Going home

Saturday 15th

The last day of a cruise is no longer a holiday. Everything feels a bit too coordinated and programmed. We have to be out of our room by 8:30; breakfast finishes in the Main Dining Room at 9am; we have to wait in a set location until it's time to leave the ship; and so on.

We managed a leisurely breakfast, sitting with Julie and Chris (our evening table companions) and staying while the waiters cleared up around us. We did not have too long to wait in the Queen's Room until our batch was called (the second-last one of the day) and it was our turn to leave the ship, collect our luggage and get it put on the coach for the airport.

It took an hour to get to the airport in Rome. Our guide talked for the first 10 minutes about the area through which we passed, but then allowed us to unwind or sleep or chat.

We got our luggage as quickly as we could and joined the check-in queue, but we were so far back that it took about 90 minutes before we could check in. It’s not good to have every coach arriving at the same time for a charter flight, and to only have 3 desks open to process passengers! We decided there was no point going to a lounge in the terminal, as we only had about an hour before departure. Instead we found somewhere selling wine and sat waiting for our flight to depart. It seemed to be running late as ‘boarding’ was not showing on the board. However, when it finally showed up and we walked to the gate, we were told to hurry up as the last bus was waiting. It appears that ‘boarding’ had been showing at the gate for some time but not showing on other boards. All of us on that last bus had been caught out and told to hurry.

The pilot announced a slight delay while we waited for the last of the luggage to be loaded, and said that our flight slot would be held for us. The flight was good and arrived earlier than expected. David and I were among the first through immigration but then had to wait about 2 hours before the officials decided that our luggage was not on the plane – along with luggage from quite a few others who had been as late in the queue as we had. It seems that the last of the luggage had not been loaded, or the captain had been too concerned about missing his flight slot and left without it. Evidently there are often luggage problems from Rome.

We needed to get to my house as quickly as possible as David was due to help run a ball that night. A shuttle bus pulled up outside the airport as we reached the stop and got us to our car very effectively. The drive home was good, with fast-flowing traffic.

It was fortunate that David had put a suit in his carry-on luggage, and so he had something to wear at the ball. Our suitcases finally arrived at midday on Monday.