Today is likely to be the worst day of this adventure. It is sad to be leaving the Viking Octantis after a wonderful cruise, but we are not excited at all about our extremely long travel schedule to get home. We estimate that it will take roughly 31 hours to get home once we leave our cabin this morning at 7:50 AM.
We set alarms for 6:15 AM just to give us both a chance to shower and dress at a leisurely pace. I also wanted to go to the World Cafe for some breakfast after I got dressed. All we had to pack this morning was any computer and photo gear that could not go onto the suitcases, mainly because of Lithium Batteries, which are not allowed into checked baggage due to fire concerns.
I went up for breakfast and was disappointed that there were no scrambled eggs ready on either side of the buffet line. I made due, there was plenty to eat, and breakfast was good, but a little rushed, but only caused by myself thinking about getting everything ready to leave. I let Stephanie sleep in a little longer and just brought her a large croissant from the buffet. We had thought about room service, but that is sometimes a commotion depending on where we are in the process of getting ready when it arrives.
Back at the room, I got Stephanie to finally get out of bed and start getting ready. Stephanie was planning on taking a small zippered bag that we used onboard to carry items with us during the day as another personal carryon in addition to her purse and backpack. It did help because we had a few clothing items we needed last night that had to get packed somewhere, and our backpacks are usually full without any extra additions.
Everything went well with the few remaining items we needed to to pack and the small extra bag really helped. We were ready to go by 7:30 AM, but we needed to wait until closer to our meeting time to leave the room and head upstairs. At 7:45 AM, we headed up to Deck 5 to The Library, which was our designated meeting place for our Green 2 disembarkation color designation. There was already a good size crowd there when we arrived, but a few minutes later, Green 1 was called and a lot of people left with that group to board their bus to the airport.
A few minutes later, they called Green 2, and we headed downstairs to our bus. There was one couple on the bus that somehow thought they were Green 2, but after reading their Viking provided disembarkation letter on the bus, realized they were really Green 3 and had to get off the bus. I mean really, they gave us large plastic luggage tags with the color/number on them and it was written on the instructions for disembarkation, along with the bus schedule, and the flight number and time.
While we were sitting on the bus, the guide handed out our boarding passes, and we were in the last few she distributed. For some reason, we were not sitting together on this charter flight. I was on row/seat 17F, a window seat and Stephanie was on 18A, the window seat not only on the next row, but also on the other side of the plane. We figured we would just have to try and get some people to shift seats, but could not do that until we boarded the flight. Apparently, the seats are just assigned row by row, A to F and I was the F seat on my row and Stephanie was the next opposing A seat on the next row.
The bus departed the port and headed to the airport, which is only about 15 minutes away from the port. As we got closer and the guide was giving us instruction on where to go once we got into the airport, and an older couple was really concerned to know if there would be Viking Staff there to lead them along and help them to find the gate. Of course there would be, Viking always rubs bellies at the airports for the helpless.
We were led inside and we went upstairs to the Departures terminal, where we went through the security screenings and then headed into the terminal. We were initially in a really crowded area, but those people were in the process of boarding a commercial flight. We looked on the departures Board and saw we were departing from Gate 6, which was on the other end of the airport terminal from where we had entered. It was nice and quiet over there when we first arrived, and we were able to get two seats near the wall, separated from most of the rest of the crowd that was gathering for our flights.
It just so happened that the couple on the bus who wanted the belly rub “Viking guides” sat across from us. A little later, the man got up and came right over to Stephanie and almost stepped on her backpack that was right besides her. Stephanie sort of made a face about the “space” violation, and the lady across from us immediately came over to see what Stephanie’s problem was. Stephanie was listening to a podcast using earplugs and could not hear the lady’s question, which seemed to make her even more agitated. Stephanie finally pulled out her earplugs and told the lady she had not heard any of her questions.
Apparently, the lady had said she could not read Spanish so she sent her husband over to look at the terminal map, which was right above our seats, to locate a bathroom. However, he had almost stubbled over Stephanie’s feet and she could feel him breathing on her, which was why she had made the face that apparently set the woman off. I told the lady her the bathroom was just across the terminal, clearly indicated by the international man and woman body outlines, clearly implying that no Spanish language study was needed to find the bathroom.
We saw Dennis and Lisa, and she came over and we chatted for a bit before she returned to her seat where Dennis was across the terminal area.
The incoming flight from Ushuaia was running about 30 minutes late when it arrived. We waited for the plane to be cleaned and then they started the boarding process. It was supposed to be by group numbers, but no one seemed to be following that. We just sort of got in a line and crept toward the boarding pass scanning machine at the gate. Another couple was behind us, we had met them om the first day, and I heard her comment that everyone’s luggage tags on their carryon bags were Green and they were designated as Purple. Sure enough, they were on the second charter flight that was leaving behind us in about an hour. This was confirmed because their boarding pass would not work when they had it scanned, it was not for this flight. I just don’t understand how people can get all of the information they need in writing and still can’t read or remember it.
Departing The Ushuaia Terminal
We boarded and now needed to work some seat magic. One couple in my row was unwilling to move to the window and middle, they had apparently worked hard at the gate to have their seats changed for the same reason as us, they were not seated together. Luckily, there was one girl that was on the end of my row, and I was the window, so surely there was another single person in the middle that we could convince to take Stephanie’s window seat. The girl volunteered to move to Stephanie’s window seat from her aisle seat, and thigs were looking better. In the end, no one sat in the middle seat, so we had the whole row to ourselves.
Leaving Ushuaia
We departed from Ushuaia, taking one last opportunity to see the town and take a few pictures as we climbed higher in altitude.
About an hour into the flight, we were served, a ham and cheese sandwich, a dessert and some type of salad that was apparently made with ground up carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes. We did not even try that. The sandwich was better then the one we had on the flight down to Ushuaia, but not by much.
The dessert was quite good, a pastry with a fruit filling in layers, maybe fig. We both had a can of wine, yes wine that came in a can like a soda, but it was regular Malbec, and pretty good. Stephanie’s stomach was a little on the blink again today, a little bit of a recurrence of her stomach problem from a few days ago, so she did not eat much at all. I had her dessert, but one sandwich of this fine caliber was good enough for me.
Flying to Buenos Aires From Ushuaia
Wine With Lunch
The flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires was smooth and uneventful We were about 30 minutes late arriving, but that was due to leaving late after the incoming flight was delayed by that same amount of time. It did not matter, we had several hours to wait until our flight to Miami departed later tonight.
We all had to go to Baggage Claim and claim our luggage, but then we were directed by the swarm of Viking Representatives to one of two different meeting locations. They were differentiated by airline, so we went with the American Airlines group and then handed over our luggage to porters who were going to place them in a secure area while we waited in a lounge for our flight tonight from Buenos Aires to Miami. Almost all of the flights to the USA leave Buenos Aires between 9:00 PM and 10:00 PM.
After relinquishing our luggage, we had to walk quite a long distance to Terminal A, which was for departures to the USA. We went upstairs in Terminal A to a Hard Rock Cafe, and were led to a large area of reserved tables for Viking guests. It was about 1:45 PM when we were seated. Luckily, we were in the first group to get there, so we got a nice table for two off to the side.
Hard Rock Cafe Lunch
They had a set menu of beef empanadas for an appetizer, steak, fries and a salad for the main course, and ice cream for dessert. Soft drinks were also included. We saw a lot of people order draft beers, and no one was paying, so we guessed that was included also, they just did not really make a point of telling anyone.
Having a long flight late tonight did not encourage us to drink the beer, so we had two bottles of water instead. Plus, Stephanie was still having stomach issues, so she took two Loperamide tablets just in case.
None of the food was really good, the empanadas were a little dry and the steak, although tasty, had a strange texture. The fries were the best part, as well as the chocolate ice cream.
We had to wait at the Hard Rock until about 5:00 PM when the American Airlines check-in stations opened. Since the flights are late at night it is only possible to check-in after 5:00 PM. First, we were directed to an area outside the terminal where all of the luggage had been stored in rows, and we just had to find our two bags and head to the check-in desk with them.
There was not a terribly long line to check-in, but it still took about 20 minutes. With our boarding passes in hand and our bags checked-in, we headed over to the gate area. First, we had to go through a light security check, only confirming you had a passport and a boarding pass and that they matched. Next was the full blown security scanning, except it excluded any liquids screening. Liquids are allowed into the terminal, really meaning drinks are allowed through security scanning, but apparently, we are inspected again for liquids later in the boarding process. That was what we were told at check-in, but did nit fully understand until later.
After passing through security, we had to go through immigration, and it was the same set up and process as we did upon entry into Argentina. There were two lines feeding different numbered booths. The left line seemed s little shorter, so we got into line on that side. When you progressed to the front of the line, an electronic sign told you which numbered desk to go to. They procedure was the same as entry had been, passport inspection, facial recognition photo and digital thumbprint.
We got through all of that without incident, but it had taken almost two hours to get checked in, go through security and then go through immigration, lots of lines and waiting.
Our American Airlines 777-300 Airplane
We headed out to our gate and then waited for about 90 minutes for boarding. We saw them setting up tables, and it was clear that there was going to be a carry on inspection as we boarded. Boarding was done by groups, and we were group 5. It was a slow process for them to manually check each bag, but it was not that thorough of an inspection, and we were not sure what they were looking for, liquids, or other contraband or illegal items to carry onboard, or both.
We boarded and found our seats, an aisle and inside seat in a 3 x 4 x 3 seat configuration per row. We had seen on the American Airline App that the seat next to Stephanie had not been assigned about an hour ago, so we were hoping it would not be taken and we would have a little more room. No one showed up for either seat beside her until the last passenger boarded, and he had the aisle seat on the opposite side in our four seat middle section. We still had an open seat for a little more space. Unfortunately, there was a couple with three small children, and they were seated in the row in front of us, in all but one aisle set. The dad had an aisle set one row up on the side, but he was able to get the man in the fourth seat of their row to change, I am sure he was glad not to be next to the other kids, one of which was about two years old, and had no assigned seat, he was going to sit in one parent’s lap.
The kids ended up being pretty quiet, it was late and they were sleepy. Our plane left on time at 9:50 PM, and was scheduled to arrive in Miami about 20 minutes early, per the Captain’s initial report on the flight before we departed.
About an hour into the flight, they served a dinner. I got the chicken and Stephanie just passed on the entire meal, not wanting to push her luck with her stomach. I had a glass of Pinot Grigio with my dinner. Our beverage server was terrible, I ordered a cup of water, no ice and a Pinot Grigio, which she did not even know she had, but I had seen the bottle label when she passed by. Then somehow she put the wine in a cup with ice. This was after she had come back and put a mini bottle of gin on my tray, and it was for someone across the aisle. She just muttered something about everyone drinking a lot tonight, and this was just the first beverage service. I did not want to make her mad, so I just kept the iced wine.
The meal was OK at best, I did not eat a lot of it after having had two large meals for lunch. We did watch movies on our seat back entertainment system, but we were both tired, and tried to get some sleep. It was better then the flight down to Buenos Aires, but still not great sleep, I kept dozing off forward and then backward, and my neck was getting sore.
The flight was mostly smooth and we were woken up by the crew about an hour before we were scheduled to land for our breakfast service. It was a ham and cheese croissant and a granola bar. I ate most of my sandwich and gave Stephanie a bite, which was all she wanted. Her sandwich packaging was open and she had not realized it until the server was well past our seats. We did not want to eat the open sandwich out of concern.
Before we landed, I put our Verizon SIM cards back into our phones so we would have cell service when we arrived in Miami. We were using the newer version of the customs app, Mobile Passport Control, and needed to finish the application submittal once we landed.
We landed on time and then headed into immigration and customs. It was only 4:30 AM, and believe it our not, there were hardly any passengers being processed through Immigration. There were special lines for Global Entry and also for the Mobile Passport Control, so we were through that and apparently also through Customs in about 15 minutes. We were delayed by three foreign passengers who got priority to go ahead of us in line. We were directed to go in the “Diplomats” line, so maybe they were family members of diplomats, in any event, they just had more priority.
From there, we gathered our checked luggage at the baggage claim and then headed through an area to a drop point so it off so it would continue on with us to Charlotte and then to Columbia.
Next came security, which was not going to open for about 15 more minutes at 5:15 AM. I do not know why they can have customs and immigration open earlier, and not security for rescreening, but we had to wait in a line behind closed doors until they opened. It was a full blown security check and screening, just like as if we had not flown at all today. Normally, we have seen these be a little less intensive at other airports after arriving in the US, like being able to leave on our shoes, but not here.
All of the screening was finally over, and now we only had to wait until our connecting flight to Charlotte left at 8:26 AM, almost three hours from now. We looked on the departure board and saw our flight to Charlotte was leaving from gate B10, so we headed to that gate, having to take the skyway train, which is just as slow as the one we recently used in the Dallas – Ft Worth Airport.
We arrived at the gate and relaxed, sitting next to a charging station for our phones. We kept checking both the American Airlines App and the departure board, and saw that our gate had now been changed to D46, so it was back to the Skytrain for three more stops until we got the the part of the terminal for gate D46. Just what we wanted to do being so tired, more walking and backtracking. When we got to the gate, we did actually now see our flight listed on the Gate Sign, so at least maybe it would not be changed again. We did look on the app to see where the plane was originating from, and it was arriving from Lima, Peru. It was running about 25 minutes late, but there was plenty of layover time to absorb that delay. It did land on the later schedule, but then the plane needed to be cleaned, which is more intense and time consuming on international flights.
We were finally able to board, and it was a full flight, but we got to our seats early enough in the boarding process to still have overhead bin space to store our backpacks. There was an entertainment system that used your own devices for a screen, so we opted just to use our phones and earbuds, it was easier and we already had those with us at the seat, and did not need to get back up and into the overhead bins.
Watching a movie made the two hour flight go by quickly, except both of us were occasionally falling asleep. I almost dropped my phone one time I dozed off so hard. The flight landed early and was uneventful, the weather was good, so the flight was smooth for the most part, a little bumpy during landing.
We only had about an hour layover in Charlotte, and by the time we got off the plane and walked all the way to the E Terminal, we only had about 15 minutes before we boarded our final flight. It was on an older and smaller regional jet with tiny overhead bin space, so it always is tough to get our backpacks into the overhead compartments. The flight to Columbia was really short, lasting only about 35 minutes at the most. We took off to the south direction in Charlotte and landed to the south in Columbia, so there was no extra flying time to go past the airport to head into the wind to land, or head in the opposite direction of travel after takeoff.
Stephanie’s mom was picking us up, and we had to call to tell her we were early, and we had to wait about 15 minutes after we got our bags before she and her friend Jane picked us up.
By the time we got home, it had been almost 32 hours since we had left the ship. We wanted showers and clean clothes, but unpacked our suitcases first to get that out of the way. Our cat Sophie was glad to see us, and even more happy to play in the open suitcases as we unpacked. With the laundry separated, we could now get the much anticipated showers and put on clean clothes.
It had been a long day and we were glad to safely be home. Hopefully, with all of the line waiting and flying time, we were not exposed to anything severe. We had not worn masks, but tried to separate ourselves form anyone coughing in the airport waiting areas. We had masks that we would have certainly worn if we were closely sitting around anyone coughing, but we were lucky not to.
Over the next several day, we will be putting photos into the posts, doing some proofreading and loading photos into the photo albums. We have a lot of photos, and trying to pick out the best will be time consuming. We also took a lot of videos, both on the phones and on our GoPro, so we will process those and upload them also.
It was a wonderful trip and we were glad to be safely home.
Bon Voyage!