We started our 50th Wedding Anniversary cruise on Labor Day with a drive to Heather's home in Massapequa. We left before 0900 as planned, to beat any holiday traffic. The plan worked. Surprisingly. Just a couple of brief slow-downs with no stops at all. We think it was our best drive to Long Island ever. The Cross Bronx AND the Southern were without issue. Amazing. After a night and an afternoon there we took the LIRR from Massapequa to Jamaica and then the shuttle to JFK. We had a 2145 flight on Austrian Air to Vienna.
The train trip started with walking into an elevator at the Massapequa station with a lot of semi-fresh blood on the floor. A lot. Enough that it was difficult to avoid getting some on our luggage wheels. Large elevator - two people - a struggle to stay out of the blood puddles and footprints. An inauspicious start to our journey. The balance of ride went smoothly. All the way to the AirTrain and JFK. Security was mostly easy and quick and we were in. At the gate. To wait. Since it was an international flight, we were advised to arrive 3 hours early. We did not get to the airport quite that early but we knew we had a wait coming. This let us relax and not have any worries. Yet. Of course, with less than hour before departure, that departure was delayed. We could see the B-787 was waiting for us, the crew was waiting to board and the passengers were lining up. Yet we waited. They said the plane was late in arriving but we could see it there very shortly after its planned arrival. Sigh.
We got aboard with assurances we would still get to Vienna ahead of schedule because of tailwinds. Hah! We pushed back from the gate only 40 minutes late. Fine. No issues. Hah! We travelled about 50 meters away from the terminal and stopped. Missing your departure window at JFK does not go unpunished. We waited. And waited. And waited. We eventually got moving again only to find we had just moved enough to get in the line of aircraft waiting to depart. What fun. Miles of taxiing to get to our actual runway. A scenic tour of JFK taxiways. Well, it would have been if it wasn't dark. We finally took off about an hour after we pushed away from the ramp. And for some reason we would not now be making up the time lost. Flying faster or something wasn't going to work. Go figure. Meeting our connecting flight was getting to be a bit questionable, too. But, that was so long into the future there was no point in worrying about it. Nothing to be done.
7.5 hours of flight time. What fun. A 787 is a large aircraft but people are stuffed in. Canned sardines have more room. The food was reasonably good. It had been a long time since we had gotten meal service on a flight and were pleasantly surprised. Of course, our breakfast was a bit boring and flavorless but, hey, low expectations.
The flight was a little lumpy but the seatbelt sign stayed off. A domestic flight would have had it on most if the time but a transatlantic flight, on a foreign airline (Austrian Air), well, different guidelines I guess. It wasn't airsickness inducing just bumpy. Like driving on New York State highways and Parkways at speed. Not uncomfortable but not sleep inducing either.
Getting off the plane with about 20 minutes before our scheduled boarding time for the next flight was interesting. Walk to the gate. Up stairways. Down stairways. Around corners. And most importantly, past restrooms. No time. We get to our gate only to find it's a bus stop. An airport loop every 10 minutes. We wait 8 minutes for it. We take a scenic tour (not!) about the airport and are dropped off at our gate. Uh, no. We walk up stairs, down stairs, around corners, up stairs, though passport control/customs to get to our gate where we check in. Then go down a hall, around a corner and downstairs again to find... another bus. We board this bus, take another scenic tour of the airport, come as close as possible to running over as many airport workers as possible to finally arrive at our aircraft. A small(ish) regional jet, an Embraurer 195. We squeeze in for the 25 minute flight to Hungary. We did, however, receive a bottle of water each and a Lindor chocolate. Our bladders didn't need the water but our throats did.
A quick and easy flight at relatively low altitude so we got to see the countryside. Somewhat. At the Budapest airport it was the usual hike and wait to get our luggage. But time enough to use the restrooms. Whew. Once luggage was in hand we exited to look for our Viking Cruise representative. No problem. And no customs or passport control. Just walk out into the world. It was a 45 minute drive to and around Buda and Pest to get to our ship. Several times over the Danube and back for no known reason. Not a scam. Nothing at all in it for the driver. Just seemed a bit weird but the quickest route through a busy city. We arrive on the ship. Look around at the scenery in the middle of the city. Unpack and then get oriented to our home for two weeks and finally start our cruise.
Overall, with all this complaining, not a bad trip. Long but not bad. About 12 hours plus the 6 hour time difference but we are ready to go. After an orientation talk. A lifejacket/emergency drill with local firefighters aboard. Dinner and a well earned nights sleep. Ready to go.
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