Today we head home. Sarah left the ship early for a 11:50 am flight. Maria and I are scheduled to fly out at 9:45 pm this evening. We will have a 16 hour flight to Doha, Qatar with a three hour layover before the second 15 hour leg, arriving in Houston around 4:00 pm Saturday....well, that was the original plan.
While at breakfast this morning, I overheard another guest say that their flights had been canceled. I went on-line and was able to obtain my boarding pass for the first leg of our trip from SDY to DOH. I got a message from Sarah around 8:30 am saying her flights had been canceled and asked if we could book her on a United flight through SFO leaving at 1:00 pm. We got that done and she successfully made that flight! I suggested to Maria that she should go ahead and check-in and get her boarding pass. We also decided to upgrade the first leg from business class to first class. When Maria went on-line to check-in, she noticed that the second leg of our flight, from DOH to IAH on March 21, had been canceled. They had rebooked us on the same flight on the following day, March 22.
Bottom line is that we did upgrade our first leg to First Class and we booked a room at the Oryx Airport Hotel in Doha for the 21st.
We had left our checked baggage outside the cabin last night. Over night, the baggage was taken to the pier. This morning around 9:30 am, we took our passports and immigration form to the pier. There we found our checked bags, handed our forms to an Australian official and handed our luggage to another official before going back on the ship. In other words, a lot of inconsequential processes. We expect to be called to disembark the ship around 4:30 pm at which time we will again collect our checked luggage to put on the bus to take to the airport.
Sarah's new flight arrangements.
As I knew he would, BJ showed up to collect a hug from Maria. Maria promised him a hug last night when she returned from the gym and was sweaty. BJ is staying on-board the ship. They don't know yet where they are going, but BJ will be going with them.