Travels in Fire and Ice - The Arrival
I don't fear dying in a fiery plane crash. I know statistically planes are unlikely to fall out of the sky. I am still surprised at how I managed to stay calm when flying in a six-seater above a Costa Rican jungle in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. I know it's safe to fly.
I have other reasons to fear flying. I fear overbooked flights and understaffed airlines. I fear canceled vacations and missed connections. I fear being stranded. I fear COVID variants. I fear runway collisions. I fear being stuck on a runway for hours with no water or usable bathrooms. I fear lost luggage. I fear enraged passengers.
Do you think I'm crazy? Remember the last time I took a vacation where I had to fly I was almost stranded overseas - and that was before the pandemic.
This is a conundrum because I love to travel. There are limited options when you can only travel by car, train, or bus, and when you travel that way, you lose time spent on the journey that you could have been spending enjoying the destination. I kept telling myself in the past year I will travel abroad (or longer distances in the US) again when the dust settles from the pandemic and air travel normalizes itself a bit, but now I'm not sure that will ever happen. Airlines are the only industry that manage to stay in business while providing the worst levels of service for the most money. If the business model keeps working for them, why should they change? When will I feel comfortable taking the plunge and booking a trip?
The answer came earlier this year when Dad offered a family vacation. How did I feel about a free luxury cruise around Iceland in July? Imagine spending my birthday in a place where the day is almost twenty-four hours long. Imagine being in a place where I could be waited on all day and have all the wine, cocktails, and food I want. Imagine the majestic natural beauty I would witness. (Is that typical Rachel to be imagining the food before I imagine the natural beauty?) I shouldn't be giving that sort of equine donation a dental exam. Even though I'm not a cruise person, and I have all these fears of flying, we would have to go and take the risk.
When it came time to book the dreaded flight, Kevin and I did the one thing we could think of to increase our odds of a good experience. We contributed our own money toward the cost of a a seat upgrade to business class. We learned from experience if you book basic economy you are the first one bumped from an overbooked flight. I will never book below premium economy anymore, no matter what it costs. I want to take every chance possible to guarantee a seat.
On top of the worries about flying, Kevin and I both realized our passports expire later this year. The expiration date is after our trip, but it's too close to the time of the trip to be acceptable for travel. I would have to renew it as soon as I could to make sure I had a bit of cushion.
Did you know the passport offices over at the State Department are having a serious backlog this year? I guess I'm the only American out there who is afraid of flying. When I first submitted my application the State Department website said the wait time for a standard renewal was 8-11 weeks. Then it became 10-13 weeks. Thirteen weeks would be less than two months away from departure date. I would have liked a little more cushion than that. To my joyful surprise it arrived within 8 weeks. *Phew*
Our next headache came with our room. Dad booked us in a guaranteed cabin. If you're not familiar with cruise lingo, this means the cruise line offers a cheap cabin in a certain class that is unassigned. The actual cabin assignment doesn't happen until close to the cruise date. The reservation guarantees you will be booked in whatever class you booked, but if a higher class becomes available, you will be upgraded at no extra charge. Our chosen guaranteed cabin class was the lowest one on the ship - a small room with no balcony. It was not only smaller than other cabins, but that class of room is only on the lowest deck. Kevin and I hoped for an upgrade. If we ended up in the cabin class we booked, we would be on the lowest deck with no balcony and endless engine noises when the ship was sailing.
We heard stories of guaranteed cabins being assigned at various times. I think the cruise ship originally told us it would be fifteen days. When we looked at online discussions on sites like Cruise Critic, we saw the assignments could happen anywhere from ten days to seven days to not being assigned until embarkation day. Dad and Beth were assigned a cabin (and a better level one) over a month in advance. Erik and his family were assigned a cabin eighteen days ahead of time. With a week to go, Kevin and I still had no cabin assignment. Would we have to wait until embarkation day?
Seven days to sailing we finally had our room assignments. The cruise gave us an unexpectedly agreeable upgrade to a balcony suite on Deck 9.
Then when it seemed everything was in place, we find out one of Iceland's active volcanoes was expected to erupt. On Tuesday the lava began to flow. The eruption didn't appear to be one that would disrupt air travel, but it was still in early stages. Would it progress by Thursday night? How will it look the day we fly home?
With everything in place, all we could do was wait and see. We spent months planning everything from excursions to food to what to wear. This was going to be an experience like no other and we needed to be as prepared as possible.
The good news was our flight was at 11:30 at night. That left us with plenty of time to pack during the day and check those lists twice. After everything else that was stressing us out before this trip, we needed to make sure we left nothing behind and everything was in the right place.
Packing had to be accompanied by the right playlist. There is only one playlist for Iceland.
The bad news was our flight was at 11:30 at night. That's not the best time to fly for someone who is the exact opposite of a night owl.
There were other advantages to the late flight though. We could wear our summer clothes all day and change into Iceland-appropriate clothes at the last minute. We could also eat dinner at home so we wouldn't have to dine on the scanty and overpriced offerings at the airport.
One thing that shocked me about packing was how full and heavy my suitcase was once I was all packed. If we weren’t flying business class, I would be paying overweight baggage fees. I tried to be reasonable. I planned to re-wear stuff. I planned to do laundry while on the cruise. I still overpacked. I guess that’s the nature of cruising. I needed daytime wear for excursions. I planned to keep up my workouts, so I needed gym clothes. The ship has a dress code for dinner including two formal nights. That’s three outfits per day plus shoes. Plus this wasn’t a Caribbean or Mediterranean cruise where I could pack lightweight clothes. This was Iceland. I needed jeans and sweaters and base layers and rain gear. Unless I was doing daily laundry, there wasn’t much I could do about the weight of my suitcase.
Weight of the luggage and weight of the worries aside, we made it to the airport and had some time in the business class lounge. We enjoyed some cookies and cocktails until we were kicked out at 10PM.
We boarded the plane bit late, but the delay wasn’t terrible. As soon as we sat down, the flight attendants were handing out glasses of Prosecco.
I could get used to this.
The flight made good time and was the predicted five and a half hours. I’m managed to sleep for a good chunk of it, which is good because the entertainment selection was kind of lame.
I saw a bit of the northern lights during the night, but couldn’t get a good photo from the airplane window.
Right before 9AM Reykjavik time we arrived.
The adventure is about to begin.
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