20260317 Viking Vela Northern Lights and British Isles - Day 2/32

Viking Vela In Search of the Northern Lights and British Isles Explorer Cruise Day 2/32 – The hits kept on coming

We got some decent sleep in the Hilton Garden Inn in Orlando, waking up about 8:00 in the morning. We ate at their $16.95 buffet, so with a couple of Coke Zeros and fees, we had an extremely overpriced $50 breakfast. But, without transportation, it was our only option.

So far, so good. We would hang out here until our noon check-out, head to the airport and pick up the car, then drive to Tampa. That was the plan until Alamo decided to cancel our inter-city reservation due to an Orlando-wide rental car shortage. Woo! 

We looked into Uber. That would run us $150-$200 to get to TPA. Our travel agent, Lisa, found a shuttle service from MCO to TPA, but that would have been more than $450. I decided to call Creative Concierge, the car service that we use to get to that airport and back home. He said he should be able to accommodate us. We waited about an hour for confirmation. It came about 10:30, confirming our ride at 1:00 to Tampa.

With a little creative thinking (and Arlona reminding me to call Creative Concierge), in addition to Lisa's extraordinary efforts well past midnight, we had a new plan.

Our driver arrived about ten minutes early. We loaded up our bags and hit the road to Tampa. Shortly after getting on I-4, we came to a stop. Typical I-4. The slowdown was short-lived, but nature had another plan. A short time later, we were in and out of pretty impressive rain, coupled with strong lightning. We soldiered on. The sun made another appearance, and the road cleared up again.

We arrived at TPA, found Delta, and checked in at the kiosk. All went well until it told us it couldn't print our bag tags and to see an agent. Into another line and waiting once again.

The board behind the agents wasn't encouraging, even though it showed our flight, at the top, as on time

The line moved reasonably quickly. Eventually, they printed our boarding passes, tagged our bags, and we were off to the terminal. When I got to TSA, I discovered that the agent had removed my Pre-Check status. Arlona was still good. It was also then that we discovered that the Delta Club is in Airside E. Our gate is in Airside F. Our travel agent, Lisa, mentioned E, but I didn't put it together that it was a different terminal than we would be flying from. So, back to ticketing, I got a new, correct boarding pass, and we were off to Airside E. Our boarding passes wouldn't open the gate to the train. Why? Our boarding passes are only for Airside F. An agent said we needed to get a shuttle pass that opens the gate. Who would know that?  Off to the information desk we went.

We passed by "HOME," a 21-foot-tall sculpture of a pink flamingo nicknamed "Phoebe" by artist Matthew Mazzotta. It was installed in the main terminal of Tampa International Airport in 2022. 

We got a pass, returned to E, went through the gate, and arrived at the train. The train came into the terminal, but only part of the way. That was par for the course for today. Several minutes later, they backed it out, and a worker performed a safety walk, walking the entire track, looking for possible obstacles. Once that was complete, the train returned, we boarded, and we were whisked to Airside E. We went through TSA to get into the terminal. This sucks because when we go back to Airside F, we will have to go through TSA again. Congratulations, TPA, for having the stupidest airport design in Florida.

We found the Delta Sky Club. It took us 75 minutes from arriving at TPA to make it to the club. Did I say inside the club? No, I did not. Why? Just like last night, the club was full, and people were waiting to get in. Unbelievable.

Because we had Delta One status, that moved us up the pecking order, but the agent still said there was a potential two-hour wait to get in. After a discussion with her, she suggested that we would likely get in by 5 pm or so, given the upcoming flight departures.

Seats were scarce, even to just sit and wait. Arlona scored seats at a table with a very nice couple trying to get home to Minnesota. After chatting with them for a while, the happiest sound came from Arlona's phone. It was the text saying we were good to enter the Sky Club. 65 minute waiting, but we got in.

A couple of plates of food and a couple of drinks, and we were good to go.

I checked the status of our inbound flight. It kept flipping from 50 minutes delayed to 1.5 hours delayed. It was targeted to arrive at 7:15 pm, a tight turn if we were to board at 7:55 pm.

In the grand scheme of things, our problems today were relatively minor. It doesn't seem like that when it is happening to you, but given that 3,500 flights got canceled today, and another 6,300 were delayed, if we did launch tonight, we would be one of the lucky ones.

We left the lounge, took the train back to the main terminal, and got the train to our terminal. We made it through TSA again and waited at our gate.

"On Time" was a bit of a lie

Our Airbus A330, which just flew in from Amsterdam, getting ready to return to Amsterdam

The flight was full. There were 25 people with passport issues. There was one very frazzled gate agent. We felt sorry for her as she was trying her hardest to get everyone handled. Boarding started about 20 minutes late, but everyone got aboard, and we finally left Florida.

Given our exhausting days, sleep came easily, even for me, and I don't sleep well on planes.

We arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. We didn't have boarding passes because, for some reason, Delta couldn't give us them for the connecting flight. We tried at the Delta desk and were told to head to transfer desk #6 and talk to KLM. The friendly agent said Arlona was good to go, but somehow, Viking, when they rebooked us, left me on the flight from Amsterdam to Bergen yesterday, rather than reticketing me for today's flight. It took them about ten minutes to sort it all out with Delta, but we got our boarding passes.

Schiphol is a huge airport. The walk to Passport Control was relatively quick. There was a long line, but it moved very quickly. A quick, "Where are you headed?", and we were on our way.

We found our way to KLM's crown lounge, got seats, and grabbed a couple of Coke Zeros. Europe's soda culture is very different from that in the USA. While Big Gulps keep getting bigger, this was what was available for soda in the lounge.

Basically a glorified double-shot glass

We enjoyed our swallow of soda and relaxed. I asked one of the entry agents for a time estimate to walk to our gate, D78. He said that it was near the end, so plan on a 15-20 minute walk. Did I mention that Schiphol is huge?

We are now at UTC+1, or five hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast. As I type this paragraph, it is 12:45 in the afternoon on Tuesday, March 17. Our flight to Bergen departs at 3:10, arriving in Bergen at 4:50 in the afternoon. Bergen is also UTC+1, so we'll be in this timezone for a while.

It only took about ten minutes to walk from the KLM Crown Club to gate D78. Boarding started a few minutes after we arrived. We were flying "European Business Class" on this Airbus A321neo. What that means is similar to what South American airlines call Business Class. There are still three seats on each side of the aircraft, but in Business Class, they don't sell the middle seat. Not as nice as individual pods, but no one is immediately adjacent, and there is semi-reasonable legroom. The flight was uneventful, and we touched down at 4:42 pm local time.

Does Bergen have an identity crisis?

Our bags took forever to arrive on the carousel, but everything was there, and that's always a good thing. That gave us time for pit stops as we waited for the bags to appear.

We took turns :-)

We wish US airports would label baggage claim like this.

At US airports, everyone crams around the carousel, and nobody can see their bags. You have to push people apart to reach in and grab your bag as it goes by. By keeping people back, everyone can see, and there is no pushing and shoving to get to your bag. It's so simple.

We walked out of the baggage area and immediately spotted a young lady holding an electronic pad with "M/M KOLB" on it. She escorted us to her waiting van, loaded our bags in the back, and drove us through Metro Bergen.

After about 25 minutes, we arrived at the Radisson Blu, our crash pad for the night.

This is a sore spot for us. We paid for a pre-stay in Bergen. We have done pre-stays and post-stays before with Viking. In fact, we are doing a post-stay on this trip, taking the train to Oslo and spending a couple of days. Viking always does a great job, and typically includes a tour or tours. Today was the day for tours for the pre-stay. Because of our travel delay, we missed today completely. That sucks. But...we saw the itinerary for the pre-stay. Viking supplied no tours, and today was a day on your own in Bergen. For what Viking charged for the pre-stay, they offered almost no value-add. We hope that isn't a sign of things to come with Viking.

Our room is quintessentially European. Clean lines, efficient, small room, and twin beds.

We're always amazed that Europeans don't seem to enjoy sleeping in the same bed as their spouse

Since we ate on the plane, neither of us was hungry for dinner. We did want something to sip on tonight, and some cold caffeine for tomorrow morning. Arlona spotted a 7-11 on Google Maps, so we hoofed it the few blocks to the store.

Classic Bergen architecture

That ornate building contains a Starbucks

Viking Vela is already in port in Bergen - we board her tomorrow

Let's summarize our travel to get here. We left our house at about 5:00 pm on Sunday. I'll reference all times in Eastern Daylight Time for ease of calculations. With the exception of a few hours of sleep that night in Orlando and a few hours on the plane today, we traveled until noon on Tuesday. I will sum that up in two words. We're tired.

With all the cancellations and delays across the country, we know that we're lucky that we even got here. But we did, we're here, and the trip will start in earnest tomorrow when we board the Viking Vela. We will remain in Bergen on Wednesday and most of Thursday, sailing that night.

Tonight's plans? Shuffle a few things in our bags, shower, and hit the hay sometime between nine and ten. Our bags have to be outside the room before 8:00 tomorrow morning so they can be transferred to our stateroom. We have breakfast at the hotel tomorrow morning and need to be downstairs at 11:30 to catch our ride to the ship.

Glad we're here and glad this travel adventure is over. Let the cruise begin!