And We Are Home

How can so many days away go by so fast?  Explain please?  Answers?

I am now home and I feel a little melancholy.  I know someone else is in our cabin, Douw is serving someone else, Peter is welcoming new Captain Circle Members on board, Felipe and Delmaire are selling their little hearts out.  But we are not there!

I will back track a bit to last night.

Being the last night on board we knew we wanted to have a nice dinner and remember the great voyage.  Trust me, everyone should do this, actually you should do this every day, share with that special person the wonderful things that happened that day and what you are thankful for.  It is always easier to remember the horrible things but sit down and remember the great things.

Last night we were truly blessed, and we remember the past four weeks together.  Peter joins us and we share a lovely evening together dotted with friends (aka new family members) coming to the table to chat and say good bye. 

Will I make it thru the night without crying?  I hope so. 

Delmarie and Felipe want to join us for drinks after dinner and we meet up with them and Dilion and Peter for drinks in the Wheelhouse.  Felipe presents us both with an Hawaiian Lei - ahhh Felipe you make us feel special. 

It is around 11 pm and we need to say goodbye - hugs, kisses, tears welling up in my eyes.  Till we meet again!

Both of us are lying in bed in the dark with the ship going up and down (yes it was rocking and no it wasn't from us) and we again say how blessed we are.  We know this trip wouldn't be the same if we weren't together to do it.  We have been married 17 years and I am so happy I have a best friend who loves to cruise too and his positive caring attitude only adds to the experience.  Thank you Bernie for sharing in this journey.

Okay I am really getting sappy now, I know I know, but if you know me well you know I am kind of sappy and I say how I feel, the good and bad... and it is hard to shut me up.

We don't sleep very well, maybe it is the dinner not sitting well (too much food), maybe it is the drinks, maybe it is the movement of the ship, maybe it is the events of the trip going thru our minds, or maybe it is the worry of "how big will our bill be when we get it tomorrow" kidding.

I awake early, around 5:30 and we have just cleared the Golden Gate Bridge, I throw on the robe and slippers and head out on the deck, yeah sure I am freezing my ass off but I want to be outside looking at the water as it is one of the last opportunities I will have to do it for a bit.  I sit out there till I hear the alarm go off in the cabin around 6 am.  Bernie is stirring - and I know I have to get in the shower and get ready.

We head down to Amafi dining room for breakfast and see Douw, Hugo and Marianna serve us one last time.  What was so nice of them is that I wanted my latte but in a to go cup and said I would just wait to get it as we had to leave soon so we could head to immigration.  They said "no way Vickie we will go get one for you" yup they travelled all the way to the International Cafe to get me my latte in a to go cup.... now that is nice.

We make our way to the Portifino dining room to clear immigration into the US as Non US Citizens, the line is snaking its way thru the casino.  But it appears that many people are in the line early and I mean really early, like 45 to an hour earlier than they should be.  Our time is 7:15 but the couple behind us is 8 - now people there is a reason there is a time for you to show that means you are to show at that time.  The line wouldn't be so long if people just followed directions.  They must be the same people that line up for the dining room doors to open a half hour early.

It does take a bit to clear the immigration line, about a half hour and since we are just passing thru the United States on our way to the airport and home we have no problems.  Back up to the cabin to grab our carry on bags and then head down to the Vista Lounge which is the Platinum/Elite and Suite lounge for this voyage.

It is packed, I mean packed, not a seat available.  Now we are yellow 1, we are like the fourth group of about 20 groups to be called.  We arrive 5 minutes before our designated time, but once again people seem to want to get there early and make their claim. 

What is worst is there are a lot of people in the lounge who are there that should not be there because they are travelling with a friend who is elite etc.  Now this would be fine if there was a lot of space but there is no space.  You would probably be better off going to your designated area, at least you may get a seat. 

Peter does try to inform people that sorry this lounge is for those passengers only who qualify, but people get mad at him, and many push right past him and insist!  A few said some nasty things too.... we would of gladly have gone to our "assigned lounge" if it would not have been that we wanted to see Peter one last time.

Our tag is called right on time, we are directed out to the Promenade deck and directed all the way to mid ship and down two flights.  Not an issue for us as we are able bodied, but many people had trouble with this and maneuvering their bags.  I felt for them, but when I hear the man behind me complain about having to walk so far and that he should of went to his designated lounge instead, I was thinking "yeah youvprobably should of".  I do hate when Princess assigns the Vista Lounge, or Club Fusion as the Elite lounge as you have to head all the way mid ship to get off.

No biggie, we are off very very quickly, very smoothly and find our bags and are out on the street in less than five minutes.  We are in a taxi right away and on our way to the airport.  At first we were going to take the BART, but I said nope I am not dragging these bags for a half hour to the station.  The ship was offering Princess airport transfers for $26 each, but the taxi for the two of us was $47 and with tip of $5 and we paid the same as Princess and we got there much faster and just the two of us. 

The flight home was delayed a half hour and we had lots of time.  We flew right home and after the short flight we were on the skytrain to pick up our car and were home by 5 pm.

Laundry is in, bags are unpacked (still lots needs to be put away), groceries need to be purchased, paperwork needs to get done but it can all wait.

Life is great and I am blessed in so many ways.  I want to say thanks to all my followers, and especially my facebook fan page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cruising-Princess-Cruiseline-with-Vickie/240526055979098 

Thanks for following along, till our next journey.

Love Vickie