Flight to Iceland and Pre-Cruise Stay
On this 10-night cruise, Swan Hellenic offered guests a one night pre-cruise hotel stay in Keflavik, a small community about 45 minutes from Reyjkavik and home to the Reyjkavic airport (KEF). Our journey begins with a flight from DFW to ORD (Chicago O’hare). We departed DFW at 4:18pm and arrive at O’hare on-time about 2 & ½ hours later.
Our Level 8 Voyageur luggage and backpack
Our overnight flight from Chicago to Reyjkavik, Iceland, departed on-time at 9pm. On this trip, we are flying on United Airlines. Unfortunately, we have no status with United, but we did pay extra to get better seats, priority boarding and 1 free checked piece of luggage. Our boarding passes did show the priority boarding on the DFW-ORD leg, but not on the international flight from ORD to KEF. We had all of our receipts with us showing that we had paid for priority boarding, and the gate agents did everything they could but never could get the priority boarding designator to show up on our boarding pass. The gate agent in Chicago did allow us to board in Group 2 (we had hoped for Group 1) after viewing all of the receipts.
Our international flight was on an older 757-200 aircraft in United Economy Plus. It did appear that the Economy cabin had been recently updated with new seats and seat back entertainment screens. We initially reserved seats 20F and 20D, which are exit row “Economy Plus” seats (additional cost). However, at the gate upon boarding, our seats were changed to 20A and 20C. Turns out that was a real stroke of luck since 20B (the middle seat) was out of service! We ended up with an empty seat between us!
The Economy Plus product on United is a small step up from Main Cabin Extra on American, with one exception: alcoholic beverages are not included in the price. However, we did get a choice of red or white wine with the meal service. The meal served (chicken with rice) was edible, but nothing special. Still, better than American Airlines meal service which is basically inedible. The flight crew was very polite and came through periodically with bottled water.
As the sun begins to rise, we can see the tip of Greenland as we fly over on our way to Iceland.
Flying over Greenland
Soon we are approaching Iceland and, as the Captain dips the port wing to line up for landing, we get our first look at Iceland.
First look at Iceland
Our flight arrived at Keflavik International Airport a little ahead of our scheduled 8:30am arrival. Getting through Iceland immigration and customs went quickly and, by 9:15, we were exiting baggage claim with our luggage, looking for the Swan Hellenic representative.
Our luggage was already on the carousel when we exited Immigration
This is when we started to get nervous. After looking over the large crowd of greeters outside of baggage claim, all holding signs for various cruise lines and tour operators, we did not see anyone holding a Swan Hellenic sign.
Drivers and greeters meeting arriving guests outside of baggage claim
We circled through the group of representatives at least five times, but never saw anyone holding a sign with our names, nor Swan Hellenic’s. I double-checked our paperwork to confirm that we did, in fact, have a transfer from the airport to our hotel, and sure enough, we did. We tried calling Swan Hellenic customer service but got a message that they were closed. We were just about to get a taxi on our own to the hotel when I decided to make one more round and I finally saw a driver holding a Swan Hellenic sign. I think since our flight arrived early, he probably assumed he had a little more time to show up. He led us to his SUV and drove us the five-minute drive to the Courtyard by Marriott Keflavik Airport.
Courtyard Reykjavik Keflavik Airport
This is considered an airport hotel due to its proximity to the airport. We arrived at the hotel and found a Swan Hellenic hospitality desk in the lobby. The representative gave us some paperwork and instructions on where and when to meet the next morning for the transfer to the ship.
All we can think of right now is sleep. We were both up all night on the flight and are exhausted. Tomorrow I will tell you more about our stay at the Courtyard.
