What the H . . . is a designated drinker? (Review – 5/15/11 Vision OTS Baltic Sea)

[wrp96]

Thanks we go with the flow and love meeting all the friendly cruisers and staff. I think the people you interact with make the vacation.

 

Hope to meet you someday. :) We are looking at our next cruise in Sept or Oct 2012. Quebec or the Greek Isles looks interesting to us.

 

 

I wish I could do the Quebec cruise but I'm already booked on Jewel out of Boston. Maybe in 2013.

 

Best of luck on the job situation.

[nydiana]

As planned, we disembarked and took the “castle” tour provided by the ship. Christiansborg Slot is a reasonably nice, fancy palace. Don’t tell the Danes this but the Swedish castle is fancier. Rosenborg Slot is not nearly as fancy a castle, but it has a nice garden and the crown jewels, which were interesting to see. This was also the day of the Copenhagen marathon, so the bus had to dodge and weave around streets which were closed for the marathon (actually the clever Danes would force the marathon runners to divert one block every once in a while to allow traffic to move). The tour ended at the central train station which was about 6 block from the hotel. It was hot and humid and they were a long six blocks. It also did not help that the sidewalks are cobblestone. Suitcases do not roll well over cobblestone. With the help of a very nice local, we got the luggage to the hotel.

 

Once at the hotel, we learned that the elevator was not functioning. We were lucky enough to grab the one and only available first floor room. Still, this involved dragging the luggage up a flight of stairs, after bringing it the 6 blocks to the hotel. Also, the hotel clerk was amused when I asked him where I could get a bottle of Danish wine. “I don’t think we grow grapes in this county,” he told me. Our initial couple of days in Copenhagen had taught how to spot restaurants where we might be able to afford to eat. So we wandered around and found a small café. Lunch only cost us $40 – see a vast improvement. After lunch we went to the Copenhagen City museum. This turned out not to be an art (or even natural history) museum located in Copenhagen, but rather a museum dedicated to the city itself, its cultural diversity, and its vast immigrant population. As Americans we were not really impressed by this diversity and would not recommend this museum to other Americans.

 

It was now near 5 PM on a Sunday and most of the attractions were shutting down. We headed back to the hotel to rest. On the way we past a 7-11 (actually there are 7-11’s all over Copenhagen). A billboard in the window advertized a “wine-drink” made in Denmark. It really seems something like a wine cooler. As this is the closest I was going to find to local wine, I purchased a bottle. I also exchanged another $50 into Danish money to use for dinner. The women at the exchange window actually told me that you could not possibly get a decent meal for less than 400 DKK ($80) per person. After another rest at the hotel (during which it poured again) we found dinner in another small café. This time we managed two bowls of soup for only $16.

 

We now headed back to the hotel and flipped on CNN. We learned that indeed another Volcano was erupting in Iceland and that Icelandic airspace was already closed. We looked at our tickets – heading back to NY via Reykjavik and cried. Visions of the Spanish airline strike and our night in Madrid danced in our heads. Also, thoughts of European travel being shut down for a week due to last year’s volcano occurred to us. We looked at our airline’s website and discovered that ALL flight on Icelandic air funnel through Iceland. If Iceland’s airspace was already closed we might be in trouble. The website also advised us that there would be no way to contact the airline until the morning. We decided that there was nothing we could do at this point and that our best strategy would be to get the airport early the next day and see how things played out …

 

My DH Jon

[nydiana]

After partaking one final time of the Hotel’s free breakfast, we headed off to the airport. We arrived at about 9:30 AM. The first place we reported was the airport’s information desk. The attendant looked at our boarding passes and giggled. Then she said that she had no definitive information about our flight and we would have to deal with the airline directly. She told us that our airline did not have ticket counters of its own but used certain counters belonging to Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) which took up a large percentage of terminal 3.

 

Talking to an SAS agent revealed the following info:

1) No decisions had yet been made and none would be made until 11 AM.

2) At 11 AM, I should get in line at a particular SAS counter (a different counter than the one information booth had given).

3) Since I was going through to NY and not visiting Iceland, the airline would work on finding an alternate route that would NOT go through Iceland.

 

At 11, went to the line that the agent had mentioned. While I was talking to the airline employee who was directing traffic at that line (she confirmed that all flights headed for Iceland that day were cancelled), the original agent that to whom I had spoken at 9:30 came walking up to us. He recognized me from earlier that morning. He said, “You’re going to NY right? After I answered, “yes” he said that the airline had an alternate flight for me and that I should stand in a different line. After 10 minutes, the new line had not moved an inch. The agent came and got me again. He personally escorted me to the front of a different line. The agent at that window took our luggage (without weighing them), handed us boarding passes and told us that we should hurry as the flight was already boarding. This was not entirely accurate. When we arrived at the gate, boarding had not yet, in fact, started. However, it did so within the next few minutes.

 

It was only now that we realized the final curveball that we had been thrown. Looking at our boarding passes, we realized that the plane was not going into New York City itself, but rather to Newark, NJ. Newark is considered a regional airport for New York, so as far as the Danes were concerned they had arranged for us to get to “New York.” Ordinarily, it would not have mattered much to us either. It is generally easier for us to get home from Newark than from Queens. Moreover, the flight to which we had been switched was direct, so we would be landing 4.5 hours earlier than we otherwise would have. The problem was that we had parked our car at JFK. After a quick discussion, we decided that on balance it was better to be stranded in NJ then Denmark. We boarded the flight.

 

After an uneventful flight - which was made longer because we had to fly around the ash cloud hanging over Iceland – we arrived back in the States. We discovered that there is a shuttle running between the NY airports. We purchased ticket for this shuttle, which was supposed to run once per hour. It actually took close to 2 hours before we boarded a shuttle for JFK. Eventually we arrived at JFK an hour earlier than our original flight was scheduled to land.

 

My DH Jon

[nydiana]

Thanks we go with the flow and love meeting all the friendly cruisers and staff. I think the people you interact with make the vacation.

 

Hope to meet you someday. :) We are looking at our next cruise in Sept or Oct 2012. Quebec or the Greek Isles looks interesting to us.

 

Unfortunately, our Governor says he is going ahead with 9,800 state worker layoffs. :mad: That would devastate the Capital district of NY. My DH does not have much seniority so he is at risk. :eek: So we are holding tight to see if the other shoe drops.

 

Diana

 

 

Our union voted down a contract. Then the NY State Governor carried out his treat and sent out almost 3,500 layoff notices. My DH was one of the unlucky ones. We had a rough month with his job in balance while they worked out another contract for union member to vote on. We put our cruise plans on hold. My DH, Jon started looking for another job. I was so bummed out and worried about Jon losing his job I stopped reading the cruise boards.

 

Well it came down to the wire. Jon’s last day was expected to be 11/4/11. Great news the union contract was passed. :D:D The Governor rescinded the layoff notices on 11/3/11.

 

We went out and booked our next cruise the next day. We had been looking at the 10-night cruise of Canada. So we are going back on Brilliance of the Seas, Oct 12, 2012. I can’t wait, only 48 weeks.

 

Diana

[mrsfecura]

Our union voted down a contract. Then the NY State Governor carried out his treat and sent out almost 3,500 layoff notices. My DH was one of the unlucky ones. We had a rough month with his job in balance while they worked out another contract for union member to vote on. We put our cruise plans on hold. My DH, Jon started looking for another job. I was so bummed out and worried about Jon losing his job I stopped reading the cruise boards.

 

Well it came down to the wire. Jon’s last day was expected to be 11/4/11. Great news the union contract was passed. :D:D The Governor rescinded the layoff notices on 11/3/11.

 

We went out and booked our next cruise the next day. We had been looking at the 10-night cruise of Canada. So we are going back on Brilliance of the Seas, Oct 12, 2012. I can’t wait, only 48 weeks.

 

Diana

 

Hello! I know this is a year later (LOL!) but I remember all of this! I don't work for the state but have many friends and family members who do. Glad Jon wasn't affected by the layoffs and you guys could continue to cruise! I work in downtown Albany but for a Realtors trade association.

[nydiana]

I just noticed your reply. We were lucky, they pulled the pick slips before he was out the door. We have enjoyed several cruises since. We have an 11 night Southern Caribbean cruise planned for January 2015. The PEF contract expires in April 2015. We hope the governor doesn't put employees' jobs in jeopardy, over that contract negotiation.

 

 

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