Wednesday - 3 days before Embarkation
It seems no matter how far in advance we book the cruise, the last day before leaving is alway hectic. I really tried hard to plan ahead and make it an easy last day but there are just some things that have to wait until the last minute.
This morning I had a laundry list of things to do including going to the bank for cash to take on the cruise. Not so much cash to spend before and after, not all that much is needed. But small bills and a supply of other cash is one thing we don't leave home without. Today I got $450 in cash, 50 ones, 100 5's, 100 10's and 200 20's. The ones, fives and tens will be used some between now and embarkation mainly for tipping. There will be the skycap at the airport when we check our bags at curbside. There will be somebody at the rental car place when we get there and another sombody at the hotel we're staying at for pre cruise. In addition our Southwest flight out of Kansas City will connect with a lunchtime layover in Orlando so we'll no doubt have lunch there and buy a refrigerator magnet- I forgot last time.
Daughters Sydney (19) and Whitney (17) are staying behind to finish finals before joining us on Friday and they'll need some travel day money so some cash will go for that too. In addition, they'll be driving to the airport and leaving one of our vans so we can all come back home together after the trip is over. I always hide enough cash in the vehicle someplace to get us out of the long term parking lot. I just remembered that this is an old habit that still lingers from when we were first married and went to Vegas a lot. It was a really good idea to have money for parking when we got back as that might be ALL we have when we get back
We are not gamblers.
I used to think I was but finally realized I could buy another cruise each year for what I spent (lost) on gambling. All of the sudden the notion that gambling was good "entertainment" (what all losers say) became a silly excuse easily replaced by TIVO.
We own a delivery business and have some vehicle moving to do before we get out of town so we're going to go do that then get manicures and pedicures secretly so the kids won't know and want one too. Sneaky huh?
Now it's up to the airport and the Comfort Suites Hotel for our pre-flight hotel stay. I must admit being a little hessitant about the girls closing up the house when they follow us to Florida in a couple days. I left very specific instructions though: NO DRINKING, NO VISITORS, NO SMOKING, NO PARTIES which I think should just about cover it. Still I wonder if they will leave a faucet running and we will come home to a huge swimming pool where our house once was in a couple weeks.
I tend to worry about silly things like that
Arriving at the Comfort Suites it didn't help put my mind to rest when they practically threw us and our luggage to the curb and kept on driving.....as though they had someplace to be.
Oh well. It's a decent hotel, a step above the Sleep Inn (dive) we normally book for a preflight hotel, comes with breakfast and a ride to the hotel it more than serves it's purpose.
The cool part is that there's free Wi-Fi Internet access and a printer so I can print our boarding passes for tomorrows Southwest flight at midnight.
I understand that this is important with Southwest as the low-cost airline has no assigned seats. Rather you are assigned (or you request a little bit in advance if you're on the ball) a boarding zone. When they call that zone (earlier the better) its pretty much a free-for-all which I imagine spurs lots of pushing and shoving reminiscent of a 70's rock concert when the crowd starts chanting "OPEN UP THE F***ING DOORS" over and over, hot bodies pressed against one another and....well I will just stop right there.
We'll see soon enough what the reality of it all is but I am ready for whatever it takes to get a good seat...like it matters....they're all coach.
I'll reserve judgement until after our first experience with the SWA system tomorrow but we will prevail no matter what it takes.
Thursday 2 days before Embarkation
Southwest Airlines makes low-cost easy to swallow.
"Tricky" is not a term normally associated with an airline. Neither these days are Vanilla Wafers, Honey Roasted Peanuts, Champagne and happy employees. Southwest breaks free of the all too visible cost-cutting, downsizing, and reality television-quality survivor-like ambiance that pervades the airline industry today.
And this really is a low cost airline.
Our round trip fare from Kansas City to Fort Lauderdale was about 40% less than the rest who were all in the same ballpark.
The only visible sign of low cost operations, to me, is the no reserved seat policy where passengers are divided into three groups, A, B and C depending on when they get their boarding passes (first-come first-served= fair enough) and a miscellaneous group which includes those traveling with kids under 4 (one adult per kid), the elderly and handicapped which get on first.
On board the anticipated pushing and shoving to get a good seat remarkably did not happen. While both legs of our flight were pretty full, we were able to find seats together first in a coveted exit row with extra room and then in the front row of the plane, a great location for antsy flyers like me who can?t wait to bound off the plane and into vacation land.
While seating procedure I was worried about did not in fact resemble a rock concert of the 70's the service did. Roll back the clock to a day when they (the airline industry) gave a dang about us and you have Southwest Airlines. Absent were the paltry bags of pretzels begrudgingly doled out by Delta or American Airlines. Here it was crisp Vanilla Wafers and Honey Roasted Peanuts. Was I dreaming?
Maybe it doesn't seem like such a big deal reading this. Actually sitting here now writing this it doesn't seem like as big of a deal as it was. But it was. It was a little surprising thing that made a difference.
And isn't it always the little things that DO make a difference?
Little things like the gate attendants.
Gone here are the sour employees who simply count heads and shuffle the passengers on to the plane. Here are employees who actually, genuinely seem to like their jobs. I suspect that the managers make this happen and the attitude flows freely throughout the company. Waiting for the flight to begin I looked out of the window and noticed ground crew with the same dang happy look on their faces too.
A real good example of this happened right before my eyes
There was an elderly lady in a wheelchair who got on our flight in Kansas City. Connecting in Orlando she continued on the same flight as we were on. Just prior to boarding the gate attendant got on the loudspeaker for a special announcement. It seems that it was this lady's 100th birthday and the gate attendant (seems like a very impersonal term for this bubbly person) led us in a singing of Happy Birthday to her and presented her with a bottle of champagne! I'd never seen this on an airline before.
Technically our flights were flawless and our luggage handled without incident. I think we might have even waited less time for it in Fort Lauderdale but by then I might have been anticipating good stuff from this outfit so much that efficiency in this area just seemed to be a given.
Southwest Airlines: Good company, Happy employees, Great fares
After collecting our luggage we headed to the shuttle area to be taken to our Dollar car rental. Today seemed to be our day as the car was ready to go the whole transaction of getting into the car took maybe ten minutes from the time we got on the shuttle bus until we were behind the wheel heading out to get lost in Fort Lauderdale for the first of many times today.
Kinda
We'd brought Barbie along who never leads us in the wrong direction.
Oh wait, do you know about Barbie?
Fondly named "Barbie" our Garmin GPS unit (doesn't Barbie sound better already?) had been programmed with all the possible destinations I could think of for while we were in Florida. A mere touch of a button and Barbie was patiently telling me where to go.
Most of the time.
Sometimes Barbie can be a bitch.
Ok maybe I am mistaking Barbie being forceful and direct for being a bitch
Never mind that I turned her off initially, fully confident of my superior skills in navigating the Fort Lauderdale area that I ?knew like the back of my hand??.words that would come back to haunt me when I got lost and turned Barbie back on.
How she knew I was lost was beyond me but she did and instead of driving directions way in advance she started treating me like a little bad kid with much more specific directions. Before, when she trusted me, she?d say to turn in .4 miles, now she said it in feet.
I would have hung my head in shame but that might have angered her further as I suspect she?d know I was not being safe and really come down hard on me.