August 20, 2025 – Reykjavik, Iceland
We have been
on this ship for a month and on the last day, when I had to be up early and
out, I actually overslept. I got up at
6:05 AM (the Oceanview Café was already open) and got up to the café as fast as
I could. The place was pretty crowded
but I did get a window seat. It is an
absolutely beautiful day in Reykjavik – bright Sun and blue skies. We are docked next to Mein Shiff 2. The Viking Mars was across the way.
I had some
oatmeal, two pancakes with cottage cheese (it was still there waiting for me on
the last day – I wonder if they will realize that I’m off the ship and put it
back in the fridge). I sampled the eggs
with cheese and chives (cold and dry) and didn’t even finish my pancakes
because I felt I was running late.
I brought
Ellen her breakfast (cream cheese and lox on a brioche, fruit, and hot tea).
We are due to leave our stateroom around 8:30 AM and hop on the ship shuttle to KEF at 9:00 AM. We went to The Den to listen for groups to be called – Ellen asked around and it looked like everyone was just getting off. We got in the line and scanned out and then got into a much longer line for our face-to-face with Iceland Immigration. This gave me a chance to get a picture of Quest docked.
The Immigration
people were in trailers and the line was outside – the line moved pretty
well. We said goodbye to Martin at the
trailer and the Immigration process was quick (I had said my goodbyes to
Bernardo last night when he gave me back my jump drive – he also gave me an
Azamara Jump Drive as a souvenir).
We found our bags right away and were shown to the bus by a kid – maybe 12 – working with the port folks. We got seats of our own and the bus left shortly after everyone got seated. The 40 minute ride to KEF was comfortable and scenic – lots of lava and one perfect cinder cone in the distance.
There was also a golf course on this route.
Keflavik (KEF) is a small airport located on a peninsula west of Reykjavik.
We had done some
research on the airport and how early we could check our bags. The information we got said that you couldn’t
check bags any earlier than two and half hour prior to flight time. That would mean a long time with our bags and
where would be have to stay until we could check the bags.
That turned out not to be the case (the internet isn't always correct). Once inside
the airport, we checked with someone and she told us to use the kiosks to take
care of our bags. It was now around 10
AM or so but I entered the Booking Codes and the machine printed out both bag
tags and boarding passes. We then went
to the bag drop that was totally automated.
You put your bag on the belt – scan your bag tag and then the machine
scans your bag as well (looking for the little tags on your suit case). It then says OK and your bags disappear into
wherever bags go. Easy and very neat.
We went
upstairs to the Security Check Point and there was no one there except us and
two agents. Laptops needed to scanned
along – even my watch needed to be scanned.
Then through the metal detector and into the airport.
KEV is more of
a mall than airport. Lots of shops and
lots of seating. Most of the seats are
uncomfortable but there are some padded seats as well. There weren't a lot of people at KEF at his point.
The food areas started to open around Noon and that’s when all the people showed up.
Perhaps, and it doesn’t seem feasible, KEF
only has post lunchtime flights. For
whatever reason, the airport started to get crowded.
Today, we
broke our pattern and decided to buy lunch and have the food we brought for
dinner on the plane. Lunch consisted of
a Margherita Pizza (3199 ISK and a Coke Zero (499 ISK – she only charged me for
one of the two I asked for) at a restaurant called Trattoria in the Adalstraeti
(Food Hall). That came to $31.11. The pizza was baked in a pizza oven and took
about 10 minutes and came with charged crust – I liked the pizza – it was the
first decent pizza we have had in over a month – we didn’t get pizza on the
ship. Lunch was a bit pricey but not a
surprise since this was both in an airport and in Iceland. No matter, it was good.
Our flight,
F1853 (I guess “F” is Icelandair’s Code), is leaving from a “D” Gate but the
exact number won’t be on the screen until 2:55 PM or about 40 minutes before we
board – reminded me of Heathrow where you had to sprint for your gate when it
came up. The entrance to the D Gates was
closed so there was no way to go there early and get seats.
We checked the
D Gate entrance in a few minutes and it has opened even though no gate number
appeared on the information screens.
There are turnstyles that are opened by scanning your boarding passes and we
were able to get to the D Corridor. By
this time, there were quite a few folks there.
When we went through the scanning process, the LED Screen said to
“proceed to D24” so we did. There
weren’t a lot of seats near our gate but we did manage to get a couple. We also were recognized by a couple of ship
folks also waiting for their flight.
I checked the
screen information at Gate D24 and indeed we were at the right gate. There was no plane there – there were some
aircraft from Iceland’s Low Price Airline, Play (they have the coolest
all bright red planes).
Boarding for
our 4:25 PM departure was at 3:45 PM and people were already starting to line
up (about 15 minutes early). At 3:45 PM,
we got in line (the Economy Line). Even
though there was no plane at our gate, the fancy folks started to board
(passport and boarding pass required).
After they went through, they are gathered at the entrance to the
gate. In a few minutes, a bus arrived
and it looked like our plane was somewhere else at KEF.
That bus left
and it took about 10 minutes more to start our check-in (a new bus had
appeared). I almost didn’t get on the
bus with Ellen as the tried to close the exit – I told the guy that I was with
her and he let me on. We drove to the
other side of the terminal where our aircraft was waiting. Instead of taking the stairs from the tarmac,
we walked up a level to the jetway and got on the plane. It seemed a little more complicated than it
needed to be.
It may seem
chaotic because Icelandair does not board by groups or row number but we all
got on the jet smoothly enough. Just as
I thought everyone was on board two additional groups of people showed up –
standby and connecting passengers, maybe – and all went to the rear of the
plane. We paid $95 each for premium
seats (6.5 hour flight) and are in port bulkhead seats, 5A and 5B, on our MAX9
(that’s comparable to American and much less than United would charge). The most legroom we have every had on a plane
– I could fully stretch out my legs. The
only issue is the plastic divider between economy and first class and the swing
up monitors. To get out of the row, you
have to avoid these two things by ducking and watching your feet. Still, all that legroom and a window – I may
have already gotten these seats on American or United and I don’t remember them
being so roomy.
The plane was
nice although I couldn’t fully stand up in the washrooms. Amenities are minimal on Icelandair – only
soft drinks (and not always the can) and coffee or tea. No snacks at all – all
the food on the plane has to be brought on or purchased on board. We had food donated by the ship that would
serve as dinner (lox and cream cheese on brioches plus crunchy snacks we
brought from home a month ago).
Despite the confusion during boarding, the plane actually pushed at 4:25 PM (on time). KEF is small enough that the plane headed right for the active runway and spent no time waiting until the pilot gunned the engines. I did notice that the flaps and slats are deployed late in Icelandair’s checklist but I did have confidence that these pilots knew what they were doing.
The takeoff over the town of Keflavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula was smooth and scenic.
The
skies were blue and filled with high pressure clouds. The plane climbed to about 14,000 feet and the
pilot turned off the seat belt sign (US pilots usually wait until cruising
altitude) and then leveled of at about 36,000 feet and headed for the southern
tip of Greenland. We never got to see
the Prince Christian Sound on the cruises and won’t from the air due to
the cloud cover.
The flight was smooth – no turbulence whatsoever. We crossed the Labrador Sea, Labrador,
the northern part of Quebec
and finally the clouds broke so I could see farmland below. We flew over Lake Huron and then over Lake
Michigan – headed way West and turned around and landed at ORD at around 6
PM. I texted Danny, who was waiting in
the cellphone lot. So glad he is picking
us up,
We then walked
literally a mile to the Global Entry Kiosks – endless long hallways,
some with moving sidewalks, some without.
This might have been the longest walk yet to go from one place to
another in an airport. The scans at the
Global Entry Kiosks took no time at all (no one in line) and we were handed our
GLOBAL ENTRY PASSED laminated cards (needed to exit). We waited quite a while at Carousel 6 until
our bags finally came out. There were a
lot of people in the baggage claim area – several international flights must
have come in at the same time.
We told Danny
to meet us at Door 5D – the line of cars outside didn’t stop and we could find
a spot of sidewalk to stand on (at this point, I was glad that we didn’t have
to deal with a taxi). After a bit of a
wait (due to the volume of cars (BTW I did not see any taxis picking up
people), Danny’s Honda showed up – we loaded our bags and we were headed out of
the craziness of ORD T5.
Danny dropped
us off and Christian helped us get our bags down the stairs and got our mail
for us.
Danny had
brought us some food (tomatoes and pepperoncini from the garden along with some
eggplant lasagna (also home grown). We
were tired and jet lagged but I did eat some of it.
Just happy to
be home. It was actually warm and that
was nice after a month of essentially cold and gray weather.
Thoughts
about Food and Drink
I thought I
would put together some information should we wind up on another Azamara Cruise
in the future:
Good dishes
Breakfast – can’t go wrong with waffles/pancakes
with cottage cheese and jams. I had this breakfast 28 out of the 30 days on board. I made my
own coffee Americano by mixing regular coffee and hot water (1:1) in a to go
cup. Arranging to have cottage cheese
with my name on it worked out really well – the suits and wait staff in Windows
were great.
Lunch – Generally the salad bar was good (I
especially like the sun-dried tomatoes) – Best dressing – Thousand Island. Ranch was unusual and inconsistent. Beyond Burgers were OK and I tried the Patio Tuna
Wrap only once (the tuna was OK but the veggies along with it have been changed from asparagus to lettuce). The tuna salad (in my
opinion was the best on any ship) – that along with tomatoes, onions, and
pickles made for a great tuna sandwich.
The soups were all good – Tomato, Cream of Tomato, Mushroom, Cream of
Potato, Cream of Ratatouille (yes), and Pistou.
Dinner- The standard Salmon was good –
prepared best and fresh on the Patio.
Mashed potatoes on the Patio – delicious.
The kosher
options were plentiful and we tried them all – Best items: Spaghetti Bolognese,
Stuffed Bell Peppers, Chicken Schnitzel, Shepherds Pie. Ellen did not like the duck in any form. The braised ribs (more like Brisket) was very
good also.
I was also
able to order special meals like pasta pesto and pesto aglio olio – both of
which were really good. The suits were more than helpful in making sure we had
items we could eat.
Bar – Best drinks – Disaronno Sours and
Curacao Blue Sours. Strawberry and
Banana Daiquiris also. I drank a lot of
club soda on this cruise – a cheap date.
Service – we
had Table 1 – best table. We also scored
Table 18 (aft with a window) a few times.
The waitstaff and suits also picked up on our special orders and started
the meals right away for our time in the Discoveries Restaurant was fast
and efficient (and the food nice and hot).
No more two hour dinners.
Bottom Lining It. It was a cold and gray cruise but you don’t get to Greenland and Iceland every day. I also thought that seeing the more remote parts of Canada was interesting and our time in Quebec City was great (expecially the Azamazing Evening Concert). Guest Relations was helpful throughout the whole cruise solving accomodation issues and anything else. Devi and Katja and the two guys did a great job. Working with Bernardo was great. The afternoon concerts in the Living Room were a good idea and a way to break up long days.
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