Aruba 2012 Day 10 (page 10 of 10)

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Day 10 - Travel back home.

We're sad to go, but still happy to go home. Jim & Trina are anxious to see their boys & Mike & Greta want to see the dog. Plus, the thought of home where you have your own bed & things is comforting. Side note - the apartment furnishing were designed by someone tall - maybe Toine? He is 6'6" tall - the top of Mike's head is just past Toine's shoulder. Therefore, things are HIGH - the microwave over the stove was probably up high enough for Greta to almost walk under. The beds were high too - Greta is 5'4" and the top of the mattress was level with her hip!

We all got up and got the last few things packed. We ended up getting everything ready about 45 minutes before Toine was supposed to stop by & check us out. We got things cleaned up pretty decently and checkout was a breeze. We spent most of the time just chatting with him before he wished us well & "see you next year!".

We then headed to Oranjestad to the Dutch Pancake House for breakfast. Mike raved about the poffertjes (fluffy silver dollar pancakes with powdered sugar) so Trina & Jim shared an order of them with strawberry & carmel syrups, and Mike & Greta shared a regular order. They were great. We also each had a Dutch pancake (referred to as a crepe) that is the size of a very large dinner plate, is very thin, and then topped with something. As you can see on the menu, you can have savory or sweet. Mike & his sweet tooth had the apple & raisin topped crepe, Trina had one with bacon & ham, Jim had one with ham & cheese, and Greta got the Milan crepe (salami, cheese, onion, paprika, oregano). All were good, but very filling - especially since we got the poffertjes as well.

Jim & Trina had an earlier flight, so Mike dropped them at the airport. Mike & Greta returned to Oranjestad & walked around a bit more - looking in shops and walking through the Renaissance Casino (Greta put a little change in a machine but won nothing - oh well!). Then they dropped the car off at the rental place & got a ride back to the airport. Farewell Bessie the car - you may have smelled if your windows were rolled up & you'd seen better days earlier in your 66K kilometers, but you got us everywhere we needed to go. Our driver told us that they recently were going to start up "Fly Aruba" airlines again - they'd lost their financing a few years ago, but were soon going to start routes to Miami with newly leased planes.

We got to the airport 4 hours ahead of time, but had been told to be there at least 3 hours and weren't sure how long everything would take. That was a good idea - the Delta baggage line was HORRIBLE! Everyone was on "Island Time" wearing Jeans & a I HEART DELTA t-shirt, and they had no concept of moving quickly. Our line was the worst - the one attendant directly in front of us kept waving over someone from the line one over (who also had an attendant in front of them) so we stood forever w/o moving. We had maybe 10 groups (2-3 people in front of use) and it took over an hour just to check one back. One poor guy kept waiting for someone to wave him over and everyone kept ignoring our line. Finally one lady went up & talked to a Delta employee, but that didn't do much. She then encouraged the guy to just walk up to the next available agent because otherwise he'd never make it. Turns out later we found out he & his wife missed their flight but caught the next one. They had not been told to arrive 3 hours early, and just trusted the signs that requested you be there 2 hours early. If baggage would have moved even slightly faster, maybe they'd have made it. When we then got in line, there were maybe 2 lines for Delta baggage check - and maybe 20-25 people in each line. When we finally made it through, the line stretched all the way across the front of the terminal, and it apparently went out the door.

Eventually we got our one bag checked, and headed through Aruban customs. That went very quickly - they checked our documents & sent us forward. Next - on to the long line for security which we all know never moves too fast but we made it through that as well. THEN it was time for US Customs - basically, by the time you get ON the plane, you are considered to be on U S soil. The line was huge, but moved fairly quickly because a lot of the booths were open, but then all the lights at all the customs booths went red. It was if we received notification that "Attention - the United States is now closed". We then found out they were having some sort of problem with checking the bags (hmmm, you'd think an airport would have that figured out) and the line backed up to the customs booth & that's why they shut everything down. After about 10 minutes or so, the green lights came back on and they allowed us back into the country. We then had to get in line to drop off our checked back again - fortunately, this really just meant putting it on a conveyor belt. Then we had to go through security AGAIN - shoes off, empty pockets, etc, etc. Some people were having issues with this. How that could be when you JUST went through security is beyond imagination. All throughout this, you'd have to make way for wheelchairs - everything is down a hallway of some sort, and so when a wheelchair comes through, everyone has to move out of the way because the lines are too wide & long to allow everything to be side-by-side. Then they were calling for people whose flights were about to leave, so those people would have to move up in line and everyone else would have to crowd over to the side to let them through. You'd think a separate little hall or cordoned off lane would be a GREAT idea, but apparently that has not yet been thought of by airport officials (only every person waiting in line). Eventually we got through that as well, and we could find our gate. We KNOW a number missed their flights or else were stuck so long in line that they were holding flights for them which meant other planes were sitting on the tarmac, not getting into their gate. We relaxed & had about 25 minutes before boarding - which is amazing because we'd come FOUR HOURS ahead of time. Then the plane ended up leaving late because it took so long for the bags to get loaded. We ran into one couple who's arrived maybe 15 minutes after us and almost missed the plane!

It was interesting people watching though . We talked to one very nice gentleman who'd retired about 6 years ago to Fort Lauderdale - he then mentioned he was originally from New York. This explanation was not necessary - he easily could have been the basis of a number of characters on Seinfeld! There was one gal who was wandering around baggage, hollering at her husband about what was taking him so long, keeping an eye on the kids and then asking the guards what was taking so long - all while swigging from an open bottle of wine. The guard made her close it up before he'd answer her questions. Her Brooklyn accent was so thick, you had to laugh. I think the more frustrated people become, the more they become like the stereotypes you see on TV. You forget to act polite.

Greta at more than one point REALLY wanted to get in an argument with someone - if only to relive the stress. It didn't matter if it was the gal drinking wine, the guy complaining about people who carry on bags that he felt were too large, or the agent who apparently had no clue how to notice when a customer directly in front of her was being too polite to not ask why he was being ignored. We spoke to a lot of people in line who'd been in Aruba before and they all said it was beyond the slowness of anything they'd seen before. It was Carnaval weekend, so maybe it was they were short staffed and the junior-varsity team was working that day.

We made it to Atlanta a bit late, mainly due to the fact that we hit turbulence a number of times (because at one point, the pilot thought we'd make it on time). Unfortunately, being 15 minutes or so late means that the airport has forgotten you and has no idea where your plane should go. Even the pilot came on at one point and stated that he couldn't imagine a good reason for not knowing what gate we should go to. At this point, Mike called Delta & was told our ATL to MSP flight was on time, and that meant there was a good chance we'd miss it. We were able to bypass some people on the plane, and sprinted around more on the jetway & concourse to the new gate, where we found out that the plane had been delayed because it was the wrong series of 767 but a new one would be pulled from the hangar. We ran down to Burger King to get some food (we wanted to try Chik-fil-A but the line was shorter at BK) and went back to wait the extra 20 or so minutes. Then we were told that the plane that they were getting us needed to go to Florida, so we needed to move to another gate, and they'd find us another plane. At that gate, the plane was so little, we knew it was wrong. We then were told it was a old broken plane ,and would be pulled back from the gate, and a new one brought up from the hangar. BUT the runway was congested (it was pouring rain) and it may take 45 minutes for the plane to arrived. A number of people groaned & booed at this point. The plane DID arrive more quickly than they'd said, and it was cleared for security & stocked with food/beverage. When Mike & Greta scanned their boarding passes, it beeped & we were we'd been booked on an earlier flight (though we weren't told this) but we still had seats on this flight as well.

We then were told we boarded in recorded time, but there were problems loading all the bags. EVENTUALLY we did get up in the air, and that flight went quickly.

After landing at MSP, Mike called our park/stay/fly hotel to come get him and Greta went to wait for the checked bag. Mike got on the wrong "La Quinta" bus but luckily found out right before it left- and before HIS bus left w/o him (his bus was supposed to call him if they didn't see him, but apparently that was forgotten). But the ride back was uneventful - he got the car & went & picked Greta up. A quick 35 minute drive back home (that's almost a record - and only going less than 10 MPH over the speed limit) and we got home just before 1:30 am.

Sunday - we got our puppy dog Brock back from Kim & Koen - that is so awesome they could watch him the whole time - and we got their dog Ziva. They are leaving tomorrow for Mac Tools Fair, so we're returning the "dog sitting" favor right away!

Sorry this last entry was so long - it was just AMAZING how many times we stood in never ending lines, and watched people move slowly.

But other than that trip back, it truly was a great vacation!

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