May 21, 2022

It was an early start this morning, a taxi picked us up at 4 a.m. to go to the airport. At 4 a.m. this morning, the temperature was +2°C. We arrived at the airport in about 15 minutes and were early for our appointment for the COVID test to be used to board the ship on Monday. We also need it to upload the results to the Bermuda Travel Authorization link, a requirement to visit Bermuda. We had a 30 minute wait for our test results in order to get a printout, afterwards we received our results by email. Check-in for the Delta flight to Minneapolis went well and we managed to stay well under the 50 pound limit with one suitcase at 35 pounds and the other at 39 pounds - the joys of getting free laundry on the ships. Then passengers needed to wait until 5:15 a.m. for U.S. Customs & Immigration to open, there was only about a dozen people in front of us. Everyone is required to wear face masks at the airport, including the U.S. boarding area. By 5:30 a.m., we were enjoying a Tim Hortons coffee in the boarding area. We had to wait another hour, until the gate opened, for our seats to be assigned, with everyone else, since the boarding passes with seat assignment were only issued once the electronic documents were reviewed by the agents. Once we were on the plane, there was an announcement that at 10,000 feet we were no longer required to wear masks, but most people kept them on. We were happy to find that our seats had lots of leg room in row 11 of the Airbus 319 and complimentary beer or wine besides coffee, tea or water plus a cookie or pretzels.

The flight to Minneapolis was ten minutes early arriving. We landed at gate C3 then walked to find our Newark departure gate C25 before walking back past C3 to a food court and shopping area. Only about one in five people wore masks in Minneapolis airport. We recognized the restaurant where we had had a very early breakfast with our daughter, the last time we were in this airport returning from Miami through Minneapolis during a January blizzard and missing our late evening flight. Today we found packaged sandwiches to take back to our boarding gate to eat for lunch. There was more than a 90 minute break between landing and departure time for the flight to Newark, New Jersey. We had managed to walk more than 10,000 steps before 10 a.m.! For the flight to Newark, New Jersey, it was a smaller plane (CRJ900) and it was full with about 90 passengers. Where we sat near the back of the plane in row 18, most of the passengers kept their masks on.

Once landed in Newark we had a short wait at the luggage carousel, before retrieving our suitcases and heading up to catch the inter-terminal train to P4 where the hotel shuttle stand is located. The sun was shining and the temperature was 94°F (34.5°C). There was a glitch in the train service causing delays and in a small 3,000 square foot area over 200 people stood around many with no masks. When the delay reached the ten minute mark an employee shouted to follow her down to the ground level and she would show anyone able to walk outside on a hot day how to take the five minute walk to the next station. We followed her and alighted the train at that stop and got off at the next for the hotel shuttles. We phoned from the kiosk to request the hotel shuttle. We were told it would come in 15 minutes, even though the hotel is less than a 10 minute ride away. After almost 40 minutes and another phone call, a Best Western Plus shuttle appeared. Not paying attention to the name in smaller print, we ended up on the shuttle to the city centre Best Western Plus, a 20 minute drive. On its way back to the airport, the driver dropped us off at their airport location where we had a room booked . The route was along Broad Street and Mulberry Street and took at least 45 minutes. When we checked in after 4 p.m. our room was ready.

We have two nights here before boarding the Celebrity Summit at Cape Liberty, New Jersey in the early afternoon on Monday. The hotel receptionist has ordered a taxi to take us to the cruise terminal, about a 25 minute ride.

We had a light dinner in the small hotel restaurant since there is not anything else within a 30 minute walk and it was too hot to walk far. Tomorrow we will explore parts of Newark and get 10,000+ steps for our second day of the vacation.

We linked to the Government of Bermuda Travel Authorization link and uploaded this morning’s COVID test results. Within 15 minutes we each received a confirmation that the information was received and we were approved to visit Bermuda in five days.