Arrivederci, Roma and Pacific Princess World Cruise 2010

ROME, ITALY--Saturday, May 15 or Day 107 of a 107-Day World Cruise

We were up at 5:30 a.m. to finish our last-minute packing and get ready to congregate in the Cabaret Lounge at 6:30 a.m. It seemed fitting that rain was pouring outside. We were incredibly lucky with the weather on the port days during the last three-and-one-half months. Only in Fiji and the Bay of Islands did we experience rain. At 6:25 a.m., we made our last trip down the hallway on Deck 7 to the front of the ship to take the elevators to Deck 5. From the Cabaret Lounge we were directed to debark on Deck 3, using our Platinum key cards for the last time, and claim all our luggage before we boarded the bus from the Port of Civitavecchia to the airport in Rome. Our guide on the bus tried to provide us with information about the port and Rome, but no one seemed to be listening so she eventually left us to our thoughts as we ended the trip of a lifetime. The rain continued during the entire bus ride.

Once inside the airport with all our luggage, our group divided into four extremely slow moving lines, two for those flying to Atlanta and two for those journeying to JFK Airport in New York City. After standing in line for an hour, we received our rewards of paper tickets and red tags on our luggage that was to be checked. However, we still had to carry all our luggage, and none of it had been weighed. We went the direction the agent indicated and turned the corner into another large room where we were directed to another long winding line that went a little quicker. The prize when we reached the front of the line was the weighing of our two pieces of luggage to be checked (both of our large bags weighed in at slightly under 50 pounds each) and directions to another, even longer winding line to complete a security check. The agent told us that our flight was already boarding but we should be able to make it. (Wait a minute, we have been up since before dawn. Our bus made it to the airport in less time than expected because the traffic was extremely light on a Saturday morning and now there was the possibility that we might not make our flight? What was wrong with this picture?)

Unfortunately, we made our major mistake after completing the security check. In addition to having Sara take off her shoes, the agent asked her to remove her blazer and hat. In a different line, Ken was requested to remove everything from his computer bag. When each had reassembled all their belongings after their checks and could not find each other, they both assumed that the other had gone ahead. However, Ken had both airline tickets while Sara possessed both passports. When Sara got to the final checkpoint, where she was required to show her passport before boarding the shuttle bus to the airplane, she inquired about Ken. The agent said that she thought he had already boarded the bus. Sara asked how this was possible because he did not have his passport but the agent simply nodded. Obviously the language barrier had come into play. When Sara did not see him on the shuttle, she returned to the checkpoint and waited for him to appear, which he did after another five minutes. The lesson to be learned from this near fiasco was to have each member of your party in possession of all their important documents at all times and determine places to meet after each checkpoint if you became separated.

We were the last passengers to board the plane at approximately 10 minutes before it was to take off. Being last meant that finding overhead storage spaces for our carry-on luggage was almost impossible. It was scattered all over the plane, which meant we would be the last to debark in New York City because we had to collect all our items. As a result of the backup of airplanes on the runways, the plane was an hour late taking off. But the captain announced that we should still arrive on time, which we did. Optimistically, we thought that the ordeal we would face at the JFK Airport would be much easier. Wasn't air traffic usually lighter on Saturday afternoon? The real question should have been, "How naive can a couple who had just traveled around the world be?"

The plane did arrive in New York City on time. Then all the passengers waited in a dismal hallway for almost a half hour before we proceeded through customs. What we did not know was that was the easy part. Waiting for baggage that sporadically appeared consumed another hour. (The baggage handlers must have taken advantage of their scheduled breaks despite the large number of travelers.) Then a security guard directed to an even longer line at the other side of the baggage collection area, where we waited with all our luggage to enter a door that we had no idea of what was on the other side. The security guard muttered something about these types of tie-ups always occurring when airline carriers tried to land more 2,500 passengers at the same time. Sara went to the front of the line to ask the airport employee if the restrooms were on the other side of the mammoth area. The woman told her that once a passenger crossed to the side on which we were waiting in line, that person could not go back to the other side where the bathrooms were. Fortunately, Sara did not have to use the facilities that badly.

Once we passed through the door, we found another line that snaked along. Once we reached a certain point, an employee relieved us of our checked luggage, and we waited single file for one employee (yes, only one) sitting behind a desk to check our passports. The whole ordeal from departing the airplane to getting to the gates where we were to check in for the final leg of our flights took three hours. And we had thought that a five-hour layover at JFK Airport was excessive.

Because all the gates were in use for earlier flights and our departure gate had not yet been assigned, we waited in the lounge area of Gate 12 with Rita, Sara's friend from the Princess Book Club, and her husband, who were flying to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a seven-mile drive home. We had a three-and-one-half hour drive from Fort Lauderdale. Rita and her husband had taken a world cruise on the Pacific Princess in 2008 and had returned for a second great voyage in 2010 because the price was right.

We were discussing the ports we had visited when Sara heard herself say, "I think that I liked Pompeii more than I liked Petra. While Petra was better in geography and architecture, Pompeii showed more of what daily life was like at the time." Six months ago, Petra and Pompeii would have never been mentioned in the same sentence by any of us. Is this what traveling around the world does for a person?

We boarded our final flight on time and then waited an hour for take off. Our pilot informed us not to be concerned because the airline had padded the schedule due to the construction work being done at the JFK Airport so we should arrive in Fort Lauderdale on time, which we did just before 11 p.m. We collected our suitcases and our one-way rental car and took off for Bradenton. This was Ken's idea to drive straight through but Sara did her part by singing along with the radio to keep him awake. Sad to say, the cruise did nothing to enhance her off-key singing. When we arrived home at 3:15 a.m., we were greeted by our cat, Foxy, who acted as if we had never been away and only wanted us to pet her.

We described our adventures with the airline in detail to remind us why we were so satisfied that we determined early that we should sail around the world rather than fly between different ports. The three airports that we flew in or out of in China were no better in building happy memories of air travel today. We were now even happier that we decided that a cruise was the best way to go around the globe.

While this will be the last entry about our actual trip, we promise our readers at least one more entry in which we will philosophize about what the trip meant to us and what we learned. We promise that entry will follow in less than a week.

Arrivederci for now!