I took a cruise during the Pandemic! Part 6

 Part 6 - Getting to JFK and getting checked in!

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We finally arrived to JFK and needless to say, I was relieved to smell 'fresh' jet fuel-infused air.  I paid the fare, gave the driver a tip and entered the terminal.  As I said, the driver was a nice guy with a bad, stinky car.  I would not recommend Carmel Limo again in the future.  Finally their customer service called me back, but all they could do is apologize. They SHOULD have offered a partial refund.

Terminal 8 at JFK is the location from which American operates their international flights.  To say that check in was a hot mess is an understatement.  I understand that flight schedules are still on the thin side, and I know that people may be hesitant to return to work.  That said, to have maybe 4 agents on the floor, assisting hundreds of passengers trying to use the self-check in kiosks is a recipe for disaster.  

I've done self check before and I got a real taste of automation when I flew from DUB to LHR before the pandemic.  Whilst at Dublin airport, I had zero human interaction from the time I approached the kiosk until I got to security.  Yes, I even affixed the luggage tag myself AND placed my bag on the scale/belt to get sent down to the aircraft.  Easy peasy.

The process here would likely be similar at JFK except for the need to have a human being look at your passport, vaccination card and/or PCR test results, and your Greek Passenger Locator Form (PLF).  Again, every country will have different, and ever changing entry requirements.  Mine were fairly simple and getting the QR code for the PLF to enter Greece was simple.  Fill out the form and wait until it's sent to you via email.  Earlier in the summer, people were applying well ahead of their trips but not getting the code until they were literally in the air on the way.  I received mine about a week after applying and when I had to make a quick edit (changed hotels) the new code arrived in a couple hours.

Vax card - edited for security

Photo by Spencer Davis from Pexels

Greek PLF form (edited for security)

I'd say I waited probably 20 minutes for an agent to come view my documents and approve them in the kiosk.  Of course, the part to check bags somehow got skipped and I had to do the whole thing again.  I'd say the entire process took 45 minutes.  It should have taken maybe 15.

If you didn't use the kiosks, you got to wait in a HUGE line

JFK was almost deserted.

Once that was done, I set off for security.  American is not a partner with CLEAR (totally worth the money if you're impatient like me.  Want a free 2 month trial?  CLICK HERE!) so I had to just go to TSA Precheck.  After confirming that precheck lanes would be open when I arrived, imagine my surprise to find out that they were NOT.  Ugh.  Please. Can we update the website??  

At least they don't make you strip and take out all your crap through the regular line if you show your appropriately marked boarding pass and the line moved fairly quickly (except for the amateur travelers in front of me.  UGH!😡😒).  Finally, I was off in search of a lounge.  I walked and took the moving walkway to the higher numbered gates concourse to try and buy a lounge pass, only to learn that the Admiral's Club by gate 42(ish) was closed and that the Flagship (make that fancier!) lounge was being used for all passengers.  With most of the food and beverage outlets closed, I figured killing 3 hours or so in the lounge, in relative comfort, would be a better way to restart my trip.

Daily passes cost $50 which sounds high but when you realize that you can get light food, drinks and booze, is a decent deal.  Currently, they're only serving light 'snacks' like soup, mac & cheese, fruit, veggies and dip and the like.  They do have a nice menu of food for purchase and you can get a more substantial meal.  There's also an option to buy better quality wine, beer and spirits.  (Note, the bar and hot-food ordering area is in an adjacent room.  There's additional table seating there but it was not available.  No photos, bad lighting)/

The lounge has a good amount of seating, lots of plugs and USB ports for charging, clean restrooms, showers and nice views of the ramp.  If it were up to me, I'd add some additional places to charge your devices as there weren't any close to the tables and chairs.

Flagship Lounge at JFK T8 (temporarily Admiral's Club) 

Lots of seating

The soup was good, the 'make your own' mac and cheese was tasty (there was mac & cheese with other toppings like ham, veggies, more cheese and so on.).  I decided to order a chicken quesadilla in case the food on the plane would suck.  The quesadilla was really good and cost about $12.  Cheaper and better than what it would have been in the airport.

Chicken Quesadilla (~$12.) Very good

The free soup was yummy

Coffee, tea, lattes, etc

Some of the snacks

More light snacks

Freestyle Coke machine

I really enjoy airport lounges and I go when I can.  I'll gladly pay for a day pass; I don't fly enough to warrant a membership, and sometimes, I even get in for free if I'm in business/first on a qualifying international flight.  It's something to check out.  Not all lounges always have day passes available but when they do, I think it's a good investment as long as I have at least 2 hours to kill.  AND the lounge was right opposite my gate!  Even better.

Next up, Getting aboard the plane,  gifts for the crew, a broken IFE screen and, will my travel luck improve? 

I took a cruise during the Pandemic! Part 5

 Part 5 TRAVEL DAY! Preflight night in NYC and more!

Finally, August 4 arrived.  My preflight travel day.  I got a LIFT (as opposed to Lyft) to the Trenton Transit Center where I boarded my AMTRAK train to the new Moynihan Train Hall in New York City.  I had a business class ticket that cost around $30 when I bought it in June.  Amtrak now has assigned seats on some of their trains. I noticed that someone booked the seat next to mine, but I was able to change it the night before travel to one where I'd hoped I'd have both seats to myself.  And it worked.

Trenton Transit Center

Trenton Transit Center

Here comes my ride!

My ride

Lots of legroom

Business class car

The train station in Trenton doesn't have Red Caps so I managed all four bags on my own.  (And if you thought that a conductor MIGHT offer to lend a hand, think again.  He was literally 5 feet away from me and easily could have been helpful. But no.)  I asked him to arrange a Red Cap for me at NYP.  Generally they'll radio ahead and the Red Cap will come to the correct area on the platform,  In this case, he pointed and said "down there".  I'm pretty sure that the conductor never called ahead but I digress.

Moynihan Train Hall is stunning, new, has lots of places to eat, less places to sit (in an effort to cut back on homeless people moving in) and is (currently at least) free of the odor that overcomes everyone in Penn Station: eau de latrine.  Really, I like New York City but something has got to be done about the stench in Penn Station.  It is NOT a nice Number One or even Number Two first impression on tourists.

Moynihan Train Hall

Moynihan Train Hall

My Red Cap hauled my luggage through the station, across the street to the taxi stand and got me settled in a cab.  I PROBABLY over tipped him ($20 bucks 😮) but he was really nice and it was a long walk into the heat of Manhattan.

The cab driver got me to the Kimpton Hotel Muse quickly.  I can't remember the exact fare but I'm thinking it was about $10-15, plus tip.  By this point, it was not even noon yet and I knew I'd have to wait for my room.  I redeemed a bunch of IHG points and hoped that I'd score a nice upgrade.  Yeah, we'll see.  After storing my luggage, I set off to find a branch of my bank so I could get Euros and some cash for the trip.  I also hit a drug store for some water, soda and snacks for my room.  After a mediocre but decently priced (by NYC tourist trap standards) lunch at Junior's Cheesecake, I returned to the hotel to wait for my room.

Once I got to the room, I noticed that it was rather small.  I'd been 'upgraded' to a premier king which wasn't much of an upgrade.  Yes, hotel rooms in NYC are small.  But if this was a better room, I'd hate to see the regular ones.  I kicked off my shoes, stored my beverages and noticed that the rug was wet.  Rut Ro.  And I noticed a slight smell of, well, dog pee.  Kimpton is an animal friendly brand, BUT I'd expect them to properly clean and inspect rooms that pets are checked into.  Honestly, a housekeeper will not know that the rug is wet since they're not walking around barefoot. 

I was assigned another room and moved down, settled in and that was it.  I will say that the hotel needs a renovation as there is a lot of peeling wallpaper all around.  The vents in the bathrooms need to be cleaned or painted, or both. The staff was just so-so.  Many of those working the late afternoon and evening shift would be so wrapped up in their personal conversations that they failed to notice guests.  The doormen were less than useful and not friendly.  Being tipped employees, one would expect them to race over, hold the door and assist with luggage.  Eh, they may also be union employees and paid a higher wage since, when I checked out, the doorman, who DID see me, could not be bothered to move his derriere and help get my luggage into the car to the airport.

After settling into the new room, I successfully repacked my big suitcase and hard side carry on, folded the soft tote, squished IT into the suitcase, sorted out the rolling tote and cheered the fact that I'd just saved myself $100 bucks!

Eighteen months into the pandemic and I am really tired of hotels using it as an excuse to cut services.  I get that staffing may be an issue; that said, there ARE ways to make a hotel stay be a little more 'normal'.  The Muse did at least, have coffee set up in the morning and they are slowly bringing back the well-known wine hour.  I still maintain that they could have offered bottles of wine to top tier loyalty members, and maybe even a bagel or muffin. 

The hotel IS in a great location, about a block from Times Square. It's located across from a cool Cuban restaurant called Havana Central and within walking distance of many sites and places to eat and shop.  I found a tiny Cuban coffee shop next door and wound up having a great, $7 breakfast.  The restaurant is called Margon and it's popular with locals.

$7.00 bargain breakfast at Margon

Interior of Margon

Exterior

As close as I will ever get to seeing this! 😭

As is my usual Modus Operandi, I emailed the manager and we played phone tag for 10 days, but he will be making it up to me on a future stay.  The Kimpton Muse does get generally good reviews but they fell short of the usual Kimpton experience.  Most of you know that I worked for Marriott hotels for many years, almost a lifetime ago, and that I was among other things, a Housekeeping Manager.  I notice stuff that most guests don't see and may not really care about.  That said, when you use 41,000 points for a 'free' room, you expect it to be worth the 'money' and on this occasion, it wasn't.  (Incidentally, it looks like IHG charges room tax even on point redemptions.  I've never paid a cent on a redemption stay at Marriott or Hyatt so this is sort of weird).

After my big lunch at Junior's (Soup, Burger & Fries and cheesecake which was a PM snack) I opted to just run to Havana Central for a light appetizer (empanada) and a mojito.  I love their food but wanted to eat light since tomorrow would be a LONG day.  One thing I did notice everywhere I walked, and even in the hotel elevators?  The scent of marijuana.  The hotel is nonsmoking, so someone walked by after taking part.  It's not technically 100% legal in NYC-yet, but it has been decriminalized.  I was instantly transported to rock concerts of the late 1980s. 

The city was a lot less crowded than I've seen it in the past. Obviously this is due to the pandemic.  Sure there were the usual tourists taking photos with various characters on Times Square, there were a few random musicians and political soap-box speakers. Traffic, other than scooters and bicycle riders who are intent on killing as many people as possible, while running red lights, was considerably lighter than the last time I was in NYC, just before all hell broke loose.

Juniors

Lunch.  Decent but not great. Forgot to get a pic of cheesecake

Mojito at Havana Central

Marriott Marquis

A very uncrowded Times Square

I didn't sleep particularly well but I managed to get in a couple short naps. I never sleep on travel night and this time was no different. I woke up, had coffee, hiked to Starbucks and Krispy Kreme on Times Square for GOOD coffee and a (free, yay!) glazed donut, walked back to Margon where I consumed the aforementioned cheap breakfast and then got my stuff together and went down to wait for my car to the airport! 

Part of my research was finding a cost-effective ride to JFK.  Carmel Limo came in priced very close to the flat rates charged by taxis.  Since the bellman actually stopped his personal conversations long enough to tell me to book a car service as "there aren't many cabs or Ubers and sometimes they don't even come when we call them", I went ahead with my reservation.

The car was supposed to be 'deluxe' or 'luxury' but it was a Toyota Rav-4 and it appeared to be owned by the driver.  It wasn't in really great shape.  The driver was nice enough and loaded my bags since the doorman wasn't about to move from his spot holding up the wall.  We set off for JFK and eventually got stuck in traffic.  The car smelled, again, of Number One 👎 (I hoped that this would NOT be a theme running throughout the trip) and I was stuck holding my breath, in my mask, as much as possible.  Close to an hour of smelling pee.  I'm still trying to get Carmel Limo's customer service to contact me.  Again, phone tag.  

I was very happy to finally get out of the car at the airport.  And I was praying to the travel angels that I'd have better luck soon.

One final look at the Kimpton Muse Hotel

I took a cruise during the Pandemic - Part 4

 Part 4 - packing, electronics, how can I avoid paying for a second bag and vacation protection!

This post may contain links to vendors. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission from that vendor, but I am otherwise not paid by them.  Feel free to contact me if you have questions.  

I've been on 54 cruises and more car and train trips than I can count (my first family vacation of which I have a memory was a trip to Puerto Rico when I was 4) . I also managed a luggage store for 5 years.  I've owned a LOT of luggage and essentially got paid to dispense packing advice.  To others.  Not to myself.  

I'm also frugal.  I'll splurge when warranted.  But I'll be damned if I'll pay to check a suitcase if I don't have to.  As I was flying from the USA to Greece, even in economy, I'd be allowed to check one bag for free.  My flight home was on United and since I have low level, Premier status with them, I can check 2 bags for free so that wasn't an issue.  With American, my carrier TO Athens, I'd be on the hook for $100 bucks for the second bag.  Hell to the no.

My trip would be 14 days, including a pre and post travel day at hotels in NYC or Newark.  I also get a free bag of laundry (30 items, wash and fold only) as I have Elite status with Celebrity and that's one of the perks.  I also figured that, if necessary, I'd find a way to do some laundry in Athens.  

Usually when I get back from a trip, I do the laundry and repack it in the suitcase.  There's fabric softener sheets inside and I'll iron, rewash, refresh or whatever is necessary.  I wound up packing 2 nicer dresses, 3 sundresses, assorted capris, shorts, tops, pajamas, 'unmentionables', socks, sneakers and nicer sandals, toiletries, make up, and various electronic accessories.  NEVER pack anything of value, NEVER pack lithium batteries (HUGE fire hazard) and ALWAYS have a list of what's in your suitcase.  (I actually don't always have an itemized list, but I do have, someplace, a spreadsheet with a rough outline.  See, I told you I don't listen to my own advice!)

When I pack, I use a combination of rolling and folding.  I don't generally use packing cubes, as I am just not really a fan. My Mom, who was an expert packer, always thought that they were for amateurs and to be honest, I hear her voice in my head every time I entertain buying a set.  LOL. I will, on occasion, use large, 2.5 gallon zip top plastic bags and organize a couple days worth of clothes in each one. The reason for this is two-fold.  First, I've been known to play musical hotels, either by design or by necessity.  Hence, if my trip will consist of multiple lodgings, I can just grab my packing cube of 'unmentionables'  (I didn't say I don't use them EVER - HA!) and a bag of outfits and I'm set.

The second reason is that once, when I had a connecting flight at MSY (that's New Orleans for those who don't speak IATA airport codes), the ramp was shut down due to thunder in the area.  Thus, my soft sided suitcase got VERY soaked, as did almost all of my clothes.  The suitcase dried out and the airline gave me 10 bucks for the laundromat.  But, I'd rather not run the risk of wet stuff again. However, I've since switched to hard sided luggage, at the strong suggestion of a former coworker and luggage guru, and I'll never go back to soft side.

Aside from my medium sized hard side (Delsey Helium Aero) , I hauled a 22" hard side Away carry on, a Briggs & Riley spinner tote and a Lipault soft side tote.  Yes that's a lot.  I was hauling a tripod (packed in the medium sized Delsey), My Nikon D80 and lens, a GoPro Hero 8, various mounts, monopods, chargers, batteries, doohickeys, doodads and whatnots.  Plus 2 European plug adaptors and a USB charging hub.   Oh and 2 external battery packs to charge my phone and whatever else. Of course the laptop was going along too. Now, can you understand why I pack so much?  HA!

Anything that wasn't a lithium battery or valuable was packed into the bag I checked in.  I only carried on the cameras, laptop, batteries and a couple USB cables just in case.  The rest, which wouldn't be needed until I landed, got checked.  

I mentally figured out that I SHOULD be able to repack everything, fold up the soft side tote and just check the one bag.  I forgot to mention that I had 2 huge bags of candy and about two dozen little travel sized hand sanitizers for the crew.  Bring gifts when you fly.  Trust me. 

Any time you travel, there is a chance that things can go south quickly. Storms, lost luggage, slips and falls, cancelled flights, you just never know.  I always get travel insurance through a third party vendor.  There are many options for insurance and there are a lot of websites that aggregate policies from a number of vendors.  I like Squaremouth as they offer a number of options at different price points.  The site is easy to use and you can apply filters for things like COVID-19 Pandemic, Primary Coverage and more.  They have excellent customer service as well.  I took a look and selected the policy and insurer who best matched my needs.

Once I was done packing, I staged most of my luggage in the garage so the cat would be less mad that I was leaving.  All I had was one more sleep and I'd be on my way!

Pack light?  Sure. 
Rear: Delsey Helium Aero 25" Front: Away Bigger Carry On in Coast
Bottom Right: Briggs & Riley Rhapsody Cabin Spinner
Top Right: Lipault City Plume Duffel

I took a cruise during the Pandemic - Part 3

 Part 3 - Athens: getting around, where to stay, what to do and more!

This post may contain links to vendors. If you click a link and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission from that vendor, but I am otherwise not paid by them.  Feel free to contact me if you have questions.  

Great travel agents are able to guide you to the best locations, accommodations, transportation and sights to see for your trip.  When travel agents haven't been someplace, we often ask our colleagues and scour travel guidebooks and websites.  Some people like to research every aspect of a trip, others would rather just pack and go.  I read a LOT, asked my fellow agents and friends, studied maps and decided on hotels, tours and transfers. 

When you're looking at reviews on sites like TripAdvisor, Google and the like, keep in mind that a percentage of reviews are fake, people may not actually be reviewing the particular property or restaurant-rather, they might be reviewing the booking experience through a big On Line Travel Agent (OTA) and that they may in fact, work for a competing place and they're slinging mud.  There's a saying about reviews and it goes something like this:  reviews are opinions, everyone has one and they're not always good, but I digress.  

Before you accept everything in a review as fact, look at how many reviews the person has written, and how they write. Very short reviews tend to be unhelpful.  I prefer longer ones with examples of what was good or bad, and I'm a huge fan of photos.  My point is, I skip past "one hit wonders" and look for reviewers with over 100 posts.

Now, back to Athens.  There are many neighborhoods in Athens and some are better located than others.  My first hotel, the Hermes Hotel,  was in the Plaka/Syntagma area and I preferred this location to that of my second hotel.  The Acropolis View Hotel was located essentially next to the Acropolis in the  Koukaki area, but not necessarily close enough to dining and "stuff" for my liking.  It's becoming trendy, but for me, it wasn't as 'centrally' located as Plaka.  I will say that the views from the rooftop terrace there were delightful.

Other hotels I considered were the Plaka Hotel, Athens Gate, Hotel Grande Bretagne and the King George Hotel. (The last two are actually part of the Marriott family of brands and are five star, luxury properties).  There really are hotels in Athens to suit every taste and budget.  I felt comfortable with my choices of the Hermes Hotel and Acropolis View Hotel and I'll get to them in greater detail later!

As far as transfers go, I opted to pre-book my airport pick up and transfer to the port through AthensTransferServices.com.  I was pleased with their service.  As far as getting to my post-cruise hotel and back to the airport, the Acropolis View hotel arranged taxis for me and again, I was very pleased.

I've come to like Hop On Hop Off bus tours as they give you a nice overview of a city.  I pre-booked my HOHO tour through Shore Excursions Group.  I intended to do one loop upon arrival and then spend more time the following day. Well, the best laid plans tend to end up with me falling asleep and/or getting hungry.  Needless to say, I did the tour early on my first full day in Athens.  Oops.  (I wound up booking it again, directly through the tour bus company for my final full day in Athens.)

So, I had hotels booked, transfers set up, and my HOHO tour arranged!  All I had to do now was pack, plan some shore excursions, count down the days and hit the bricks!

© 2021 Meg Ryan

I took a cruise during the pandemic! Part 2

 Part 2 - Research and planning the cruise and flights

A few years ago, I was helping some clients plan their honeymoon.  Once they'd decided on a Mediterranean Cruise to Italy and Greece, the fun began.  I was looking at the various ports and sending information on tours both through the ship and third party vendors.  While helping them plan, I became interested in seeing Santorini!  I suppose it was the blue roofs on the bright, white churches that caught this amateur photographer's eye.

The more they planned and I looked at options, the more my interest grew in getting to Greece "someday".  It was added to the bucket list along with many other places that I want to see.  I didn't give much thought to WHEN I'D get there, but I knew I would.  Little did I know, "someday" would be here in 2021.

Flash forward to the restart of cruising.  Sure, getting from the USA to ANY foreign country would probably be a challenge but what the heck. YOLO, right?  One afternoon, I randomly looked at pricing for Celebrity Apex sailing from Athens.  I knew that other parts of the world had success with controlling Covid, and I reviewed the current protocols for Greece, and for the cruise.  (At the time I'd sail, there would be no requirement for a Covid test to enter Greece, as long as I was vaccinated, which I am.)  I also learned that the cruise line was requiring guests to be vaccinated, along with testing everyone at the pier before boarding the ship.  Ok, that works.

I researched the pricing, as well as airfares, and found a fabulous rate for both, so I booked.  The airfare though Celebrity was considerably less than if I'd chosen to book with the airlines directly.  Sure there are pluses and minuses to booking cruise air but the savings was significant.  To get the best deal, I'd fly out of JFK and back to EWR.  (Crazy, yes.  Doable, sure with planning.  Pain in the rear factor?  I'd say 5 out of 10.  It was not as bad as I expected.)  I'd be flying in economy (oh, the humanity) but at least I'd selected nice bulkhead seats.

Photo by Element5 Digital from Pexels

The cruise and air were booked before the day was out and I did a happy dance that I'd be cruising again in about 8 weeks.  (Booked in June for an August 7th departure. Generally I book a lot farther in advance.)

Once that was set up, the research about hotels, transfers, tours and the like ensued.  Oh, and the teeny tiny issue of getting TO JFK and back home from EWR.  THAT actually wound up being less of a stumbling block than anticipated.

Living in Central New Jersey, I'm essentially an hour from both PHL and EWR, with JFK taking a bit longer, mainly due to traffic.  Parking at JFK or an offsite lot was ridiculously expensive.  Hotel park & fly rates were sky high, and public transit, while quick and cheap, was out of the question for this compulsive over packer.  (Yes, I used to manage a luggage store, yes I dispensed free packing advice and wrote articles about the subject.  NO, I do NOT take 100% of my own packing advice.  I've gotten better, but still...)

Car service from home to JFK would eat up all the savings.  So, I looked at car service prices from Manhattan. BOOM!  VERY reasonable, actually about the same as a taxi. (In the $50-60 range give or take).  I also found a nice hotel and could use points rather than high NYC prices.  Sign me up!  Kimpton Hotel Muse and Carmel Limo, here I come.  (I'll review those in subsequent posts!)  Got a FABULOUS fare on Amtrak from Trenton to NY Penn Station, in business class even, so I snagged that too.  

The particulars of getting from the USA to Greece and back having been set, next up was to figure out where to stay in Athens, how to get to and from the pier and airport and what to do!  

I took a cruise during the Pandemic! Part 1

Cruising during the pandemic - Part One -  Background

 We all know that the pandemic threw the travel trade into disarray and threatened to sink the cruise industry entirely.  For nearly 18 months, cruise ships were not permitted to operate due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) not allowing them to operate, at least in US waters, without following a strict set of ever-changing protocols. Truthfully, these new protocols can change at LEAST weekly and vary port to port.  

To say that the CDC was holding the cruise industry to a standard that was not applied to airlines, railroads and the like is an understatement.  While we could debate the unlevel playing field ad nauseum, it's really pointless.  More than a year after the Global Suspension of Sailing, I'm happy to report that the cruise industry is back!  Ships are starting to sail around the world, and the first voyage, Celebrity Edge on June 26th, was a day that brought tears of joy to avid cruisers, crew members, cruise line employees and more around the world.  It also brought the scrutiny of the media, the government and, of course those who think that cruise ships are just floating breeders of illness.

All that aside, I'm happy to report that I was recently able to board a ship for the first time in close to 18 months.  I managed to book a bucket list cruise to the Greek Islands on Celebrity Apex.  Being a travel agent has allowed me to explore parts of the world that were originally just dreams and when opportunity knocked for me to take this trip, I happily answered the door!

Follow along as I let you know about the research, planning, more research, more planning and finally, the trip itself, and the Covid-19 protocols that were put in place by the cruise line and countries we'd be visiting.  I'll talk about hotels, sights, transfers, flights, food, the ship and cruise itself and the emotions that I expected to feel, and how they were stronger than I thought they'd be!

Grab your favorite snacks and beverage, buckle up and enjoy the ride!