July 20, 2025 - Azamara Quest – Reykjavik, Iceland to Greenland, Newfoundland, and Montreal, Canada – Back to Back – July 21, 2025

July 20, 2025 – Travel day

This cruise has quite the itinerary – you fly to Reykjavik, Iceland and stay an extra day in that port.  The ship then goes to Greenland (several ports) and then to Canada, starting in Newfoundland and ending up in Montreal.  Then, we are staying on and doing the itinerary almost in reverse (more stops in Greenland this time), ending up in Reykjavik and then flying home – 30 days in all. 

Our flight – Icelandair F1586 doesn’t depart until 10:15 PM tonight so we have the whole day to do things and wound up not doing anything except double checking our bags.  I set up a ride with a cabbie at American Taxi (he took us home on our last trip).  Our pickup was scheduled at 7:30 PM, which I thought would give us enough time to get checked in and go through security.  I am unfamiliar with Terminal 5 so I hope that is enough time. 

Our driver confirmed with us late in the afternoon so I felt a bit better about things.  He said he would drop off some folks in our neighborhood and pick us up on time. 

The cab showed up a little after 7:30 PM and by the time we were settled in the cab, it was clear that we would not be at T-5 at 8:00 PM.  The cabbie drove a bit faster than he usually does (and a little scarier) especially once he got on to the tollway.  We arrived at Terminal 5 around 8:20 PM.  We had never been there before but I did find the Icelandair desk and there was no one in line.  The agent weighed our bags – 31 and 21 lbs – we are cheap dates.  The bags were both included in the outrageous airfare so that was a plus.  The tags, saying KEF, went on and the bags were on their way.

We both had TSA Pre-Chek which was very close to the Icelandair desk – it was a bit of a walk to the actual screening area but there was basically no one there.  We had our photos taken and put our bags through.  Instead of a metal detector, we both went through the scanner and then I got a pat down just for grins.   

We are at Gate M29 – at first that did not sound like a long walk but as we got started it was more that just a long walk – it was a trek.  Ellen waved down one of those airport trams and we both hopped on – we could never have walked to our gate – it was a quarter mile away, it seemed.  We settled in and waited for boarding at 9:45 PM.  That would be delayed because our plane – coming in from who knows where (probably KEF) got there about 9:30 PM.  

The jet, an B-737Max8 would need to gassed up and cleaned once all the passengers got off.  Boarding actually started a little after 10 PM and even though there were no “groups”, the process went smoothly.  After all the First Class folks got on, all of the Economy passengers just lined up and the line just moved.  There were two people checking passports and boarding passes (I should mention that only paper boarding passes were allowed on this flight – no QR phone codes) and in a few minutes we found our seats, 27C and 27D – aisle across - mid plane.

I was sitting next to a mom and her kid (the rest of her family was in front of us).  The flight attendants checked all of our boarding passes again (in our row and the one in front of us) for some reason and we all checked out. The plane pushed pretty much after everyone was on board.  Strangely enough, there was no safety briefing prior to push and takeoff.

I did not get special seats for this flight – I thought that a flight of about five hours wouldn’t need it. It turns out that the pitch on Icelandair Max8s is about an inch or so more than other airlines so the seats were not too “sardine-like”.  The plane pushed 20 minutes late at 10:45 PM.  I could hear the flaps extend so that was good. My seat mates fell asleep immediately and were out for the whole flight.  I tried to get some sleep but even though I had my arms out of the aisle, I was being bumped constantly – mostly by a team of athletes who spent a lot of time going back and forth to the rear washrooms.  Most of the movies on the back of the seat entertainment systems were old and not that interesting.  I watched the plane’s progress and tried to catch quick naps between being hit on the arm by people walking the aisle

July 21, 2025 – In the air – 36,000 feet over the Atlantic and Reykjavik, Iceland

The flight itself was pretty smooth – one unusual thing was that the pilot turned off the seat belt sign while the plane was at 13,000 feet and still in an active climb.  That would never happen with an American jet – they like to hit cruising altitude before letting people walk around.  It stayed smooth until we went over water south of Maritime Canada.  Slight chop.  Then some major chop = and it was still no big deal - was encountered over the Atlantic on approach to Iceland’s Keflavik Airport.  On whole, the flight was smooth.  I should mention that the Sun rose about halfway through the flight because of our far North flight path.  I took screen shots of the planes position at two hours out.

I also took a selfie of a very tired passenger, who did not sleep at all on this flight.

Iceland was covered with thick clouds and I didn’t see anything until the wheels touched down.  We arrived pretty close to our arrival time of 9:20 AM.