Leaving The Magic

Finally it was time for us to leave the Magic. We packed up the rest of our stuff into our carry-on bag and hung out in the room until it was time for breakfast. Or at least that was our plan until our room host came in and told us we had to be out of our room by 8AM. This, sadly, is typical DCL, where they act like you are their favorite people in the world until the last day and then can't wait to be rid of you. Our breakfast wasn't until 8:30, so we didn't understand why we had to vacate the room before then just so Disney can meet its timeline for turn-around. So we headed upstairs to stand in the lobby for breakfast in Lumierie's.

We said farewell to our servers (but not before they got our orders wrong -- first time for that all cruise) and finished off our food. Our boarding group was called while we were finishing up so we walked off the ship right after breakfast. Our bags were all reasonably close together and the line for customs was non-existent. J. R. called SAS travel and after claiming the power strip Disney had confiscated on day one, we were in the van to Ft. Lauderdale airport.

Fort Lauderdale Airport

When we arrived at FLL, we had almost six hours to kill thanks to Delta changing our return flight. We had hoped to hang out in the United Club but that was inside security in a different terminal. Delta was not allowing us to check our bags and had an incredibly long line for those who had earlier flights so we tried to find some seats. We found three and J. R. sat down on the floor after getting some sodas. Rebecca went to Starbucks for a frappucino fix, seven days without one being a long time for her. FLL airport is a dump with very little seating outside security and no restaurants. We were amused by a young woman who was looking for the restroom and accidentally exited security and was refused re-entry (and she had left her boarding pass and ID with her mother). So they had to call the mother to deliver the documents and the woman had to be re-scanned. We thought this was a bit much because TSA could have just had someone escort her back to her seat and check her ID since she had only just walked past the guard when she saw she had exited the secure area and obviously had not had time to pick up anything dangerous. But rules are rules, we guess.

Delta finally let us check our bags. J. R. took two carry-on bags through security and found some seats near a power outlet while Janie and the kids checked the bags and met him a little later. The restaurant choices were very limited with an off-brand sandwich shop and a pizza joint being the two choices. J. R. and Rebecca stood in the long line for some pizzas for the family, which actually were quite good.

Seeing as we had a very tight layover in Detroit, we decided to check the small rolling suitcase at the gate since we figured there wouldn't be any room on the small plane to Chicago for it. J. R. took care of that and after a few hours of waiting around and playing on our phones, we boarded our plane to Detroit. The flight left a little late which meant we arrived with only about 20 minutes before our next plane was to leave. J. R., Thomas and Rebecca took off for the train so Janie didn't have to run. We hustled onto the train, Thomas catching it at the last minute, and got to our gate only to find our plane had just arrived and was still unloading. That gave us time to go to the restrooms and pick up some food at Qdoba, which we ate on the flight.

Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive

When we arrived in Chicago, all of our checked luggage came down the carousel, except for the small rolling suitcase we had gate checked. After a 25-minute wait, a very apologetic Delta agent told us the bag missed the connection in Detroit and he arranged for it to be delivered the next day to our house, which it was. The agent was handling multiple misplaced bags (Delta: Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive) but was dealing with it very well. He said everyone was being very polite, which he said was very surprising. I told him we were just going home and there was nothing in the bag but dirty clothes anyway, so as long as Delta knew where it was, we weren't really too anxious for it. We took the shuttle to our car and drove home, our Disney Magic cruise having come to an end with thoughts of a possible trip to Alaska to keep us warm.