Trev-and-Ange

Overall if you can technically make the ship, you are expected to do whatever it takes no matter how inconvenient. I am not able to travel like this any more. Delta is refunding my ticket but the KEF flight change would be at least another $1k, and requires me to rebook prior to my flight today so I'd have to figure out an alternate itinerary in the next hour. I have spent all morning on the phone trying to figure out what to do. Obviously JFK is out so I have to find an alternative departure city and figure out how to get there, etc. There is just so little time to do that and it is extremely stressful. After taking weeks to plan this can't redo all if it in a matter of hours.

I booked what would have been my first Atlas cruise for Iceland and Greenland. Alas, there will be no Atlas for us. Due to airport closures from Ernesto my Delta flight to JFK yesterday (Sunday) was cancelled, but of course they didn't outright cancel it until 8pm or so. As a result I will miss my flight to KEF which leaves today at 1pm. And, Delta can't get me to JFK until Wednesday but the ship leaves on Wednesday. We are fortunate to fly business class and had booked business class flights, but at this late date, many of the alternative routes which could theoretically get us to KEF in time for departure are economy, not even premium economy and they have too short or too long layovers or convoluted itineraries. My husband and I are in our 60s and because we both have physical maladies, we have to pace ourselves. We intentionally booked a flight to JFK on Sunday with overnight stay and the flight to KEF the following day. We can no longer handle multiple legs over multiple time zones in a single trip. Right now our only option is to fly Tuesday to a US city connecting to a an overnight flight arriving in KEF at 6:30am but then have to wait until 3pm to embark. We have already lost $$ on hotel in KEF, airport pickup in KEF, our flight to KEF, which we could not make, and $250 in transportation getting to the airport yesterday only to have to return home almost 12 hours later. No one in their right mind books an expensive cruise without intending to take it. We carefully planned it so that we could do this voyage, incurring additional expenses of pacing our journey to get to KEF with overnight hotel stays. Even a credit toward another cruise in the future would have been a gracious and most appreciated gesture, but no luck. We are disappointed obviously. Atlas will keep our money but they won't get any of our money in the future.

A Nile river cruise is next on my list. Looking at Viking, AMA, Avalon, NatGeo, etc, etc. So many different cruise lines to consider. I have a good budget for it, but I like to feel that I am getting an experience that is worth the money. Would appreciate any suggestions, as well as good or bad prior experiences that I should consider. Best time of year, etc. TIA!

Dear 81Zoomie you are a dear to find this! I think this will do nicely. 🍾

Thank you so much. I am looking forward it. Antartica is on my TO-DO list!

We will be taking our first Atlas Ocean Cruise from Iceland in August and would appreciate any tips that previous cruisers can share. Also have some questions about embarkation day: What time do they allow you to board? Will there be any food served at embarkation? Is the afternoon tea available on embarkation day? We selected our excursions. Anything else we should look to book sooner rather than later? TIA

Is there a 'champagne' option?