two small suitcases. It worked well for us.
Our flight began boarding at 10:25am, and, by the time we made it through immigration and security and had another cup of coffee at the airport, it was time to board. I decided to leave my hard contacts in for the first half of the flight and then take them out in the bathroom...but they ended up staying in until we got home. We flew on a Boeing 787-9 with the two aisle seats in the middle three seat section with an empty seat between us. That changes everything. It is so nice to have a place for the water bottles, blankets, charging cords and earbuds, but it’s been very long time since we’ve had that luxury on a transoceanic flight.
G slept on and off the entire flight, but encouraged me to buy the internet for the day for $19. I always say that this blog is my diary, not a travel guide, but let me offer this one piece of travel advice: if you want 14 hours to fly by (haha), opt for the WiFi. I simultaneously surfed the net and watched five movies on the IFE (In Flight Entertainment, or seatback) system, and finally, about ten hours into the flight, after the midflight snack was served, set my iPad aside and dozed for an hour or so. That refreshed me enough to watch another movie, do some more interneting, eat the breakfast that was served and, boom, we were in LA. Easiest transpacific flight ever.
Going through immigration at LAX is never fun, but our Global Entry made it as painless as possible. And let me offer one more piece of travel advice (two in a single post!): renew your Global Entry the minute you can do so, which is the day after your birthday, 12 months before it is due to expire (it’s good for five years). I waited four months, not realizing there was such a backlog with renewals, and G phoned me one night when I was visiting Mom and said I had to renew it right then. I thought he was overreacting to an article he had read about the renewal backlog, but he was absolutely right (again, but don’t tell him). I heard nothing back until just before we left in September, and then, when I did, I was informed that I needed to go through another interview. The first available interview at our home airport was in May, which was four months after my Global Entry was due to expire. Luckily, they extended that for everyone, first by six months and now by 12 months, since they are so backed up (but the nation’s billionaires thank you for their tax cuts).
I wasn’t sure if I’d have an issue using Global Entry today at LAX but I didn’t, and G’s hasn’t expired yet, but he is required to have an interview, too. We had hoped to take care of that at LAX today (walk in appointments are allowed only when you’ve just arrived into the US), but we only had two hours between flights and our flight from Sydney was late arriving, so there was no opportunity to squeeze that in. In fact, we were given orange cards to display when we got off the flight in LAX, highlighting that we needed priority processing. And perhaps we are in the minority, needing an interview for a Global Entry renewal. I don’t know why we both would be, except for the fact that we’ve been in 53 countries in the past five years (that’s one of the questions in the renewal application). But, if your Global Entry is due to expire, renew it as soon as you can.
Once through immigration and customs, we re-checked our suitcases and walked down to our next terminal, which then required another trip through security. And since we were on a commuter flight, we had to take a bus to the airport’s hinterlands, carry our roll aboards up the stairs to our aircraft, and squeeze into the most uncomfortable airplane seats ever designed. And that was when my energy finally started to sag. However, stepping out into the frigid air at our home airport and summoning a Lyft was like a bucket of ice water in the face.
And, finally, we were rolling our suitcases up to the front door (thank you Steve and Linda, a hundred times over, that we didn’t have to roll them through the snow)...there is no place like home, even when it’s been left in disarray, even when the cupboard is bare, the refrigerator is warm and the water is cold. It is heaven.
I was immediately struck by two things: 1) I was really laid up when we left home in September. There were crutches (a second pair) in the foyer and my knee scooter in the dining room, and a chair in the master bathroom where I could sit and take care of my ablutions, because I couldn’t stand. That seems like a different world now. And 2) I slipped off my sneakers at the front door and walked barefoot through the house. I haven’t been able to do that in 27 years. I haven’t been able to use a pool without water shoes, shower without flip flops, and I certainly haven’t been able to walk across the tile floor of the bathroom for middle of the night potty breaks without slipping something on ‘that foot’. This is life changing; our aestas horribilus was so worth it.
Life, even if we hadn’t just spent 140 days cruising, is very good. :-)
I’ll publish a wrap up post in a few days. Meanwhile, I can’t keep my eyes open. It’s time to dream about our season’s travels in the comfort of our own bed.
Life is good. :-)