Greenland – Day 10 can be found here.
The fateful day had come. It was time to leave the Cloud.
However, our flight wouldn’t be wheels-up until 6 pm that evening. So we had a (somewhat) relaxed schedule that morning.
Up at 7 am, along with the announcement that Deck 4 guests were invited to collect passports and check into their flights at the Dolce Vita lounge. We had some time before Deck 5 was called, so we packed up our remaining luggage and did second, third and fourth checks of the room to ensure we weren’t forgetting anything. (Famous last words.)
Disembarkation would be at 1 pm via zodiac, so we would need to keep our life vests with us – along with sufficient wet weather gear to ensure that we wouldn’t be squelching our way onboard our charter flight from Greenland to New York.
The fifth floor was then called to Dolce Vita, so we abandoned our bags in the Restaurant and made our way through the circuit. This was all quite quick – taking perhaps 10 minutes total. How we wish that all airline check-ins could be so painless.
Back to the Restaurant for our last lingering breakfast, where I indulged myself with an order of Eggs Benedict (no pictures, sorry) and the crew took one more opportunity to spoil the kids.
Then off to Panorama – or, so we tried. At this point all the four-tops were taken, so we went to the Observation Lounge instead. It was quite quiet there – aided perhaps by the pouring rain between the staircase and the lounge – and we had no trouble finding a seat and the rarest of unicorns, an outlet with which to charge our electronic devices.
So we sat, overlooking the mist-shrouded bay outside the ‘port’ of Kangerlussuaq, and enjoyed a brief moment of respite before we entered the terrible and dehumanizing Travel Vortex.
Don’t think there’s much in the way of tiki bars and jewellery stores in this particular port…
That lasted perhaps an hour – during which the previous update was posted – before my wife attempted to have a look at our flights from New York to Toronto.
Emphasis on the word attempted.
She shrugged off the first error, as that’s par for the course for Air Canada – indeed, I think we’d find it deeply suspicious if we ever managed to retrieve a booking for Air Canada without some kind of error. But by the third or fourth error, she began to grow concerned.
So that’s how I ended up on hold with Air Canada via Skype using the ship’s wifi for the better part of an hour, only to discover that Silversea had somehow forgotten to pay for our tickets home.
Meanwhile, we had also discovered that one of the children’s raincoats had somehow ended up in our checked luggage. And with that discovery, the downpour appeared to double in strength.
I went to Reception to speak to Santosh about our flights. And despite it being turnover day, I received his personal assurance that this would be handled. I was skeptical, but he also had a plastic poncho to replace the missing raincoat – so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
And so I rejoined my family at the Grill, where we moved on to our last less-than-lingering lunch – the incoming flight had arrived earlier than expected, and so the crew was eager to get us off as soon as possible to make way for the new guests. Pretty please. But seriously, get off the boat.
My wife took the kids off for one last rest break before we disembarked, and one of the waiters came up to chat for a bit. And at one point, he congratulated us for bringing our kids on this cruise and showing them the many, many wonders of Greenland. This was a gift, he said, that would endure for a very long time. And I think he’s right.
As some have said before, perhaps the most persuasive reasons to return to Silversea is the crew. And after that one brief conversation, I think I really understand that.
Back downstairs, where Santosh was pumping his fist in triumph to the background music of a printer warming up. He had flights for us! We accepted the confirmation with skeptical gratitude and then – after a mere two error messages gave way to confirmation – with relieved gratitude.
We were going home.
Just in time, too, as it was last call for zodiacs. The children donned their wet weather gear – including one (1) clear garbage bag / poncho – and we headed down to Deck 3 for disembarkation.
We were the last zodiac off the boat.
Graffiti along the approach into the port
The town of Kangerlussuaq
… and the Kangerlussuaq airport itself.
On the way, my wife noticed that I had somehow ended up with a crew lifejacket. I joked that this was part of a random lottery and that, as much as I had enjoyed being part of their family, I was clearly destined for a life at sea.
My daughter then squeezed me for all she was worth and said I was coming home. So that settled that.
(Though if anyone at Silversea is reading this and might be interested in having a writer-in-residence / Storytelling Assistant on board for a few weeks per year, do please drop a line.)
It was a brief but very wet zodiac ride, and our guide – Willie – had to concentrate to follow the narrow channel carved into the harbour’s shoals.
We then boarded a midge-filled bus that was off for a four-hour-long tour, where we would have one hour to observe a vast ice wall and three hours to bounce up and down while we questioned our life choices.
Not surprisingly, after about 30 minutes of bouncing we decided to get off at the Kangerlussuaq Airport – a decision that was sealed once one of our iron-stomached children asked for Gravol. There can be too much of a good thing.
Our fateful charter flight.
So we settled in for a lengthy wait at the Airport – where we made another shocking discovery.
Hmm, my brain had wondered, once we had found a spot to sit and stretch our legs. If our flight home wasn’t actually booked, how do we know that we have a hotel tonight?
Good question, brain. A very good question indeed.
Our Greenlandic eSIM card picked this exact moment to expire, but thankfully Kangerlussuaq Airport had free wifi available – provided you agreed that you would not use said wifi to do illegal, very bad things – and so I was soon on the line with International Hotel Group to confirm our rooms for the night.
“Room,” they corrected.
After much back-and-forth, we elected to go ahead and book another room and then sort it all out on the other end. We did try to call Silversea’s emergency line which, you can imagine, went about as well as you would expect any kind of last minute, frantic call placed via Skype using airport wifi to go.
But they did say we could do what we needed to do, and they would reimburse us later if necessary. So that was some comfort.
We then went to the Kangerlussuaq Airport cafeteria to order an early dinner of chicken fingers and fries for each of us – which turned out to be a half-chicken dinner instead. It was really good. Surprisingly good, if I’m honest.
The tour group then arrived at the airport – reviews of the ice wall were a bit mixed, though the general consensus was that if you don’t like being bounced on a bus for hours on end then this wasn’t the tour for you. So we’re glad we made the decision that we did – and it proved essential, given our hotel situation.
Then it was time to board our flight to New York run by… Canada Jetlines?
I’m not sure what economic trickery resulted in a Canadian charter company being the best option to ferry us home, but we were grateful for the familiar accents and the seemingly unlimited bar service. (The TV dinner chili-pasta hybrid, less so – but you can’t win them all.) All seats were economy-type seats – no business class or premium economy – but were comfortable enough for a shortish flight.
I ended up sitting next to some of the expedition staff, and had a good chat with them on the way back. We talked about the very special niche that Silversea seems to occupy in the expedition cruise business – right at the crossroads of adventure and luxury – but also how the industry was poised to evolve in the years to come.
Personally, I’d like to see more opportunities for ‘citizen science’ aboard some of these ships. Surely there are researchers who would like the opportunity to explore these parts of the world, and Silversea often has an empty cabin or two – couldn’t we take them along? I expect not every guest would be interested, but I know I’d personally volunteer to hand over trackers or hold a clipboard while someone tags whales or endangered sea birds.
Secondly, I’d also like to see more of a drive towards sustainability. It’s hard to ignore that large, dark plume of smoke billowing from the ship’s exhaust when we’re anchored in an otherwise pristine harbour. While electric cruise ships are a long way from becoming a reality, the Nova class ships are moving towards liquid natural gas. Will that be an option for expedition ships in the future? What about electric zodiac-type boats like this – https://www.rselectricboats.com/?
(Just my own personal views – not trying to start any kind of knock-down, drag-out debates.)
In any case, it was a great conversation and yet another reminder of just how exceptional the Silversea crew can be.
The flight went about as quickly as a 4.5 hour flight could go, and then we started our descent down to JFK airport. There were a few gnarly crosswinds, but the captain landed the plane with a minimal number of bounces.
Back to the waiting game – waiting for the ramp to be brought to the plane, waiting to disembark, waiting for the shuttle to take us to the terminal, and then waiting for customs.
This last wait was somewhat more tense – when we extended our cruise, we’d been told that we’d be on our own in terms of transfers. But we’d also been told that charter flights – like this one – tended to involve a group shuttle to the hotel. So we were hoping to join that if possible and save ourselves the cost of an hour-long cab ride into NYC.
And as we watched our fellow travellers breeze through US Customs, we wondered if they might just leave without us.
A silent sigh of relief was breathed as the US citizen lines cleared, and fresh lines opened for the visitors. Soon we had bags in hand and we were following the conveniently-spaced line of Silversea signs directing us to the loading area. A second sigh of relief followed when we were handed two sets of envelopes with our flight and transfer information.
I would like to tell you we were soon loaded onto the buses and on our way – but I would be lying.
It was a slow process. There was only room for one bus at a time in the loading area, and it took quite a while to load up the many, many bags the cruisers had accumulated during their travels.
So we waited. And waited.
The kids really earned their keep that day – they were absolute troopers as they waited more than 30 minutes to board the bus, and then another 90 minutes during the bus ride into Manhattan, including a period in which it would have been faster to walk to our hotel than to drive.
But we got there. My wife and daughter dashed inside to collect the room keys, while my son and I got the bags – and by 11:30 pm we were in our hotel rooms getting ready for bed.
The kids get to experience New York city with a 3 second look out of our hotel window
Look! Street art! Now go to bed!
My wife and daughter decided to share one bedroom, while my son and I took the other. Given it was an unfamiliar space, I’d planned to leave the bathroom light on. Except – thanks to the artistic, frosted glass bathroom door – the bathroom light also lit up most of the hotel room, too.
Aha! My brain said. What if you cover the wall sconces with towels to cut the light?
Reader, I have but one final piece of advice – never, ever place a hotel towel overtop a brightly shining light. You will not like what you see.* Trust me on this.
With that brilliant plan undone, I instead found a battery pack with an oft-annoyingly bright blue glow to serve as an impromptu night light.
And then we fell asleep.
(Note to readers – One final update is coming, but in our infinite wisdom we extended our trip so that we had exactly one day at home before we leave for a camping trip in Algonquin. So we need to get back from our next holiday before I can write about our previous holiday. And maybe our new holiday too? I’m not really sure what time it is and it feels like the land is moving, so please don’t hold me to anything.)
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* While editing, my wife asked, “What did you see?!” and apparently my reply of “Everything. I saw everything.” was not illustrative enough. So I will elaborate – towels in hotels get some pretty heavy use, and they are cleaned thoroughly. At least, thoroughly enough that they look clean – in daylight.
And what happens when you throw a couple hundred extra lumens behind those towels? You see everything the human eye was meant to miss.
You don’t have to take my word on this. But I suggest that you do. Some sights cannot be unseen.
Continue reading New York to Toronto here.