May the 4th be with you and all of that. The alarm went off by 5, and it was full speed ahead. We all met in the lobby by 5:45. Check out was quick, and then we found the elevator to the parking garage and worked our way to the car.
Even with a stop for gas, it was a quick drive to the airport. Rental car return was easy (and the girl checking us back in showed me that Canada was requesting the car be sent straight back to Canada, presumably because it was such a nice car), and because we were flying Southwest, we just had to follow the signs to the terminal. Check in was pretty quick, and soon we were dividing and conquering for security. Pre-check won, by the way.
Once gateside, Nick found some Starbucks drink he had wanted to try, and I found the logical stuff with the crud that I was developing: bottled water. Everyone met back up at what felt like the biggest gate area I had ever seen, where Nick and I ate banana bread from Robert is Here, he enjoyed his Starbucks drink, and we all talked about just how smoothly this vacation had gone.
Boarding was right on time, and despite Kim and John boarding way after us (we did EBCI, they didn’t), Kim was able to sit in the aisle seat next to me. John found an aisle seat two rows behind us. The plane was fully boarded (and full) and pushed back early. And then…we taxied. And then we crept forward. After awhile the pilot came on and said that due to weather and ATC staffing, they were spreading out departures. So we were in line and we would continue creeping forward. It should only be about 15-20 minutes.
Actually it was an hour of creeping forward in a line of planes before we were in the air. As the pilot put it “ATC kind of lied”. But…we made it into the air, and we had been scheduled to have a nearly 3 hour layover in Baltimore, so we were fine.
We landed in Baltimore nearly an hour late so a few people hustled off the plane to make connections and then the rest of us deplaned. Kim, John, Nick and I headed for the food court. I think most of them got food from either Arby’s or Mickey D’s. I got a burrito bowl from Chipotle, where I was immediately reminded that Qdoba is far superior. Why is Chipotle’s chicken so miserably spicy? I mean, I needed the sinus clear-out but…it’s spicy.
Lunch eaten, we headed for our gate area and pretty soon after it was time to board our flight to Boston. I think Kim was again able to snag the aisle seat next to me, and this time John was able to sit basically across the aisle. They had better boarding positions for this flight.
This flight up to Boston was reasonably uneventful, but long. Due to storms in Boston, we ended up circling over Rhode Island before basically following the Cape Cod Coastline into Logan. But, we made it safely, and, because it was a weekend in New England, it was rainy and cold.
Deplaning was pretty quick, and we found our way down to baggage claim easily enough. Our bags appeared surprisingly quickly, and pretty soon we were making to 5 mile hike (only a slight exaggeration) from terminal B to Central Parking. Once in Central Parking, Nick found the car surprisingly easily, the boys loaded up the luggage, I programmed the GPS, and we were on our way.
It was a remarkably easy drive back to NH, (filled with lots of digital billboards about buckling up and not speeding with Star Wars references), where we dropped off Nick’s parents and then headed home to unpack, load me up with Mucinex, and crash for the night.
Final thoughts:
We still love Disney Cruises.
5 night cruises are a definite sweet spot for cruise length. It was a much more comfortable cruise length than the 4 night, and it’s much more affordable than the 7 night.
I think this was our best serving team ever.
Our room hostess was the most ninja-like of any of the room hosts we’ve had thus far.
I’m so grateful that getting to FL went so much more smoothly than the last time we flew in the night before a cruise.
We really enjoyed the Everglades.
The Residence Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport-Cruiseport is a great option if you’ve got a bunch of people (or a couple of couples) to find a hotel for after a late night flight.
I am shocked by how smoothly this trip went.
The crud I picked up wasn’t Covid or the flu, per home rapid tests, but when it finally hit in earnest, it hit hard. And then I was significantly better two days later.
I’m still a big fan of national parks.
Fairchild Garden was fantastic. I’d love to go back to see the half we didn’t get to.
Prepaying for our parking at Logan was a decent money saver and was really convenient.
Getting the 7 passenger crossover for the 4 of us for this type of trip was perfect. It was very driveable, but also had ample room for us and our luggage and coolers.
I can’t wait until our next cruise!
We still love Disney Cruises.
5 night cruises are a definite sweet spot for cruise length. It was a much more comfortable cruise length than the 4 night, and it’s much more affordable than the 7 night.
I think this was our best serving team ever.
Our room hostess was the most ninja-like of any of the room hosts we’ve had thus far.
I’m so grateful that getting to FL went so much more smoothly than the last time we flew in the night before a cruise.
We really enjoyed the Everglades.
The Residence Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport-Cruiseport is a great option if you’ve got a bunch of people (or a couple of couples) to find a hotel for after a late night flight.
I am shocked by how smoothly this trip went.
The crud I picked up wasn’t Covid or the flu, per home rapid tests, but when it finally hit in earnest, it hit hard. And then I was significantly better two days later.
I’m still a big fan of national parks.
Fairchild Garden was fantastic. I’d love to go back to see the half we didn’t get to.
Prepaying for our parking at Logan was a decent money saver and was really convenient.
Getting the 7 passenger crossover for the 4 of us for this type of trip was perfect. It was very driveable, but also had ample room for us and our luggage and coolers.
I can’t wait until our next cruise!
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