Day 8 - Disembarkation

Viking Ocean utilizes a more-or-less traditional method of disembarking guests. A couple of days before disembarkation, guests are given colored numbered luggage tags indicating their disembarkation group. The order of disembarkation is generally based upon your return flight schedule. Those with early flights will disembark first. Those with later flights will disembark later, and so on.

My flight on United, from Bermuda to Newark then connecting to DFW, was scheduled to depart Bermuda at 3:10 in the afternoon. It seems that most of the flights out of Bermuda depart in the afternoon. My group was Gray 2 and we were scheduled to disembark Viking Orion at 11:20.

Now, this is where Viking Ocean does things a little differently on disembarkation day. While guests were asked to be out of their staterooms by 8:00am, they were free to use the public spaces until 11:20 (for my group). Most cruise lines would just dump you off at the airport at 9:00am leaving you to "enjoy" the wonderful food and atmosphere there for all those hours before your flight departure time. But, not Viking. In fact, they even kept the World Cafe open until 10:30am for breakfast. And, it was not some abbreviated breakfast with just some pastries. World Cafe was serving their full buffet breakfast, just like every other day. The Restaurant and Mamsen’s were open as well. This makes the unpleasantness of disembarkation much easier to tolerate. Thank you, Viking Ocean!

After breakfast, I went to sit and do some work on Deck 1 in the Atrium. I decided, just for the heck of it, to download the United Airlines app on my phone. When I logged in to the app, I was greeted with a message saying that my itinerary had changed. Oh joy. My flight from Newark to DFW had been cancelled, and United had re-routed me through Houston, with a connection to DFW at...wait for it... 7:30am the following morning! And, of course, there was no mention as to whether or not United was going to provide me with a hotel for my forced overnight stay in Houston.

I only had about an hour before I had to disembark the ship and I was scrambling to get someone at Guest Services to see if they could get me booked on another airline. Honestly, they really tried to accommodate me, but there was little they could do. And, I was not the only guest facing this issue. There were several of us from Dallas that were on the same itinerary. Trust me, I had no intention of sleeping in an airport overnight if there were any way I could avoid it.

I opened the Delta app on my phone and found a flight departing Newark at 6:55 to Atlanta, then connecting to DFW, getting me home by midnight. By some miracle, the cost of the flight was only $168 one-way and they even offered me an upgrade to first class on both flights for a total cost of only $432. I was stunned by the reasonable cost so I booked the itinerary and paid for it. I am now out $432 but maybe I can get my travel insurance to reimburse part of that cost since my flights were cancelled. Right.

Now for the rest of the drama. It is imperative that my flight from Bermuda arrive on time in Newark for me to be able to make my connection. Since my connecting flight is on a different airline with a completely different booking number, I cannot check my luggage from Bermuda all the way to Dallas. I have to collect my luggage in Newark, then figure out how to find the Delta ticket counter to check my bag through to Dallas. This is no easy task in Newark which, in my opinion, is possibly the worst airport in the US, and the US has the worst airports of any developed country thereby making Newark the worst of the worst. Wait, Miami International is pretty bad, too. But that is another story for another time.

So, as I am waiting to board the United flight in Bermuda, all these possible scenarios are running through my mind. If my flight is late getting to Newark and I miss my Delta flight, I am screwed because the Delta flight is a separate booking number originating in Newark. Delta has no way of knowing that I am actually coming in from Bermuda on United. As far as Delta would know, I just did not show up in Newark for my flight. End of story. That would mean $432 down the drain and spending the night in Newark and having to pay for yet another ticket to get home. I mean, all of this is going through my mind. It’s called stress. So, when the gate agents in Bermuda take their sweet time getting the eight pre-board passengers in wheelchairs on the plane, I am thinking “this flight is going to be late getting off the ground.” And, to make matters even more fun, the little weather symbol on the screen at the gate changes from cloudy to thunderstorms in Newark. Now I have to worry about a weather delay!

I am scheduled to have two hours to make my connection in Newark, so I should be able to make it, right? I did gain some much needed time due to the fact that you clear US Customs and Immigration at the Bermuda airport. I was unaware of this process until I got to the Bermuda airport. Pre-clearing in Bermuda shaves about 30 to 45 minutes off the time needed to connect in Newark.

We did take off about 20 minutes behind schedule but arrived in Newark only 15 minutes late. Good for me, right? But remember those predicted thunderstorms I mentioned earlier? Yep, we get stuck sitting on the tarmac because of lightning in the area. And, because of weather in the area, they have delayed flights from taking off, so there is a shortage of available gates. We sit on the tarmac for 15 minutes before we finally pull up to a jetway. But, that 15 minutes seemed like a lifetime!

By the time I exit the plane, I have about one hour and 40 minutes before my Delta flight is scheduled to depart. I still have to collect my luggage from this baggage claim in this third-world airport and somehow find the Delta ticket counter, which is in a different terminal building. The wait at baggage claim took about 25 minutes, but the bag finally did come down the chute. Now, my next task is to find the Delta terminal and check-in. I saw a lady sitting at a United Airlines desk and thought I would ask her for some directions on how to get to the Delta terminal. You have all heard stories about how people in the travel industry are so happy to be back at work after Covid? Yeah, well that wasn’t her. She had NO interest in helping me at all.

Fortunately, I met another passenger at baggage claim who was in my exact same situation. He and I were on the same flights that got cancelled and he also re-booked himself on Delta to Atlanta. Coincidentally, I later learned that he works for Viking Cruises. He was hosting some travel agents on the Viking Orion cruise. Well, he and I, working together, managed to find the Delta ticket counter and get our luggage checked for the flight to Atlanta.

Oh, but it’s not over. No, not by a long shot. After all, Delta hasn’t had their shot at taking a few years off of my life with their issues. And, if you are thinking about bailing out on this lengthy rant, I promise you a nugget of wisdom at the end that will be worth your continued attention.

Let’s fast-forward to 7:15pm (EST). We have boarded the plane, I am in my seat, the cabin doors are closed and we have pushed back from the gate. Remember: the flight was scheduled to depart EWR (Newark) at 6:55pm and I have one-and-a-half hours to make my connection in ATL. We sit on tarmac in Newark for at least 30 more minutes. To make the situation even more delightful, the APU on this plane is not working, so we have no air conditioning. And, throughout all of these flights, we are constantly being reminded that, if we remove our mask, we are in violation of federal law, will be removed from the flight and prosecuted, and most likely never allowed to fly on Delta again. I honestly think you could charge the cockpit aggressively and suffer fewer consequences!

When it reaches 90 degrees in the cabin, the mask makes the experience so much lovelier, especially when it is the same mask you have been wearing since 7:00am. As I continue to sit in seat 4A enjoying my steam bath on this non-moving aircraft, flight 2876 from Newark to Atlanta, I suddenly realize that there is a good chance I will miss my connection in Atlanta! This means that for my $432 all I did was trade an overnight of hell in the Houston airport for an overnight of hell in the Atlanta airport.

Our flight finally does take off and the Captain says he can make up some of the lost time in the air and that we should only be 30 minutes late arriving in Atlanta. If this is true, then I have some relief that I can make my connecting flight with one hour to get to the next gate. Tight, but doable. Once we get to altitude, I get one last notification on my phone from the Delta app. My flight to DFW has been delayed 30 minutes. At this point, I don’t even care anymore. I am just glad to have the extra 30 minutes to make the connection.

We land in ATL 30 minutes late, as promised, and I get to the gate for my DFW flight which is now scheduled to depart at 11:15pm and arrive in Dallas at 12:15pm (there is a one hour time difference).

So, what is the nugget of wisdom that I promised you? First, travel is most definitely back. I have never seen airports any more crowded or busier than I have seen on our last two trips. Second, if you are planning to cruise internationally, don’t even consider doing so unless you plan to fly into the city of embarkation a day or two before the cruise. Air travel was horrible, disgusting and unreliable before the pandemic. Ahh, the good old days. Now, air travel is completely unreliable and more uncomfortable, if you can believe it. Covid has given the airlines another excuse to cut services that they did not want to provide anyway, like meal and beverage services. You don’t even get anything to eat in First Class on domestic flights. It is almost laughable to use the term "First Class". My third suggestion is to buy as much travel insurance as your budget will allow, because you are probably going to have to use it. And my fourth and final nugget: if your international flight itinerary requires a connecting flight, forget it!

Rickee and I have flown internationally four times in the past six weeks. Three out of the four flights experienced delays and/or cancellation. Now, to be fair, we made it to our destinations, albeit late. But, it is the stress of not knowing if you are going to make it that takes a toll on you.

The bottom line on disembarkation from Viking Orion is that everything within the control of Viking Cruises went smoothly. Unfortunately, every guest has to rely on the inept and poorly-run airlines to get to and from a Viking cruise. Maybe Viking should start an airline? Someone damn sure needs to.