Debarkation/Return to USA - Saturday, June 1, 2019
Settle in for another flying adventure, folks!
We set alarms even though we know the ship docking always wakes us up. It’s a good thing we set those alarms, because somehow the ship docked smoothly and quietly. We gave ourselves about 30 minutes to get ready/get out since most of our luggage was already gone. It’s also a good thing we give ourselves a bit of extra time because this was taking longer than anticipated.
At some point Kara decided to dash down to claim her limoncello and meet me in
Cabanas. FYI we never dine in the Main Dining Rooms (MDR) for breakfast. The times are always earlier than we want (especially with Main/early dining) and we find the meals to be too fast and lacking options. A buffet, where I can pick & choose what I want and how much, is always going to win. We calmly sat back to dine and wait for our luggage character (Minnie) to be called. While waiting we chatted with our
Paloserver, Alvin.
Kara: It has been hit or miss whether you actually get Mickey waffles in the buffet on this last morning - and we DID!!!
Too soon Minnie was called. We headed down to Deck 3 to wait in the 2 dreaded lines to drop off our cruise survey and swipe off the ship.
We were likely off the ship around 8:30am? Fairly quickly we found our luggage and were happy/surprised there was no customs to contend with!
We hadn’t booked transfers to the airport and this time were very glad we didn’t. While the
taxi queuewas long, it moved quite quickly. We even got to jump ahead because there were only two of us (vs the larger families with a bunch of luggage needing a larger vehicle).
Traffic at the
BCN airport was crazier than anticipated. Once inside we went to work to reorganize our luggage, moving a ton of stuff from the morning carry-off the ship into the checked bags. Kara also needed a break, as she wasn’t feeling well. We had plenty of time as we were probably at the airport by 9am and our flight was at 12:50pm.
Sidenote: Either the night prior or that morning Kara tried to check us in for our flight, but said she couldn’t. I thought this was lack of signal or being out of data….
It was time to face the
American Airlines check-in - a place that had traumatized us just days earlier. We again went to the Priority line, as we’d booked Premium Economy for the return. At the desk our agent types. Looks at us. Types some more.
Uh oh. I lean over to Kara and offer something like,
“Since we didn’t arrive on American, I wonder if they think we never got here and canceled our tickets?” The agent then looks down the line to the (dreaded) station labeled “pasajeros con incedentes” (roughly “passengers with incidents” and picks up the phone. OH NO.
Kara: I realize now we didn’t include this the first time but we had visited this same lady last Saturday morning when we’d arrived/returned to the airport desperate for our luggage. We needed some direction as to how to get down to baggage claim even though we didn’t have security screening. She was, on that previous day, helpful. Today would sort of be a seemingly different story.
The agent then indicates for us to follow him to the dreaded station, where the same woman (Isabel) from last week is working.
No. NO. NO! Isabel gets to typing and yep - that’s exactly what happened.
American canceled our return tickets! Isabel says no problem she’ll just add us back, and… the flight is sold out.
Are you freaking kidding me?! At this point Kara and I were so beat down from the arrival debacle, we were in a joint “
Whatever”-mode. We were going home and had no time table so there was no reason to freak out (this time).
Isabel finally finds us a Barcelona to JFK flight that she joyfully proclaims, “…will get you home 2+ hours earlier!”
Whoopie. JFK?! Yet another of our most hated airports. And to keep adding insult to injury, of course Premium Economy was full and Isabel couldn’t figure out how to add us to the waitlist.
Yes, because this is the international flying fate we have on this trip. She keeps trying, but at this point urges us to head to security. This flight shows it boards at 10am! YIKES!
So off we go! We quickly toss our full bottles of water and eventually find our way to security. Through a snaking line we make our way through, but OOPS (Americans), Kara and I both leave our tablets in our bags and are made to take them out and go through the process again. (FYI there were no signs.)
After this we immediately find ourselves in an equally long line for Customs. (FYI I think there was an expedited line for a few countries, including the USA, but I’d forgotten USA in Spanish is EU and didn’t connect it as an option.) As we are in this line, I realize it’s now 10am! (I also noticed a small group in front of us are going to Japan and their boarding passes say they board at 9:50am.)
We eventually make it through and are trying to dash to our gate. We see every gate number except ours as we look around frantically and realize there is barely any A/C in this airport. It had to be at least
75F in there. We finally ask and the man points to a gate yes, but there are no seats anywhere. (Not all the seats are full, but rather there is
no seating at all.) We ask for the restrooms, which are hidden fully out of site behind walls facing the glass looking out onto the tarmac. Yet another line for the restroom, which only has 4 stalls, 3 sinks, and one dryer.
Exiting the bathroom we notice there is now a line snaking fully out into the walkway that ends at the doors of our gate. We hear no announcements and of the 2 lines to our gate, we don’t know which to stand in. We kinda guess. Eventually an employee comes by, needs to
inspect our passports, and puts a sticker on the back. Weird. Then another walks through inspecting carry-ons, noting if they needs to be gate-checked or not. Boarding moves along quite slowly.
We were about 2 people from the front of the line when we hear our names called over the speaker.
What now?! In a miracle Isabel was apparently able to get us on the Premium Economy waitlist and it came through. While we were in Premium Economy we were in the middle of a row of 4 instead of the window option of just 2 seats. At this point we’d take whatever we got.
We scan through and follow other passengers… to stairs leading down?! Then I remember a single article I read about having to bus to your plane. Yep, we load onto one of those busses with the joint in the middle. Exiting the bus there is no direction if we are to go up the stairs at the front or rear of the plane. Knowing we were in Premium Economy (PE) we headed for the stairs at the front. (How did they handle any passengers with disabilities?!)
Our aisle seatmates were obviously already seated and settled in. Thus, we were tossing items in our seats trying to figure out what to put in the overhead vs keeping at our seats. Since we were in the first row of PE there was a divider/bulkhead wall, so we couldn’t stow our backpacks on the floor in front of us.
I spent a good deal of the flight typing this report; it was the only reason I packed the portable keyboard all the way there and back. FYI I felt stupid that I couldn’t get my in-seat screen to deploy, as I thought I’d tried every button and knob in reach. Apparently not. On this note the
earphones plug into the back/under the armrest, where even on my knees and using my phone’s flashlight, I could barely find the port! After all that frustration, I settled in for “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindewald”. The first film in this series I just couldn’t get into and thought a flight with no interruptions would help. I really enjoyed this follow-up film; it’s what I thought the first one would be and am looking forward to the next.
The
lunch was pretty ok; I got the cauliflower mac & cheese. Along with a small salad and roll there was also some chocolate ganache cold pudding. The snack, which Kara can probably detail, was a set of (to me) disgusting options to the point I only ate the dry cracker straws.
Kara: I have absolutely no recollection of anything other than a not great container of ice cream. The premium economy option was nice but I felt hindered by not having my backpack beneath the seat in front of me and thus I was anxious the whole flight. I prefer having my things in reach - like I said - anxious flyer.
About 6 of our 8 hours in we started chatting about our
connection, primarily what time it was. While the in-flight screen showed a connection to IND, there was no time listed! We knew Isabel had told us we had like an hour and ten minutes, which was perfectly “legal”, but this is JFK! How would we make that with customs, claiming, & re-checking luggage?!
As we are landing an announcement comes over telling people on 4 specific connections (IND included) to see the gate agent immediately upon landing.
Ok. Long before this Kara had gone into “over it” mode and we brainstormed if we missed this connection. She said she’d either get a car to drive home or even take Frontier (an airline we avoid at all costs). I offered, “No, we’ll take Southwest… if it flew out of JFK.” (FYI it doesn’t.) As long as we were back in our country (or even Canada!) we’d get ourselves home!
Exiting the plane we see 4 taped signs of the connections, one being IND. We approach and see neon orange
Express Connections envelopes with our names on them.
We’re told to keep the envelopes in our hands on top, which will expedite us to the front of lines. Ok.
We go to get in the LONG
customs line (it’s JFK - and yes, remarkably they are still playing the Tapestry of Nations music from
EPCOT that I remember from my 2011 trek through JFK!), but are looking if there’s somewhere else we are to go. (I initially looked for Mobile Passport, but it seemed this magical Express Connection would trump that.) Kara goes to ask, we are directed to another queue, but it dumps us out at the same place. We use the Customs kiosks, and with those receipts, are luckily plucked directly in front of a Customs window. As we wait, our little bright orange EC group grows to about 8 or 10 of us.
There is miscommunication that the expedited window is somehow taking regular people. As the last passenger in our Customs window leaves, the Customs agent closes the window and leaves! At this point, I’m on it and walk down the line to the airport employee trying to organize the lines. When I tell her what happened her eyes grow big and says she’ll be right there to move us.
FINALLY we get through Customs, get to the baggage carousel and our bags haven’t dropped yet. Ugh. Not too long we get our bags, dash to the
Baggage Re-Check area, literally toss them and take off. We are in Terminal A and our connection is in C. We find ourselves at the airline check-in desks area and luckily affirm we are headed in the right direction. At TSA we’re directed to
Pre-Check (which we unexpectedly already have on our boarding passes), and luckily there were only about 4 people ahead of us - a miracle!
After that I’m the one scoping the gate numbers. First we have a long
connection hall to traverse and then we arrive at like Gate 12? We need gate 31. Seriously. I’m basically jogging at this point on behalf of both of us, as Kara is in “given up” mode.
Kara: I was actually jogging as well - and let’s be clear - I don’t jog.
Huffing and puffing at the gate, we still need to get
seats assigned. We were supposed to have Main Cabin Extra on this leg, but this plane didn’t offer that. This time our seats weren’t even together. Kara asks how much time before boarding, as she has to go to the bathroom. The response? 8 minutes. More jogging/dashing!
At the gate we’re basically just trying to text/message people we made it back to the USA when we hear the announcement our flight is now delayed for maintenance.
REALLY?! Luckily only about 10 minutes later we are boarding a
tiny jet with that terrible 1-2 seat configuration.
Whatever. Just get us home.
Luckily we effortlessly returned to IND, which we casually strolled, now that all the upheaval was behind us!
Next up - What’s Next?
I describe this trip in 3 parts: 1) best
Disney Cruise Line “cruise” experience of our lives, 2) port adventures were hit or miss, and 3) airline nightmare.
In an embarrassment of riches, we were traveling together again less than 72 hrs later. We had the opportunity to attend
Disney Institute’s inaugural Women’s Leadership Summit (with complimentary registration). Clearly no one bypasses that opportunity, so Tuesday we were headed to
Disney’s Contemporary Resort!
Some of you may also know that the next Thursday
Disney Cruise Line announced their Fall 2020 sailings, which is what we were waiting for. (I will be leading, and perhaps also Kara joining, a Rome/London study abroad May 2020, so we needed to push the next cruise to a later/regular fall time.)
We were hoping for a New England option (with better ports than in the past), but no dice. So we got our options down to a September 5 night Halloween Double Dip on the Fantasy or a November 5 night Merrytime (San Juan to Miami) on the Magic. There were pros & cons to both. We went with the latter based solely on the lower cost. (And honestly after the amazing experience we just had on the Magic, this is the first time we actually used a specific ship as a factor in our decision! This is an especially big deal for me to give up having a Vanellope’s/Sweet on You feature!) We’re both wanting to do some home improvement projects, so we need to keep this trip cost low and may even consider skipping it altogether. We know there are at least 2 BIG trips we want to do 2021-2023 and those take priority. Stay tuned!
P.S. Once home we did electronically submit refund requests to
American Airlines, since we didn’t get the Business Class cabin we paid for. It said if we didn’t get a response in a week - which of course happened - to submit a follow-up email. Remarkably, about a week after that Kara and I each received our notable refunds. And yes it was actual refunded “cash” to our credit cards, not ridiculous airline points or vouchers!
Disclaimer: I (Gayle) am a travel agent with Authorized Disney Travel Planner agency.
THANKS FOR READING! Love the comments & questions!
Gayle