January 27, 2019

   We were up early to have breakfast and disembark the Allure of the Seas before 8 a.m.  The ship arrived at its berth at the Port of Miami about 3 a.m., but passengers were not going to be disembarked until after 7 a.m.  The sky was cloudy, temperature was 23°C and the wind was about 25 kph.

   We took our baggage off ourselves, just three pieces for the five of us. When we reached Deck 5, the early disembarkation line for people taking off their luggage snaked through the Promanade “street” and through a door by the Café Promenade onto the promenade walking/running track for almost a third of the length of the ship. As we waited in line, we could see the participants of the Miami Fitbit Marathon running along the road across the canal from the dock. 

While having breakfast, before sunrise, we saw two police cars with flashing blue and red on the same road, which must have been the escort cars for the start of the race. As we watched the runners, in the canal, we saw one dolphin jumping in the water. After 15 minutes the line began to move, we retraced our route back into the Promanade, almost to the elevators then across and back down the other side where, at the former seating area of Sorrento’s restaurant, there were three security kiosks where our Sea Pass cards were scanned for the final time. We stepped from the ship onto the gangway to the cruise terminal and followed the directions to Customs and Border Protection, where the agent asked us only a couple of questions and we were on our way. Exiting the terminal, we went to wait at Zone 12 for our airport shuttle. It had taken just 45 minutes from when we first lined up.

There was a bit of misinformation about our shuttle pickup for 8:30 and we waited over an hour before trying to phone them to advise them to come to Terminal A for a pickup. We were not in a hurry since our flight was not leaving until after 6 p.m. There were other ships also disembarking - Carnival Magic; Norwegian Getaway, which was the ship had passed yesterday; Regent Seven Seas Voyager; Royal Caribbean Empress of the Sea and Royal Caribbean Jewel of the Sea. The ride to the airport took less than 20 minutes. We did a Self-Check-in at the Delta Airline kiosks and waited in line to drop off our luggage.  We were ushered into the security line that did not require passengers to remove their shoes. In a little over 50 minutes, we had arrived at the gate in Terminal H. We had seven hours to wait for our flight to Minneapolis and then home, we thought.                  Step Count 4,819

    We took a walk around Terminal H and Terminal J which were connected by a shopping mall and a food court with at least 10 food kiosks, including McDonalds. There were other food kiosks scattered in Terminals H and J including two Starbucks.

    In checking emails on the airport Wi-Fi, we learned that one of the residents of our building had passed away.  He had been battling cancer. 

     We found places for lunch and snacks and later in the afternoon saw that our flight to Minneapolis was delayed 49 minutes due to the snow storm in Minneapolis, where our plane was originating. Boarding of the plane was delayed about 15 minutes longer. The plane was finally pushed back at 7:25 pm. But the rain intensified and all planes were prevented from taking off, so the pilot turned off the engines, but kept on the AC, lights and TVs.  There were seven planes ahead of ours that would be taking off first when the storm cell passed. When at 8:15, the pilot tried to restart the engines, the auxiliary power did not start the engines and after several tries, the power was interrupted and just the emergency lights came on. The captain announced the problem and said that maintenance would be sending a vehicle to take the plane back to the terminal.  The plane was getting hot and the flight attendants could only offer water and ice packs as the temperature rose into the 80s. Finally, at 8:55, after the captain had asked that everyone stay seated we felt the plane jerk to a slow crawl.  We returned to the gate at 9:10 which we had left and the passengers calmly exited the plane.  We waited at the gate for more information and Scott and Mia tried to figure out what to do regarding work and plans of renting a car and driving to home were proposed.

    We were told that hotel vouchers were available to people who did not wish to wait for another plane that would arriving in the next 90 minutes. They could rebook flights to Minneapolis for Monday but the first flight at 2:15 pm was fully booked. Cases of bottled water, juice pouches and packaged cookies were supplied for the waiting passengers.

   Just after 10 pm, the gate agent was able to confirm that another plane was coming at approximately 11:30 and that the flight crew would arrive just after midnight. Not having a cellphone with us (although the kids had theirs) we tried to contact Delta on-line, but could not figure out how to rebook without having to pay for the new flight. Once the line disappeared at the gate, we were directed to the “Need Help?” toll free kiosk at the far end of Terminal H where we were able to contact Delta Customer Service and make new arrangements to fly home in the morning from Minneapolis. We were also told that we could get hotel vouchers in Minneapolis.  Since the flight leaves before 9 and we would probably only get in about 3 hours of sleep at a hotel so we decided that we will doze in the airport in order to get the early flight home. 

    Another difficulty today is that there was a snow storm system in Minnesota and Wisconsin causing transportation problems.  Weather was not our friend today.  We have been waiting in Miami airport for over 15 hours.

   Steps 16,438