Out and away

From the gangway we enter the terminal building, into that second-floor hallway we were so eager to walk up three days ago. There’s no one scanning our cards, though. Hmm. We just file down the hall with the other cruisers and head down the escalator to the baggage area.

This place has been redecorated since we were last here. Either that, or it’s just easier to see around the room, with so much of the luggage now being taken directly to the airlines. Either way, there are large sepia-toned murals on the walls depicting Disney cruise ships and characters as if they were around in the golden age of ocean liners, in the early 20th century. The Wonder and Magic with their classic designs would have fit right in.

Unfortunately, this is a customs area, so I can’t take any pictures of the murals.

The ever-friendly and helpful porters are around with their carts, and we’re able to find our bags quickly. There’s a double line for customs, but it moves quickly. We have our passports out, each opened to the photo page.

When we reach the agent, she takes the passports and the declarations page, quickly scans the passports with an optical reader, and waves us through. No questions to us this time, which is good, since I was a sputtering idiot last time.

Once past customs, we follow our agent outside and to the American Airlines desk. There’s no line there. Nice. As on our previous two trips, our bags are placed behind the desk and we hand our eTicket info to the agent, who checks us in, tags our bags, and gives us our boarding passes.

Only one thing left to do – board a bus to the airport. The Disney crew member at the door to the bus checks one of our KTTW cards – verifying that we have the ground transfer – and waves us onto the bus.

We find seats about 2/3 of the way back, and before long the bus is backing out of its spot and we’re rolling to the airport. This whole experience of departing the ship, finding our bags, going through customs, checking in with the airline, and boarding our ground transportation has only taken about 20 minutes. Amazing. It’s a seamless process and a great convenience.