All good things must come to an end, and it was time to say goodbye to the Jewel and her crew on Day 18 of our voyage. We put our luggage in the hallway the night before, walked down our last gangway, and disembarked. Our luggage was in a huge room at port where we had to hunt it down, get in line with it, go through customs, get on a bus, and ride to the airport.

Customs was just a formal look at faces and passports with no luggage check or the forms we have previously filled out to re-enter the US. We were told we would have final Customs at our final destination, but at 11:30 pm in Des Moines, we merely grabbed our luggage off the carousel and went outside to find a Lyft home.

Tampa International Airport is a nice place to wait a few hours. We had to keep our luggage with us for a couple of hours until our flights were getting closer before we could check them.

Our Cruise by the Numbers

• 6,200 Nautical Miles from LA to Tampa via the Panama Canal
• 7 countries visited
• 9 ports of call
• 7 at sea days
• 19 days of pampered vacation
• A lifetime of memories made with my wonderful dad, my sweet hubby, and new friends, David and Bill!