In theory this is the last day of the coach tour, but since it consists of waking up in the hotel and leaving - no coach or driver and no tour guide anywhere - I don't see how Cosmos gets away with calling it part of their tour. It's the same as cruise lines though - they insist on counting the day where they kick you off the ship as the last day, even though you basically just wake up and leave!
The only problems we had today were caused by me. However, since I pretty much organised the whole day, I think I get to take the credit for everything that went right too :-)
And actually, I didn't cause too much trouble, it's just that I caused it in the worst possible place - the airport security check.
First, I didn't understand how I was meant to stand in the security scanner, and once I worked that out, the lady made me back out of it because she needed to recalibrate it. No idea if I caused that problem or not!
Then, they pointed out to me that in the drama of taking my shoes off (everyone over 12 goes through without shoes) while at the same time trying to manage crutches and a backpack, I had forgotten the most basic requirement of security scanning - to take the laptop out of the bag. Or, to be more correct, the laptops - I was carrying both of them as part of our plan to make sure that our checked luggage wasn't too heavy and our carry-on wasn't too large. Anyway, obviously they decided that they'd have to scan it again, but then this caused some sort of a staffing drama that ended up with a supervisor throwing a tantrum about who should do it. I just cringed and grovelled apologies, and they let me go once they finally rescanned the bag. But, in my attempts to get away from there as quickly as I could, I slammed my crutches right into my sore ankle, so it's hurting again.
However, on the bright side, apart from a change of gates, we were not affected by the current industrial problems that are hitting American Airlines. There were definitely problems with other flights though - we had to move from Gate 28 because the flight that was due to leave an hour or so before us was delayed. And, when they moved us to Gate 30, we got to hear the grovelling apologies of the staff on Gate 32 - apparently that flight had already been delayed for a long time, and still had no estimated departure time.
It took a fair while to get the plane loaded because of all the carry-on luggage. Everyone carries the maximum size carry-on bag which always causes problems for people who board late, so when the automatic check-in machine offered to move us into the first boarding group for $9 each, I jumped at the chance as I didn't really want to fly for that far with our bags stuck under the seat in front - and it worked, we got overhead locked space for both of them.
It also took a long time to get off the plane - again because of the time it takes everyone to get their carry-on off the plane. However, we were only about 15 minutes late arriving at Miami. Our gate was about a mile walk through the airport from the Baggage Claim area. However, when we got there, our limousine driver was waiting as expected. He took our bags off the carousel and drove us to our hotel in a comfy, air-conditioned limo. Nice. Cost us $100, but since a taxi would cost at least $70 (maybe more with the roadworks) I reckon it was money well spent. We actually had to drive past Fort Lauderdale airport to get here - we flew into Miami because there weren't any direct flights from Washington to Fort Lauderdale at any sensible times.
We've organised the shuttle ride to the cruise port tomorrow and have done a load of washing, so we're all ready to go!
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