The Warm Embrace of Chicago
I'm back in the warm (40 degrees, rain and snow mix) embrace of Chicago. I can report that the US Navy is doing a hell of a job in the Western Caribbean - not one pirate attack on my cruise ship. ;-)
I had a very good time on the cruise, and I have several hand-written posts that will make their way here in the future, but right now I'm digging out of email and paperwork, so I shall be brief. Southwest overbooked one leg of my flight, so I volunteered for a later trip. I ended up getting a travel credit for essentially my entire flight to Tampa and back, so it was a worthwhile bump, but meant that I didn't get home until 9:00 PM.
While it's fresh on my mind, I'd like to reflect on the idiocy of crowds, specifically debarking the cruise ship. Considering the need to move 5,000 people (2,500 off and 2,500 on) while cleaning 1,250 cabins in 8 hours and deal with immigration, one would expect that the debark process was slightly more complicated than "run for the gangway." It was, but the inability of people to follow directions made it more so. The debark was complicated enough that they held a meeting for passengers to discuss it, and played the meeting in continuous loop on the ship's TV.
First, all non-US citizens needed to see immigration at 6:45 in one of the lounges before anybody got to leave. Guess what we were doing at 7:30? Yep, trying to find several lost souls for processing.
Second, the ship had two debark options. One, available for US citizens only, was "self-assist." Basically, carry all your stuff yourself and leave. This resulted in a long line of people moving off - a line repeatedly stopped by non-US citizens having to come back aboard. (Mostly French-speaking Canadians, in my experience).
At any rate, I got off, made my flight (actually with extensive time to spare) and am back in Chicago. Where now I need to get back to work...
I had a very good time on the cruise, and I have several hand-written posts that will make their way here in the future, but right now I'm digging out of email and paperwork, so I shall be brief. Southwest overbooked one leg of my flight, so I volunteered for a later trip. I ended up getting a travel credit for essentially my entire flight to Tampa and back, so it was a worthwhile bump, but meant that I didn't get home until 9:00 PM.
While it's fresh on my mind, I'd like to reflect on the idiocy of crowds, specifically debarking the cruise ship. Considering the need to move 5,000 people (2,500 off and 2,500 on) while cleaning 1,250 cabins in 8 hours and deal with immigration, one would expect that the debark process was slightly more complicated than "run for the gangway." It was, but the inability of people to follow directions made it more so. The debark was complicated enough that they held a meeting for passengers to discuss it, and played the meeting in continuous loop on the ship's TV.
First, all non-US citizens needed to see immigration at 6:45 in one of the lounges before anybody got to leave. Guess what we were doing at 7:30? Yep, trying to find several lost souls for processing.
Second, the ship had two debark options. One, available for US citizens only, was "self-assist." Basically, carry all your stuff yourself and leave. This resulted in a long line of people moving off - a line repeatedly stopped by non-US citizens having to come back aboard. (Mostly French-speaking Canadians, in my experience).
At any rate, I got off, made my flight (actually with extensive time to spare) and am back in Chicago. Where now I need to get back to work...