I am now trying to figure out why "red eye" flights were invented. Yes I understand it gets people to the east coast in time to work a full day, but it has to be the worse torture ever. The trip from west to east is a killer and you arrive unable to do anything, but determine that trying to sleep cramped and sitting upright does not work and the trip is really to short to take any kind of medication for sleep It is a losing proposition all the way around. Especially when the tour company makes the arrangements.
Usually when you have connections the time is short and you are always in another terminal that is nothing short of a half mile away or as in Dallas and other airports you need to take a train so when we land in New York I am dubious although we have plenty of time to make the connection (2hours). So as we land after squirming around in our seats all night 30 minutes early. I guess there was a tail wind or some such technical thing. So according to west coast time it is 2:30 in the morning. A quick look around the terminal to figure where we need to go and low and behold we are at the next gate. So we have 2.5 hours to walk 15 feet. So we walk about the terminal in search of breakfast since there is no food on the plane and it will be a 4 hour flight.
We encounter a sign of the future in the airport. All of the restaurants are connected via wifi and ordering is done at your table, you then swipe your credit card to pay and a receipt including a tip is emailed to you. We have seen this a few times at home but never so completely automated
The flight to San Juan was fairly uneventful. It was a 4 hour flight. We are surprised that we were flown first to New York then south to Puerto Rico. It seems way out of the way and more air miles. The best part of the trip was we had an open middle seat. I think I may have actually slept for an hour. Upon getting off the plane I am reminded of Hawaii. Warm and Humid. We are met by no less than 10 Viking staff members and escorted to the ship which is about 20 minutes away.
We hear a lot about devastation after the hurricane From the air it is hard to see it with the exception of the plant life where whole sections of trees and forest is brown and flattened. From the airport to the ship there are several building that were totally demolished but there is no problems with the freeways and streets are very passable, Debris from some of the buildings seems piled on vacant lots
I will discuss more about San Juan in the next installment
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