Silver Cloud Live - Reykjavik to Kangerlussuaq - June 25th to July 5th 2023 - Surprise!

[RyanJCanada]

Video of the calving glacier:

 

 

 

[AusMum]

20 minutes ago, RyanJCanada said:

Video of the calving glacier:

 

 

 

We got to see glacier calving on both of our trips to Alaska; you are right in saying it's very bittersweet, but the sound is amazing. Our son was 4 when we first went to Alaska.  he got an award at school for doing a presentation at assembly on 'Glacier Calving in Alaska'.  As I write this I realise why he's so drawn to wanting to work in renewable energies, and how much of a positive impact travel has had on his ambitions.

[RyanJCanada]

9 minutes ago, AusMum said:

We got to see glacier calving on both of our trips to Alaska; you are right in saying it's very bittersweet, but the sound is amazing. Our son was 4 when we first went to Alaska.  he got an award at school for doing a presentation at assembly on 'Glacier Calving in Alaska'.  As I write this I realise why he's so drawn to wanting to work in renewable energies, and how much of a positive impact travel has had on his ambitions.

Absolutely agree regarding the transformative impact this has on kids - it just makes everything so much more tangible. Curious to see how it will affect their future schoolwork and career interests!

[AusMum]

4 minutes ago, RyanJCanada said:

Absolutely agree regarding the transformative impact this has on kids - it just makes everything so much more tangible. Curious to see how it will affect their future schoolwork and career interests!

You are so much closer to Alaska than we are - even if you use a more 'affordable' cruise line than Silversea, then land based into Denali etc, it's an amazing part of the world.

[RyanJCanada]

Day 10 – Sisimiut

 

 

Oh, how I love to see a 7 on the clock when I wake up. 7 is much nicer than 6 and far, far nicer than 5.

 

After our later, slower wakeup we went to the Restaurant for a leisurely breakfast, grateful for the chance to simply walk off the ship rather than line up for a zodiac.

 

Or so we thought.

 

With the familiar bing-boong-bong of the announcement, Darryn informed us that the dock was being blocked by two fishing vessels. But it was all right, because they had agreed to move. And they would be moving shortly.

 

Bing-boong-bong. The fishing vessels had not moved. Or rather, they had moved by so insignificant an amount that the Cloud was still unable to dock. So they would need to set up a zodiac landing site instead. Please stand by to stand by.

 

Bing-boong-bong. Landing zone established! Would Strenuous Hikers and Tele Island hikers please head to deck 3 to disembark…

 

That was us, so off we went. We hadn’t minded the extra break in the morning – it had given me time to get caught up with another cruise update, and we still landed with plenty of time.

 

We huddled up with the group for the Tele Island Hike, careful to stay out of everyone’s way. Sisimiut seemed quite busy that morning – then we learned that there had been a recent fuel delivery, and the locals were coming by the docks to stock up. (The same docks that we were using as a landing jetty – so it was a bit of a juggling act, but the expedition staff made it seem easy.)

 

It wasn’t long before we set off, setting a brisk pace as we made our way through town and off to Tele Island. The terrain was some of our children’s favourite – rough, boggy, hilly, rocky, and wet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discarded shell of a sea urchin, after being eaten by a bird

 

 

 

There were some interesting historical sites along the way, including a pair of old stone storehouses.

 

 

And some great views of the town itself.

 

 

 

The hike was strenuous, but relatively brief. Fine for us and the kids, though a few of the other guests did struggle a bit – mostly because the terrain was quite wet. But we all made it back in one piece.

 

After the hike, we tried our luck with a nearby playground that was largely under water.

 

 

Predictably, there were some very wet feet afterward. So rather than trying to find yet more ice cream, we headed back to the ship for a nice, warm meal.

 

 

It was the 4^th of July, and the Cloud was celebrating with a themed luncheon, cake, and live music.

 

 

 

I had hot wings, sea bass, and the 4^th of July desserts. My wife had the baked macaroni and cheese.

 

Honey garlic wings

 

Seabass fillet

 

Mahi mahi

 

Mac and Cheese

 

Cake!

 

After lunch, my wife very kindly got a start on packing while I had a power nap. Then it was my turn to weigh in on the pile of admin that we had been studiously ignoring for the past few days – turning in wet-weather boots, filling out the comment card, donating to the crew fund, and writing thank you notes.

 

Then it was time for the last round of trivia for the cruise, where we hoped to get a ‘clean sweep’ of top-third finishes. But trivia host Daniel pulled out the most difficult round of questions to date, and we only managed a paltry 10 out of 20 questions.

 

But with 708 prize points (!!!) our son was far from disappointed with his overall performance. We quickly hustled downstairs for prize redemption, where he managed to snag not one but two Silversea teddy bears, complete with little white Silversea T-shirts that were immediately stripped off.

 

 

These cost 100 points each, and my son is left with 508 points for our next cruise – which is in July 2024, when we head to the Galapagos! Thanks go to Future Cruise Manager Joshua for handling all our bookings.

 

Off to the final briefing and the photo show, along with the viewing of the cruise recap video. Both of these have been absolutely stunning, and I will post them just as soon as I have sufficient internet capacity for those massive files. But the quality of both productions is incredible.

 

Darryn then auctioned off the flags and chart for both this leg of the cruise – and for the overall pole-to-pole Grand Voyage – to benefit the crew fund. Most of the items seemed to go for around $1,000 each. We were tempted to bid but decided to leave them to the pole-to-polers instead. Maybe next time.

 

Then off to dinner at La Terrazza for another fabulous meal of veal chop and chocolate torte, both of which I sadly forgot to photograph.

 

There was also a tremendous view as we headed toward Kangerlussuaq – a thick fog had rolled in off the mountains. It felt strangely fitting that, as we were preparing ourselves to leave, Greenland was once more shrouding itself in mystery.

 

 

But thankfully – after we had returned to our room and tucked in our kids for one last night at sea – this beautiful island gave an encore performance:

 

 

 

It’s been a fantastic cruise that’s held more excitement and adventure that we could have imagined.  And we are genuinely ready to go home.

 

But it was still incredibly difficult to close the curtain and go to bed.

 

We put off the moment as long as we could.

 

Edited July 5, 2023 by RyanJCanada

[spinnaker2]

Ryan

You describe how incredibly difficult it is to close the curtain and close your eyes too! I remember that feeling, that if i closed my eyes i would miss something, the strong psychic pull of FOMO.

I found myself wandering out on deck at ridiculous hours as my husband slept. 

What an odyssey you have had! 

And again, thank you for sharing it so brilliantly with all of us, sitting in our chairs, in front of our screens, watching and imagining and savoring. 

Edited July 5, 2023 by spinnaker2

[WesW]

So very well said Candy.  Echo Candy's words above Ryan plus thanks for describing so well how children/your children can enjoy a Silversea Expedition voyage.  Safe Travels home.

Edited July 5, 2023 by WesW

[cruiseej]

@RyanJCanada Thanks for your excellent travelogue; I've really enjoyed reading it. 

 

6 hours ago, RyanJCanada said:

in July 2024, when we head to the Galapagos!

 

Which July trip? We're booked on the July 6 cruise. It would be a pleasure to meet you and your family if we happen to be on the same one.

[RyanJCanada]

Just now, cruiseej said:

@RyanJCanada Thanks for your excellent travelogue; I've really enjoyed reading it. 

 

 

Which July trip? We're booked on the July 6 cruise. It would be a pleasure to meet you and your family if we happen to be on the same one.

That’s great - we’re on the same cruise. See you next July! 😃

[drron29]

A great read all the way from Dublin to Kangerlussuaq. A really wonderful style that you have recounting your adventures.

The polar plunge though can be a bit different. I did my first off Svalbard from the PA11 as it was knownt then. I was tied up by the wife of our Expedition leader. I asked her if she was experienced in tying men up. she assured me she was. however as I hit the water the rope came off. So I had a bonus swim. Six months later I did my second in the waters off Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica with humpbacks nearby. it really is exhilarating.

[jpalbny]

Really enjoyed your cruise! Appreciate all the effort that went into your posts. Safe travels home and thank you again! 

[alithecat]

Thank you for all your posts and photos. We are booked on the Wind in August 2024 for Iceland and Greenland, and have really appreciated this. Safe travels home.

[AusMum]

10 hours ago, alithecat said:

Thank you for all your posts and photos. We are booked on the Wind in August 2024 for Iceland and Greenland, and have really appreciated this. Safe travels home.

Ours will be on The Endeavour in September next year, so will look forward to your posts! are you planning to do any days in Iceland pre-cruise? we are considering doing the Ring Road

[AusMum]

https://www.silversea.com/destinations/cruises-arctic-greenland/reykjavik-to-reykjavik-ev230905016.html

 

that's our cruise

[alithecat]

12 minutes ago, AusMum said:

Ours will be on The Endeavour in September next year, so will look forward to your posts! are you planning to do any days in Iceland pre-cruise? we are considering doing the Ring Road

We plan to arrive 2 nights before the cruise, so will only have 1 full non-jetlagged day in Reykjavik for the great circle route. That's all the time we'll have.

[AusMum]

4 minutes ago, alithecat said:

We plan to arrive 2 nights before the cruise, so will only have 1 full non-jetlagged day in Reykjavik for the great circle route. That's all the time we'll have.

we were going to do that, but then we got tantalised by Icelandic crime drama, and decided we wanted to see more 🙂 we initially thought we would spend a week in Scotland, but we were more likely to go back to the UK in the future than Iceland

[Lazonia]

On 7/5/2023 at 9:20 AM, RyanJCanada said:

Day 10 – Sisimiut

 

 

Oh, how I love to see a 7 on the clock when I wake up. 7 is much nicer than 6 and far, far nicer than 5.

 

After our later, slower wakeup we went to the Restaurant for a leisurely breakfast, grateful for the chance to simply walk off the ship rather than line up for a zodiac.

 

Or so we thought.

 

With the familiar bing-boong-bong of the announcement, Darryn informed us that the dock was being blocked by two fishing vessels. But it was all right, because they had agreed to move. And they would be moving shortly.

 

Bing-boong-bong. The fishing vessels had not moved. Or rather, they had moved by so insignificant an amount that the Cloud was still unable to dock. So they would need to set up a zodiac landing site instead. Please stand by to stand by.

 

Bing-boong-bong. Landing zone established! Would Strenuous Hikers and Tele Island hikers please head to deck 3 to disembark…

 

That was us, so off we went. We hadn’t minded the extra break in the morning – it had given me time to get caught up with another cruise update, and we still landed with plenty of time.

 

We huddled up with the group for the Tele Island Hike, careful to stay out of everyone’s way. Sisimiut seemed quite busy that morning – then we learned that there had been a recent fuel delivery, and the locals were coming by the docks to stock up. (The same docks that we were using as a landing jetty – so it was a bit of a juggling act, but the expedition staff made it seem easy.)

 

It wasn’t long before we set off, setting a brisk pace as we made our way through town and off to Tele Island. The terrain was some of our children’s favourite – rough, boggy, hilly, rocky, and wet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discarded shell of a sea urchin, after being eaten by a bird

 

 

 

There were some interesting historical sites along the way, including a pair of old stone storehouses.

 

 

And some great views of the town itself.

 

 

 

The hike was strenuous, but relatively brief. Fine for us and the kids, though a few of the other guests did struggle a bit – mostly because the terrain was quite wet. But we all made it back in one piece.

 

After the hike, we tried our luck with a nearby playground that was largely under water.

 

 

Predictably, there were some very wet feet afterward. So rather than trying to find yet more ice cream, we headed back to the ship for a nice, warm meal.

 

 

It was the 4^th of July, and the Cloud was celebrating with a themed luncheon, cake, and live music.

 

 

 

I had hot wings, sea bass, and the 4^th of July desserts. My wife had the baked macaroni and cheese.

 

Honey garlic wings

 

Seabass fillet

 

Mahi mahi

 

Mac and Cheese

 

Cake!

 

After lunch, my wife very kindly got a start on packing while I had a power nap. Then it was my turn to weigh in on the pile of admin that we had been studiously ignoring for the past few days – turning in wet-weather boots, filling out the comment card, donating to the crew fund, and writing thank you notes.

 

Then it was time for the last round of trivia for the cruise, where we hoped to get a ‘clean sweep’ of top-third finishes. But trivia host Daniel pulled out the most difficult round of questions to date, and we only managed a paltry 10 out of 20 questions.

 

But with 708 prize points (!!!) our son was far from disappointed with his overall performance. We quickly hustled downstairs for prize redemption, where he managed to snag not one but two Silversea teddy bears, complete with little white Silversea T-shirts that were immediately stripped off.

 

 

These cost 100 points each, and my son is left with 508 points for our next cruise – which is in July 2024, when we head to the Galapagos! Thanks go to Future Cruise Manager Joshua for handling all our bookings.

 

Off to the final briefing and the photo show, along with the viewing of the cruise recap video. Both of these have been absolutely stunning, and I will post them just as soon as I have sufficient internet capacity for those massive files. But the quality of both productions is incredible.

 

Darryn then auctioned off the flags and chart for both this leg of the cruise – and for the overall pole-to-pole Grand Voyage – to benefit the crew fund. Most of the items seemed to go for around $1,000 each. We were tempted to bid but decided to leave them to the pole-to-polers instead. Maybe next time.

 

Then off to dinner at La Terrazza for another fabulous meal of veal chop and chocolate torte, both of which I sadly forgot to photograph.

 

There was also a tremendous view as we headed toward Kangerlussuaq – a thick fog had rolled in off the mountains. It felt strangely fitting that, as we were preparing ourselves to leave, Greenland was once more shrouding itself in mystery.

 

 

But thankfully – after we had returned to our room and tucked in our kids for one last night at sea – this beautiful island gave an encore performance:

 

 

 

It’s been a fantastic cruise that’s held more excitement and adventure that we could have imagined.  And we are genuinely ready to go home.

 

But it was still incredibly difficult to close the curtain and go to bed.

 

We put off the moment as long as we could.

 

This has  been such a joy to read, and I continue to be astonished by you and your family.   Let's see:  the kids are well-behaved and enjoy visiting prehistoric sites, you all appear to have very diverse palates, you are a terrific writer, you knit (!), you are trivia winners, but not in a bad sport sort of way, all of you appear to be quite fun, etc, etc.    We need more of this in the world!    Thanks for taking time to write this for us all so that we can travel virtually with you! 

[Lois R]

11 minutes ago, Lazonia said:

This has  been such a joy to read, and I continue to be astonished by you and your family.   Let's see:  the kids are well-behaved and enjoy visiting prehistoric sites, you all appear to have very diverse palates, you are a terrific writer, you knit (!), you are trivia winners, but not in a bad sport sort of way, all of you appear to be quite fun, etc, etc.    We need more of this in the world!    Thanks for taking time to write this for us all so that we can travel virtually with you! 

I echo your response.......and I was thinking the exact same thing. The word JOY came to mind right away for me.  It really has been a joy to read and follow along on this thread.

[AusMum]

Miss you already 🙂

[RyanJCanada]

Day 11– Kangerlussuaq to New York

 

The fateful day had come. It was time to leave the Cloud.

 

However, our flight wouldn’t be wheels-up until 6 pm that evening. So we had a (somewhat) relaxed schedule that morning.

 

Up at 7 am, along with the announcement that Deck 4 guests were invited to collect passports and check into their flights at the Dolce Vita lounge. We had some time before Deck 5 was called, so we packed up our remaining luggage and did second, third and fourth checks of the room to ensure we weren’t forgetting anything. (Other famous last words.)

 

Disembarkation would be at 1 pm via zodiac, so we would need to keep our life vests with us – along with sufficient wet weather gear to ensure that we wouldn’t be squelching our way onboard our charter flight from Greenland to New York.

 

The fifth floor was then called to Dolce Vita, so we abandoned our bags in the Restaurant and made our way through the circuit. This was all quite quick – taking perhaps 10 minutes total. How we wish that all airline check-ins could be so painless.

 

Back to the Restaurant for our last lingering breakfast, where I indulged myself with an order of Eggs Benedict (no pictures, sorry) and the crew took one more opportunity to spoil the kids.

 

Then off to Panorama – or, so we tried. At this point all the four-tops were taken, so we went to the Observation Lounge instead. It was quite quiet there - aided perhaps by the pouring rain between the staircase and the lounge – and we had no trouble finding a seat and the rarest of unicorns, an outlet with which to charge our electronic devices.

 

So we sat, overlooking the mist-shrouded bay outside the ‘port’ of Kangerlussuaq, and enjoyed a brief moment of respite before we entered the terrible and dehumanizing Travel Vortex.

 

Don't think there's much in the way of tiki bars and jewellery stores in this particular port...

 

That lasted perhaps an hour – during which the previous update was posted – before my wife attempted to have a look at our flights from New York to Toronto.

Emphasis on the word attempted.

 

She shrugged off the first error, as that’s par for the course for Air Canada – indeed, I think we’d find it deeply suspicious if we ever managed to retrieve a booking for Air Canada without some kind of error. But by the third or fourth error, she began to grow concerned.

 

So that’s how I ended up on hold with Air Canada via Skype using the ship’s wifi for the better part of an hour, only to discover that Silversea had somehow forgotten to pay for our tickets home.

 

Meanwhile, we had also discovered that one of the children’s raincoats had somehow ended up in our checked luggage. And with that discovery, the downpour appeared to double in strength.

 

I went to Reception to speak to Santosh about our flights. And despite it being turnover day, I received his personal assurance that this would be handled. I was skeptical, but he also had a plastic poncho to replace the missing raincoat – so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

 

And so I rejoined my family at the Grill, where we moved on to our last less-than-lingering lunch – the incoming flight had arrived earlier than expected, and so the crew was eager to get us off as soon as possible to make way for the new guests. Pretty please. But seriously, get off the boat.

 

My wife took the kids off for one last rest break before we disembarked, and one of the waiters came up to chat for a bit. And at one point, he congratulated us for bringing our kids on this cruise and showing them the many, many wonders of Greenland. This was a gift, he said, that would endure for a very long time. And I think he’s right.

 

As some have said before, perhaps the most persuasive reasons to return to Silversea is the crew. And after that one brief conversation, I think I really understand that.

 

Back downstairs, where Santosh was pumping his fist in triumph to the background music of a printer warming up. He had flights for us! We accepted the confirmation with skeptical gratitude and then – after a mere two error messages gave way to confirmation – with relieved gratitude.

 

We were going home.

 

Just in time, too, as it was last call for zodiacs. The children donned their wet weather gear – including one (1) clear garbage bag / poncho – and we headed down to Deck 3 for disembarkation.

 

We were the last zodiac off the boat.

 

 

Graffiti along the approach into the port

 

 

The town of Kangerlussuaq

 

... and the Kangerlussuaq airport itself.

 

On the way, my wife noticed that I had somehow ended up with a crew lifejacket. I joked that this was part of a random lottery and that, as much as I had enjoyed being part of their family, I was clearly destined for a life at sea.

My daughter then squeezed me for all she was worth and said I was coming home. So that settled that.

 

(Though if anyone at Silversea is reading this and might be interested in having a writer-in-residence / Storytelling Assistant on board for a few weeks per year, do please drop a line.)

 

It was a brief but very wet zodiac ride, and our guide – Willie – had to concentrate to follow the narrow channel carved into the harbour’s shoals.

 

We then boarded a midge-filled bus that was off for a four-hour-long tour, where we would have one hour to observe a vast ice wall and three hours to bounce up and down while we questioned our life choices.

 

Not surprisingly, after about 30 minutes of bouncing we decided to get off at the Kangerlussuaq Airport – a decision that was sealed once one of our iron-stomached children asked for Gravol. There can be too much of a good thing.

 

Our fateful charter flight.

 

So we settled in for a lengthy wait at the Airport – where we made another shocking discovery.

 

Hmm, my brain had wondered, once we had found a spot to sit and stretch our legs. If our flight home wasn’t actually booked, how do we know that we have a hotel tonight?

 

Good question, brain. A very good question indeed.

 

Our Greenlandic eSIM card picked this exact moment to expire, but thankfully Kangerlussuaq Airport had free wifi available – provided you agreed that you would not use said wifi to do illegal, very bad things – and so I was soon on the line with International Hotel Group to confirm our rooms for the night.

 

“Room,” they corrected.

 

After much back-and-forth, we elected to go ahead and book another room and then sort it all out on the other end. We did try to call Silversea’s emergency line which, you can imagine, went about as well as you would expect any kind of last minute, frantic call placed via Skype using airport wifi to go.

 

But they did say we could do what we needed to do, and they would reimburse us later if necessary. So that was some comfort.

 

We then went to the Kangerlussuaq Airport cafeteria to order an early dinner of chicken fingers and fries for each of us – which turned out to be a half-chicken dinner instead. It was really good. Surprisingly good, if I’m honest.

 

The tour group then arrived at the airport – reviews of the ice wall were a bit mixed, though the general consensus was that if you don’t like being bounced on a bus for hours on end then this wasn’t the tour for you. So we’re glad we made the decision that we did – and it proved essential, given our hotel situation.

 

Then it was time to board our flight to New York run by… Canada Jetlines?

I’m not sure what economic trickery resulted in a Canadian charter company being the best option to ferry us home, but we were grateful for the familiar accents and the seemingly unlimited bar service. (The TV dinner chili-pasta hybrid, less so – but you can’t win them all.) All seats were economy-type seats – no business class or premium economy – but were comfortable enough for a shortish flight.

 

I ended up sitting next to some of the expedition staff, and had a good chat with them on the way back. We talked about the very special niche that Silversea seems to occupy in the expedition cruise business – right at the crossroads of adventure and luxury – but also how the industry was poised to evolve in the years to come.

 

Personally, I’d like to see more opportunities for ‘citizen science’ aboard some of these ships. Surely there are researchers who would like the opportunity to explore these parts of the world, and Silversea often has an empty cabin or two – couldn’t we take them along? I expect not every guest would be interested, but I know I’d personally volunteer to hand over trackers or hold a clipboard while someone tags whales or endangered sea birds.

 

Secondly, I’d also like to see more of a drive towards sustainability. It’s hard to ignore that large, dark plume of smoke billowing from the ship’s exhaust when we’re anchored in an otherwise pristine harbour. While electric cruise ships are a long way from becoming a reality, the Nova class ships are moving towards liquid natural gas. Will that be an option for expedition ships in the future? What about electric zodiac-type boats like this - https://www.rselectricboats.com/?

 

(Just my own personal views – not trying to start any kind of knock-down, drag-out debates.)

 

In any case, it was a great conversation and yet another reminder of just how exceptional the Silversea crew can be.

 

The flight went about as quickly as a 4.5 hour flight could go, and then we started our descent down to JFK airport. There were a few gnarly crosswinds, but the captain landed the plane with a minimal number of bounces.

 

Back to the waiting game – waiting for the ramp to be brought to the plane, waiting to disembark, waiting for the shuttle to take us to the terminal, and then waiting for customs.

 

This last wait was somewhat more tense – when we extended our cruise, we’d been told that we’d be on our own in terms of transfers. But we’d also been told that charter flights – like this one – tended to involve a group shuttle to the hotel. So we were hoping to join that if possible and save ourselves the cost of an hour-long cab ride into NYC.

 

And as we watched our fellow travellers breeze through US Customs, we wondered if they might just leave without us.

 

A silent sigh of relief was breathed as the US citizen lines cleared, and fresh lines opened for the visitors. Soon we had bags in hand and we were following the conveniently-spaced line of Silversea signs directing us to the loading area. A second sigh of relief followed when we were handed two sets of envelopes with our flight and transfer information.

 

I would like to tell you we were soon loaded onto the buses and on our way – but I would be lying.

 

It was a slow process. There was only room for one bus at a time in the loading area, and it took quite a while to load up the many, many bags the cruisers had accumulated during their travels.

 

So we waited. And waited.

 

The kids really earned their keep that day – they were absolute troopers as they waited more than 30 minutes to board the bus, and then another 90 minutes during the bus ride into Manhattan, including a period in which it would have been faster to walk to our hotel than to drive.

 

But we got there. My wife and daughter dashed inside to collect the room keys, while my son and I got the bags – and by 11:30 pm we were in our hotel rooms getting ready for bed.

 

The kids get to experience New York city with a 3 second look out of our hotel window

 

Look! Street art! Now go to bed!

 

My wife and daughter decided to share one bedroom, while my son and I took the other. Given it was an unfamiliar space, I’d planned to leave the bathroom light on. Except – thanks to the artistic, frosted glass bathroom door – the bathroom light also lit up most of the hotel room, too.

 

Aha! My brain said. What if you cover the wall sconces with towels to cut the light?

 

Reader, I have but one final piece of advice – never, ever place a hotel towel overtop a brightly shining light. You will not like what you see.* Trust me on this.

 

With that brilliant plan undone, I instead found a battery pack with an oft-annoyingly bright blue glow to serve as an impromptu night light.

 

And then we fell asleep.

 

(Note to readers – One final update is coming, but in our infinite wisdom we extended our trip so that we had exactly one day at home before we leave for a camping trip in Algonquin. So we need to get back from our next holiday before I can write about our previous holiday. And maybe our new holiday too? I’m not really sure what time it is and it feels like the land is moving, so please don’t hold me to anything.)

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

* While editing, my wife asked, “What did you see?!” and apparently my reply of “Everything. I saw everything.” was not illustrative enough. So I will elaborate – towels in hotels get some pretty heavy use, and they are cleaned thoroughly. At least, thoroughly enough that they look clean – in daylight.

 

And what happens when you throw a couple hundred extra lumens behind those towels? You see everything the human eye was meant to miss.

 

You don’t have to take my word on this. But I suggest that you do. Some sights cannot be unseen.

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by RyanJCanada

[RyanJCanada]

5 hours ago, AusMum said:

Miss you already 🙂

Bonus post just went up!

[Daveywavey70]

Thank you so much Ryan, I’ve loved following along with you and your wonderful family. I wish you could have wangled another leg. Wishing you a safe home. I Know what you mean about the dilemma. I remember sitting in the hot tub at the back of the muse with a glass of Champagne in the most pristine place you could ever wish to be watching black smoke billowing from the funnel and feeling so sad about it. 

[RachelG]

So sad for your cruise to end!

 

but I excited for your trip to the Galapagos.  We have been 3 times, once on Celebrity a long time ago, then again on the old Silversea ship, and then 2 years ago right after covid on the new Silversea ship.  It is wonderful.  We would go again.  If you want a preview, you can look up my blog here on CC.

[RyanJCanada]

23 hours ago, RachelG said:

So sad for your cruise to end!

 

but I excited for your trip to the Galapagos.  We have been 3 times, once on Celebrity a long time ago, then again on the old Silversea ship, and then 2 years ago right after covid on the new Silversea ship.  It is wonderful.  We would go again.  If you want a preview, you can look up my blog here on CC.

I'll check it out - thanks for letting me know!

[RyanJCanada]

Day 12 – New York to Toronto

 

Despite arriving in Times Square close to midnight, we slept well and woke ready to take on the final leg of our travel – or as ready as one can be when one has already spent 24 hours in the Travel Vortex.

 

First stop was the Silversea rep desk in the hotel to see if we could straighten out what had happened with the rooms. (Recap: We’d checked with the hotel to confirm that they had two reservations, but they could only find one. We ended up booking a second room lest we end up stacking our children in the closet like cordwood.)

 

I told the Silversea Rep what had happened, and he was quite happy for me to charge the second room back to Silversea when I returned home. He also thanked me for solving my own problem without them.

 

The Silversea rep also very kindly offered to switch around our ride to the airport so that we could see a bit of New York – but after much debate, we decided to pass. We were about 30 minutes from Central Park so the kids would have only gotten the briefest of windows to play before we had to trudge back through the summer heat to get into a cab. We’ll do it properly next time.

 

Just to be thorough, I also raised the room issue with the Intercontinental’s front desk – and they very kindly reversed the charge for the extra room. Nice to have that out of the way before we made the rest of the trip home.

 

We then went to their buffet breakfast which – apart from not being photographed, oops – was very good. Certainly on par with Silversea. We had French toast, scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, yogurt, and berries. Everything we needed after our late-night arrival.

 

Back upstairs – though thankfully there wasn’t much to pack, as my wife had set everything up so that we only needed to dig into a single suitcase. This worked really, really well and will definitely be our preferred approach for single-night stopovers in the future.

 

Then downstairs, where we waited perhaps 5 or 10 minutes for our driver to pick us up. A small army of bellhops loaded our bags into the leather-clad Suburban – and graciously accepted tips in Canadian dollars, as we had no US currency – and we were soon wafting our way through New York City on the way to JFK airport.

 

The difference between our drive in to Times Square and our drive out to the airport could not have been more striking. The drive in had been marked with delays and frustrations – herding and milling with armloads of luggage – while the drive out was pure luxury.

 

We put ourselves in Silversea’s shoes and wondered how our arrival could have been handled differently. Understandably, the simultaneous arrival of 120+ passengers can’t be dealt with via a fleet of SUVs and private drivers – there wouldn’t be enough cars.

 

But maybe they could have offered private cars as an optional add-on? I would’ve gladly paid an extra $100 to have Silversea send us in a hired car instead of a tour bus – and saved ourselves about an hour of travel time in the process. That also would have reduced the load on the shuttle buses, and enabled them to get the remaining buses out faster.

 

Mostly, I think that Silversea would have been better off booking a second hotel that was closer to the airport – and those so inclined could have stayed there instead. Then a fleet of hired SUVs could most definitely have been used to shuffle us to our destination, and we would have been spared the 3 hours we spent driving into Manhattan just to be shuffled back out again. (Though it was nice for the kids to see some of New York City, even if just through a window.)

 

On the other hand – none of the transfers were supposed to have been included. So we counted ourselves lucky, and sat back to enjoy the airconditioned confines of the mammoth SUV.

 

Arrival at JFK went fairly smoothly – some initial panic when we saw that one of the Air Canada flights had been cancelled, then relief when we realized it was one of the morning’s flights. Then frustration when a family of 8 arrived at the check-in desk without address tags on any of their luggage. (Seriously? Who does that?)

 

But our bags were soon taken – inexplicably marked with Priority tags, a fan of the trip report perhaps? 😉 – and we were on our way through security.

 

Security at JFK is a lot like the lines at Disney World. Every time you think you’re getting close to the front, there’s another hidden section that leads you on a winding pathway containing even more people that you hadn’t spotted earlier.

 

What’s more, TSA scientists seem to have been hard at work in their underground secret labs, discovering new and exciting ways to torment travellers. The latest update seems to have included the following instructions:

 

- Loudly yell at passengers to start unpacking their laptops when they are 18 feet away from the conveyer belt;

 

- Shorten the roller belts by at least 30% to ensure that only one person can unload their personal effects at a time;

 

- Insist that people put their shoes directly on the roller belt, and then yell at them once the shoes inevitably get jammed between the rollers;

 

- Inconsistently apply the rule as to whether children need to go through the full body scanners, and then roll their eyes when passengers are not immediately familiar with the latest, newest policy; and

 

- Aggressively point at the packing table when you take more than 32 milliseconds to re-load your bags. Continue to point aggressively and yell intermittently as the passenger waddle-shuffles their most fragile and expensive belongings from the conveyer belt to the packing table, a further 27 feet away.

 

We were glad when that was done.

 

Then began the inevitable forage to see whether we could access any of the lounges. We have DragonPass (formerly Priority Pass) through our credit card, but none of their affiliate lounges were at Terminal 9. There was an Aer Lingus lounge, but it was closed. And the airport itself had their own lounge, but at $65 per person we weren’t sure it was worthwhile.

 

It was then that I stumbled across the hidden mecca of the Alaska Airlines lounge – which had a little sign announcing that they no longer take Priority Pass. But after some brief discussion, they agreed to provide sanctuary for a mere $30 per adult or $60 total – kids were free!

 

Sold!

 

The Alaska Airlines lounge was one of the nicest I’ve ever visited. It even had a pancake machine.

 

 

This, naturally, was the highlight of our children’s day. (And possibly their existence.) The look on their faces as the machine ladled out batter, and that batter slowly transformed into perfectly cooked pancakes – and then the look on their faces when they saw that there was caramel sauce in addition to the maple syrup.

 

 

Priceless.

 

There was one brief problem, however – I’d pushed the button to start making pancakes for my daughter. And when it didn’t immediately start making pancakes, I pushed the button again.

 

It then said it was making 6 pancakes. Which was too many pancakes.

 

There was no cancel button, so instead I listened to my instincts as a former computer programmer.

 

“Surely,” those instincts said. “There must be a way to reduce the number of desired pancakes.”

 

Okay… that makes sense.

 

“I bet,” the instincts added. “That if you continue pushing the button, the number will eventually roll back to zero.”

 

That seemed reasonable to me. No one human being would possibly order more than 8 pancakes. Rather than roll over to 10, it would then switch to 0 and my pancake problem would be at an end.

 

So I pushed the button a few more times. But it didn’t roll over to zero.

 

I’m not quite sure what happened after that, but I do recall my daughter coming up to me and asking, horrified: “Dad?! Why are you printing sixteen pancakes?!”

 

Oops...

 

My strategy, clearly, had been unsuccessful. And I wasn’t sure what to do at that stage. Should I stand in front of the machine and hide my mistake as best as I could? Should I try to eat the pancakes as they come out, Lucy Ricardo-style? Would I be sent to wash dishes in the back of the Alaska Airlines lounge as penance?

 

Thankfully, the machine ran out of batter at around pancake #3 so I was saved the consequences of my actions. But let that be a lesson to the rest of you – the only way to reduce the number of pancakes on a pancake machine is to let that machine make those pancakes.

 

Anyway – now that I’ve solved a problem that no one else will ever have – please enjoy these photos of the Alaska Airlines lounge:

 

 

 

 

After I drank a local IPA and my wife enjoyed a strong gin and tonic, it was time to head to the gate to board our flight.

 

Unfortunately, we were about halfway down the bridge when the word came – the flight was delayed due to thunderstorms in Toronto. So back up the bridge we went, and we settled back in for another wait, wondering if we were going to leave New York that day or if we would be locked into the Travel Vortex for yet another day.

 

All this time spent in airports has given me the opportunity to hone my carry-on luggage game

 

But soon boarding was called once more, and we settled ourselves into our seats for the brief flight to Toronto. We landed around 2 hours later, and soon had our bags and had cleared through customs – thanks largely to our unexpected priority tags.

 

I then took a pair of bags and went out to collect our car from long term parking, while my wife took the kids to forage for dinner. We’ve tried this method before – as opposed to us all trudging out to the parking lot together – and once again, it worked well.

 

Then the bags were in the car, a Tim Horton’s bagel was in my hand, and we were on the highway.

 

It was a truly fantastic trip - but it’s good to be home.

Edited July 12, 2023 by RyanJCanada