Miami. We have arrived. This is the very first time the ship has been to a U.S. port, so there is lots to prepare. Coast Guard inspections U.S. Public Health inspections, immigration. It’s a crazy day for the entire crew. Originally they were saying we couldn’t get off before 8:30am, which would have been OK, but a little push for us. So we asked for early walk off – just to make sure we would have enough time to get to our 11:20 flight. As it turns out, early walk off was at 7:30, which was probably too early, but who knew? In the end it all went far faster than they had anticipated, but you can never tell with these things, so earlier is always better.
So, we dutifully got up at 5:30a to have breakfast at 6:00am so we could be at our meeting point by 7:15am. The entire crew had to go through immigration, so none of our normal guys and girls were in the buffet with us. We missed saying goodbye to so many of the gang who had been so good to us for the last 24 days. We were especially sad to miss Vishrah, who is from Mumbai and was going to meet us there in February when he was on vacation – but we never connected to give him a date or our contact information. Sigh.
After breakfast, we dutifully hauled our luggage down to the Cabaret lounge to wait, getting into a conversation with one of the HR staff who told us the ship was sold out (we knew that from Minor-I who couldn’t get a cabin on this sailing and was disembarking with us – with no specific future plans!) and that she had an overcapacity of crew with extra staff signing on today. Will be a much different cruise on their way to Lima than what we experienced.
Surprisingly, there were not that many of us doing express walk off. But after the time change, that sort of made sense. When they finally called for us to leave, we ended up behind two older ladies, one pushing her wheel chair with a bag in it. Really? For walk off? So, we ambled behind them at a rate slower than molasses going uphill in the winter, until we were finally at the gangway door. Once outside, Ryszard was there (of course) to say goodbye and wish us well, with a big hug for me and an Azamara fist bump for Ed. Such a great send off, and to leave the ship with such a wonderful feeling – not just like we were another cabin number, and everyone was waiting for the next guest to fill your space. Heartfelt and nice.
And from there…it was seamless and simple. We walked right out, through baggage claim, onto passport control, got stamped and were out the door way before 8:00. In the second cab in line (have no idea where the first people came from) and were at the airport in a jiffy. And I mean a jiffy – this cabbie wanted to be back at that port fast – so we were at the airport FAST.
Checked in, bags checked we had tons of time to find the Priority club and hang out with internet and all you could eat and/or drink (yeah, far too early for alcohol). The flights were simple, into Atlanta early, a quick beer and wine and we were on the final flight to Asheville right on schedule. Lyft from AVL with a wonderful driver, Deb, who we chatted with during the entire drive, then suitcases in the office, keys in our hands, we headed out to dinner and were back in our cozy little house, with the fire burning away with enough time to unpack, organize the laundry and sort out our European haul!
Truffle sausage and Cinghiale salami from Orvieto, Chorizo Iberico, Salchichon (Spanish summer sausage), Lomo Embuchado (cured pork loin) and Longaniza Pascua Rubielos (Spanish sausage –similar to chorizo - from the Rubielos region) from Valencia, White Asparagus also from Valencia, French olive oil and vinegar dressing (from Eze), Canarian sauces and tons of chocolate. Oh, and peanuts from somewhere in Italy. What else could you want from a European trip?
Happy homecoming!
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