NO PLACE LIKE HOME

According to Dorothy and her ruby slippers.

Of course, all Dorothy had to do was click her heels three times and Wham, Bam, she was home.

She never tried to get off a mega cruise ship with 4,000 other steaming passengers, find her baggage, and navigate the seemingly never ending line through Customs and Immigration, and then find some sort of transport home.

Now there is the easy way, actually two and the not so easy way.

We recommend for the future, the easy way which is to request the earliest departure, 7:00AM and self-transport your LUG-gage off the ship.  No lines, no wait, just head to a prescheduled Uber, or Taxi or Whatevah, and Wham, Bam you too can be in your own kitchen sipping you're favorite brew and snacking on whatever you do for breakfast, in record time.  Much like the Tevini’s did. 

Then of course there is the Tempelshif method.  Send your bags off on the early schedule, leisurely do your morning routine, then head to the Windjammer buffet for a leisurely breakfast with the rest of the passengers that didn’t self-transport. 

And then, you call for a wheel chair for Donna who has an artificial ankle, and get whisked straight to their Lug-gage, straight through customs and straight to the curb where friends are waiting to whisk them off to the friend’s apartment to relax before their flight home.  

Or the not so easy method. Which is to do the leisurely breakfast with the Tempelshifs.  But then, minus the whisking wheelchair, doom yourself to getting off with the same 4,000 passengers, run the baggage gauntlet, and drag it through the afore-mentioned never ending line through Customs.  After which you find yourself outside with 3,000 folks who haven’t pre-scheduled their Uber or have friends willing to run the traffic gauntlet. 

And where you find your Uber app isn’t working, and see that the same never-ending line is now snaking ‘round ‘n’ ‘round in the hot sun, waaaayyy over there for the taxi stand.

Much like the Wacky American Tourist and Ever-Lovely Dragon Lady did.

After fiddling with HIS Uber app for 30 minutes, and HER trying to download the App to her phone to see if it worked any better, HE spots a cab that had just dropped off a fare before getting into a very long line of cabs, waiting to get to the taxi stand.  Fearless Chucky now decides to make a mad dash across 4 lanes of incoming, Ubers, Family Friends, Taxis and Whatevah to snag the cab, pretending to not know there was a line to the Taxi Stand - Waaaaayyyy over there.

Confused but happy to have a fare farther than just the airport half-mile away, the Taxi driver grabbed their Lug-gage, threw it in the trunk and whisked them Home to South Highland Drive in no time.

It was a lot easier in Amsterdam, or Venice, where they were able to schedule a Shuttle - to and from - prior to those cruises but… Whatevah!

Once back at Casa d’ Chaos, unpacked and lounging on their very own patio, sipping freshly ground Chucky Blend Coffee, he began to compose the previous post on the last night at sea.

This post and wrap up was prepared nearly 5 days later after he had a chance to compose his thoughts, while spending 2 days composing, editing, re-composing and finally sending off, his rather concise E-mail to RCCL Corporate, outlining most of what you read here during the cruise.

The RCCL Senior VP of Hotel Operations responded almost immediately. However, he was aboard the maiden voyage of the Spectrum of The Seas going through the English Channel, and had to postpone the phone call Chucky expected, until The VP returned to headquarters.

So here is the not so usual wrap up.  Since the blog pretty much said it all and there are no particular Hot Tips, we'll just say…

It was a very interesting trip.  
Not enough was said about how marvelous the ship and all her amenities, available activities etc. were, you can read all about it on the RCCL website. Nor did we comment on how outstanding the overall crew was, all of whom had that patented RCCL Smile and Can Do attitude, other than those mentioned with fondness including:

Our Cabin Steward Carlos who was Superior responding immediately to any and all requests, which weren’t many as the cabin was perfect.

The Oh-So lovely and accommodating Alexandra in the Schooner Bar.

The capable but frustrated Head Waiter Rado who really did his best to overcome the deficiencies of the Kitchen.

Hotel Manager Irfan and Restaurant Ops Manager Mustafa, who also tried to make the cruise pleasant but still have their work cut out for them.

Several comments came in from many faithful followers wondering why we would ever cruise with RCCL again, or expressed their hesitation to cruise at all.

Our response is: it really is a coin toss for us and much depends on the response we get to our critique, and the phone call from corporate.

As we have said time and time again, we aren’t difficult travelers, we just want what is advertised:

Hot food Hot, Cold food Cold, Beverages done right, a clean cabin and a comfy bed. 

Simple, no?  Apparently not as easy as it sounds this time.

Perhaps some time in the future.

Then again, if a GREAT DEAL comes along, ya never know…

As usual, we hope you enjoyed traveling with the Wacky American Tourist and Ever-Lovely Dragon Lady, even though some of it was distressing.  Your comments and observations would be greatly appreciated.

The picture album as limited as it is, is up and can be accessed by clicking the link at the top of the blog in the welcome section.

The Blog is already in Chronological order and has been from the beginning so if you missed something or just want to experience it all again, have at it, or just pick a particular episode in the archive list on the right.

And with that we offer our usual NOWAT Benediction.

Work like you don’t need the Money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.
And during life's darkest moments remember the 4 most important words in any language:

"This Too Shall Pass!"

Ciao 4 Now

Uncle Chuck & The so happy you came along, 

Dragon Lady