UH, Oh

 May 27, 2022

Bar Harbor, ME

Uh oh

Yesterday, when we docked in Halifax the weather was perfect, the sea like glass. This morning when we arrived near Bar Harbor, a tender port, the wind was blowing 30-40 knots and the sea was very choppy. Uh oh.

When we reach the first US port, US Immigration comes aboard first thing to clear everyone before anyone can go ashore. It’s a simple procedure, show the man your passport and cruise card and move along to one of the crew members who punches the hole of death in your cruise card. That pretty much says, end of trip.We were having breakfast before our 8:45 slot with Immigration when the Captain came over the PA to announce it was too rough and windy to use the tenders right now, updates at 10 am. Uh, oh. At 10  he was back saying all shore excursions were canceled. But a bit later he announced the local whale watching ships were going to act as tenders.  We could look down from our balcony on the loading operation. The  local boats are  a bit bigger and a lot steadier than the ship’s tenders but we decided to stay on board. 

At 11:30 I got an email from Delta that it was time to check in for our flight home tomorrow. But, wait. Our nonstop from Boston to Atlanta is now a flight to West Palm Beach, quick plane change and then up to ATL. And it leaves earlier from Boston. Uh oh. Time to call the  Delta hotline number. The agent said it had been quite the week. Our flight had been canceled and we were rerouted on the next available. How lucky for us it’s Memorial Day Weekend and all nonstops to Atlanta are full.

Another of the things that has disappeared on the ship is the daily “newspaper,” a four page summery of the day’s news culled from the NY Times, plus papers from Canada, Britain and Germany. Without this we were really in a news blackout. The TV has a couple of news and sports stations that work sporadically. We don’t even bother turning it on anymore. This just reinforced the black out. We were aware of some Primary election results, the shooting in Texas but hadn’t a clue that Delta was canceling flights because of “weather and staff shortages.”  

May 28, 2022

On board Delta 1081, West Palm to Atlanta

We had no trouble getting from ship to airport this morning. It was easily the smoothest disembarkation we’ve ever experienced. Maybe 20 minutes door to door. So plenty of time for coffee and a bagel before our plane loaded. Easy flight to WPB and then from gate C4 to C3 to board this plane.  While we were waiting to board, we chatted with a young couple with a 7-month old trying to get to Texas. Then an older couple on day two of travel to Vermont. I almost felt guilty actually reaching our destination just a few hours later than originally scheduled. But not really. I’ve flown a zillion miles with Delta over the years so that loyalty was rewarded.

Our good fortune continued in Atlanta. Our arrival gate was fairly close to the escalator down to the Plane Train, our luggage was on the carousel when we got to baggage claim and our driver was at the curb.  Our plane touched down at 5:06; we walked into our apartment at 6:15.

Good trip. Short trip. Happy trip. Everyone on board the ship or on shore was so pleased to have the travel industry semi back to normal. We decided that probably most of the passengers were using up Future Cruise Credits that had been issued when the Pandemic shut everything down two plus years ago. And most of the passengers admitted that their friends and family thought they were nuts to get on a ship but the crew took pains to keep it as safe as possible. I figured there were probably more germs in line at Costco than enjoying a cocktail in the Ocean Bar on Deck 5. Just in case, we’ll use one of the government issued COVID test kits when we’re home just to insure that we are hale and healthy.

When I’m home I’m going to attempt to post some photos. I didn’t really take too many,but I can never resist taking a picture of a lighthouse.

All for now until we head to Alaska in early September for two weeks from Nome to Vancouver on a Scenic ship. New line for us, only 200 passengers. 

Until then….