Zach1213

Nah, it's O'Hara...they re-named the airport after Catherine because of the impact Home Alone had on Chicago 🙂

We need a bit more info...where are you connecting to? I ask because that impacts recommendations because (a) you may or may not need to enter the UK, and (b) you may or may not need to change terminals.

My family and friends are on six continents (sometimes seven because I know a guy who spends an occasional summer working in Antarctica). I grew up in Namibia and live in the US, travel the world for a living, and my wife's family is in North Africa...so yeah, social media is critical in keeping in touch with family and friends along the way.

It would be very simple to arrive at Southampton in the morning and get a flight out of Gatwick on the same day. It's like a 90-minute drive.

And if there is an issue with a passport, it's often not a quick fix. Having plenty of time before your flight can give you time to resolve some simpler issues (like Australian ETAs or, in the future, ETIAS). I had a colleague who once flat out forgot to get her Australian ETA. Luckily, she was one of those people who arrives early to everything and was able to get it online after American Airlines told her they wouldn't let her on her MCI-DFW flight (that was connecting to SYD on QF) without one.

(I'm just giving you a hard time because I'm bored on a 12 hour flight)

Well yes, of course. "If you're not paying for something, you're the thing being sold". But that's a very different conversation than the conversation about travel influencers, which are just a new tool of marketing and promotions (or, sometimes, just a way for the person to make a living doing something they love).

I'll take this time to say that I know someone who is a moderately "famous" travel blogger, though I won't name names. He has never once received a free flight/hotel stay/train. He makes enough money off of his subscribers + revenue from YouTube to make a decent enough living traveling the world and getting people to watch him do it. So not all of these people are getting paid by the airline/cruiseline that they're traveling on. And yeah, I am also curious what you're "wasting your money" on.

Oh their website is perfectly accurate, because it doesn't list Ireland as an ETIAS country. The person I responded to said Ireland needed ETIAS, and I jokingly told them they better let ETIAS know their website was incorrect because it didn't list Ireland.

Many of these reviews are spot on, though. They're often a good way to get an idea of what options are possible, what ships/hotels/locations look like, etc. They may be paid, but they're more often than not just showing people what they can experience themselves, which is usually more realistic than the marketing we see on TV or hear on the radio. As far as Facebook goes, you often build your own algorithm. My Facebook is a fountain of lovely pictures of my family and friends and the things they do.

If they get free things, it's just marketing. It's part of a marketing budget...a marketing budget that every company has, and evolves over time as marketing and promotional tactics and trends change.

As a total aside, I can't imagine the UK allows this as a connection, right? Kind of like how, for example, United can't sell you a ticket from Vancouver to Toronto via O'Hare.

You might want to let ETIAS know their website is wrong then 🙂

Well, it depends how you want to get there, and where you're going to. For example, hiring a car service will be shorter than a train or bus, and flying within the UK or to the EU will require less advanced arrival than a flight to, say, US or Canada.

The only bad part about starting in Spain after an overnight flight is that you might not be able to stay awake for your 10pm dinner 😅 Make sure to check out the Royal Palace, Catedral de la Almudena, and Plaza Mayor. Retiro Park is a good option if you just need some space.

To be fair, that's kind of the "best practice" anyways (keep active, stay awake (don't nap), go to bed on the early side, wake up generally refreshed). CLT-MAD is pretty short as far as longhaul flying goes, so even if you were able to sleep on the flight, it wouldn't be a huge amount...but that's the same with ATL-LHR - you're in the air around 7.5 hours, so assuming you want to eat and drink (or basically do anything besides just go straight to sleep), you're looking at maybe five hours of sleep. Just want to set expectations that, between eastern North America and Western Europe (especially far Western Europe), the max amount of sleep still isn't a ton.

This is the obvious answer to me. Sure, there's an additional cost...but that convenience is unbeatable. Fly straight from home to Madrid, spend a day in what is usually a woefully underrated city (Madrid...which in my book is better than Barcelona), and then an easy and scenic train ride right in to the center of Barcelona. No brainer. OK, no brainer may be a bit over the top. Business class sure is nice, but I personally would just get to Madrid, spend the time in Madrid, take the train, and enjoy a decent PE product. That's just me.

"Only" is not quite the right term if you ask me. ETIAS will be required by the majority of countries in Europe, and many of the countries that aren't using ETIAS are the ones less-visited by tourists (not talking UK or Ireland of course, but places Belarus, Ukraine, North Macedonia, Albania, and places like that). The vast majority of countries a cruiser or other holiday-goer to Europe will visit will require an ETIAS.

Should be fine. Some people may talk you out of backtracking to ORD, but it does provide a longer overnight flight which CAN be beneficial if you're able to sleep on planes. But I would definitely urge you to find some other options. This includes, but is not limited to, CLT-LHR or CLT-MAD, the latter of which could pair nicely with a MAD-BCN train.

Interesting. Admittedly, I don't connect in Schengen/EU a lot (mostly through Heathrow, or I fly in to somewhere like FRA/AMS/CDG/MAD/ZRH and grab a train or car), but I feel like when I do connect Non-Schengen to Schengen, including from the US, I had to do security. Appears I am wrong, so sorry for confusion. Alas, so is CPH's website at https://www.cph.dk/en/flight-information/transfer where they state that "if you arrive on a flight from a country outside the EU or Schengen, you need to go through security to continue your journey".

As far as I know, any flight that comes from outside of EU/Schengen needs security. So in this case, your arrival from the US will necessitate both immigration and security at CPH. Neither of these should take long, but I would be surprised if you didn't have to go through security.

Cruise line will likely book you just on one ticket. Best way to verify is to make sure you have one ticket number (not confirmation code, but the longer ticket number) for the entire journey through. I am not familiar enough with Athens airport to determine how long it takes to get out, sorry...only flew in there once. Zurich is pretty efficient and is built for short connections like that. You will need to clear immigration (since Switzerland is your entrance to Schengen) and possibly security, but again, ZRH is built for this and Swiss efficiency is no joke.

Sorry, my limit is 2.3 miles 🙂

Immigration in Copenhagen since this is where you're entering Schengen. Customs (a simple green/red hallway to walk down depending on if you have anything to declare) in Athens. This all assumes you are on one (SAS?) ticket where CPH is just a pure connection point, rather than separate tickets where you need to check in again in CPH, which would be a different (and unwise) situation.

Rotterdam is great. But even if it isn't, it's literally like 45-60 minutes on the train from Amsterdam if not less.