In the early morning hours of Saturday, 13 December, we
had been “shaken awake” several times because the sea had been very rough
during the night, as the captain had warned.
When it finally happened at 10:00 AM, we decided to get up. Soon afterward, we went to breakfast, where
we ran into Tony and Sue, whom we had met early during the cruise, but didn’t
remember their names; they reintroduced themselves. (Of course, everyone seems to remember us,
being such an unusual couple.) We also
sat next to a couple from North Carolina, who also seemed to remember us. They will be on the flight with us from
Sydney to Dallas.
Although originally we had intended to go for a swim
after breakfast, both of the large pools had been closed and drained for
maintenance; workmen were cleaning the lining and touching up the paint. However, with the sea so rough, the water
probably would have been dangerously sloshing from one end to the other, so the
pools might have been closed anyway. Besides,
the outside air was cool, so that fewer people were sitting outside near the
pools where they often congregate.
Therefore, we spent the afternoon relaxing in our cabin and then went to
the Horizon Court for a light lunch before we started packing for our trip
home.
Before we left Iowa, Sally had studied the temperatures
possibilities in various parts of Australia (and Bali) – and not being one who
enjoys Florida in the summertime, she had been dreading the expected very hot climate. Particularly Bali, Darwin, and Brisbane are
often extremely hot in summer like Phoenix, AZ but with extremely high humidity
(and it is summer here in December).
However, we were extremely lucky because it was never as hot as it might
have been in any of those places. Also,
it helped that we were often in the shade, or it was cloudy (as most of the
time in Bali). On the morning of our
Brisbane visit, Sally had started out wearing shorts; however, when she
realized the weather was going to be cloudy and rather cool, she changed
clothes before leaving the ship. If
there is a wind blowing from the south anywhere in Australia, it seems to be a
reminder that Antarctica lies to the south.
We finished the majority of our packing and placed our
two large suitcases in the hallway for collection before going to dinner at
7:00 PM. There, we joined Craig and
Sylvia, a young couple with two pre-teen children; they live in New Castle,
which is about 150 miles north of Sydney.
Since they boarded the ship in Brisbane and would be disembarking in
Sydney, they would spend only two nights onboard. They have been on 10 cruises, and have taken
their children on many of them, including their next cruise over the Christmas
holidays. From mid-December to
mid-January, their children are on their summer break; then, they have a
two-week break in June; after which, they progress to the next grade. They have traveled a lot in America and have
taken their children to Disneyland; however, Craig is a chemical engineer and
has also traveled to America to attend conferences.
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| Wheelhouse Bar with Dick, Peggy, Mary, and Paul |
After dinner we met Paul and Mary in the Wheelhouse Bar
and, after the Soul Wave went on break, we said our goodbyes to the Soul Wave
(Amber and Roland), Paul and Mary, and Dick, and Peggy. On our way out, a lady named Janelle from New
South Wales, introduced herself and told us how much she had enjoyed watching
us dance every night. She used to love
to dance, but can’t dance anymore due to her physical condition. Afterwards, we returned to our cabin and
prepared for Sunday’s disembarkation.
On Sunday, December 14 we awoke to our alarm at 5:45 AM. Since it was after 1:15 when Sally fell asleep
(and even later for Jesse), when the alarm sounded, Sally thought there was a
mistake because it had to be the middle of the night. However, the motion of the ship had stopped,
and we were already docked at the Circular Quay in Sidney. Soon we rushed to breakfast. There, to our surprise, our friends, Paul and
Mary, showed up and sat down at our table with us! Thus, we were able to say our goodbye’s to
them a second time. Since our departure
time from the ship was scheduled for 7:55, we made haste first back to our
cabin, where we put away both laptops and stuffed all the last items into our
two smaller, carry-on suitcases; and then to our “preferred” meeting
place. When our “Red 1” group was
called, we disembarked and soon found our large suitcases. After fastening together all of our luggage
so that we could haul it a short distance to a waiting bus, we boarded the bus
transporting us to the Sydney airport. The bus left port at 8:30 AM, and it was
a fairly short ride.
Just inside the airport doors, we stopped to re-shuffle
items from where we had stashed them earlier so that liquids would be in
appropriate places for security, etc.
After our last long flight Jesse had decided he needed a neck pillow;
when we walked through the shopping area, a sign announced “2 for $20,” he
decided to buy one. However, if a person
wanted to buy only one pillow, it would cost $18.00 AUD.
(Now, between the two of us, we have 3 neck pillows.) Since our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave
until nearly 3:30 PM, we found a place to sit not too far from our gate;
admittance to the actual gate was restricted until a particular flight is
announced. After sitting for a while,
Jesse decided to look for a bookstore.
We usually buy tour books as souvenirs from our cruises, but had not
been able to find one for the entire country of Australia. He found one in an airport bookstore for
$25.00 AUD. We started feeling little
hungry about 1:00 PM, so Jesse purchased two cappuccinos for $8.00 AUD. Now we have only $58.20 AUD left to use
during our next trip to Australia.
We boarded our flight at about 2:45 PM for Dallas-Fort
Worth and took off a half hour later.
For the next 15 hr. 20 min. we were treated well with complimentary wine
with our dinner, several snacks during the evening/night, and finally
breakfast. During the flight, the young man
who sat by Sally next to the window never said a word the entire time; Jesse
wondered if he might have been an air marshal because the staff appeared to
know his choices for food without asking him.
We landed on time (1:45 PM Sunday, Dallas time – or 6:45
AM Monday, Sydney time) at the DFW airport exhausted, but had to process through
security, customs, and baggage retrieval and recheck. When we saw that the gate for our flight to
Peoria was not yet listed because the flight was still several hours away, we
camped out on seats from which we could access the Internet. While there, we received a call from American
Airlines that our 8:40 PM flight for Peoria had been canceled. From this point, the situation went downhill.
We went to stand in the fairly long line at the desk that
handled scheduling problems. When we
were nearly at the front of the line, the person at the desk announced that he
was handling his last customer and then would leave and be replaced in 5
minutes by the next person – and a woman, his replacement, finally arrived in
about 10 minutes. She made reservations
for us on a flight the next day to Peoria.
Also, she told us that since our flight to Peoria was cancelled due to weather
(fog in Peoria), the airline would not put us up for the night; however, the hotel
would give us a “distressed passenger discount” because of our being stranded. She gave us the name and phone number of a hotel
that still had a vacancy: Elegante´ Hotel & Suites. When asked about the availability of a shuttle
to the hotel, she replied that there was no shuttle. There had been another couple behind us in
our exact situation, but when we saw them later, they had decided to find help
at another gate because the woman waiting on us didn’t seem to know what she
was doing. Next, we ate a light dinner
at Popeye’s (visible from that desk), and then went outside for a taxi to take
us to the hotel. After twenty minutes
and $34 taxi fare, the taxi delivered us to Elegante´ Hotel & Suites. When checking in, we discovered that the hotel
does have a shuttle “every hour on the hour.” As far as we were concerned, the airline
service desk earned a minus grade in the quality of their service. We never saw the other couple again, so we
wondered how they had fared.
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| Elegante´ Hotel & Suites Lobby |
When we boarded the plane for Peoria, we found that our
seats were not side-by-side, even though our seats were “A” and “C,” which are
often together. In this case, “A” was a
lone seat on one side of the aisle, and “B” and “C” were together on the right
side. Jesse asked a man already seated
in the window seat on the right if he would mind changing to the lone seat, so
that we could sit together. He kindly
obliged. However, when we soon realized
that our seat had a lot of leg room (because of empty space back of a wall) while
the poor man across the aisle was sitting with his knees cramped into the usual
small space, Jesse apologized and said if he was too cramped, he could have his
seat back; we hadn’t realized the space difference. But, more obliging than some people, he didn’t
seem to mind. Again, the woman who
assigned our seats should have checked the seat layout.
When we arrived at Peoria, we were very happy to see that
our luggage had already arrived on an earlier flight. Although it was raining lightly, it was in
the high 40’s (it had been 50 degrees there earlier in the day), so that Jesse
didn’t freeze to death in his sweater and windbreaker when he rode in the
parking lot shuttle to our minivan.
However, during the ride Jesse realized that he had forgotten his keys,
so he had to ride back for the terminal and then ride to the minivan a second
time! Also, Jesse couldn’t remember
exactly where he had parked the vehicle 33 days ago, and neither did another passenger
in the shuttle. So the shuttle driver
drove through the parking areas while Jesse and the other passenger clicked
their remotes and watched for blinking lights.
Ironically, Jesse and the other passenger were parked right next to each
other! After the two-hour drive to
Bettendorf and a quick stop at a grocery store, we arrived home about 7:30 PM.
Signing off at the
end of another lovely and relaxing cruise (and an exhausting trip home)!
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