August 26, 2023 Return to Boston & fly home
Zuiderdam arrived in Boston about 6 a.m. this morning. The overnight voyage was rough until about 90 minutes from Boston. It had rained during the night but was just cloudy after sunrise. The temperature was 21° C, the sky was cloudy and the wind was only SSW 5 km/hour.
We were up and having breakfast in a crowded Lido Market by 7 a.m. and had a quick chat with Cee Kaye and Brad. When we returned to the stateroom the bed had already been changed, but our used towels were still available in the bathroom. We gathered our backpacks and jackets and went to the Deck 1 Atrium to wait. Cee Kaye and Brad were also there. Their assigned time for seeing the United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) agents was 8 a.m., while our time was 9:30 a.m. Their flight home was much earlier than ours.
Before disembarking the ship, all passengers had to proceed to a designated area for mandatory face-to-face passport inspections by the USCBP agents. Americans and Canadians went to the World Stage while other nationalities proceeded to the Rolling Stone Lounge. Everyone was assigned times depending on the colour of the baggage tags issued which indicated the assigned time for inspections and leaving the ship. Consideration of flight times was calculated for if you took one of the shuttles to the airport or to a central hotel. The process started at 7:30 a.m. about 15 minutes late, and by 10 a.m. all passengers should have left the ship. We had a transfer to the airport arranged by the ship.
The inspection line was short at 8:30 a.m., so we went to the World Stage and the inspector looked at the passport and that was all. We then climbed the stairs to Deck 3 where the gangway to the terminal was located. After a game of Yatzee we decided to leave the ship, after donning our N95 face masks. In the terminal people were asked their tag number, for collecting the luggage. Our luggage tag number was still being unloaded from the ship’s hold along with the two earlier luggage tag colours. Soon the terminal staff announced that we could find our luggage in the sea of suitcases in the terminal baggage claim area. Even though our colour red was divided into 1, 2 and 3 the luggage was not totally separated that way. We quickly found our bags and were directed to the awaiting airport transfer busses. The busses were separated by airport terminal. We were seated by 9:30 a.m. and waited about 15 minutes for the bus to fill. From when the bus backed out of its parking spot at the cruise terminal to stopping at terminal B it took less than 13 minutes. About half the time that it had taken us by taxi from the airport to our hotel about 2 km from the cruise terminal over five weeks ago.
At the airport we checked in less than five hours before boarding. We did not have a Wi-Fi package on the ship so we hadn’t checked in before we got to the airport. There was no one else at the check-in counter, but other passengers from the bus gathered as we finished.
The security line was fairly short and took less than 15 minutes from getting in line to tying up our shoelaces. Every electronic device had to be pulled out - phone, laptop, tablet, GPS and Kindle plus liquids. You had to remove your shoes and non digital watch, too.
Once through, we had four hours to explore terminal B. This was the first time we had ever flown out of Boston’s Logan Airport. We checked the Visa Companion app for the location of their lounge at Boston airport and it was in terminal E connected with Air France. We passed well known coffee places like Starbucks, Dunkin and Peets. We chose to have chicken burgers at B. Good, in a food court, for lunch. Then got coffees at Dunkin on the way back to our gate. With more than 8,500 steps already registered we just found seats by the gate and waited a little over an hour before boarding began.
Boarding started on time, but there was a 15 minute pause before people started again to board the plane. The plane was scheduled to leave at 2:45 p.m. for Toronto but it was 3:20 p.m. when the plane was pushed back. Touched down in Toronto was at about 5 p.m.. Our connection was not scheduled to take off until 7 p.m. The walk to Canada Customs and Immigration was about 2,100 steps. The kiosk area was busy but even the photo taking went smoothly. It took less than 10 minutes to clear customs and follow the connecting flights signs once more. We checked the Visa Companion app for the location of their associated lounge at Toronto airport which was Plaza Premium Lounge. The dinner buffet was rice, noodles, chicken tetrazzini, meatballs and coleslaw. Alcoholic drinks , coffee and tea were included. The soft drink dispenser was out of order.
Once we finished dinner, we walked to our gate which had a boarding time of 6:20 p.m. for the 7 p.m. flight. Boarding went well, but as the pilot thought the baggage was almost loaded another cart arrived which delayed push back by 30 minutes. The plane landed just after 9 p.m. at home. The luggage was one of the last on the carousel. There were lots of taxis waiting and we were home by 10 p.m. By coincidence we had the same taxi driver as we had in May when we flew home from Seattle.
Total steps today 13,552
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