Because of the time change, I am up really early. I got some pre-dawn pictures of the sail in and docking and then headed to the Oceanview Café for the disembarkation breakfast.
The last time on Eclipse the Café was relatively sparse on
disembarkation day but now today. Very
crowded but I still managed to get a window seat in my favorite spot between
the two coffee stations port side. I was
able to get my usual breakfast – no missing items today – and it was as good as
the first day on board. I put together a
plate of lox, cream cheese, a roll, some fruit, pastries, and even hot tea for
Ellen and got it to the room despite crowded elevators and the possibility of a
spill.
Ellen spoke to our room steward and he gave us “late
checkout” until 8 AM – that gave us jus the time we needed to get totally
ready. At 8 AM, we went to the area near
the Martini Bar. It didn’t take too long
to get to Group 18 and we got in what was a very short line to scan out. I said goodbye to Kelly Rose but I am not
sure she knew who I was (no worries).
I found our bags right away and then we proceeded to the
facial recognition area where I was not recognized (as were a lot of other
people). I went over to one of the CBP
agents and got out my passport and he didn’t want to see it and waved me out.
I had gotten a quote of $17.89 from Uber and the first
driver decided not to come – the second driver Faud was game but Uber raised
the price to $21.98 and with the $3 tip it came to $24.98 (not sure that was a
bargain anymore). It is nearly
impossible to get in touch with Uber Customer Service but I am going to keep
trying when I get home. They said I had
changed my location which I didn’t.
Faud did arrive about 10 minutes later and we got to the
airport in plenty of time. I checked our bags at the United kiosk but I
couldn’t print paper boarding passes. We
found a seat at Gate C6 and waited to board UA1755. Even though we have awful seats (I did not
upgrade because United’s pricing is crazy) we are both in Group 2.
We boarded in a relatively orderly fashion right on
time. We are sitting aisle across in 41C
and 41D. I am the last seat in the plane
on the starboard side (up against the galley).
Upside – near the washrooms; downside – near the bathrooms. Sitting next to be is a Russian woman and her
toddler. She stayed in her space and the
kid chattered the whole flight but it was OK.
The plane is an A321neo – a very nice plane and the seats – although
sardine seats – were not overly tight like on some other United Flights. It does, however, take a very long time for
the drink cart to get to our location.
The pilot was very easy to understand – he was clear and
the volume was perfect – why can’t all of the pilots do that. Maybe a sound check before takeoff like in a
performance. The pilot came on and said
that we would be leaving shortly – he said that we would be altering our route
to get around some weather and that required an additional 2000 pounds of
fuel. We took off on time and the
climb out was very bumpy. Perhaps, it
felt even bumpier because of our location at the back of the plane. We did find some smooth air eventually even
though it was still a bit choppy in our part of the plane (even though the seat
belt sign was turned off).
We ate some food taken from the ship – good and just enough along with the little Gardetti like snacks (I got two of them). The only sugar free drink on this plane was Diet Coke. I saw that the plane was not flying straight to ORD but swung East, made a loop, and then flew West to ORD.
I also did not see any storms on
the weather radar. It wasn’t overly
bumpy but the seat belt sign was turned out a few times. The flight attendants never sat down so it
was routine chop.
The touchdown was a bit hard – I believe the plane bounced
once after the first touchdown and moved a bit side to side. But we were down.
We waited to get off so the folks with tight connections
could deplane and catch their flights.
We found our bags at Carousel 11 – they came right out.
Danny came to pick us up (so we could get our car home) so
that eliminated the hassle of a taxi.
We picked up our car and headed home to the Lake.
A very nice cruise – an excellent lecture outing and excellent weather the whole cruise.
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