PrincessArlena'sDad

I walk across to terminal B, and get on the line. 15 minutes later, I'm speaking to an agent. Our current flights were Charlotte to Nashville, Nashville to Raleigh (yes, back to NC), and then Raleigh to DC. This agent (who was very kind and helpful) found 5 seats on a flight from Charlotte to Raleigh. Did we mind skipping a visit to Nashville? No, we did not mind. Elvis can wait. I think he's dead anyway. How far is it from Nashville to Memphis anyway? I guess it doesn't matter now. We kept the same flight from Raleigh to DC. The agent let us know there were two earlier flights to DC from Raleigh we could make. Though they were full, we could ask once we got to Raleigh and see if there was room for us (though with five of us, she said it would be unlikely). Then she went to print our new boarding passes. But couldn't. There was an issue with the tickets. Apparently, the agent last night that worked with my wife didn't logout of our tickets. Now I knew why I had that issue with the boarding pass getting through security. I had a feeling of deja vu while the agent called the help desk. Or maybe Groundhog Day. There was a difference. This time, the help desk agent skipped the lecture about logging out of tickets. But, this help desk agent took a lot longer to fix it. About twenty minutes this time. Boarding passes are printed. She checks them before handing them to me, and realizes, "Oh, your plane boards in less than 10 minutes, and it's in terminal A, which is a long walk from where we are in terminal B. And, your boarding pass says you need to check in with the gate agent for seat assignment, which you need to do before boarding starts, otherwise, they could give your seats away to stand by" WHAT!!!! Keep in mind, I left my wife and kids in Terminal C. (That sounds like the name of a bad country song. If I had gone to Nashville, maybe I could have been inspired to write it). As you can guess, Terminal C is not the same direction from me as Terminal A. Oh, and the customer service desk in Terminal B is all the way at the end. Not near the hub. I take what energy I can muster, and run all the way through Terminal B to the hub, across the hub to the entrance to Terminal C. Down to my family, who are still fast asleep. I wake them up, telling them our flight is leaving. That gets them up fast. We gather everything up, and start to jog back through the terminal. To the hub. Across the hub. Passing Terminal B. And to the sign that says, "Terminal A." And underneath that sign, another one that says, "10 minute walk to Terminal A" We had 4 minutes. The kids weren't going to make it. I took the boarding passes and ran. Here we had a bit of good luck. All the moving sidewalks were working. I ran down the moving sidewalks. Got to the start of Terminal A. I checked our boarding passes, and couldn't believe what I saw. Gate A2. You mean I didn't have to run to the very end of Terminal A also? I considered running to the end of Terminal A and back anyway. Why not at least try to add the straw that broke the camel's back? I didn't, instead I got on the line with the gate agent. I gave the agent my boarding passes, and asked for our seat assignments. The gate agent asked for our ID. Huh? She said that in order to issue boarding passes, she needed to see IDs. But, we already had boarding passes, we just needed seat assignments. She said she needed to see them. As you can guess, my wife had all the IDs with her, so I could run. Well, at least the agent said she wouldn't give our spots away while we waited for them to come. Actually, they really hustled. By the time the agent said she needed to see them, my wife came up behind me anyway. She hands the agent the military IDs. We got new boarding passes with seats on them. How many sets of boarding passes have we gotten? Have you lost count yet? I have. Seconds after we walk away from the desk, they call Group 1 and military for boarding. We go to board the plane, and the very same agent who just looked at our military IDs just a few seconds earlier, said, EXTREMELY nastily, "Boarding Group 1 only." My wife said, 'And Military," and showed her the very same ID the agent looked at a few seconds earlier. The agent sent us on the plane without saying a thing. You'd think she's at least say, "Sorry." Taxiing took 35 minutes. The flight to Raleigh took 28. It's only about 130 miles. If you don't go through Nashville to get there.

At 5am I see a line start to form down by the AA customer service desk. I know that sometimes flights open up in the morning, and that there were two direct flights to Regan, one direct flight to Dulles (which wouldn't be so bad), and a direct flight to Baltimore (which I could live with). So, I go and get on the line. The ladies in front of the line were told that the desk opens at 5:30. By 5:30, there were at least a dozen groups waiting in line. 5:30 comes. No agent. 6:00 comes. No agent. All this time, AA employees are passing by us while standing in line, and don't say a word to us. They completely ignore us. 6:15 comes, and a passenger comes up to us and says that the desk in terminal B was open and had been open for quite awhile. And yet it was a fellow passenger who let us know, not any of those AA employees who walked right by us.

I settle down in the least uncomfortable chair I can find and read. I was so tired, I think I must have read each page 2-3 times so that I could understand any of it. I dozed a little. For the most part, I was in that state that's half asleep, where dreams and reality start to mix together. At 3:30, I look up, and there's a line forming to get through security. I get on that line. They open security around 3:40, and there's only two agents there, so it goes slowly. I get to the front of the line, and give the agent my passport and boarding pass I was thankful my wife remembered to give me. I didn't think a boarding pass from the day before would suffice! The agent looks at the boarding pass really carefully, and she says, "This boarding pass doesn't match the flight that came up with my passport." Huh? What? Which flight is it? I don't know what would come up at this point. The agent said that unless I could produce the boarding pass that matched what it said online, I couldn't go through. I couldn't believe this. Each other time through security, they just looked to see if I was holding a boarding pass. They certainly didn't look carefully enough to read the flight number. I go into my bag and hand the agent all the boarding passes I had. And there were a lot of them, as I had boarding passes for 5 people and three flights. I asked if any of them matched. Apparently one did, and off I went. I don't know what would have happened if I didn't have the old boarding passes with me. I assume it would have been straightened out eventually. I go through the scanner, and again, the fly of my shorts sets off the alarm. Another pat down. I need to remember never to wear those shorts again on an airplane. I found my family huddled together on the floor, sound asleep. I sat down next to them and started to read/doze/enjoy the random hallucinations.

I call my wife and tell her the news. She still has a lot of people in front of her to speak to the agent. I sit down and try to find a rental car for the first thing in the morning (in airport, or at least nearby I can take an Uber to if needed). Nothing. No way for us to drive home in the morning. I look for a hotel, so we don't have to spend the night in the airport. Nothing. We're spending the night in the airport. It was around 1:30 when my wife finally gets to the agent. This was a 90 minute wait. The agent asks for the boarding passes. Which I took with me so that I could get back through security if needed. All of them. My wife explained what happened. He gives her a hard time, but does agree to help her. He is able to cut or trip home from 4 flights to 3, with an arrival at DC of around 5pm. He prints the new boarding passes. Now I go to the TSA agent at the security exit, and ask if there's anyway I can rejoin my family. He said there is not. By this point, the kids are sound asleep on their soft spot of airport floor, and it's much nicer by the gates than by the ticket counters where I was, so my wife stayed there. However, the TSA agent said my wife could bring me my book to read. I couldn't pass anything to her, but she would be able to give the TSA agent my book, and he could then pass my book to me. He was very nice. My wife did just this, and also included my new boarding pass, so that I could get through security when it opened, which would be at 3:30, only two hours later.

I run through the airport and find the rental counter. I show them my rental car confirmation on my phone. The agent asks me if I made the reservation after 4pm. I said that I did, but why would it matter. She said they ran out of cars at 4 pm. Every rental car company was out of cars and had been for over eight hours. She said they put a lock in the system that was supposed to prevent anyone from making a reservation for that day, but the lock was broken, and taking reservations anyway. She said she had been sitting there turning countless heartbroken people away for eight hours. Literally hundreds of people. So I turn around and go back to the terminal. And find, to my horror, that security is closed for the night. I can't get back to my family!

It's only a 6 hour drive home from Charlotte. We didn't know what would happen to our luggage, but we decided to rent a car, drive home, and worry about our checked bags when we got home. We figured we'd get them back eventually. I go on my phone to try to book a rental car. Avis. Sold out. Budget. Sold out. Enterprise. Sold out. Herz. Nissan Pathfinder available. I book it as fast as I could. Didn't even look at the price. I didn't care. I just wanted to go home. I look at the confirmation, and notice the location closes at 1am. It is almost 12:30 by this point, and I have no idea how long it takes to get to the rental station (I did check to see that it was an in airport location, but for all I know I need an airport shuttle to get to the airport rental station!). I make sure I have what I need to rent a car, and my wife and I each have our phones, and then start running down the airport to find the rental car counter. My wife got on the line to speak to the American Airlines agent. The line went from one end of the terminal to the central hub. The kids were settled into a soft spot of airport floor to rest. AA did automatically reschedule us on alternate flights. It had us on four flights to go home. First flight departed at 7 something, and the 4th flight had us arriving in DC after 9 pm. Calling AA was pointless. The message at their call center said it was a seven hour wait to speak to someone. Seven hours!

We arrive in Charlotte at 11:45pm. We check the flight board. 1:15 departure, boarding starts at 12:30. Plenty of time to walk to our gate (it was across the terminal, so quite a long walk actually), and get a snack and some water. We get to our gate and find that our flight to Pittsburgh is cancelled.

I think it was around 7:30 or so when they announce that because of thunderstorms around FLL, and the airplane running out of fuel, they had to land in Sarasota. Once the thunderstorms cleared, they would depart Sarasota for FLL. Looking out the window, it was a huge thunderstorm. Loud too. So we wait. It's only a half hour flight from Sarasota. They can do a turnover in about a half hour. That means they need to arrive by 9pm, so that we can leave at 9:30. Which means they must leave Sarasota by 8:30pm. At 8pm, the sky outside FLL lightens up, and the airport reopens. Everyone cheers. 8:15. The plane still hasn't left Sarasota. They are waiting for the planes that didn't have to land to refuel, and were still circling FLL, to land first. Then the planes that had to land in Sarasota could depart. Ours wasn't the only one. 8:30. They are still in Sarasota. I'm thinking we'll never make our Pittsburgh flight. 8:45. Our flight to Pittsburgh is delayed yet again! Hurray for flight delays! Leaving Pittsburgh at 1:15! The airplane doesn't leave Sarasota until almost 9:30. They arrive at 10 pm, and we get a 10:30 departure. When those people got off the plane, they looked like zombies. They were coming from Charlotte, and had departed only one hour late. Their 90 minute flight turned into a five hour flight (they were not able to get off the plane while sitting in Sarasota).

We finish up, and walk back to our gate, thinking we have about 10 minutes to boarding. Remember, this flight was already delayed by an hour. If it was the original time, when we planned on taking the Louisville connecting flight, we would have missed it - but, then again, if she didn't try changing the connecting flight because of the delay, I guess it wouldn't have been such an issue. We sit down and wait for them to start boarding. I then look out the window, and notice that there's no airplane there. If boarding is about to start, shouldn't there be an airplane? I then look at the board again. It's another hour delay. 6:30 departure. That's the max delay before we'd miss the flight from Charlotte to Pittsburgh. So we wait. And we wait. We run down for a snack and some water. And we wait. And watch that board, hoping there isn't another delay. Guess what. There's another delay. 8pm departure. But, there's a silver lining. The flight from Charlotte to Pittsburgh is also delayed to a midnight departure! We can still make it! The flight to Charlotte is about 90 minutes, and wanting an hour layover time, as long as we departed by 9:30, we should be good to go. Does anyone think we departed by 9:30?

We get through security quickly (despite the zipper on my shorts causing issues resulting in a pat down) and checked the flight time on the travel board. Still over half an hour before boarding. We went to Pei Wei, which was great. Or, at least seemed great, by this point. We used to go to Pei Wei all the time when we lived in AZ, but haven't been to one since 2006. The menu at the AZ location was for more extensive than it had at the FLL location. I don't know if all Pei Wei's are not like they used to be, or it's just FLL. Pei Wei is essentially a PF Chang's Express. This location was like a Pei Wei Express. Would that make it a PF Chang's Express Express?

Oh, it's not over yet! If we had the extra day, we would have driven instead of fly. We knew there was a risk of things going sideways, but this was the cruise we really wanted to go on. In hindsight, it was definitely worth it. The cruise was really fantastic, and this horrible travel didn't spoil it at all, so I'm glad we did it. My wife is the one that's active duty, and she had to plan to be on base that Monday (she had something she couldn't get out of). Though she couldn't take planned leave for that day, she would not be in trouble if she had to take emergency leave as the result of travel issues.

I told the person on the phone the situation, and she confirmed what my wife was told; the agent who changed our flight severely messed things up. She said the easiest thing to do was to just get new tickets for the flights we needed, and we could cancel the first ones (a refund wouldn't be needed, as we were never charged). I said fine. Then the next problem. The flight to Charlotte was sold out. We got the last seats on it. Obviously we weren't going to cancel the reservation/tickets that were still showing as "pending" because someone else could grab them before we made the new purchase. She then puts me on hold to work with the higher up to figure this out. The lady my wife was speaking with said she couldn't do anything there, and that the phone representatives had access to overrides that she did not, and we were best off waiting for her. However, what she did do was continue to look for other options for us to get home. If she found something, she would just book it. She even got out her own phone to search other airlines simultaneously (which she said she wasn't allowed to do, and if her boss came out, she would have to quickly put her phone in the drawer to hide it). The person on the phone said they were able to work something out on their end. They could issue the tickets by switching it to a different fare code. However, it would be $600 more. I complained that they should honor the fare I booked at, and not have to pay more because of an agent's mistake. She didn't disagree with me, but said there was nothing else they could do. I never even got an email confirming the original $2900 cost, so I can't even prove it. By this time the confirmation page on my phone timed out and was gone. Either pay the money or don't go home. Now this is $3500 for a one-way ticket home. Please travel insurance come through! I give her the credit card number, and the card is declined. I think we all realized at once it was probably declined because I had used it to buy airline tickets just a couple of hours earlier. Good thing we always travel with more than one credit card, so I didn't have to call them, too. This time it went through. She then asked us how many bags we needed to check. There were ten. She gasped and said she felt terrible about how much more that would cost. I said that was why we originally were flying with Jet Blue; they offer two free bags to active duty military and their dependents (AA offers it to active duty, but only includes dependents if traveling on orders). She waived the baggage fees completely. Next, and last, step was printing the boarding passes. Except they wouldn't print. She couldn't check us in for the flight because the agent that originally messed up never logged out of our tickets. She walked over to that agent's station, and didn't see our tickets on her screen. That agent just closed it without logging out of it, which is a big, No-no. Our agent then had to call the help desk to fix this issue. She sat on hold for 10 minutes waiting for the help desk to pick up. She explained the situation to the help desk agent (which took a very long time). The help desk agent said something, and our agent said, "Yes, I know we have to log out of a ticket, but it wasn't me. It was another agent." I could tell that the poor lady in front of me still had to sit and listen to a lecture about the importance of logging out. I felt sorry for her, as she really was doing everything she could to help us, and was very kind about it as well. After giving the lecture, the help desk agent put her on hold while he fixed it, which took another 10 minutes. She was then able to print our boarding passes, which she marked as priority boarding for us, as a small free upgrade. It was nice of her, though unneeded, as AA gives active duty military and dependents traveling with them priority boarding with group 1 anyway. She took her checked baggage, and printed out our boarding passes, and off we went. It was now close to 4 pm. We had been at the airport for about three and a half hours by this point. Boarding was at 4:45 for our 5:30 flight. We just had enough time te get through security and find a bite to eat, as we had not had anything since breakfast, which now seemed like it was days earlier (it had been 9 hours).

We made the walk to terminal 3, and got in line for the Jet Blue representative. To say the line was long wouldn't do it justice. It was an out of control COVID era toilet paper line. My wife got on line, and I took the kids to an out of the way spot to sit on the floor (no seats left anywhere) with all our bags, before returning to my wife. Just as I got back to her, they made an announcement that there was no availability for flights until Wednesday. Looking at the number of people in front of us still, I had a feeling we were looking at Thursday or Friday at the best. I quickly got out my phone and found something to book. I found an American Airlines flight that would get us home on Monday at 7:40 am. $2900 for 5 one way tickets. I quickly purchased them (I felt extorted) and made a quick prayer that our travel insurance will cover it (I'll let you know how that turns out). This is what we got: Depart FLL at 5:30 for Charlotte, NC, with a 2 hour layover Depart Charlotte for Lousville, and then an overnight layover Arrive in Regan airport at 7:40 Well, at least my wife wouldn't miss work that day, and the kids could still get to camp, maybe only being an hour late. Within 5 minutes of purchasing the ticket, there was a notification that the flight to Charlotte was delayed by just over two hours. We were going to miss our connecting flight to Louisville. I quickly left my wife on the Jet Blue line to get a refund for that flight, while I went to the American counter to change the flight I had just purchased. There were only a handful of people in front of me, and while waiting I checked schedules. I saw that there was a flight from Charlotte to Pittsburgh that we could make, even with a 3 hour delay getting to Charlotte (the flight to Charlotte only had a two hour delay). The flight from Pittsburgh to Regan arrived 7:50am, only 10 minutes later. I got to the front of the line, and explained how I wouldn't make my connection. The lady at the counter said, "sorry, there's nothing I could do." I said, "Well, what about changing me to the flight to Pittsburgh, which also has a connection to DC?" She said, "Oh, I think I can do that." I should have backed away, and begged for someone else. I should have known better. But, I was already frantic by this point, and it didn't help that I was up so late the night before for the last night of our cruise, and up since 5am. I let her try to help me. She went in and changed our flight. Then she tried to print our boarding passes and luggage tags. But the system wouldn't let her. The computer said we didn't have tickets. The problem was, the tickets I purchased were still being processed when she went to change the flight. Her changing the flights before my card was charged and the tickets issued completely messed everything up. Because the flights no longer matched what I had purchased, they couldn't charge my card. She said she couldn't help me because I purchased the tickets at AA.com, and they had to help me. The one thing she managed to do was assign us seats on the flights, so it was confirmed we had seats on the plane. We just didn't have tickets yet. I called AA, and the recording said it was an hour and a half wait to speak to someone. While I was on hold, my wife managed to get a refund from Jet Blue (well, they said it was issued, so we'll see if it comes). She goes back on line at the American counter, as that line was getting long, while I waited on hold. Divide and conquer. She got to the front of the line before they answered the phone. This seemingly more competent person explained to my wife what happened, but said she wouldn't fix it for us, because she didn't want to deal with the other agent's mistake. She actually told my wife that I had to speak with the agent that messed up in the first place, and she wouldn't do anything to help. The agent that messed up was standing right next to her, but wouldn't make eye contact, say anything, or come over to at least try to help. She just kept on taking the next people in line. Anyone ever experience bad customer service like that? It was really a new one for us. My wife then asked to speak to a supervisor, and while waiting, someone finally picked up the phone for me. It was over an hour and a half wait on hold.

I forgot to mention in my previous post, the one complaint I had about the tour was that they only made one stop at FLL, between terminals 1 and 2. If you leave from terminal 3 or 4 (we were in 3) it's a bit of a long walk, and there is no one there to help you, and no smart cart rental stations curb side, either.

The Jet Blue app couldn't find any flights for us, and said twe had to speak to an agent. I called the number, and it said to check the app to find your new flight. I felt like they were playing Hot Potato, and I was the potato. We arrived at FLL before I could find a flight on another airline (it was a very short ride). We waited on ACd bus while they unloaded our bags from underneath. Once done, they called for us to come off the bus and collect our bags. As soon as we were on the curb with our bags, the doors closed and they were on the way to MIA. If we were to fly to a Miami cruise again, and had a later flight home, I would definitely book this excursion again. It was pretty well organized, a lot of fun, and a good way to end the cruise. However, I don't think I would go to Everglades Holiday Park (which is where we went) if I were to go on an airboat Everglades ride on my own. The one we went on a few years ago used much smaller boats, which I think made for a better experience.

Read on to find out!

It's about a 40 minute ride. On the way, the tour guide gave us an interesting narration about Miami and the Everglades. She also distributed a pink sticker to put next to the yellow one we already had. This was so she could more easily identify us (other tour groups would have stickers also). Additionally, our tour came with the photo with a baby alligator, and the pink stickers made it much easier for her to find which photos were from her group. She explained she would pick the photos up for us and distribute them when we got back on the bus. We also had to fill out liability forms. As I was filling out the waivers, I got a notification that our flight home was delayed by an hour. Uh, oh. We arrived at the Everglades Park just as they opened, so that was timed really well. We were told to leave everything on the bus, except for money and sunscreen, if needed. They bus would be locked the entire time. We had just enough time to run into the gift shop to buy bottles of water before heading down to the dock for our airboat ride. The boat ride lasted about 45 minutes and was a lot of fun. We saw two gators, a lot of birds, and some really nice dragon flies. The boat captain said we were lucky to see the two gators. She explained that they are in a heat wave, and the gators are hiding in the shade. Only the earliest boats had a chance to see any gators. The afternoon boats weren't seeing any at all. We stopped to look at the first one for a bit, and then she turned the boat around so that the other side could get a good view. When we stopped alongside the second one, it started to swim towards us pretty quickly, so she took off. Not sure why, I thought the gator just wanted to say, "Hi!" After all, we didn't run off when the dolphins swam up to say, "Hi," on De Palm Island. What's the difference? Upon exiting the boat, our tour guide was there to direct us to the gator show. But, when we reached the entrance to the theater, the doors were full because the theater was full. Our guide told us to wait for the next show in the gift shop for AC and water for about 15 min (but not much longer, so we could get back on line to get a good seat). We did as instructed, waited about 10 more minutes, and then they let us in. We got great seats front and center. While waiting for the show to start, we got a notification that our flight was cancelled. Dang! The show was good. This was the 3rd gator wrestling show I had seen, and the other two were both better. After the show, we walked around to see the other animals they have. We saw baby gators, albino gators, a tortoise, a really fat racoon, a red fox, and a brown fox. Then it was time for the baby gator photo. Each group got into a line, shoulder to shoulder, with our arms out. They placed the baby gator in our arms. It was long enough so that the five of us could all hold it, one end holding the tip of it's tail, the other its neck. Then back to gift shop for more water, and then back to the bus. We were supposed to have time after the show for a snack and browse the gift shop, but missing the first show cancelled that. Our tour guide was really annoyed at the park management about this (I heard her complaining very emphatically). They were supposed to leave room in that show for the entire group of 54, which took up two boats. What happened was that after the first boat got back and went into the theater, they opened it up to other people that were there, so when the second boat docked just a few minutes later (our boat), the theater was full. They were supposed to wait until both boats had entered the theater before letting other people in to fill it. We were allowed to eat on the bus, so we could have gotten something to eat on the bus, but the food didn't look that good, and we were still pretty full from breakfast. It wasn't even noon yet. We boarded the bus, and the guide handed out the photos. Somehow we got two copies of it (we were only supposed to get one). The ride to FLL was rather short, and the guide gave a narration, but I wasn't paying attention. Instead I was trying to figure out how we would be getting home.

I would say that we had a near perfect trip. Until Sunday. That's when karma caught up to us. It started out very good, actually. The wake-up call got the last laugh on us. Not only did it wake us up from a deep sleep, but it had to call back a second time to get us up to answer it. The voice said, "Ha, ha! Last morning, no backsies!" Oh, well. It got me. We were a bit too slow dressing and packing the last items up to chance the MDR breakfast, so we ate our last meal in the Family Harbor Lounge. An extra bonus to this is that we could leave our carry-ons in the cabin while we ate breakfast (cabins had to be vacated by 8:30, which is when they serve breakfast until on debarkation morning. Not a coincidence, I'm guessing). At 7am we headed on out, picked up our bags, stopped at Pixels to pick up our photos (short line that moved quickly - and the photos came out great), and headed to the Liquid Lounge. They had given us stickers to put on our shirts which identified which excursion/transfer we had so that we could be identified quickly and sent to the correct bus. At 7:25 we started moving out. Walked down from deck 4 to deck 2 (only those with mobility issues could take the elevator) and off the ship. Priority self assist was leaving at this time also, which made for a very crowded slow moving walk down the hall of deck 2. Once off the ship, we got in the line for customs. Passports to the right, everyone else to the left. The passport line was much longer, but moved a lot faster. We got on the passport line, and at the same time, a guy with a white hat passed us on the other line. It was a race! The man with the white had won by quite a bit. At the end of the line there are about 5 stations to go through for the facial recognition. Of course, I get behind the person who has an issue, and is trapped there. They told me to go past them and get checked out, but my carry-on bag didn't quite fit between the rails and their carry-on bag. Our carry-on bags somehow got attached to each other, and in the process of pulling them apart, I pulled down the railing, knocked it into CBP person in the lane next to us, who then dropped his tablet. What an exit! We were then directed to a holding pen to wait until our luggage zones were ready. We were only there a few seconds before they called out "Zones 1 through 4!" It was like the starting bell for the Hunger Games, when they are all running out of the platform to go for the weapons. Except the luggage bags are more dangerous. And the people meaner. The problem was the stacked the bags up so close together, there was no way to get through. If your bag was in the back, you had to push other bags aside to get to it, and fight through the crowd coming in while you tried to leave. Once we gathered our bags, we tried to get a porter to help shlep our bags to the ship. But we couldn't find anyone to help us. We managed to load ourselves up with everything, and headed out. This is when the stickers on our shirts really came in handy. Every port employee we passed immediately directed us in the right direction. Our bus was waiting for us. We handed off our bags in front of the bus (they asked FLL or MIA to make unloading easier), along with our excursion tickets, and we boarded the nicely AC's bus. Extremely smooth process, and we were seated on the bus by 8:00. We waited about 15 minutes for the rest of the folks to arrive, and we were off by 8:15.

I hate the final day of a cruise. It seems we’re so busy getting stuff done that we don’t have ample time to fully enjoy the day. It’s more like half a day. We slept in this morning. Well, most of us slept in. My wife got up early and used the fitness center. She was back before the wake up call went off. I should have gotten up to go with her, but I was too half asleep when she left to even know she left. We did the Dr. Seuss breakfast. It was the biggest disappointment of the cruise, by a lot. Mostly due to the terrible service we got. Issues: 1. Served still frozen gluten free bread 2. Served two out of the 3 orders of shlop. Asked for the third, he said OK, but never got it. My wife eventually got up and took it from the serving area. 3. Brought 4 out of our 5 meals. Said, he’d get the 5th. It took over 5 minutes. I saw that he eventually took it from the serving area. It was there the whole time, he just forgot about it and couldn’t find it 4. Brought 1 out of 3 coffees we ordered. We had to ask another server for the other 2 5. Never came to refill coffees once.. 6. Never brought the strawberry jelly for the bread which we ordered 7. Took my daughter’s plate before she was finished. He literally took it out from under her and walked off without asking if she was done. There was quite a bit of food on it too. Right after this last issue, the manager happened to come up to us and ask how our meal was. We told him the issues. He apologized, and had my daughter’s meal remade. The whole staff had to wait for us to finish before closing the restaurant. While we had his attention, we also mentioned how great Marie and her team was for our dinner service. After breakfast we started to go through our photos to pick out the 5 we pre-purchased as a package. The system was so bogged down, it took forever to load each photo. I don’t understand why they don’t offer an unlimited package. We paid $100 for 5 prints. We would have paid about $300 for unlimited digital. That’s over $200 more profit for them ($200 additional revenue and less costs for the digital). Additionally, if enough people get the all inclusive package, the system wouldn’t get so bogged down. I personally heard numerous people decide not to purchase photos because they got tired of waiting for the pictures to load. There’s more revenue they are just throwing away. After an hour we took a break to finish late, and went to watch the ice sculpture. 10 minutes into it we went for an AC break. We came out 10 minutes later, and they were playing Ice Ice baby for the sculpture. But, it was already gone. As soon as the finished it, they took it away. We didn’t get to see it. Then it was back to Pixels for about 90 minutes. It just took so long for each photo, and we took a lot of pictures. We realized that if it didn’t take so long, maybe we would have gotten the 5 we pre paid for, and then look into getting more. But, once we were finally done (which didn’t happen until much later in the day) we were tired of looking at them, and didn’t get any more. Yet again, they are hurting for revenue, and throwing money down the drain for stupidly running Pixels. Lunch was a highlight. Guys burgers and chocolate cake. We did notice an anomaly with the cake stations. The two stations look like they have the same cakes. But, the starboard side listed two cakes as being GF, the cheesecake and the peanut butter cake. The port side said none of them were GF. We asked the servers at each station, and each station attendant said the signs were correct. They also said that both stations served the same cakes. What are we to do with that? Then back to Pixels. To borrow a comment from the guy across from us, “It was like watching paint dry.” We took a break to do the Camp Ocean Family Scavenger Hunt. This was the highlight of the day. Tons of fun running around the ship getting selfies everywhere. It ended in controversy. One of the items was a picture with the whale tail. We took a picture of ourselves pointing to the whale tail on the ship on a stick, as we were in our cabin when we noticed that item. In hindsight, that was pointless, as we also had a selfie on the mini golf course, which is right at the whale tail. We got back at exactly the deadline. We argued the point, but she said our ship on a stick whale tail did not qualify. Two other groups came with a picture of all the items, but, they both got there after the deadline. The crew member resolved it by giving all 3 groups the price: a stuffed octopus towel animal and picture frame. Nice prize! Next up was karaoke. Our daughter participated, and got a nice reaction from the crowd. Dinner was its usual pleasure. But, we were sad to say goodbye to our serving team. We had so much fun with them over the course of the week! And they took excellent care of our allergies. It was truly a pleasure to get to know them. If we do sail the Horizon again, we’ll ask for her team. Then packing up to go home. The less I talk about this the better. I do want to point something out that I didn’t realize until 8 pm tonight. If you have a priority number, make sure you get enough luggage tags right away, and ask for more if you don’t. The only way for us to get the rest of the tags we needed was waiting on line at GS. On disembarkation evening. That was terrible. There were only about 5 people ahead of me when I went, but it took over 25 minutes. Then back to pixels. We finished picking out the 5 photos about 15 minutes before they closed. We didn’t have time to pick out more, even if we were so inclined. Again, money down the toilet. We weren’t ready to call it a trip yet, so we decided to relax in the whirlpool. Got bathing suits on (which we left out of checked bags for just this purpose), and went up to serenity for the whirlpools. We got up there and were reminded by the ropes that Serenity had been closed since 10pm. Only whirlpools left were at TIdes. We crossed the ship, and found them to be full to max with teenagers. To be fair, they weren’t doing anything wrong. We just didn’t want to sit with a dozen teenagers/college students. So we changed out of our bathing suits, and walked around the sky track for fresh air. Weather wise, this was the nicest night we had the entire trip, by quite a bit. We also realized that we didn’t see a single star the entire week. Clouds every night. The ship did stop rocking though, finally. And that is it. As I said earlier, it felt like a half a day at sea. I need to get to sleep; early wake up call for disembarkation breakfast. Our family straw poll picked the MDR over family harbor for our last meal. We’ll see if that sticks. Stay tuned for tomorrow! We’re doing the Everglades tour and transfer to FLL. I’ll have plenty of time to write about that while waiting for our late afternoon flight. See you all in Fort Lauderdale!

We took a quick look at the relaxation area they have at Amber Cove: the pool and small lazy river without tubes. We almost jumped in, but decided to return to the ship instead. We were tired, and it just took too much effort to get into a lazy river. The irony. We got on the ship, took the stairs to the 2nd deck (did I mention the huge benefit of a low cabin - being able to walk up only a couple of flights of stairs instead of having to wait an hour for an elevator upon return from port) and dropped our stuff in our cabin. Next stop: Lido buffet for cake of the day. And free drinks. Unlimited. And there was water available. Also unlimited. Turns out we were thirsty. We could have gotten a ride on the Sky ride or ropes course, but we were already in our bathing suits, so, instead, we went on the water slides a few times. Then, off to the tides whirlpool to chill for a bit. Well, most of us did. My wife only stayed in the whirlpool a minute before leaving to go to the fitness center. I thought walking around Ocean World was exercise enough for one day, so I opted out. Are you really that surprised, as just an hour earlier, I thought the lazy river would take too much effort. Tonight was the 2nd elegant night, so it took a bit longer to get ready for dinner, and we wanted to leave early to get some pictures done. We got through three backdrops, plus the staircase, before it was time for dinner. There was very little wait for the pictures. I remember in 2018 on the Pride, there was a huge wait at each backdrop. The Horizon has far less stations than the Pride had, and a lot more people. Is pixels pricing themselves out for two many people? I was shocked, but pleased, we got so many options for pictures. I’m not sure I mentioned this, but we pre-booked the 5 portrait package. Hopefully we can find 5 really good ones. It’ll be nice to have so many options, between tonight and the first elegant night. Dinner was slightly slow today. Maybe because so many people ordered two entrees? (Lobster plus something else). Remembering the chef’s propensity to overcook, I ordered my prime rib medium and got it perfectly cooked to medium well. This chef is certainly consistent! At this point we truly beat the odds, and got a third entree for my daughter without a charge. What’s the trick to this feat you ask? Simple, she didn’t order it. She had been ordering the pasta dish every night so far. The chef assumed it must have been a mistake that she didn’t have an order for it, so he made for her anyway. To be fair, because of the allergies, we order our food the night before. The chef prepares it before we arrive, so it wasn’t like he could send someone to our table to ask, as we weren’t there yet. PG comedy was up next. Another winner! All four are among the top comedians we’ve seen. Whoever at Carnival has been auditioning and/or hiring comics for the ships is doing a great job! When the comedy ended at 8:15, we decided to get on line for a front row seat for Celestrial Strings. When the doors finally opened at 9pm sharp, the 11 year old went in quickly to pick out the seats. Unfortunately, he somehow tripped on his own feet, and body slammed the guy who was still opening the doors to the theater. After untangling himself, our son led us to our seats. As we’re sitting there, our son turns to us and says he felt really bad about knocking into the guy because he was rushing for seats, and fell into him. My wife told him the guy was still there, and he should go over to apologize to him. Our son goes over, and I’m not sure what he said, but the guy’s reaction was to give him a big hug, and send him back to us to have a seat. A minute later he comes over to us, and says that because we are obviously such terrific parents, we each get a ship on a stick as a reward, and each of our 3 kids gets a medal for being so polite. It was great how a potential negative experience was turned into such a positive one. It’s really great how he truly helped us reinforce the idea of apologizing when you do something wrong. I already went into great detail about the awesomeness of Celestrial Strings. They had the 80s glow party afterwards, but it was really humid out, and we were feeling too lazy to do something that would require a shower afterwards. We briefly considered the piano bar, but opted to go back to our cabin to chill. Tomorrow is our last sea day. I don’t want to think about that. I want to pretend we have a whole week ahead of us still. Therefore, I won’t preview it at all. After all, if I don’t preview it, then it won’t really come will it? And we can just keep staying on the ship, right? Right? Maybe?

As I mentioned, we got the VIP dolphin package. The upcharge from the standard dolphin swim was reasonable, and, if we were to do it again, we would get the VIP. Upon arrival, they do a welcome dance, and then we were directed to sit while they served a welcome fruit punch. We were split into 4 groups. Our group had 12. They had two areas for the VIP dolphins, two groups went at a time. Our group went first. The beach area we used was in the back of the dolphin area. As we walked towards it, the dolphins came by to check us out. They stuck their heads out of the water, genuinely as curious about us as we were about them. They followed us down to the beach. The trainers had nothing to do with this, as they were waiting for us by the beach. Then they escorted us back there, making noises and splashing if we stopped looking at them. We had a lot of time with two dolphins. We pet them, hugged them, got a kiss, and did the foot push. We also fed them one fish each. When it was over, we went back to rinse off and then look at the pictures (which we of coarse bought). $90 for 72 pictures plus a video. 20 days to download it (which we’ll have to do at home). The VIP package includes a tour guide that leads you around the park for the day, in order to maximize your time there. Our group was made up of 3 families, and each family had a different speed. Instead of trying to herd us all together, our tour guide went back and forth amongst the three families, guiding us more than marching us. This worked well, but only because it is a rather small park. If it was a lot bigger, this wouldn’t work. Once we were ready to move on, we were sent to the bird feeding. He wanted us to do that before the park got crowded. There was a small number of people there, and the birds were very hungry. They only gave out a little bit of bird seed at a time, but we could go back for more as many times as we wanted. It was rare for there to be less than 3 birds on us at a time. This was really a lot of fun. And, the best thing of all, is that unlike the fish, the birds didn’t bite. Yes, I’m still resentful about that man eating fish. Our tour guide told us how much time we had with the birds, and told us when to leave to get to the sea lion show. This show was short, but well done. The best part was how they had seats right up close to the pool, for great viewing. We were a bit befuddled what to do, or where to go, after the show. I asked another employee where our guide was, and he asked us to just wait there a few minutes, as he has to work during the show, and it would just be a minute for him to come out. He lied to us. It was only about 30 seconds. Lunch time! Here is where the VIP treatment really became apparent. Instead of waiting on a long line for food, only to have to search and hunt for a table, we were brought to a separate room, where the tables had table clothes. We were shown to our seats, and we had a separate buffet for us. They only catch was, we could only go through the buffet once per person. However, we were given trays, and each tray fit two plates. It was easy to hold the tray in one hand, and a third plate (which everyone used for desserts) in the other hand. 1st plate: salad (lettuce, cucumbers, tomato) with a really good dressing. I’m not sure what it was, exactly. I would say it was closest to a Catalina dressing, but a bit more seasoning or spices. I also put two types of rolls on this plate, with butter packets. 2nd plate Carribean rice, veggies, white rice with refried beans, and I chose a hamburger over roasted chicken. The chicken looked good, though. They also had hot dogs and fries. Dessert plate: fresh fruit and bite size slices of cake. We also got beverage service, but only one glass of non-alcoholic drink per person. And, when they say one glass, they mean it. They wouldn’t even give us some water after we finished the glass of fruit punch we ordered! They do have water fountains, but not near where we were eating. Once you finished your glass, you went thirsty, and no way to get more beverage to have with your meal. You can’t even buy one! I really don’t see the benefit of making their VIP guests go thirsty. Don’t annoy guests that pay top dollar over the marginal cost of a cup of water! The food was good, but not anything near what we got at De Palm Island. Not even in the same world. They shouldn’t even be in the same category of “included excursion lunch.” Our tour guide let us know when we had to head on out to the dolphin show. The show was excellent, and we got to see some tricks that they can’t do in the dolphin swim. But, in a way, after spending such high quality one on one time with the dolphins, the show is a bit of a letdown. Logistically this may not be possible, but it would be ideal to see the show before the dolphin swim. Like an appetizer. We couldn’t believe it when our tour guide let us know that we only had 4o more minutes at the park, and we could choose what to do. First we went to the snorkel area. They gave us life vests and masks. I asked about tubes, and they said they didn’t have any. Can you call it snorkeling if you don’t have a snorkel tube? According to Ocean World, you can. According to me, you can’t. The snorkel area was a small pool with lot so fish, and lots of coral formations that they are growing in there. They had a pretty good variety of coral, and a fairly good amount. Very colorful. We got to make one lap around the pool (it’s shaped like an ellipse) - everyone has to swim in the same direction - and then had to get out. It was a good use of 10 minutes. Then we went over to look at the sharks. They were lazy. Must have been their nap times. We considered trying either the water inflatables or the water slide, but decided on feeding the birds again instead. If we had more time, we probably would have done the water inflatables by the beach, However, it was a bit of a walk to get there, and didn’t think it would be worth it - by the time we walked there, it would have been time to walk back. We could have done the inflatables instead of the snorkel, but that would have been it. The birds were now stuffed and lazy. Dozens of people were in there trying to coax the birds down to eat. Some of them did, but nothing like the feeding frenzy of earlier. Our tour guide was right. It was now 2pm. Do you know where your tour guide is? We didn’t, but he did ask to meet him by the lockers to return the towels and locker key (both of which were included with the VIP package). By the time we emptied our locker, use the restroom, and got ourselves together to leave, he was there waiting to collect the towel and key, and send us on our way to the bus. We were directed to the VIP bus (which meant the bus left on time, and with only the VIPs on board so it wasn’t a crowded bus at all. Ten minutes later we’re hopping off at Amber Cove.

Let me just say, I am ready to book my next Horizon cruise so that I can see Celestrial Strings again. I need to see it about 5 more times to appreciate all they have in that show. I can’t express how phenomenal the artistry is. The musicians, dancing, singing, effects.. there is so much happening, and it all works so well together. It’s a true experience, not just a show. I so wish I had seen the 7:30 show so that I could have seen it twice tonight. If you are lucky enough to be able to see this show, sit in the first row of the balcony, as close to the center as you can. Don’t sit in deck 4. We were in the front row of the balcony, two sections away from the center. This was near perfect to be able to experience all that the show has. Well, you can’t experience all of it in a single viewing. Overall, the Playlist productions this cruise are orders of magnitude better than the ones we saw 2014-2018. No comparison. OK. Let’s go back to the start of the day. Early morning excursion to Ocean World! These are the days that the family harbor breakfast is really a benefit. We got up, got dressed, walked down the hall, and were eating breakfast within minutes of waking up. Oh, speaking of waking up…. For those keeping track, I got up before the wake up call. I don’t know why, but despite less sleep than I normally get at home, and being extremely active all day long, I wake up fully alert on less sleep than I normally get. If anyone can explain this to me, I’d love to know how/why. We walked off the ship at 9:05, and started the fairly long walk down the pier to the DUFRY shop. We quickly walked through it, and, found the check in our our excursion. It was very easy to find. The tickets had zone numbers (1-5 I think) and there were only a handful of excursions in each zone. Made things simple and convenient. We exchanged tickets for wristbands, and hung out in the shade for a few minutes. Within a few minutes of checking in, we were escorted to a very nice charter bus. Good AC, comfy seats, fan and lights over each seat, reclining seats, and working seatbelts. The bus looked brand new. We got on the bus at 9:20. The time on the ticket was 9:30, so I knew we’d be sitting a bit. I appreciated that they sent the early folk to wait on the cool and comfy bus. At exactly 9:45, the last group of people got on the bus, and we left. It was only a 10 minute ride to Ocean World.

Thank you for reading and glad you’re enjoying. I think the kids get to eat free in any of the up-charge restaurants, but I’m not sure. With a family of 5, and only 1 gets to eat free (I’m pretty sure it’s under 12 only, and even if the 14 year old was free, it’ would still be a lot of money for 3 people). If you email customer service, they’ll get back to you on a question like this in a few days. That would be more reliable than trying to call. The family harbor lounge is really a nice perk. Guests staying in a family harbor cabin can access the lounge with their sail and sign card. They have a bunch of board games available, two large screen tvs, and two video game stations. This is all available 24/7. Also available 24/7 is the cappuccino machine (my favorite part) and the fridge with milk, chocolate milk, and cups of yogurt (raspberry, plain, and banana - though the banana often run out). There is an ice cream machine with cones (or you could use a cup), which is open from lunch time until evening (10pm maybe? I’m not sure when they close it). They have a breakfast bar that is open sea days 7:30 - 10:30, and 7:30-9:30 port days. For breakfast they have scrambled eggs, sausage links, bacon (everyday), hash brown, pancakes or waffles, bagels, croissants, danishes, bread, muffins, lox, butter, cream cheese, fruit, apple juice, OJ, and drip coffee (the machine is also available). I’ve been living on the cappuccino machine, but my wife says the drip coffee in the lounge is better than what they serve up on lido. It’s not as extensive as the lido buffet, but it’s never hard to find a seat, never a line for food, and it’s right by our room. It’s really great when you have an early morning excursion. I need to find out if it will be open debarkation morning. They also have afternoon snack in there from 3-5. This consists of veggies and dips, tortilla chips, potato chips, some cakes,(nothing like the lido cake station), cookies, cucumber sandwiches, ham and/or turkey wraps, and pb&j mini sandwiches. It seems the perfect size for the number of cabins that have access to it. We’ve been utilizing it everyday, numerous times per day. Hope this helps, and let me know if you have any other questions!

After finishing the sky ride, we briefly considered doing the ropes course again. We knew that we wouldn’t have time tomorrow, and it was highly likely that it wouldn’t be open on the sea day. And we do want to do it again. However, it was a bit hot, and we didn’t want to get all sweaty right before dinner. We only had about an hour, so my wife and I just relaxed in the cabin while the kids played soccer pool in the clubhouse. Dinner was spot on, as usual, The magician came by again. His tricks today were pretty easy to figure out, but still fun. No Showtime today. I think I’ll dream about the shrimp creole tonight. We left the MDR with plenty of time to see the PG comedy show. Best of the cruise. If you ever get the chance to see Will C, you should. After the PG show, the kids went off to the clubs, and my wife and I went in line to see the 18+ show. After the show, my wife and I wandered around a bit, listened to music, and watched the world go by. Our 11 year old didn’t want to do Night Owls today (he was tired, and wanted energy for the last two days of the cruise), so we picked him up and returned to the cabin. He is allowed to check himself out, but asks us to pick him up when it’s late. This brings me to an annoyance I have with Camp Ocean. If a kid has self sign out privileges, and they aren’t signed up in advance for night owls, they kick them out at 9:50. If the kid can’t self sign out, they can stay until 10pm without being charged. And that is the end of our day. Only thing left is relaxing in the cabin - and waiting for Circle C to end. Here is a another annoyance that came up. Circle C ends at 1 am, and the curfew is also at 1 am. If they don’t leave by 12:45 or so, they are not allowed to leave on their own, and have to wait for a parent to come get them. If the club is open until 1am, they should be given until 1:15 or so to get back to their cabin unsupervised. I could tell him that he has to leave before the last activity ends so I don’t have to go fetch him. As I’m generally up until about then anyway, I don’t mind taking the late night walk. It‘в not a big deal, but doesn’t seem well thought out. Tomorrow we’re doing the VIP dolphins at Ocean World. After that is formal night. We’ll have just enough time upon our return to shower, dress, and go down for elegant photos before dinner. Looking forward to a fun filled day!

Our Day at Sea at La Romana. I’ll just start off by saying it. Leaving Curaçao so early to get to La Romana by 11am is a terrible idea. I’d much rather have stayed at Curaçao another few hours and skipped La Romana completely. And, from the discussions of other passengers I’ve overheard, it seems a universal sentiment. We decided to try the port day breakfast in the MDR this morning, as we were taking it easy today. My wife had the 11am massage appointment, so we wanted to eat around 9:30, so we’d have plenty of time for her. When we tried to get the kids up at 9:15, we couldn’t get them to move their heads off the pillows. So, we went down the hall to the Family Harbor lounge and took a few hash browns back to the cabin. We held them under the kids noses, and led them out of the beds. Once on two feet, we let them have their rewards! The service was great. Marie came over to us, and introduced us to the breakfast server we had. The two of them are good friends, so we had a nice conversation with them. The vanilla French toast was much better than they serve in the lounge, and the baked apple was perfect. I wish we had time to go to the MDR for breakfast tomorrow, but with the early excursion we have, we’ll go to the lounge. After finishing, my wife headed up to the spa, and I went with the kids to water works. Those Seuss slides are fun! The tube ride is fairly long, and fast. The body slide is also well done. I also prefer the run off as opposed to the more common splash pool most water parks have. There was no wait for the slides, so it didn’t take long at all to do each slide 3-4 times. We then went to the aft pool and whirlpool (mid ship pool doesn’t have a whirlpool). The pool was nice and cool, and the whirlpool was a nice very warm, almost hot. We met up back at the cabin and went to lunch. Guys burgers won out for me, but the rest of the fam split between the pasta bar on 11, and Blue Iguana, which has gluten free tacos. I also want to give a shout out to the mango gelato. I’m sure the gelato will appreciate it when it reads this. I should mention that the $100 raffle win is a bit misleading. To use the gift card, you have to apply it to the “full price” of the treatment, not what the listed price in the Hub app is. Apparently, the price in the Hub app is a “sale” price and less than the walk up price. I did not test this. However, the out of pocket cost was still about $60 less than the price listed in the app. All in all, though, the price she actually paid is a fair price for the 75 minute deep muscle treatment she got (It came to $152 including the 18% gratuity). She said the woman who treated her was fantastic, and she really enjoyed it, and benefited from it as well. After lunch the kids wanted to go off the the clubs, but Circle C wasn’t open until 8pm tonight. Camp Ocean was open, but the two of them decided to hang out together, so they went off to the arcade to use the $10 in arcade cards the 14 year old won (I forgot how he wont them, I’ll have to ask). After spending the $10 - which I think took all of 30 seconds - they planned on going to the family lounge to play board games. They didn’t even consider the video games they have there. Not because they are snobs that turn their noses up at video games. But because the same 3-4 kids have literally spent every minute of the cruise on those games, and do not share. They are honestly always there. Morning, noon, and night. While the kids ran their own camp, my wife and I ventured off the ship to look around the port. We sampled the chocolate (I liked the mint, and my wife liked the 100% cocoa). We also sampled the coffee. After taking a lap around the complex, we went back on the ship. In total we spent a whopping 30 minutes off the ship. To be fair, the shopping was very nice. Lots of interesting things, and the prices were very reasonable. But, the buildings had very poor ac, and the air was very still, making it very uncomfortable, without a way to take an ac break. If the buildings had better ac, we would have stayed a lot longer, and maybe bought some stuff. I was also eyeing the fish pedicure, but there was a long wait in the heat. La Romana is not a port I will be looking to return to. Granted it does have a nice bar by a pool… if only I could go to a pool with a bar other days of our cruise… When we got back on board, we found to our surprise that the sky ride was open! We collected the kids and off we went, with only a 10 minute wait! So fun. We all were able to switch sides of the track from what we rode yesterday. The two sides are pretty different, so if you get the chance, try to ride both sides.