Trip Home
Jason and I were seriously nervous about the trip home. We weren't sure how customs would be and we had a ton of luggage so we were worried about each individual piece of our trip and how that would go with our mountain of belongings.
Let me begin by telling you all the things that went wrong:
1....
Nothing! It was flipping fabulous! First off, we had a super nice taxi driver that took us to the bus depot. He was able to fit all our bags aside from one and 2 of us into his little car. When I say all our bags I mean 7 checked bags, 1 long walking stick, two larger carry ons, and 4 "personal items" - back packs. We had a lot. Jaxon and I rode to the bus depot, Jason and Lily walked with the extra bag. I am not mentioning that the previous day a super nice Japanese lady stopped on the street to help us find the location of our bus and helped us schedule a taxi.
So, we go to the bus, rode for nearly 3 hours, got the airport, all stress free. We had to wait an hour or so to check in as the counter wasn't open yet. Checking in - Singapore Air -wow! First, the lady tells us that they saw that we were a family so they saved seats together for us. Then, as I was checking my bags in I was apologizing because one of our bags was way over the weight limit - like 20 pounds over. I was planning to have to pay some crazy amount for that bag. Instead, she weighed all our items as one, came up with a total of all and we were under the allowable weight for 4 people so, no charges.
The plane was a double decker, a first for us. We were upstairs. Before we even sat down the stewardess came over to talk to the kids. She got their names and said hello to them all throughout the flight, checking in with them, took their food orders first, brought their food first. One of the cool things about Singapore Air is that there are no extra charges once you are on the flight. We were served two meals and endless drinks. We were able to order our meals off a menu and could drink anything we wanted - soda, coffee, wine, beer, spirits. All free of charge, no limit. (I'm sure that they'd cut someone off if they drank too much alcohol). Also, snacks! If anyone got hungry between meals there was a whole list of snacks like salasd, sandwiches, cookies, etc, that one could order. No charge! Each seat had a media screen in it and the viewing options were impressive. We could watch new movies - i.e: Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, old movies, television (recent and old), play games, listen to music, etc. Finally, the room on this plane was great too. We were not cramped at all like some of our other flights we have taken. Overall, WOW!
Between checking in and boarding we had to go through customs, tell them it was our final departure and that we would not be returning. I'm not sure what we expected but we were worried about that process. So easy! Nothing to it. One form per person, a hole punched in our Japanese ID's, and we were on our way.
We had a layover at LAX for about 6 hours. We had to collect all our bags, re-check them, and go through customs. Again, feeling worried about these processes. No issues at all, super easy. All our bags came fairly quickly and checking them back in was very simple. Customs was nothing.
From there we flew Virgin Air home. That was another new airline for us. It was great too - nice seats, satellite TV, etc. There was wifi available, as well as movies, snacks, and drinks but they were not free like our first flight. Still, a nice airline, great people.
The next hurdle was getting all our luggage from the airport in Seattle to Jason's Mom's house. Fortunately for us, Jason's brother came in his SUV and everything fit in just fine. The kids and I rode home in Jason's Mom's car and Jason was with his brother.
So, that was our trip home. Seriously the easiest 28 hours of travel ever. Aside from the 28 hours part I mean. That part stank.
Let me begin by telling you all the things that went wrong:
1....
Nothing! It was flipping fabulous! First off, we had a super nice taxi driver that took us to the bus depot. He was able to fit all our bags aside from one and 2 of us into his little car. When I say all our bags I mean 7 checked bags, 1 long walking stick, two larger carry ons, and 4 "personal items" - back packs. We had a lot. Jaxon and I rode to the bus depot, Jason and Lily walked with the extra bag. I am not mentioning that the previous day a super nice Japanese lady stopped on the street to help us find the location of our bus and helped us schedule a taxi.
So, we go to the bus, rode for nearly 3 hours, got the airport, all stress free. We had to wait an hour or so to check in as the counter wasn't open yet. Checking in - Singapore Air -wow! First, the lady tells us that they saw that we were a family so they saved seats together for us. Then, as I was checking my bags in I was apologizing because one of our bags was way over the weight limit - like 20 pounds over. I was planning to have to pay some crazy amount for that bag. Instead, she weighed all our items as one, came up with a total of all and we were under the allowable weight for 4 people so, no charges.
The plane was a double decker, a first for us. We were upstairs. Before we even sat down the stewardess came over to talk to the kids. She got their names and said hello to them all throughout the flight, checking in with them, took their food orders first, brought their food first. One of the cool things about Singapore Air is that there are no extra charges once you are on the flight. We were served two meals and endless drinks. We were able to order our meals off a menu and could drink anything we wanted - soda, coffee, wine, beer, spirits. All free of charge, no limit. (I'm sure that they'd cut someone off if they drank too much alcohol). Also, snacks! If anyone got hungry between meals there was a whole list of snacks like salasd, sandwiches, cookies, etc, that one could order. No charge! Each seat had a media screen in it and the viewing options were impressive. We could watch new movies - i.e: Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, old movies, television (recent and old), play games, listen to music, etc. Finally, the room on this plane was great too. We were not cramped at all like some of our other flights we have taken. Overall, WOW!
Between checking in and boarding we had to go through customs, tell them it was our final departure and that we would not be returning. I'm not sure what we expected but we were worried about that process. So easy! Nothing to it. One form per person, a hole punched in our Japanese ID's, and we were on our way.
We had a layover at LAX for about 6 hours. We had to collect all our bags, re-check them, and go through customs. Again, feeling worried about these processes. No issues at all, super easy. All our bags came fairly quickly and checking them back in was very simple. Customs was nothing.
From there we flew Virgin Air home. That was another new airline for us. It was great too - nice seats, satellite TV, etc. There was wifi available, as well as movies, snacks, and drinks but they were not free like our first flight. Still, a nice airline, great people.
The next hurdle was getting all our luggage from the airport in Seattle to Jason's Mom's house. Fortunately for us, Jason's brother came in his SUV and everything fit in just fine. The kids and I rode home in Jason's Mom's car and Jason was with his brother.
So, that was our trip home. Seriously the easiest 28 hours of travel ever. Aside from the 28 hours part I mean. That part stank.
that's sounds like an awesome travel experience glad to hear you guys made it back home with little to no problems, hope you guys have lots of successes and happiness back home :) if im ever out your way i would love to come say hi and see how the kiddies have grown :)
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