2024.01 Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Grand Cayman (part 9)

2024.01 Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, Grand Cayman (Part 9)

With an 11am flight from Fort Lauderdale, we shouldn’t have any stress getting to our flight, right? Buckle up for this story! Time for something new in our traveling experiences.

back at the Port of fort lauderdale

By the time we woke up, our ship was already back at Fort Lauderdale. After a final check of the room, we bid it farewell and headed upstairs for breakfast. While having our final meal onboard, we didn’t look forward to the impeding return of reality, where we’d have to *gasp* make food for ourselves!

Our time to disembark was just after 8am. We left the ship, collected our luggage, and jumped in a cab to the airport. It’s a short drive to the airport where we were dropped off at the terminal for Air Canada. We then proceeded to the join the line to drop off our luggage. That’s when I realized that I HAD LEFT A SUITCASE BACK AT PORT.

To say I was displeased, or upset, would have been a gross understatement. We returned to the port. Upon arrival at the exit of the terminal building I found comfort in not being the only skilled passenger who failed to collect all of their baggage upon disembarking.
A patient port employee corralled Team Forgetful to a spot and quizzed us on what our respective misplaced suitcases looked like. Finally! My habit of taking pictures of our suitcases proved very useful as he joked to me “that’s better than trying to describe it to me”.

Time then proceeded both quickly and almost in slow motion. Quickly, because my mind immediately raced to the mental math “Will we miss baggage drop cut-off time?” and then it jumped to “What if we miss this flight, which flight(s) will get us home?”. I did have time to look up options, and booking a same day booking sure wasn’t giving me positive feelings. Time went slowly as not everybody on Team Forgetful were able to wait patiently and quietly. One individual was channeling their inner Frank Costanza, and was just as quiet as the Seinfeld character. I took it as an entertaining show while we waited.
Eventually a cart full of luggage arrived, and we were finally reunited with all of our luggage and quickly found a taxi to return to the airport.

By the time we returned to the airport and arrived at the check-in counter there was less than an hour before our flight. “Oh crap.” was my prevailing thought. The check-in agent wasn’t phased, quite the opposite! He printed our baggage tags, affixed them all before a coworker told him “this is for Toronto, not Montreal.” The agent didn’t skip a beat, he grabbed a radio on the counter, and after a short exchange he wished us a good day, and off the bags went! Over at TSA PreCheck allowed us to get through security without anybody else in line. As we left TSA checkpoint we immediately heard from the overhead speaker “Boarding for Air Canada flight 1023 to Toronto will commence now…” Perfect timing!
The terminal Air Canada uses in Fort Lauderdale is tiny. After security the area felt like one gigantic waiting area for flights. We dashed to the gate, successfully boarded the plane, turned right and headed to our assigned seats.

Air Canada, Boeing 330-300, Fort Lauderdale to Toronto (FLL-YYZ)

Seats: 27H&K
Scheduled departure: 11:20
Scheduled arrival: 14:29

We were beyond relieved to be on the plane, however that was short-lived as Little Miss glanced at her phone and noticed that one of our bags (each had an Airtag inside) reported still being in the terminal and not on the plane. I remarked “Well, now the bag is Air Canada’s issue. Let’s see what happens at the baggage carousel in Toronto.”

Boarding was completed early, at 11am the departure steps to began early after the captain’s message (I didn’t get his name). Aircraft pushback, safety video, and taxi to the runway had us waiting at runway 10L by our scheduled departure time of 11:20. After a couple of private jets safely landed, it was our plane’s turn. For those seated on the left side of the plane, this take-off provided a final fly-over of the cruise port terminal as the plane lifted off and then it turned left to head north towards Toronto.

In economy on Air Canada flights complementary beverages were available and buy-on-board for any snacks or meals. This service began a half hour after take-off and started at the front of the economy section. When they arrived at our row, with the stress of the luggage long passed, we selected a bunch of items to eat.

Nothing remarkable about the food. It was fine, and filling. The flight was smooth, and with no delay into Toronto our plane was safely on the ground by 1:50pm, and by 2:10pm we were off the plane. From our gate it was the long walk of the pier at terminal 1 to customs and once through downstairs to wait for luggage. Great news! All of our checked luggage successfully made it onto the plane.

With a successful luggage story to tell, it was time to head home.