Wednesday I woke up around 6 a.m. I didn't really feel like doing anything though, so I lounged around in bed reading and dozing until around 7 or 7:30. Since we were supposed to be out of the room by 9, I showered and packed. Here's how it goes. You can't get off the ship until 10:15 at the earliest, but since they need to turn around the rooms for everyone getting on the boat, they need everyone out before that. So unless you purchased cruise air or a transfer from the cruise line you have to carry your luggage around with you on the ship for a couple of hours. Or leave it unattended somewhere.
After cleaning up, I headed to the purser's desk to take care of my bill. The credit card I left with them had been denied. Shut off due to non-payment, payment had been sent electronically, but not reach them before the cruise line attempted to run the card. So I gave them my other card, after which they gave me the itemization of the bill. Except when I looked at it, there was a strange credit for $5, an extra charge for $2.50, and a charge for $7.50 that should have been voided. Turns out when the guy attempted to void the $7.50, he voided one piece ($5), but charged an extra $2.50 instead of voiding that part. Of course, the assistant purser couldn't understand the bill himself. After I figured it out, it took me a good 25 minutes to explain it to him. Freaking moron. Another screw-up by Princess. I almost just walked off, because $5 is not worth standing around for 30 minutes. Had I known he would be such a moron ahead of time, I would have.
Then I headed up to the deck on the front of the boat to watch as we docked. We were in site of land by that point, and I could see Sausolito from there. Soon the Golden Gate Bridge appeared out of the fog in the distance. Then the Bay Area pilots zoomed up in a small boat and boarded for the home stretch.
I thought docking would be more dramatic than it was. San Francisco doesn't have a real cruise ship terminal, so it took a couple of tugs at the end to push the boat into a small berth that didn't look ready for us. Turns out that Princess was not ready for the berth. I headed to deck 5 to wait to disembark. I heard that customs was delayed. Then the cruise staff were trying to assemble the gangplanks. Only they couldn't figure out how to get one of them together. The one that they did get together was extremely steep. I wish I had gotten pictures of the women who tried to climb down in high heels. It was almost at a 45° pitch.
I trundled my bag through a long warehouse to the street, into a taxi, to the airport (where I caught an earlier flight than I was scheduled on), to Seattle, to the Metro 194 to downtown, and then on the 70 home at 4:45 p.m.
Right around 4:50 Jason called to ask me how my trip was.