Day 18 - Jounney Home

Sunset on our last night on the ship

This has been a very long weekend, but we are home and trying to get back into our routine.  Disembarkation started off a little stressful yesterday morning.  First, everything was about a half hour later than the posted schedule.  Then, the process was a little different than we have experienced at other ports.  Instead of having to identify our luggage in a large hall, all luggage was placed next to the bus that it's owners were assigned to.  That sounded good at first. However, when we got to our bus, we discovered that one of our bags, the one with most of Ray's clothes in it, was missing.  Soon it was discovered that we were not the only ones missing bags.  At least 6 other couples were missing bags.  One couple was missing 3 bags.  Since all bags were picked up by the crew outside our cabins after 11pm Friday night and only had to make it from there to a storage room and then to the bus, I can't figure out where they had the chance to loose all those bags, but they did.  Everyone missing bags had to fill out a form describing the bag and they promised to ship the bags to us as soon as possible. This delayed our bus from leaving for another 30 minutes, so people with early flights were getting even more stressed.

We did make it to the Copenhagen airport in plenty of time.  Our bus driver made an extra effort to get us there quickly.  Once we got there, things got better. The woman checking us in at the SAS counter was very pleasant. We had time for soda and conversation with people we had met on board before our boarding time.  The flight from Copenhagen to Washington Dulles was uneventful.

Our only concern was that Regent's travel agent had booked us on a connecting flight to Orlando at 10PM, which would mean we wouldn't get home until at least 2AM. Considering the fact that we had gotten up before 6AM and the 6 hour time difference, that would make our travel time 26 hours.  After we cleared immigration and customs, we found a United customer service desk and asked if there was any room on an earlier flight.   The agent found us seats together on the next flight, leaving at 5:20PM.  We were in Orlando by 7:30PM.  Next all we had to do was catch an earlier shuttle home.  I called the shuttle service from Dulles, but they did not make the change as requested, so I had to call again after we got to the shuttle pick-up spot.  Luckily, there was room on the earlier shuttle.  After waiting for 3 other passengers and dropping them off first (living on the north side of the community, we are usually the last ones to be dropped off), we were home by 10:30PM.  As exhausted as we were, I can't imagine what we would have been like if we had to wait another 4 plus hours for the flight we were originally scheduled on.

I have to say, every airline agent we had to deal with on this trip exceeded our expectations in kindness, friendliness, and helpfulness. The agent at Dulles was even able to reroute our luggage so that the 3 bags we still had got on the earlier flight with us.  That alone amazed me.

Today we are readjusting to eastern time, so we are taking it slow, only doing what is necessary.  After spending 10 days when the sun never set, we are enjoying darkness again.

There was no food in the house so we went to Denny's for breakfast.  We did laundry (my clothes and the couple of Ray's things in the suitcase that made it), food shopping,  turned the house systems back on, backed up photos and movies, and tried to get through the email backlog.  By 3pm, we were both ready to collapse (9PM Norwegian time), so we just settled in to watch TV for the rest for the evening.  The goal is to stay awake until 9PM so we will begin to get back on schedule.

Despite the lost bag and the stress coming home, this was a great trip.  We loved seeing Norway. Each port was different and seeing the fjords over the last few days was magnificent.  I am very glad we had the opportunity to see this beautiful country.