New York City
Frida, 26 July 2013

I'm on my way--armed with new luggage and an old blue suit (for the QM2 formal nights; there are three.)

There have been some changes to my itinerary. The good change is that I have been upgraded (again) by Holland America, and now have a Veranda stateroom amidships on an upper deck.  Since the Prinsendam is small enough to maneuver into the river estuaries at Galway, Foynes, Waterford, and Milford Haven, the balcony should provide many good photo opportunities.

The bad change--although not terrible--involves the cancellation of my 6:30am flight this morning from Tucson to Atlanta for mechanical problems.  We had just started boarding when the announcement was made about the problems and the few of us already on the plane had to march back into the terminal.

We waited around 30 minutes with no definitive info about when we would depart so I requested a change of flight plan to get to NYC today.  (If I had to wait for Saturday there would be no way to arrive in NYC before the QM2 sails).  I'm glad I had the foresight to do this before the cancellation announcement was officially made so that I avoided the lines and chaos of all the passengers seeking new flights.

I am writing this as I fly on Delta non-stop fromTucson to Salt Lake City (one of Delta's hubs), and from there I have a non-stop to JFK.  This flight gets me in about one hour later than planned.  I don't like using JFK if at all possible, but I've already changed my airport car pickup to take me from JFK to my cousin Helen's in Manhattan,  I just hope my luggage makes it too, since there was very little time between getting off the cancelled flight to ATL and the departure of the new flight to Salt Lake City.

I'll be back with more details after I board the QM2 on Saturday afternoon.