Leaving the Reflection

After a long trip, it was finally time to head home. We were all up early and headed to the Oceanview Cafe for our last breakfast. While there, we received word the ship was 45 minutes late arriving to Amsterdam due to issues with the locks. This didn't worry us as we had a flight leaving after noon. We finished breakfast and went to the room to gather up our last items and then went to the Opus restaurant on the fourth floor to wait for departure tag 17 to be called. Having Celebrity transfers probably helped us in getting off almost on time as we were called right at 8 AM, probably because the buses were waiting. Celebrity handled taking our bags directly to the airport so we didn't have to clear any sort of customs or grab our bags at the terminal. We climbed aboard the bus, passing by the city to the airport. Our bags were waiting when we arrived so we picked them up and headed inside.

Schiphol Airport

The airport process was long and tedious and we were thankful for not being delayed. First the walk to the KLM counters was very long. We found a kiosk to check in but the line for baggage drop-off snaked past the kiosks and took 30 minutes. Then came security and the discovery that replica Faberge eggs look exactly like little hand grenades to airport scanners. We were thankful we packed them in our hand luggage though so the scanner could open them and see what they were. If they had been in our checked luggage, who knows what security might have done.

Following security was passport control, which was fairly easy. Scan the passport, take a photo and hand it to an agent for a stamp. Becca spotted the Starbucks just past passport control, so we stopped there for a coffee and for her to get a Java Chip frap and a couple of cookies. Then it was another long walk to our boarding gate. J. R. grabbed some sodas and Mars bars for Rebecca and we waited for boarding. The boarding process was chaotic. KLM doesn't board by groups in Amsterdam, so it was one line for priority and then two lines with no markings. One had a line of people so we lined up there at first then J. R. realized that might be the line to speak to an agent so he jumped into the other empty line, which turned out to be right. So he was able to get on early and stow our bags in the overhead bin.

The flight was long but uneventful. TSA Global Entry was wonderful as we were able to skip the long lines at passport control, but it didn't help much as O'Hare baggage claim took over a half hour and our bags were some of the last to come out. Luckily for us the Preflight bus was waiting outside Terminal 5 and we were on our way to our car. After a less than quick stop at Bar Louie (only one waiter appeared to be working in the entire restaurant), we arrived home tired.