Day 52 - Belfast: Getting Here

The alarm went off at 5:15 AM, which is always early, but felt earlier as we stayed up with our friends until midnight. No one wanted to say good night and end the cruise.

Since we were “walking off the ship” (carrying our own luggage) we reach deck 6 midship at 5:45. We watch the guys put up the exit ramp, only to be told to go to 6 forward. Okey dokey.

We were off the ship by 6:15 so I emailed our reserved taxi and he showed up at 6:30 to drive Martha, Linda, and me to the airport. All went well on this front.

Iceland has a tax refund thing if you spend enough on goods. No problem for Maggie! I turned in all the receipts and some day we might see money returned to the credit card. No idea how much or when!

We traveled on British Airways through London to Belfast. Apparently there was a bus issue at the Reykjavik airport so we basically boarded the plane when were supposed to take off. Not helpful for those with close connections, which wasn’t us.

We spent the afternoon in the BA lounge, free drinks, food, and Wi-Fi. Heathrow announces gate numbers about 45 minutes before departure. Once our gate was announced, we trekked down there. And waited and waited. I swear BA has the worst boarding process. It’s actually easy, tap your boarding pass, the gate opens, you’re through. But they wait until 20 minutes before takeoff and you know you cannot board a plane that quickly.

We’ve had 4 BA flights this trip and not one has taken off on time. FRUSTRATING!

On the plus side, we got baby bottles of wine on the plane.

We did have a beautiful entry into Belfast.

And look what beer is on tap at the hotel bar!!!!!