Viking European Sojourn River Cruise Day 27/27 - The travel day getting home
Nothing starts your travel day better than waking up to this text:
Your flight AC901 to Montreal is delayed because airport limitations on an earlier flight caused the scheduled aircraft to arrive late and will now depart at 13:25 from Gate E2. We apologize and are working to get you on your way.
Oh well, we have several hours at Montreal airport, so this shifts one of those hours to Amsterdam.
Getting off a river cruise is weird when you're used to ocean cruising. First, your bags don't have to be out until 45 minutes before your scheduled departure from the ship. Second, your bags are just placed by the exit and then taken to your transfer vehicle when you exit. Third, for us, we were again docked next to another Viking vessel so we had to walk through it to leave. Finally, we didn't have to scan our cards to leave. Very different, indeed.
Check-in went well as did immigration but security was another story. Both my backpack and carry-on caused alerts. The guard passed the backpack but needed to look in my carry-on. A power converter and a jewelry roll with some watches apparently was suspicious and had to be swiped and scanned for illicit materials. This resulted in essentially completely unpacking and repacking one side of my stuffed carry-on. Yea. With that behind us, we headed for the Aspire Lounge to kill the three hours before our flight.
The lounge was roughly 675 miles from our gate. Perhaps I'm exaggerating, but it was a hike. Just before we got there, we met up with fellow cruises from our flight who said not to bother. They were just there and there was a queue. How long? 105 people! On a Wednesday. At 10 A.M.! Yikes!
With our plan for the lounge effectively killed, we walked the 863 miles to gate G7 (they changed our gate from E2 to G7 right as we checked in) and found a place to sit and wait for our flight. Terminal G has absolutely nothing in it. No bars, no eateries, nothing. So far, not a fan of Schiphol Airport.
We boarded per the delayed schedule. Once again, we got a Boeing 787 Dreamliner with individual seat pods in Business Class.
Montreal was a zoo. We had to go through security again and all the security lines were stopped as US Customs, yes, we cleared US Customs in Canada, was falling behind. After a few minutes, they started up again with 20-year-old standards. Take laptops out of bags? Yup. Remove shoes? Check. The only thing we didn't have to do was take out our liquids. Did they have body scanners? Of course not so my hip set off metal detector. Still, I didn't have to unpack and repack my carry-on like in Amsterdam.
What did pay off was Global Entry. Everyone else turned into the long Customs line. We walked up to the camera, waited for the green light, and walked to an agent. He looked at us and said, "Arlona and Garry Kolb?" We nodded. "Welcome home." Less than a minute to clear Customs. Booyah.
We made our way to the Maple Leaf Lounge for the 2.5-hour wait until boarding for Orlando. Snacks and cocktails smoothed the wait.
Boarding started right on time and ended quickly. So quickly that the pilot requested a move-up in the schedule and got it. The flight was bumpy but we got in early and amazingly, our bags only took 20 minutes. This meant we got out of the airport more than 30 minutes earlier than planned. Woo!
The ride home was uneventful and traffic was light. Getting home shortly after 11:00 rather than the planned midnight was a bonus.
We were up at 6:30 A.M. and got off the ship at 8:30 A.M., Amsterdam time, so 2:30 A.M. EDT. That made for a nearly 21-hour travel Almost 24 hours without sleep.
So... a trip wrap-up.
Did we enjoy the trip? Absolutely.
Did Viking provide a great experience? Yes, indeed.
Are we glad we saw the places we saw? Most definitely.
Would we do another river cruise? Ehh...maybe.
Don't get me wrong, this has nothing to do with Viking. The service was stellar. Their reaction to hiccups was outstanding. Ok, the room was a postage stamp. A well-appointed postage stamp but still a postage stamp. Sure larger rooms are available, but at more than double the cost. That's a whole other trip! There is no flexibility in dining and limited menus. Did I mention that the room was small? The fact that the Sun Deck was closed for five days so we could fit under bridges didn't help either.
If we find a river cruise with a compelling itinerary, we would consider another one, but for the moment, I think we're ocean cruise people.
We're taking a bus tour next month so we will see how we like that. It means we will live out of suitcases and we generally don't like that. If it works, then perhaps a train trek through Europe might be in the cards at some point.
For now, the trip is done and we're home...for a couple of weeks. The bus tour in the American West is up next. Well, sleep is next. Until the next trip...
