November 26 - Departure Day

We woke up at 5:45 a.m. because breakfast began at 6:00 a.m. and our pick up was at 7:15 a.m. We had to have our luggage out 30 minutes early.

Breakfast
We ordered waffles on our last day. They came out with some raspberry sauce and sprinkles on the whipped cream. We were talking to one of the waiters who said that the ship has only one more saling for this year.

Departure
Christian, our Cruise Director, said "goodbye" to us. He had us show him our luggage, and we were off to the bus! It was only us and the 6 people from Hawaii on our bus. Their trip will be 24 hours long!

The bus driver dropped us all of at terminal one and we had to go to terminal 3! You should have seen mom trying to drag her luggage all the way there! We ordered her a wheel chair, but in Amsterdam, they make you sit in this waiting area until it's time to board, then they bring you through. So, we decided to walk. The lady let us through the line though, so that was quick. When we got near the gate, there was bar with smokers! Gross! So, I could not sit there. We walked back to the shopping, but there wasn't anything that we wanted or needed. We went upstairs to McDonald's and sat and had a Diet Coke. While we were sitting there, I realized that I left my pills in the nightstand. Mom wanted to send a taxi to pick them up. How crazy is that? I wasn't that worried 'cuz I figrued that I would just call and explain that I left them and they would re-fill them for me. When I called Target Pharmacy after we landed, they told me that they had one waiting for me. How lucky was I? I thought it was my last re-fill. I filled out the customs form, and then when we went back, the security line was finally open.

Body Scanners
I don't see what the big deal is at all. They have body scanners and very good security in Amsterdam. It's for our protection, so people shouldn't be getting so upset about it.

Once we were inside the gate area, there was no washroom. Uggh! Had to wait till we got on the plane.

Flight
We were sitting towards the back of the plane because it was the only seats that had two next to each other by the window. We had a long delay (about an hour and a half) on the runway due to fog. The Pilots said they would make most of it up in the sky. We had a lot of crazy turbulence while we were up there! They were trying to fly above or below it.

I watched "Beezus and Ramona," which was cute and some other very stupid cop show with Michael Keaton and Will Ferrell.

Pick-Up
Syd and Dad picked us up. Syd was so happy to see my mom. She was very anxious to see her souvenirs.

Sam thought that the Lego Advent calendar mom bought him was the coolest present ever! I told him that he has 4 days to open the first window (and then, the pieces create a village) and that it counts down the days till Christmas. I hope they don't just let him open the whole thing and play with it.

Black Friday
Sydney is getting so big. She knew that there were "Black Friday" sales and she wanted to go shopping for jeans and boots. She is more picky than my  mother. Everything was "too dark," "too sparkly," etc. I told her that she's not a Designer and she'll have to choose something that is already made whether it's perfect or not. The sparkly jeans looked so great on her, but she did not care. And, if she doesn't like them, she will never wear them. She didn't end up with boots either because she didn't want to spend all of her dog-sitting money on one pair of boots.