As is tradition, Day 1 lasts approximately forever.
We were off to a great start. Or not. Even after repeated calls to Viking who told us we needed to check into our flight via KLM, we were still confused. Delta and KLM were “partnering” on this flight, but I had made the seat reservations via KLM. So I tried checking in via KLM, and was redirected back to Delta. One more phone call to Viking and the answer had changed to: check in via Delta.
Ok fine.
Except Delta has this whole process to upload vaccine and testing info. There was a not so subtle hint that, gee, you should have taken care of this awhile go (and without instructions to do that, how would I know?). Anyway, yada yada yada, two very frustrating hours later it was done. I have since figured out how to change my iPhone’s default photo format from .heic to .jpeg (the photo file format was one of the issues).
At least the drive to NY was easy. Finding the private parking lot by the airport was not. We showed up at the address on the reservation. It was not an “EconoPark”. It did not look like the photo on the website. A guy gave us another address where the actual long term lot was located.
I had picked this lot because it has a 4.5/5 rating. I’m really hoping my car is there when we get back.
At Terminal 4, we found the Delta representatives directing traffic to the correct line to check in. They sent us to KLM! Of course. Who asked us for exactly the same vaccine info we had spent 2 agonizing hours entering into the Delta website.
Once finally in Viking’s care, things ran a bit more smoothly. For the most part. We met up with my sisters-in-law, Susie and Janet – whom we haven’t seen in almost 3 years – and Susie’s friend Tom. The gang was back together!
Ah yes, so for those of you new to my blog, there is always some adventure involving bathrooms, usually several of them during the course of the trip. I still regret not creating a travelogue of “Bathrooms in Europe” during our Baltic Sea cruise in 2012. There were so many unfamiliar flushing mechanisms during that cruise that eventually I learned to first identify the flushing mechanism in any bathroom before doing anything else to avoid….inconvenience.
The flight was delayed well over an hour because of the weather – the pilot taxied the plane around in circles. Once we took off, the flight itself was smooth, and the pilot was able to get us to Amsterdam only 45 minutes late. Enough to mess up everybody who had a connecting flight.
So, as is tradition, in the airport bathroom stall I saw this thing. I have absolutely no idea what it is and what its function is. It didn’t do anything at all.
Writing this now, I realize how really exhausted I was yesterday – it’s all a bit of a blur. We checked in – once again showing our test results. We were lead to our stateroom with a brief description of assorted items, including the daily PCR test (note – what was left out was that we were expected to provide an immediate spit sample, ooops).
We had our first lunch – let the eating begin! We were off to a good start!
After lunch, attempts were made to nap that were not particularly successful.
There was a briefing at 6:00 in the lounge, followed by a “muster drill”. The hardest part – finding the life jackets. In the event of a G0d forbid real emergency, lives would be lost due to everybody trying to fish the life jackets out from under the bed.
Maryland Meshugas 