The setup
The cruise fare included airfare from the US to Europe and back home, so Viking booked the air travel. At first, things seemed to be on track, as we had sorted out things with them to make sure they knew Lynn, John and I would be traveling together from Raleigh and Halie would be traveling separately from San Jose. So far, so good. All of our passenger data was updated on Viking’s site and calls to the booking agent confirmed things.
Then the air itineraries were booked. This is where things fell apart early. John was booked on a different flight from Lynn and me, leaving the same airport but several hours different and going via a different route. I called to get this corrected, and what ended up happening to get us all back on track was to have our flight changed to put us on the same flight as John. Anyway, we got that straightened out, but it meant we lost the outbound flight on our preferred airline.
Halie originally had an early morning flight leaving San Jose and arriving in Budapest about a half hour after the rest of us, but later itinerary changes put her on a much later flight that didn’t arrive in Budapest until evening! That meant she would not get there in time for the early evening Christmas market tour we had signed up for. It wasn’t really something we could change at that point, so we figured we’d just deal with it.
Friday, 16 Dec 2022 – Travel day
The 16th of December arrived and we were all packed on our respective coasts. John had come out to Clarksville the night before so he could be as rested as possible before the long plane ride to Europe. We completed our final packing, loaded the car and headed for the airport about 9:30am. Our flight was scheduled for 12:20pm, so we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.
As we checked in, we found our flight was going to be delayed about 45 minutes. Uncharacteristically, that delay improved to become only about 30 minutes, and we boarded without worrying too much about missing a connection in Newark. The flight was smooth and without issues, and we landed with a small, but comfortable time margin to make our transatlantic connection. We opted for quick sandwiches instead of trying to have a sit-down burger since the flight was still listed as “on-time” and we were being called to the gate to verify that we were in fact, present and ready to board. In the meantime, we had heard from Halie, and she had made it from San Jose to LA for her long flight. We eagerly awaited hearing that she had boarded, but she had a very long layover at LAX.
Time marched on to boarding time, and still no boarding call or updated status for us. Departure time slipped by and no update. Finally the gate agent had to disclose that the flight and cabin crew had not yet arrived and indicated that there had been a problem with their ground transportation. The crew finally arrived about an hour late and we began boarding sometime after that. After push-back, we seemed to taxi forever, taking another hour or so to depart, putting us about 2 hours late departing Newark for Vienna! We knew our connection would be in jeopardy, even though the captain said we would make up some time.
After a comfortable (well, as comfortable as you can get flying for over 8 hours) flight, we finally saw the sun come up as we crossed the English Channel into Continental Europe. Looking at the clock, we were still going to be 2 hours late, and that put our connection in serious doubt. We had about a two and a half hour layover scheduled in Vienna, but now we were literally going to be running to catch our flight. Customs and immigration checks went smoothly, and we got to our gate just about at the scheduled departure time, but the gate was empty, closed and unmanned. We had missed the connection by mere minutes. There were 18 of us in the same situation.
Meanwhile, we heard from Halie, and her flight from LAX to Helsinki had also departed 2 hours late and she wasn’t sure she would make her connection either. Looking at her flight status and verifying time zone changes, we confirmed, she would miss her flight by over an hour. Finn Air re-booked her for the first flight to Budapest in the morning and put her up in a hotel for the night. We were all disappointed, but we would see her in the morning.
Austrian Air had no more flights from Vienna to Budapest for us, and we were advised the ground transportation had been arranged. We were given all our checked bags and a bag lunch and finally we boarded a bus and began the journey to Budapest expected to take about four and a half hours. We all started out very optimistically, but soon it became obvious that it would be a very long afternoon, as traffic was nearly continuous, and the bus driver ended up taking us off the main highway for a while to make a little better time.
Riding on a bus is no picnic any time, but we were all tired, a little grouchy and definitely “ready to be there.” Progress crawled. The sun got lower. and bladders got fuller. A lot fuller. Lynn indicated she was uncomfortable, which on an normal road trip meant she would like to stop somewhere in the next hour. Soon she indicated she really needed to stop somewhere RIGHT NOW! The driver was queried about the relief break, and was somewhat non-committal. Others asked and were assured, vaguely, that a stop was coming up. As it happens, he spoke almost no English, so who knows what he was hearing or responding to.
Lynn began to dig in her bag for anything absorbent and anything that might serve as the female version of an empty soda bottle. She had a gallon ziplock bag with snacks in it, and that was duly emptied and made ready, as she eyed the back rows of the bus as a potential emergency squatting area. John and I gave her napkins and a pack of travel tissues, all of which she stuffed down her pants to absorb the overflow. She wasn’t going to make it if we didn’t stop soon, and in trying to stand, she discovered that she wet herself a bit each time.
Finally, the driver pulled into a very busy looking gas station rest area. We all breathed a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t over! As he got the bus parked, Lynn made her way down to the exit steps, but the driver didn’t open the door. Instead he stood and attempted to address us all, as she asked again and again to have the door opened. He finally got another passenger to translate his burning announcement: “This will be a 30 minute break.” Finally the door was opened and Lynn virtually left a trail all the way to the ladies room.
It was a pay toilet with a turnstile. Luckily another lady recognized her plight and sponsored her, so she was able to get in as soon as there was an opening. I ran in to offer pocket change as soon as I recognized the situation, but she had already got in. I placed myself in line and awaited my turn and felt a lot better for it. We all got back to the bus feeling a lot more comfortable.
We got back on the road and traffic very gradually eased. I kept looking at my phone to find out where we were and saw it would still be a good while before we arrived. The sun went down as we all chafed, wanting the journey to end so we could get onboard and hopefully have a little time to explore the Budapest markets at night. Eventually we saw more lights and signs of a city. Our drop-off from this bus was at the airport, and not the ship, but every little step closer was great. We arrived at the airport and were quickly met by a Viking agent and assured of transportation to the ship. It had been almost 6 hours since we departed the airport in Vienna.
We again made sure we had our bags, got a little bit of money (Euros) from an ATM and got ready for the next ride. Soon, another bus arrived and we boarded for the ride to the ship. The ride wasn’t long; maybe 30 minutes. We got to see some of the city as we drove through, and we all began to feel some of the excitement and anticipation of the cruise build up again after the long journey. We saw night views along the river, including the Citadella statue, Buda Castle and even a brief glimpse of the Parliament building. We finally got to the ship about 7pm. We had been traveling since 9:30am EST the previous day. With the time zone change, we had been traveling for approximately 28 hours.
We watched on FlightAware.com as Halie arrived Helsinki not long before we got to Budapest on our bus. She had missed her connection by over an hour and was fairly quickly informed that she had been rebooked on the first flight in the morning and would be staying in a local hotel. She wasn’t able to access her checked bags yet, so had to live on what she had in her carry-on. It was pretty cold not to have her heavy coat, but she stayed mostly inside, getting something to eat and getting some bed sleep before her next leg.