The Ordeal Home from Amsterdam

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We had our last breakfast up in the Lido, and it was sort of bittersweet sitting there with our portside view of Amsterdam. But the knowledge that 24 hours from now that we’d be home brought a smile to my face. “What are you smiling about?” Sharon wanted to know.

We took our bags up to one of the lounges on Deck 2 to be near the gangway when they called “Red-3” expected sometime after 8:45AM. We met our Trivia Team of Joan, Jackie and Sandy. Steve had headed for the airport earlier for a much earlier flight. We said good-bye again, having already exchanged contact info the night before. They called our number, and it was time to leave.

Our bus dropped us off in the Departures 3 Terminal; yet, everyone on the bus needed to get to Departures 2. It was not a short walk, and at first, we were confused about where to go. Someone finally directed Delta passengers to Departures 2. First we had to get a boarding pass from one of those passport reading kiosks. Then we had to wait in the one line for all international travelers to check our bags at a nearly fully automated baggage check machine. Sharon kept telling at me to turn my suitcase on its side (just like the picture in front of me was showing). The only thing that isn’t automated is that the traveler needs to put the suitcase into the machine, and after it reads your boarding pass, the traveler then must attach the luggage tag to the suitcase. One person had 1 kilogram too much in his suitcase, and his only option to continue was to remove 1 kilogram worth of stuff from his suitcase. When Sharon tried to follow me, an agent let somebody cut in front of her from another line, because their machine wasn’t working. Then when Sharon tried to do her suitcase, the machine wouldn’t read her boarding pass. Eventually, the agent printed her another boarding pass. I’m not sure that this automation is all it’s cracked up to be because there were agents all over the place trying to resolve issues. There were more lines and more walking; but, at least now we had shed our heavy luggage. I was left with just my carry-on and Sharon’s carry-on and I was fulfilling my role as the pack mule. Sharon spotted the “Special Line” for passengers flying on Delta Airlines with US Passports. Well, that is pretty specific: We have our own special extra line, that is basically to make sure that we have all of the documents that we will need when we get to the front of the next line. I’m guessing that they’ve had a lot of problems with Americans not having their documents in order. There was just one person ahead of us in this line, plus the one person having their documents checked. It took us over 20 minutes to go through this line, largely because the agent was Miss Chatty Cathy. We then had lines for security, passport control and one to get our passports stamped. In all, it took 3 hours and 15 minutes from stepping out of the bus until we reached our gate. We were glad we hadn’t taken a tour on the way to the airport.

It was a long walk to the gate, and we passed a number of places to eat. Those places began to dwindle in number as we neared our gate. Within sight of our gate all that there was a sandwich kiosk with some sodas and chips. I opted for a sandwich, chips and coke, while Sharon got chips and a Sprite. It came to 17 Euros and change. And I was wondering what I was going to do with that final 20 Euro still in my wallet.

We waited for the flight, and there was a small delay for one thing or another; but, finally we boarded and were on our way. I just watched one movie after another, and the time mercifully passed. We texted Chuck and Marcy once we arrived in Minneapolis-St. Paul to let them know that we were on time. They’d graciously offered to pick us up once we arrived in Las Vegas. Sharon and I were both walking zombies by the time we reached Vegas, and I was certainly glad not to be driving home.





But we had another great trip and are looking forward to the next one which is Voyage of the Vikings next summer. We also booked a South Pacific Crossing for 2019 while on board. Luckily neither of them will require a flight home from Amsterdam. So our major trips for the next 2 years are set but I’m sure we’ll fill in some shorter ones too.

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