February 15, 2015

We were up at 6 a.m. and the ship was docked by 6:20 a.m.  Miami temperature was 11 C; the sun was starting to rise, wind 7 knots and clear sky. (One knot is equal to 1.852 knots per hour (or 1.15078 miles per hour).  It is a cold day for the Floridians. Besides the Eclipse, there was a Disney ship, a Norwegian ship, a Carnival ship, and another Celebrity docked near us at Port Miami. We took pictures of the sunrise from our portal on Deck 3 and then climbed the stairs to Deck 14 for more pictures and the daylight was much stronger in that short time.

The dining room opened at 6:30 a.m. for Disembarkation Day. We sat with two ladies form our group and a couple from Philadelphia for breakfast. Passengers with no formal shuttles were allowed to disembark at 7:30 a.m.  Our group was to meet in the portside Deck 4 dining room at 8 a.m. for 8:15 a.m. disembarkation. So started our day of delays!  

At 9 a.m., our group finally exited the ship to the U.S. Customs baggage claim hall to collect our luggage and submit our declaration forms. The line was 600 meters long and grew, as passengers left the ship in batches. But the line moved and it took about 30 minutes to make our way through U.S. Customs. Outside the temperature, was 14 C, at 10 a.m., still cool for the Floridians. The group waited for everyone to get through and then at 10:20 boarded a 60 passenger Celebrity shuttle to Miami airport, but several other Celebrity passengers slipped on, causing five of our group to wait for the next shuttle and not arrive at the airport for another hour, to catch our scheduled 12:05 p.m. flight to Toronto. Fortunately, the 20 minute bus ride went well and the Air Canada check-in had four staff and only three people being checked in when our shuttle and another shuttle arrived.  We had no problem checking in, even though we had not done the pre-board on Saturday, however, we could not sit in the same row. Good News from Air Canada - the plane was delayed in arriving and would now be leaving at 1 p.m. which made up for the 45 minute delay departing the ship. The five members of our group, that had to wait for the next shuttle after ours, would probably not have made the flight if the flight had been on time. Next, we needed to find the security line, which went quickly, although I got chosen for a body scan, which took ten seconds. We did some walking in the extensive departure area, since we did not do much on the ship. We had sandwiches and a cappuccino & a coffee at a Gilbert’s Bakery, then, walked more accumulating 5,671 steps by the time we boarded the plane. There was a short delay to fix a malfunctioning tray at the back of the plane. I chose the dramatic comedy movie, “This Is Where I Leave You” based on Jonathan Tropper’s best-selling novel about four grown siblings, whose father’s death forces them to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week, along with their over-sharing mother and spouses. We landed in Toronto at 4 p.m., however, and the plane was actually a few minutes early.  The ground crew was unavailable for 20 minutes to allow the plane to pull up to the gate before extending the gangway and unloading the plane. There was still plenty of time to go through Canadian Customs, grab a snack and be ready to board the flight to Winnipeg at 6:25 p.m.  Going to Miami two weeks ago it took two days to get our hearing back to normal but no problem coming back.  We followed the signs to Canadian Customs, collected our luggage, then stood in line to submit the declaration form (our our combined total was less than $600 and we could each bring in $800 Canadian each). Next drop off the luggage for the flight to Winnipeg and go to the security line for connecting flights, which always seems extremely slow in Toronto. No disappointment – for a short line of twenty people with only one lane open, it took more than half an hour to be processed.  At this stop, I had my carry-on selected for an extra screening, which it passed. By 5:30 p.m., we found which gate we were going to use and we went in line at Tim Hortons for a coffee and muffin. When we finished our snack, we checked the gate again and it had been changed but was a shorter walk away.  So we went for another walk in the departure section and had 9,853 steps when we sat down to await the boarding call. A minute later there was an announcement that the gate had changed again to across the concourse – about 110 steps.  Then at 6:30, we were advised that there would be a delay due to refueling the plane, there was a backlog, but we should be able to board soon. Boarding started at 7, with the hope that very soon the plane would be fueled.  We were told that due to the cold weather (-20 C) some of the electric pumps on the refueling trucks were malfunctioning, but we were third in line.  Everyone was on board by 7:20. The captain gave several updates per hour, but not much changed until after 10:30 when the captain said he told operations that the flight crew hours were close to maxing out. There was no Wi-Fi connection on the plane so only people with cell phone plans could connect with family to advise them of the continued delay.  The passengers were co-operative and the stewards passed soft drinks and water several times and once handed out pretzels and another time cookies. Everyone was hoping that we would get some fuel to go home.  Then at 10:50, a fuel truck appeared and hooked up to the underground storage then, half way through, something broke and a bit of fuel needed to be cleaned up.  The captain reported that we had to wait for another fuel truck to come back and complete the fill.  After 20 minutes, we finally saw another truck and refueling was completed.  Finally, to everyone’s relief, we took off after five hours of sitting on the plane at the gate much later than scheduled.  We arrived in Winnipeg at 1:30 a.m. Monday morning.  Thank goodness it is Riel Day, and I do not need to go to work today!  As people waited for the luggage the flight crew descended the stairs nearby and most of the passengers applauded them. Steps 10,983. We took a taxi home and were in bed by 2:45.  The luggage will be packed in the morning.