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Tuesday, May 23, 2023 – Bergen, Norway to Oro Valley, Arizona
Not one photo was take on this day.
Our flight departs at 6:00 a.m. We are assigned to a group that meets in the Atrium at 3:00 a.m. When our group is called, we disembark into the cruise terminal where we have a face-to-face meeting with an immigration officer. Our luggage has been off-loaded for us and is organized by group. We find the luggage easily and are thankful that there is a porter that assists us in getting it to the bus that will take us to the airport. A very nice young man.
Arrival at the airport was a bit chaotic and for a long time the line didn’t move at all. Finally, we got checked in and headed for our gate. It was a long walk.
We are supposed to be in First Class so board early expecting wide comfortable seats. This plane must get used for flights that do not have a First-Class cabin as the seating was standard (3 and 3), but the middle seat wasn’t sold. It is a short flight to Amsterdam, and they do serve us a breakfast – of sorts. We did request a Bloody Mary and that was quite tasty.
We arrive in Amsterdam and taxi and taxi and taxi. We must have taxied for over 20 minutes to get to our gate. We had requested a wheelchair for Russ only to discover he wasn’t in their system. A bit of pushing and calls were made. We should have a cart any minute. We were about to start walking when a cart arrived. A very nice young lady was our driver and whisked us through the airport and a special passport control and dropped us at our gate. We were very grateful that we did not have to walk.
The flight from Amsterdam to Salt Lake City is Business Class and this plane is fitted with the pods in which you can even lay flat. The pillow was comfy and the blanket was more like a duvet. They offered champagne or orange juice before taking off and we spent a bit of time getting our cubbies situated for the flight.
After take-off, we were offered drinks and received small bowls of heated mixed nuts. This was followed a bit later by a meal. We had each pre-selected our choice and enjoyed the food. We entertained ourselves for a bit, then napped for a couple of hours. A couple of hours before landing there was another meal/snack. That offering turned out to be not very good. But we certainly are not in need of a lot of food.
We landed in Salt Lake City and a wheelchair was waiting. However, we were parked in the hallway just off the plane until every passenger was off the plane. Another flight had landed at about the same time and right next to us. So the same thing was true for that flight. As it turned out, they didn’t have enough people staffed to handle passengers needing assistance from two international flights at the same time. I thought I was going to be pushing Russ, but one of the helpers said he could handle two at one time. And he was very adept. A great help. I got our luggage off the carousel and onto a cart with the help of a kind bystander. Not a single question about the luggage, we just dropped it off to be checked in and then headed to immigration. Although we had TSA Pre-check, all electronic devices had to come out of our carry ons. Russ’s backpack got special treatment and testing, but finally we were through security.
And it was a very long walk to get to our next gate. We are on a smaller plane from Salt Lake to Tucson, so we’ll be bussed from the terminal to the plane for loading. We get out to the plane are not allowed to board. The plane is being worked on. After about 20 minutes, it is determined that the plane cannot be fixed quickly, so we are taken back to the terminal. About an hour later, a new plane is finally ready for us, so back to the bus and to the plane.
We have a very nice hostess, and she offers a drink before take-off. We take her up on the offer, but can’t savor it as we have to finish it before they close the door. Once in the air, she comes back with a variety of snacky things and that is perfect.
The very kind people that took us to the airport in December have offered to pick us up. We’ve kept in touch with them throughout the afternoon about the delays and they seem to be fine with it. They were also following our flight online so didn’t have to wait too long for us to get to baggage claim. 45 minutes later we are home. Luggage is off-loaded quickly but will sit in the living room tonight.
It has been a
long day. Tomorrow we will have to begin our return to reality.
