March 18th - At home

This is the last blog entry for our world cruise that ended abruptly this past week.  We’re home in New Hampshire.  This is going to be in two parts, first the timeline then notes from the trip.

Saturday March 13^th

We arrived in Fremantle as scheduled.  650 passengers were set to disembark and about an equal number were supposed to get on.

7:45 AM – The Captain announced that Cunard had decided that no new passengers or crew would be allowed on the ship from now on.  Those passengers set to come on board today were turned away.  Also, we will miss a few island ports but still expected to visit South Africa and Namibia before ending in England.  Any current passengers who wanted to voluntarily leave the ship could do so and Cunard would pay there way home and they would receive a future cruise credit but they had to tell the ship by 2PM and be off the ship before 8PM when we would sail.

9AM to 3PM – Fred and I spent a nice day in Fremantle spending the rest of our Australian money.  When we returned to the ship things had changed.  The ship would now spend the night in Fremantle and leave Sunday evening and those wanting to leave had until 8PM tonight to let them know if they wanted to leave.

Sunday March 14^th

7:45 AM – The Captain came on to say that Cunard had made the difficult decision to end the world cruise immediately.  Everyone would have to leave the ship.  A small number of people might be allowed to stay on for medical reasons subject to approval.  The ship will deadhead to England, the trip expected to last 25 days. Cunard will make all the flight arrangements and pay for hotels if necessary.  Everyone had to have their flight preference information in by 2PM today.

Noon – The medical waivers for those who want to stay on the ship arrive in staterooms.  It has to be signed and then you have to meet with the doctor between 3-6 pm today.

2:30 pm – Fred and I go down to the medical center and there is already a huge crowd and more and more show up. 

5:30 pm – We finally get into see a nurse.  She tells us how limited the services will be on the ship if we stayed and there is no guarantee they will be able to dock in England upon arrival, it was a risk.  She asked if I ever took anti-anxiety medication, I hadn’t and she advised I talk to the doctor.

6:00 – In to see the doctor, after a long discussion I agree to go if they give me the medication before I left the office and they did.  We got out of the office and there was no one in the waiting rooms.  Everyone had been told to go back to their cabins they wouldn’t be seen!  Lots of very upset people.

7PM – Submitted our request for flights at purser’s office then went up to the dining room to say goodbye to our waiters and give them a little extra tip.  They are being sent home tomorrow too.  Too late to eat there so we went up to the lido and had some food.

8-11:30 pm – Packing!  Everything had to be packed or thrown away.  Three bags will stay in the room and be sent home when the ship gets to England.  Two will come with us plus carry ons.

Monday March 15^th

AM – up early for breakfast and to await our flight information.  We have to be off the ship between 2-4 PM that’s when Australian Customs will be available. 

11:30 AM – Two envelopes under our door with flight information, this is how it read:

                                 VA 570 M 16MAR PERSYD 2255 0610

                                 VA 001 M 17 MAR SYDLAX 1025 0605

                                  VA6635 M 17MAR LAXBOS 0800 1629

Well I had to look up what airline VA was…Virgin Australia.  The rest I was able to figure out.

2:30 PM – We are called off the ship to go through customs.  It’s a mess of people but we got through and onto a bus to the airport.

4PM – Arrived at the airport to wait for our 11pm flight to Sydney. It’s going to be a long night…

11pm – Flight leaves on time.  Boeing 737, absolutely packed mostly with Cunard folks.

Tuesday March 17^th

6:10 AM – Arrive on time in Sydney

10:25 AM – Flight from Sydney to LA leaves on time, again it’s packed.  Boeing 777 wide body

6:05 AM – Arrive in Los Angeles on time.  It’s still March 17^th because we crossed the international dateline.

8AM – Delta (VA’s air partner) leaves on time for Boston.  Boeing 757, half full, if that.

3:45pm (now Boston time) Arrive in Boston.  One suitcase is missing. It was sent to Detroit instead.  They will deliver it to our house.  We take a bus to Concord NH then Uber.

7PM – Arrive home.  Go to sleep soon after.

Wednesday March 18^th

10AM – Our missing bag is delivered!

Just some notes on our odyssey across the globe.  First a picture to show the trip.  The bottom finger is on Perth where we started the top finger is on New Hampshire.  Truly we were about as far away as we could be.

I did not use any of the drugs.  First, I really don’t like taking medication and second, I just wanted to see if I could fly without it.  I did take Benadryl on the 14-hour flight to try and sleep but it wasn’t very effective.

Fred did sleep off and on during the long-haul flight.  He was so tired he was in mid-scroll when he dropped off.

Then one of the Aussie flight attendants had a little fun with it.

Sydney airport is amazing.  It’s a high-end mall with passenger gates!  LAX is a dump with surly employees.

We were able to change our seats on the first leg to have aisle seats across from each other.  Turned out to be a good move when it was so crowded.

The Sydney to LA plane was oversold and we couldn’t change our awful seat locations but I asked if we could upgrade and we could.  They have four categories, Economy, Economy X (more leg room), Premium Economy and Business.  The ‘X’ category was the only one available.   I think the agent felt a little sorry for us because it was going to cost $500 AUS for the two of us to upgrade to economy X but she only charged us $300 AUS which is $219 USD.  For that we got bulkhead seats with plenty of legroom.

In Perth and Sydney, we were asked specific questions about what countries we had visited, e.g. Italy, China.  In LAX, nothing.  The agent asked where we had come from, how long we were there and did we buy anything while there.  That was it.

When we got on the plane in LA to go to Boston there was a family with masks using wipes to clean their seats and anything they could possibly touch.  It was startling to say the least.  What had we come home to?

Three things about leaving the ship in Fremantle.  Some of the staff was outside to say goodbye to us, a group of waiters, then a group of stewards and finally the senior staff including the Captain who stood there and said goodbye to every passenger.  I really liked him.

Second thing…some folks went into hotels in Perth rather then fly home right away.  That was a choice you could make.  Most of them are still there and wondering what’s going on.  Maybe Cunard is having trouble getting flights.  They’re wondering how long their hotel rooms will be paid for. 

Third thing…we got on board credit (money to use while on the trip) as a perk for booking early.  This is not refundable; it has to be spent onboard.  Because of the abrupt end to the trip we left over $1000 unused!

Lastly, what’s it like on a 14-hour flight.  Well I wouldn’t want to do it everyday that’s for sure!  What seemed like a very long time had passed before I dared check my watch only to find we were not even half way through the flight.  It does feel every bit of 14 hours when you are on board. 

They give you earplugs, a sleeping mask and blanket (very soft).  The seat was comfortable.  I didn’t think the inflight entertainment system was very good.  It looked like there were a lot of choices but the sound quality and slow response time meant I barely used it.

We left in the AM from Sydney and would be arriving very early in the AM in LA and they try to simulate the time so that you feel it’s morning when you get to LA even though it’s more like the middle of the night in Sydney.  They served drinks soon after take off and then lunch right after that.  More drinks and some snacks and then they slowly start dimming the lights so you get the feel of night.  They come by with a snack a few hours later (they called it a midnight snack).  I had my sleep mask on so they didn’t disturb me but Fred said he thought it was like hot dogs and chips, not sure about that!  A few hours before landing the lights start to slowly come up and breakfast is served two hours before landing.  This was delayed a little bit because the seat belt sign was on because of turbulence.

I don’t know how many flight attendants they had; we saw different ones at different times.  They actually have sleeping quarters on the plane and trade off 4 hours at a time to stay fresh.  There are four flight crew including two pilots and they too have sleeping quarters and take time off.

Well we’re home now and trying to get used to this new reality.  We really didn’t know how out of the loop we were!  My sister and brother-in-law shopped for us and put food in the house for our arrival they had problems finding some of the everyday stuff we usually buy.  We can only hope this doesn’t last too long.  We had other travel plans for later in the year but we’ll just wait now and see what happens before firming up anything.

Thanks for reading and take care!