Passage To Eastern Europe Viking River Cruise
Day 1: Friday, October 28, 2022 - Travel
The day's statistics:
- Weather: low 60s
- Steps: 5,540 Linda; 6,181 Steve (including any pre-trip / leaving home steps)
- Miles traveled (approximately): 3,860
This isn't the first day of our cruise, but rather it is the first day of travel on our vacation.
Our flight to Heathrow was at 10:59 PM.
Leaving two hours for security and whatever, that means we should be at the airport at 9:00. A long half hour to get
from the parking lot to the airport means 8:30. Then a long hour to get from home to the lot means leaving the house
at 7:30.
So we ate dinner at home, cleaned all the dishes, and hung around for an hour. THEN we left.
In Philly, we parked the car in the ExpressPark South
lot, and it only took 50 minutes to get there from home.
We were shuttled to the terminal and made our way to the airline check-in counter to drop our luggage and acquire our
tickets. When we got on line, there were two checking in, two in front of us, and then us. There was a family
checking-in at the preferred Customer counter too. It didn't take long for Philip to get our bags checked - Linda's
weighed 33.5 pounds, and mine weighed 38.5 pounds - and give us our tickets. We started up to the gate, and stopped
at the restroom on the way. We passed a tote board and found our flight was on time.
Just before going up the escaltor, Linda remembered the preCheck (last year it was not on our ticket). I looked at
our tickets and alas, there, again, was no preCheck. So we went back to the check-in counter.
We got back on line and were now fourth on line. The family at the Preferred Customer counter was still checking-in -
they had a LOT of luggage... After a twenty minute wait, we finally spoke to the agent, William, and in no time we
had our revised tickets and we were on our way to the gate. Again.
At 9:18, we were at our gate - A23. I recognized the area and checked our chronicle - it turns out we were just over
there at gate A26 for our first Viking Cruise trip a couple years prior.
At 10:09 the first call to board was made.
We got on the boarding line at 10:20.
At 10:27 we were in our seats.
Our plane first moved at 10:52, and at 11:09, we were finally airborn.
I played some games - Bejeweled 2, and Rally - while Linda watched a little TV on demand.
We don't fly often - at the current rate, once a year - and it seems there are some advancements in flight technology
being made. For example, the seatback entertainment comes with a wired remote.
However, the wire should have gone into the remote on the left, not the right, since the remote has to be flipped to use
it, otherwise the wire goes from the left all the way to the right - and it gets in the way.
One other change is the window shade. This plane has an electronic window tinter. I tried to take a picture of
the opacity, but the camera wasn't cooperating. But here's the button.
Food service started at about 11:59. They didn't get to us in the first minute, and since it was then past midnight, it was now the next day and the story shall contnue tomorrow.