Brian Hart
Transatlantic Crossing in 2026

Transatlantic Crossing in 2026

England, Spain, Portugal and Bermuda, and an Atlantic crossing

· 82 mins read

A last-minute cruise booking that had me exploring Southampton, England, for two nights, before boarding the Celebrity Apex for a transatlantic trip with stops in Vigo (Spain), Lisbon, the Azores, and Bermuda.

Contents

Transatlantic Crossing Day 1

Back to Southampton after only 2 months

  • Start of day: Home in North Carolina
  • End of day: Somewhere over the Atlantic

Time for another solo adventure! You might recall I enjoyed a solo land+cruise trip earlier this year in May, exploring Rome for a few days and then sailing to Spain and Portugal on Silversea.

For October, I found a trans-Atlantic cruise that had a great last minute rate with a desirable stateroom and jumped on it. And when I say “last minute”, I mean: I booked the cruise on Monday afternoon and then flew to London on Thursday!

I did confirm there were some acceptable flight options before clicking the Book It button on the cruise. Delta, my preferred airline, had a fine flight to JFK; from there I’d take a Virgin Atlantic codeshare flight to London-Heathrow.

This was my first experience with Virgin Atlantic, flying Premium Economy. It was okay. It was a little chaotic at the gate at JFK. The inbound aircraft had a problem at Heathrow that forced Virgin to swap the aircraft type from an Airbus A350 (IIRC) over to a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, meaning they had to move some seats around. If you’d printed a boarding pass at home or had it in your Apple Wallet, you needed to visit the desk and get a paper boarding pass, as your seat may have changed. It happens, but the gate staff’s communication about what passengers needed to do1 could’ve been better. We boarded about an hour late but made up the time in the air.

I popped into the Delta Sky Club about 30 minutes before close. This is the one in Terminal 4, Concourse A, near Gate A8. What a treat an almost-empty lounge is.

A plate of braised chicken pieces and garlic-herb spaghetti on a round white marble table in an airport lounge at JFK at night, with a fork and folded napkin beside it. Behind it, a curved white marble counter under a circular gold-trimmed ceiling soffit, a buffet line with glass sneeze guards and pendant lights along the right wall, and floor-to-ceiling windows showing the lit terminal outside

Overhead wayfinding sign in JFK Terminal 4 reading 'Gates A2-A7 | Gates B' and 'Baggage Claim | Exit' on a yellow arrow panel, with a blue panel below pointing to 'Lounges' alongside logos for the Delta One Lounge, The Centurion Lounge, and the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse. Beneath it, a long bright concourse with a striped grey-and-white floor, gate A6 and A7 markers, and travelers walking with luggage

The boarding process aside, the vibes once onboard were decent, and I liked my seat…

The darkened cabin of an overnight transatlantic flight bathed in purple and pink mood lighting, looking at the seatback in front with its entertainment screen playing a film, a handset screen below, and a clear plastic-wrapped blanket tucked into the seat pocket. Overhead bins and another lit seatback screen are visible to the right, and the edge of an e-reader page shows at the bottom of the frame

… but these redeyes that depart at midnight and land at noon are a special kind of hell. I need to start doing the 7pm->7am ones instead, and then just eat the price of a destination hotel room the night before.

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Footnotes:

  1. Mine was up-to-date in the Delta app. ↩

Transatlantic Crossing Day 2

Transfer to Southampton and beating jet lag

  • Start of day: Over the Atlantic
  • End of day: Moxy Southampton

There’s not much to write about the flight. I was incredibly tired and also couldn’t get into a comfortable enough position to sleep, so I just did the head bob thing for like 6 hours.

When planning the trip I wanted to give myself some buffer time before Sunday’s embarkation, partly to play tourist, partly to hedge against travel problems. I debated spending the time in London and then making my way to Southampton after 2 nights, or going right to Southampton. Given we’d just spent two nights in London as a family about two months prior, I opted to go directly to Southampton and stay there.

I decided to try National Express this time. They offer direct Heathrow to Southampton coach bus service. The duration was comparable to taking the train, while the fare was a little bit cheaper. However, the convenience was higher, as I wouldn’t have to manage my checked bag down to a train platform or find room on the train itself. Nor would I have to transfer.

At Heathrow I had some confusion figuring out where to actually find the bus until I learned (by having to ask a random airport employee) that I was looking for the Heathrow Airport Central Bus Station. Makes sense in hindsight but this information wasn’t readily available on the docs I had.

It was a ~10 minute fast-walk to the bus station. I found a seat in front of the board and watched to see which stall my 13:30 (1:30pm) bus would be in. I had about 30 minutes before the 1:30 bus so I was only glancing at the board every few minutes. At 1:20 the board updated and it showed my bus was now loading at stall 7. I hastily went outside, found the stall, passed my bag to the driver, and then we left… at 1:22. Eight minutes early. Oh and at no point did they look at my ticket. What bus leaves eight minutes early, especially when you’re not tracking the number of people who have pre-purchased tickets and whether everyone’s arrived?

A large black departures display at Heathrow Central Bus Station under the headline 'Welcome to Heathrow - Coach Departures,' listing a 13:30 service to Southampton calling at Heathrow Airport (T5) and the University of Southampton, plus services to Bath, London Green Line Coach Station, Swansea, and Derby, each marked 'Wait in Lounge.' Below it, a National Express ticket machine and a red sign reading 'Do not feed the birds'

And it was maybe 1/8th full when we left, though we’d pick up some more people at Heathrow Terminal 5.

Selfie in a window seat of a nearly empty National Express coach at Heathrow, wearing a navy henley, with rows of black leather seats with orange piping stretching forward, burnt-orange curtains tied back at the windows, and overhead reading lights. One other passenger is visible a few rows up

It was an easy, ~90 minute ride over to Southampton, with some Windows XP nostalgia along the way:

Rolling green Hampshire farmland seen from the coach window along the motorway near Basingstoke, with a freshly mown field sweeping up to a line of dark trees, a hedgerow and a wooden stile in the foreground beside the road, and a bright blue sky scattered with puffy white cumulus clouds

And then from there it was an easy ~10 minute walk towards the water and my hotel.

With only a few days’ notice there weren’t a lot of hotel choices. I noticed one of the hotels, the Moxy, was well-located and a Bonvoy property.

The glass entrance of the Moxy Southampton hotel, with the large looping magenta 'moxy' script sign mounted above a white canopy and a revolving door to the left. A cycle-lane sign is posted beside the entrance, and the reflective glass shows a figure standing with a roller suitcase on the pavement

A compact Moxy hotel room with a low platform bed made up in white linens, a navy accent wall behind the headboard with two wall-mounted reading lamps, dark charcoal carpet, grey curtains framing a window with afternoon light and city buildings outside, a magenta ottoman, and a wall-mounted television on a dark frame to the left

Overall I was pleased with my two nights at the Moxy. The bar/restaurant area was cozy, the bar food decent, and the staff friendly – if a bit overworked at times.

Once checked in, I wandered around the Westquay Shopping Center across from the hotel…

…and ended up having Thai during a random afternoon rainstorm.

A plate of pad thai with beef, tofu, bean sprouts, sliced red chili, and spring onion served on a banana leaf on a dark oval platter at Thaikhun, with small orange bowls of crushed peanuts and chili flakes and a lime wedge. Beside it, a tall glass of cola with ice, lemon, and a red-and-white striped straw, on a bright orange Thaikhun paper placemat with a drinks menu propped behind

The rest of the day was spent wandering around and trying to stay ahead of jet lag. I made it until 9pm or so.

A carved wooden Paddington Bear statue in a blue duffle coat and red hat, holding a marmalade sandwich, seated at one end of a wooden bench with a green plaque, set on a grassy bank below a tall round medieval stone tower in Southampton's old town walls. Planters with heather flank the bench under a clear blue sky

Selfie in front of the Bargate, the medieval stone gatehouse of Southampton's old town walls, lit golden by late afternoon sun, wearing a navy henley. The gate's battlemented parapet, carved heraldic panels, and a stone lion statue frame the dark arched passage, with a flag flying from the roof and a pedestrian walking past on the left

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 3

Titanic museum and Winchester

  • Start of day: Southampton, England
  • End of day: Southampton, England

The maiden voyage of the RMS Titanic departed Southampton April 10, 1912.

A black-and-white photograph from April 1912 of RMS Titanic moored at the Southampton docks, her black hull and three of her four tall funnels rising through hazy smoke, with crew lining the forward deck rail. A small steam tug puffs dark smoke to the left, dock cranes and warehouses line the far shore, and on the stone quay at right a man in a bowler hat and long overcoat sits on a timber beam while other dockworkers stand by a bollard
Titanic in Southampton

You know the rest of the story.

About 80% of the crew were natives of Southampton. As such, the sinking of Titanic had an outsized impact on the city. I spent a few hours that morning at the SeaCity Museum learning some of their stories.

A display at the SeaCity Museum in Southampton introducing members of Titanic's crew, with tall colored panels for Captain Edward John Smith in a blue panel, quoted as saying 'A man any officer would give his ears to sail under,' Second Officer Charles Herbert Lightoller in yellow, and Coal Trimmer Walter Francis Fredericks, each with a black-and-white portrait and biography text

A museum display case at SeaCity holding a four-lobed piece of tan linoleum flooring and a small photograph, with a placard headed '1st Class smoke room' explaining that the picture shows Olympic's 1st Class smoke room, that both Olympic and Titanic had real open fires in those rooms, and that the linoleum tile was left over when the floor was laid in Titanic's smoke room. The case is framed by a pattern of brown 'COAL' sacks

A white museum display box at SeaCity holding a small paper ticket, with a placard headed 'Ticket for 2nd Class dining room' explaining that each passenger was given a ticket for one of the dining rooms - 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Class. A brown border of illustrated 'COAL' sacks surrounds the case

Close-up of an original pale blue-grey card ticket under clear mounts, printed 'White Star Line - R.M.S. Titanic - Second Class - First Sitting.'

A recreated Edwardian ship's cabin at the SeaCity Museum, with a tall wooden wardrobe on the left, a small washstand with a mirror and white towel at the back, and two wooden bunks with white bedding on the right, a dark bowler hat and a hatbox resting on the lower bunk. The floor is laid in green and cream patterned linoleum, viewed past a glass barrier with an information card

In the mid-afternoon I decided to check out Winchester, which was a short 20 minute train ride away.

A hand holding an orange-and-cream National Rail ticket reading 'Off-Peak Day Return - Valid for one journey from Winchester to Southampton Central - Adult Standard Class,' dated 17-OCT-26, over grey paving at Southampton Central station, with a navy sneaker visible at the bottom of the frame

I miscalculated some with my timing, as the Winchester Cathedral and The Great Hall were both set to close shortly after I arrived. I did a large loop through the town and found my way back to the train station.

One note on the ticket shown above: magnets will eat these. Magnets like the cell phone we all carry in our pockets. Of the 4 times I needed to use the ticket, it failed 3, each time requiring human intervention. Something to be mindful of so you don’t repeat my mistake.

Once back in Southampton, I wandered around for a bit looking for a dinner place but ultimately ended up having chili at the hotel.

A small square tile mosaic of a startled Homer Simpson on a blue background, set into the side of a concrete plinth beneath a metal post at a covered bus area in Southampton, with a long lit canopy, people walking in the distance, and a red 'Locked Room' sign on the building to the right

A bar in Southampton decorated for Halloween, with a skeleton dressed as Wednesday Addams in long black braids and a black plaid dress seated on a stool in front of the backlit slatted bar, and a skeletal hand resting on the counter. A large glass bowl of orange punch with spider decorations sits on the bar among black netting and dried plants, with shelves of liquor bottles and hanging lanterns behind

Tomorrow: the cruise begins!

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 4

Embarkation in Southampton

  • Start of day: Moxy Southampton
  • End of day: At sea

Cruise embarkation day! Over the next two weeks I’ll visit 4 ports and try to be OK with 8 (!!) sea days.

The itinerary:

Date Place About
Sunday, October 18 Southampton, England Embarkation, 5:00pm sailaway
Monday, October 19 At Sea  
Tuesday, October 20 Vigo, Spain Galicia, 9:30am to 5:00pm
Wednesday, October 21 Lisbon, Portugal Portugal’s capital, 8:00am to 5:00pm
Thursday, October 22 At Sea  
Friday, October 23 Ponta Delgada, Azores São Miguel island, 10:00am to 6:00pm
Saturday, October 24 At Sea  
Sunday, October 25 At Sea  
Monday, October 26 At Sea  
Tuesday, October 27 At Sea  
Wednesday, October 28 Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda 8:00am to 5:00pm
Thursday, October 29 At Sea  
Friday, October 30 At Sea  
Saturday, October 31 Port Canaveral, Florida Disembark

The weather was cool and crisp, perfect for a walk. In the Moxy lobby, I passed a crowd of 20 people or so waiting for their bus transfer and made my way to the sidewalk outside. From the Moxy it’s around a 20 minute walk along flat ground to the cruise terminal; it’s really not bad at all.

If walking to the City or Horizon terminals in Southampton is interesting to you, I did a brief writeup of the route back in August.

A pedestrian path through Southampton docks with large mustard-yellow lettering painted on the asphalt reading 'City and Horizon Terminals' beneath an arrow pointing ahead, a black roller suitcase parked mid-path, a parking lot behind wire fencing on the left, and a road with cars and railings on the right under a sunny blue sky with scattered clouds

My home for the next 13 nights:

View from the foot of the bed in a cruise ship stateroom, with a white duvet, a teal runner, and teal and grey throw pillows. Grey curtains frame a sliding glass door onto the veranda, where a large circular cutout in the white bulkhead frames the colorful buildings of the Southampton waterfront. A wall-mounted television is on the right

This is stateroom 6102 onboard the Celebrity Apex. It’s a category P2 (Deluxe Porthole View with Veranda) which, if I’m being honest, I wasn’t aware was a thing.

Celebrity Cruises listing for the P2 Deluxe Porthole View with Veranda category. A promotional photo shows a stateroom with a bed made in white and navy linens facing a sliding door onto a veranda, where a large round porthole cutout in the bulkhead frames the open sea. A grey sofa with navy cushions and a large red abstract print sits on the left, and a desk with a marble-based lamp sits on the right, over a grey carpet with a geometric pattern. Below the photo, text reads: 'Located at either end of the ship, in the Deluxe Porthole View with Veranda you'll have the choice to relax in your spacious living area, or step outside to enjoy morning coffee and evening sunsets.'
Deluxe Porthole View with Veranda (image: Celebrity Cruises)

It was great! It has a narrow but functional veranda, plus all the light the sliding doors let in. I didn’t use the veranda as often as I likely would have on a different cruise. Part of that was the weather (it was cool or cold the first half of the cruise), part of it was the uncomfortable chairs, but it was nice stepping out there to get some fresh air and check the temperature.

The location, all the way forward, did mean I felt a lot more ship motion than if I’d been perched midship. While we did have a few days with a lot of movement, it was the type of movement that didn’t trigger seasickness.

Deck plan of the forward end of Deck 6 on the Celebrity Apex, showing the tapered bow at the top and two rows of staterooms running down either side of a central corridor. Pink staterooms 6100 through 6115 sit closest to the bow, with a red arrow in the central corridor pointing to stateroom 6102, second from the front on the right-hand side, and orange staterooms 6116 through 6127 continue aft. Small diamond, square, and wave symbols mark some of the cabins

I went to the top deck to watch sailaway. Neither of this year’s sailaways from Southampton yielded good photos. I missed my chance to photograph our passing by the Queen Mary 2, also.

The ship's white churning wake trailing across grey-green Southampton Water at sailaway, under a broad sky of soft grey and lilac clouds with patches of pale blue. In the distance, the dark-hulled Queen Mary 2 sits alongside a quay next to tall white grain silos, with container cranes on the far shore

I finished the day with some cruise ship pizza and a book.

Reading a Kindle at night in the ship's Oceanview Café buffet, with a bare knee and the glowing e-reader page in the foreground and a white marble table holding a plate with the last scraps of a meal and a fork at left. A yellow 'Take Care, Watch Your Step' sign stands on the floor beside a curving black-and-cream scalloped carpet, and beyond it a chef in whites works at a lit serving station framed by a navy wall with a gold geometric pattern. A few diners sit at tables along the curved windows under copper pendant lamps and a round recessed ceiling

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 5

Sea day, plus room controls

  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

The first of many sea days over the duration of the cruise.

Two large ceramic sculptures on round wooden pedestals inside a glass-walled triangular-latticed lounge at the top of the ship, one a woven-textured coral-and-cream vessel, the other a stacked green form. The low sun sets over the Atlantic through the windows, casting a glittering path of light on the water and long shadows across the patterned carpet

Since I never have much to share on sea days, I’ll share this: in the last hour of the last cruise, I discovered I can control the stateroom lights and thermostat from the Celebrity app. Notice the Stateroom icon in the center?

Screenshot of the Celebrity Cruises app home screen showing 'Ship Time 12:19 AM' and 'Today - At Sea' over an overhead illustration of the ship on turquoise water, with a Shortcuts grid below including Cart, Wi-Fi, Depart, Food, Account, Photos, Excursions, Stateroom, Safety, Future Cruise, Videos, Vote, Itinerary, and Tender

It takes you here:

Screenshot of the Celebrity Cruises app's stateroom controls for the living room, showing 'Ship Time 12:20 AM,' a current temperature of 75 °F with up and down arrows, living room lights set to 50%, and scene buttons for Morning, Evening, Sleep, and Movie

Besides the environmental controls, you can also control the TV… but that’s less convenient than just using the remote.

So now you know.

Overall: an average sea day.

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 6

Vigo Spain

  • Start of day: Vigo, Spain
  • End of day: At sea

Good morning from Spain! If you’d asked me at the beginning of 2026 how many times I thought I’d visit Spain and Portugal that year, the answer would not have been three. And all three trips happened somewhat spontaneously, with little time to properly prepare – learning travel-sized doses of Castilian and Portuguese and brushing up on history, for two.

I’m grateful for these experiences, as Spain has rocketed to the top of my list of places to visit more in retirement.

While Vigo is not one of the major Iberian cruise ports, I still had an enjoyable day here. It was my second visit to Galicia, after visiting La Coruña in August.

First off, it’s hilly. So much so that they have escalators and moving sidewalks in places:

An outdoor escalator climbing a steep street in central Vigo, enclosed in a stainless-steel frame with a red angled canopy, running beside a broad flight of granite stairs and ornate stone building facades. A pigeon stands on the pavement in the foreground

The naval power on display was a little intimidating…

Vigo's waterfront seen from the ship, with a replica wooden galleon flying flags moored beside two small traditional sailing boats in front of the long, low cruise terminal building. Behind them, the city climbs the hillside in tiers of white and pastel apartment blocks with red tile roofs, construction cranes, and a busy road with buses along the port

… but I decided to take my chances ashore anyway.

A bronze statue of a man in a suit carrying a suitcase, mid-stride, on the broad stone promenade along Vigo's waterfront, with a row of tall palm trees, sailboat masts in the marina, and silhouette cutouts of figures in long coats in the background. Tourists in shorts and t-shirts walk along the promenade under a mottled grey-and-blue sky

I didn’t have much of a plan for the day. I’m always up for an uphill walk or a fortress, though, and Spain has them in spades. For today I wandered my way up to Castelo do Castro; my fitness tracker showed this as a ~450 ft vertical ascent from the ship. The views were well worth the effort.

View from the O Castro park hillside in Vigo, looking past a gnarled umbrella pine over a railing and evergreen trees to a large white cruise ship berthed at the port below, its hull lettering partly visible, with the blue ría and the hills and towns of the far shore under a hazy sky

A sloping green lawn in Vigo's O Castro park shaded by tall cedars and pines, with a stone boulder in the grass and the base of the castle's angled stone wall at the right. The bay and a pale sky show through the trunks in the distance

An interpretive sign at the Castelo do Castro in Vigo headed 'O Castelo do Penso e a Ermida de Nosa Señora de O Castro,' with a historical map of the town, an aerial photograph of the star-shaped fortress, period portraits, and an illustration of a stone tower, set in front of a dry pond and rock garden

The grassy, landscaped top of the Castelo do Castro in Vigo, with a curving gravel path around a lawn, low stone ramparts and a small stone sentry box at the edge, and a visitor walking toward the parapet. The ría of Vigo and the mountains on the far side lie beyond under a broad sky of streaky white clouds

A low stone monument inside the Castelo do Castro in Vigo with large dark metal letters reading '1719 ASEDIO,' commemorating the siege, in front of a gravel courtyard enclosed by rough stone walls with an arched doorway, a cedar tree beyond, and a mottled sky overhead

A gravel path descending through O Castro park in Vigo under the long spreading branches of a cedar, with the white cruise ship and port buildings visible below and the ría and far hills beyond under an overcast sky

Looking down a steep, worn stone stairway with a metal handrail zigzagging through the wooded lower slope of O Castro park in Vigo, the dirt banks carpeted with fallen brown plane leaves between tall dark tree trunks. At the bottom, the stairs meet a street lined with bollards, a white delivery van, and a pale apartment block with graffiti on its shuttered ground floor and a 'Se Vende' sign

I took the long way back to the ship, wandering one of the main market streets.

A black hanging sign in gold script reading 'Cheers - Copas & Beer' with an Estrella Galicia logo, mounted on a grey granite apartment building in Vigo above a glass doorway. A graffiti-tagged roller shutter and a 'Vende - Galicia Capital' for-sale sign with a phone number are on the left, and the sidewalk runs downhill past a 'Discos, Libros, Outlet de Camisetas' sandwich board toward a street with parked cars under an overcast sky

A shop window in Vigo stacked with long slabs of handmade turrón on lit shelves, in white nougat studded with almonds and hazelnuts and in dark and milk chocolate topped with nuts and candied fruit, each labeled 'Turrón Artesano - Hecho a Mano' with its flavor. The glass reflects the ornate stone facade of a building across the street, and a planter of deep red skimmia buds fills the bottom of the frame

A street poster in Vigo for 'Im-Pulse Pink Floyd Tribute 2026' with the Dark Side of the Moon prism logo, listing shows on 24 Octubre 21:00h in Lugo at the Auditorio Gustavo Freire and 25 Octubre 20:00h in Vigo at Teatro A Fundación, pasted over a larger blue-and-white AFG photography exhibition poster

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 7

Lisbon, Portugal

  • Start of day: Lisbon, Portugal
  • End of day: At sea

Of the four ports on this voyage, Lisbon is the easiest one to do if you don’t want to book a shore excursion. Still, I wanted to get out into the country some and didn’t want to rent a car, so I booked a tour out to the coast and to the José Maria da Fonseca winery.

A tour group walking along a cobblestone street in Vila Nogueira de Azeitão beside the long whitewashed wall of the José Maria da Fonseca winery, its name spelled out in large gold letters decorated with painted tiles, under a tiled roofline and an overcast sky

Close-up of hand-painted Portuguese azulejo tiles at the José Maria da Fonseca winery, showing a cluster of blue grapes and green vine leaves on a white glazed background, framed by small blue-and-yellow floral motifs at the tile corners

A dim, spotlit cellar wall at the José Maria da Fonseca winery with an old barred wooden gate between two large round bronze plaques, the right one reading 'Moscatel de Setúbal,' the walls and gate darkened and furred with age and cellar mould

An aged wine cellar at the José Maria da Fonseca winery, with stacked oak barrels lining both sides, a long aisle of iron racks holding dusty bottles behind, cobwebs hanging from the ceiling, and a plain wooden table in the center lit by a single overhead lamp, holding a candlestick and a small decanter

A cobbled path leading through a rounded archway in a whitewashed wall with a yellow-trimmed tile coping into a shady garden at the José Maria da Fonseca estate, framed by leafy shrubs and trees, with fallen leaves scattered across the stones

Looking down into the José Maria da Fonseca wine shop, a whitewashed hall with dark exposed roof beams, crystal chandeliers, large painted barrel ends mounted on the walls, and wooden shelves and displays of wine. Tour group members browse below and gather in the foreground

Two ornate azulejo tile signs side by side at the José Maria da Fonseca winery, each topped with a yellow castle tower and ringed with the name 'José Maria da Fonseca' in a blue oval band, one reading 'Wine Shop' and the other 'Loja de Vinhos'

While the shore excursion was well-run and delivered on what was promised, it started me thinking there needs to be a published ratio of bus time to not bus time. We spent around 2.5 hours on the bus for this 4 hour excursion. That’s not a complaint, as it’s a necessary part of the trip, but I’d like to be able to filter for trips where there’s more doing.

After returning to the cruise terminal I walked around town near the ship, covering some of the same ground as our August trip.

A square of modern azulejo tile art set into a whitewashed gatepost marked '34A' in Lisbon, depicting a woman's face cradled in her hands, her skin and hands covered in blue-and-white traditional tile patterns against a black background, next to a green iron gate under a deep blue sky

This is a dog park:

An archaeological excavation area near the Castelo de São Jorge in Lisbon, with crumbling stone walls of old buildings, a dirt yard with wooden boardwalks and benches, wooden fencing with information panels, and tall cypress trees against a clear blue sky

I walked up the hill to Castelo de São Jorge. I decided to save it for a future visit when I’d have more time.

The ornate stone gateway leading to the Castelo de São Jorge in Lisbon, topped with a carved coat of arms, beside a high stone wall shaded by large trees. Visitors walk over the cobblestones toward the arch, and souvenir stalls under white umbrellas sell tiles and textiles along the wall

Two posters pasted on a graffiti-covered green door in Lisbon advertising 'Maria's Dog Walking Service,' one in English reading 'No time to walk?' and one in Portuguese reading 'Sem tempo para passear?', each with a close-up of a brown-and-white dog against a pink sunburst and a QR code

A narrow cobbled stairway descending between a white wall with an iron handrail and old tiled townhouses with wrought-iron balconies in Lisbon's Alfama, an iron street lamp arching over the alley, a leafy tree overhead, and a sliver of the Tagus visible at the bottom under a clear blue sky

And for the second time in as many months I found myself sailing under the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge.

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 8

Sea day

  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

It’s a sea day. Still too cool to be laying out on deck.

The ship's pool deck at dusk, with a lit blue pool lined with loungers, rolled white towels on a stand in the foreground, a large illuminated screen, radar domes and a mast at the top of the ship, and the big orange arch of the upper deck at the right, all set against a dramatic sky of dark clouds and an orange sunset over the Atlantic

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 9

Ponta Delgada, Azores

  • Start of day: Ponta Delgada, Azores
  • End of day: At sea

Some background

Early in my career, 1999-2000, I worked for Disney Cruise Line, first as a shoreside person and then as an officer living and working onboard the Disney Wonder. As part of that, I spent 5-6 weeks at the Fincantieri shipyard in Marghera, Italy, only a few miles away from Venice. Once the ship was done1, we sailed to Southampton in England for the christening hoopla, and then from there we started to make our way across the Atlantic to Port Canaveral. Along the way, we had an afternoon stop in Ponta Delgada, Azores.

An older, low-resolution photo of the Disney Wonder, a Disney Cruise Line ship with a black hull, white superstructure, and two red funnels docked along the Ponta Delgada waterfront, seen across a parking lot of small European cars under a clear blue sky, with a red cargo ship farther along the quay and a leafy tree at right
Disney Wonder in Ponta Delgada, 1999, prior to maiden voyage

Too much time has passed and I don’t remember a lot about this stop. At that point all of my international travel consisted of one or two trips to Toronto, and the preceding 5-6 weeks in Italy – which barely counts, as I was living and working in the shipyard most of the time. What I do remember is Ponta Delgada’s interesting architecture, and that the city was a little gritty and hectic.

An older photo of a young woman in a white top, jean shorts, and an open patterned shirt posing with arms outstretched in front of the Portas da Cidade, Ponta Delgada's three white-and-black basalt arched city gates topped with a crown, on a plaza paved in black-and-white calçada patterns, with leafy trees and a few parked cars behind the arches under an overcast sky

An older photo of a narrow cobbled pedestrian street in central Ponta Delgada, busy with shoppers and lined with white buildings trimmed in dark volcanic stone, wrought-iron balconies, hanging shop signs, and old-fashioned street lamps. In the foreground, men in short sleeves stand chatting at the corner of a cobblestone road, beside a white Mercedes taxi and a small silver hatchback

When I saw this standee in a mall I had to get a photo:

An older photo of the author, younger, in a navy-and-white striped polo and khakis, arms crossed and smiling beside a life-size cardboard cutout of Mr. Bean in a grey tweed jacket and red tie holding a Fujifilm camera box, inside a bright photo shop. A green Fujifilm poster behind them reads 'GANHE! 3 automóveis Minicooper,' with glass display cases and the shop name 'Ana Nó...' partly visible

Otherwise, the rest of that day was drinks and then dinner with three friends from the ship.

Present day

I booked an excursion for the afternoon. In the morning I headed off the ship shortly after arrival, intending to get my steps in and see a lot more of the town than on my first visit.

Many of the sidewalks have interesting textures:

My obligatory visit to the local farmers market (moo):

A life-size white fiberglass cow with black patches standing inside the Mercado da Graça in Ponta Delgada, a large open market hall with a high black steel roof frame. Stacks of crates hold pineapples beside it, with vendor stalls of fruit and vegetables and hanging banners in the background

A hot tub store:

A building in Ponta Delgada painted with a tropical mural of a couple relaxing in a hot tub surrounded by palm leaves, hydrangeas, and a waterfall, above a shop window displaying spa equipment, at a street corner with a pedestrian crossing and a no-parking sign

I ducked into a coffee shop when it started to drizzle.

An espresso in a white cup and saucer on a wooden café table next to a glass ashtray, looking out through the window at a quiet paved plaza in Ponta Delgada lined with white apartment blocks painted with bright blue and yellow panels under an overcast sky

I thought the rain had passed when I left the coffee shop and started making my way back to the ship, but it very much had NOT. I walked for 10 or 15 minutes in a heavy drizzle, annoyed but thankful the weather wasn’t colder.

Naturally the rain let up right as I was nearing the ship.

A whitewashed curved wall on the Ponta Delgada waterfront painted with a red heart on a green stem inside a grey frame, with orange and green brushstrokes trailing behind it, beside a wet street with parked cars and the cruise ship and port cranes visible in the distance under a grey sky

I boarded, had a free lunch onboard, then left again for my 4.5 hour shore excursion.

Shore Excursion

The weather was foggy with spitting rain, hard at times. Again, thankful it wasn’t cold rain. Our first stop was Lagoa do Fogo, a crater lake a ~45 minute ride from the cruise port. Here’s my photo:

Lagoa do Fogo, the crater lake on São Miguel, seen from a roadside viewpoint as mist rolls over the caldera, with the lake curving around a forested peninsula below steep green slopes, small conifers dotting the hillside, and a strip of wet grass and red earth in the foreground

… and one by Veloso Patacas (via Wikimedia Commons) showing what it looks like on a clear day.

Lagoa do Fogo on a clear day, a large blue crater lake curving around a forested peninsula inside a ring of steep green volcanic slopes, with the Atlantic visible through a gap in the crater rim, bright white clouds overhead, and yellow wildflowers in the foreground
Lagoa do Fogo on a clear day. Photo: Veloso Patacas, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized)

Our next stop was Caldeira Velha, a protected national monument and geothermal reserve that, frankly, looks a lot like Hawai’i to me. With the moody foggy rain and the hot thermal pools, it was killing me that I wasn’t equipped for bathing.

A wet cobblestone path at Caldeira Velha on São Miguel winding through lush green forest beneath towering tree ferns, edged by a mossy bank on the left and a low wooden rail on the right, under a grey, misty sky

The entrance to Caldeira Velha on São Miguel, with the name in rust-colored metal letters on a dark volcanic stone wall framed by large leaves, beside a tall metal gate through which visitors are walking along a red path into the misty forest

Our final stop was the Gorreana tea plantation, Europe’s oldest. We sped through the factory part of the tour here so that we could have more time for tea and pineapple cake in the tasting room.

A red wooden bench against a white wall under red-framed multi-paned windows at the Gorreana tea factory, with old factory machinery visible through the glass on the left and an interior room on the right. A bottle and a glass of dark tea sit on the floor at the bench's end

A wooden arrow sign reading 'Plantação de Chá' pointing into the neat rows of tea bushes at the Gorreana plantation on São Miguel, which roll down green hills toward the sea, with a small headland and the ocean on the horizon under a heavy grey sky

A hand-painted azulejo tile panel on a white wall at Gorreana, showing a woman in a straw hat and yellow dress carrying a basket through tea bushes beside a steaming cup of tea, with the words 'Fabricante Fernando Hintze' and 'Chá Gorreana - S. Miguel - Açores'

Note to self for next time: rent a car and tour on your own. The roads and signs are good, there’s not a lot of traffic outside of Ponta Delgada, and Portugal drives on the right-hand side of the road. I believe there are car rental agencies right on the cruise pier. Book ahead online for Caldeira Velha.

Footnotes:

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

  1. OK so the ship isn’t “done” when you sail away from the shipyard, but there’s a schedule so off you go. ↩

Transatlantic Crossing Day 10

Sea day

  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

A windy day at sea.

View aft from a balcony on the Celebrity Apex, looking over a glass-paneled railing with a dark wooden handrail at the ship's long white wake trailing across a deep blue Atlantic under a bright blue sky with thin clouds. In the foreground, an orange life ring stenciled 'Celebrity Apex' and 'Valletta' hangs on a white post beside a green life-ring sign and a yellow-topped marker light, with the edge of a grey balcony chair at left

On sea days they open the Eden Cafe, which I enjoy for their Build Your Own salads and the outdoor sitting area:

Lunch at a grey outdoor table on a shaded deck, with a white enamel bowl of green salad topped with cherry tomatoes, black beans, red onion, and yellow pepper, a small orange dish of butter, steel salt and pepper shakers, a rolled green napkin, and a closed dark laptop. White sail-like shade canopies stretch overhead, white woven lounge chairs line the teak deck, a man in a blue shirt sits at a table further along, and open ocean is visible past the glass railing at right

I dined at the solo travelers’ table in the evening and treated myself to the Coquilles Saint-Jacques, a favorite from our August cruise.

Close-up of a cream dinner menu headed 'Normandie' in widely spaced capitals, with a 'Starters' section listing a terrine and radish carpaccio with pickles, grain Dijon mustard, and petit mache salad; Coquilles Saint-Jacques with Pinot Blanc sauce, crème fraiche, Gruyere, and crispy breadcrumb, marked with an asterisk; and baked Brie cheese with caramelized apples and port wine syrup, marked with a leaf symbol. The heading of the next section, 'Tuscan,' is cut off at the bottom

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 11

Sea day

  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

Another lazy day at sea, starting with a wicked rainstorm first thing in the morning.

Here we are somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic.

A stateroom television showing the ship's voyage map of the North Atlantic, with a green track line running from Southampton down past Vigo and Lisbon, west to Ponta Delgada in the Azores, and on to a circled ship icon in mid-ocean on the way to Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda, with Port Canaveral marked further west. A status bar along the bottom shows the time in UTC-02:00 and 'Total cruise distance sailed: 2552 nm'

For dinner, four of us from the solo travelers group decided to peel off and try the Fine Cut Steakhouse. It was great! Not only was it a nice change of pace from main dining, but the food and service really did feel elevated. I’ll spare you from all the low light food photos of my crabcakes and Filet Mignon but I have to include the cheesecake:

A wedge of New York-style cheesecake on a graham cracker crust, topped with a dollop of whipped cream and a halved strawberry and drizzled with glossy strawberry sauce that pools on a large white plate, set on a dark wooden table with woven placemats, a wine glass, and another dessert plate in the background under dim dinner lighting

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 12

Sea day

  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

The ship was rocking! There was a lot of front-to-back movement (where you feel heavy for a few seconds and then light for a few seconds, over and over) as well as side-to-side sway. This being the third sea day in a row with a fair bit of motion I think my brain was over it. I was drowsy much of the day.

I tried to capture the ship motion. It’s no easy thing.

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 13

Sea day

  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

The last of four sea days in a row. We arrive in Bermuda tomorrow.

For no reason, here are two photos from the buffet:

A tiered display of condiments on a granite counter at the ship's buffet, including bottles of A1 steak sauce, HP Sauce, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, De Nigris vinegar, soy sauce, several bottles of OG Shack mango habanero hot sauce, Kühne Dijon mustard, Duerr's mint sauce, and a jar of Fromage Ami fig spread, with wooden stirrers in a cup at right and the bright buffet hall blurred behind the sneeze guard

A wide view of the ship's bright buffet hall at breakfast, with light wood-paneled ceilings, recessed lighting, and tiled floors leading to floor-to-ceiling windows. Passengers in shorts and casual shirts browse wood-clad serving islands under glass sneeze guards, one man carries a plate, and a couple walks between the stations

And a place I found to read my book – Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David – The Definitive Authorized Biography of Seinfeld’s Legendary Co-Creator by Blake J. Harris (Quick review: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Reading a Kindle in a quiet ship lounge, with bare legs crossed beside a round white marble side table. A long cream crushed-velvet banquette with navy bolster cushions wraps around a wall of dark navy upholstered panels, cream armchairs are grouped around more marble tables, and a potted plant stands by a wood-clad column under a curved cream ceiling

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 14

Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda

  • Start of day: Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda
  • End of day: At sea

Land ho! Bermuda!

We were here in Bermuda, at the Royal Naval Dockyard, just last year aboard the Celebrity Silhouette with my parents. For that cruise we docked on a Wednesday and stayed until Friday, overnighting 2 nights. This would be a one day visit, with overcast skies all day threatening rain, and sustained winds above 20 knots. I didn’t have an excursion planned for today and heard that several were canceled.

Here’s us traversing the channels to get to the port.

Early morning on the stateroom balcony as the ship approaches Bermuda, with a white Lavazza coffee mug and a teal-covered Kindle on a glass-topped table that reflects the clouds. Beyond the glass railing, calm grey-blue water stretches to a low line of land on the horizon under a sky of scattered cumulus clouds lit pale gold near the horizon

This is the Commissioner’s House at the National Museum of Bermuda, a museum I highly recommend, having visited on my last trip here. They even cover the history of electricity in Bermuda, which I found interesting.

The Commissioner's House at the National Museum of Bermuda, a two-story building with wraparound cast-iron verandas and a white roof, standing on a grassy rise behind massive grey limestone fortification walls that drop to turquoise water. Old cannons sit along the ramparts, a black iron railing runs across the foreground, and the sky is heavy with grey clouds

George, one of my fellow solo travelers, recommended this mini golf course. I didn’t play but I did happen to run into him and Andrew (another solo) while they were heading over there.

A sign zip-tied to a chain-link fence reading 'World's Best Mini Golf Course, Here in Dockyard' above the Bermuda Fun Golf Dockyard logo and an aerial photo of the course with a red path winding through green putting holes beside the sea. The bottom lists 'Open 10am - 10pm, 7 days a week' with TripAdvisor and Best of Bermuda award logos, and a red 'We're Open' sign and palm fronds show above

I missed it!

A poster set into an arched recess in a pale limestone wall advertising 'Jungfrau OKFEST, October 4, 10, 16 & 21' with Dockyard Brewing Co. and Bermuda tourism logos, an illustrated blonde woman with braided hair holding four mugs of beer in front of pretzels and sausages, and a banner reading 'Free admission to Valiant Lady passengers.' Below, a black sign with a pointing hand reads '100 meters ahead,' with rust stains streaking the stone and a strip of green lawn in front

The inside of a red telephone box completely covered in hundreds of stickers from travelers, breweries, bands, and businesses, including 'The Clay Universe,' 'Castaways,' 'I Know Tom,' 'CZIG,' and 'Hootenanny 2022,' surrounding a working stainless-steel payphone whose black handset is wrapped in an 'All Points Marine' sticker. Red-framed glass panes of the box's door are visible at right

I asked Claude which Bermuda fish chowder people rated the highest in the Royal Naval Dockyard area, and it said to go to The Frog & Onion. It was good!

A bowl of Bermuda fish chowder, rich and reddish-brown with flecks of fish, tomato, and herbs, with a spoon in it, served on a white saucer with a crusty white bread roll, on a dark slate bar top at the Frog & Onion Pub, with a pub coaster bearing the Frog & Onion logo beside it and a wrapped set of cutlery on a plate at upper right

I sat on the pirate ship on the pier for a few minutes in the wind.

Then walked around some more capturing photos.

Red hibiscus blooms and bright green leaves in sharp focus in the foreground of a garden at Dockyard, with palm fronds hanging overhead and the blurred limestone walls, shuttered windows, and chimneys of the old naval buildings around a lawn in the background under an overcast sky

These little EVs are cute, though at the price point I’d probably rent something else.

A row of three tiny two-seat XEV Yoyo electric rental cars from Current, two lime green and one navy with a lime-green door panel and the Current logo and phone number 441-296-8949, plugged into white charging posts in a parking lot. Behind them stand tall palms, yacht masts in the marina, and a two-story limestone warehouse with a Current sign over its door, under a cloudy grey sky

Rear view of a small blue-grey XEV Yoyo Pro electric car with a lime-green door panel and lime trim around the rear bumper, Bermuda rental plate RMC413, parked in a marked bay in front of a towering cut-limestone cliff streaked with ferns and moss. Pink 'Current Reserved Parking' signs are posted on the rock, and a charging cable runs from a post beside the car

A white A-frame sandwich board on asphalt advertising Current electric car rentals, with a yellow arrow and the Current logo on a magenta background above illustrations of the XEV Yoyo Pro at $190 per day and the XEV Yoyo at $175 per day, each with range and feature notes, and the tagline 'Explore Bermuda in style with the lowest rental rates in Dockyard.' Two people walk away across the parking area behind it

Somehow the rain held off all day until a few minutes after we cast off ropes! And then it rained, and it rained, and it rained.

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 15

Sea day

  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

The day of rain.

First off, I can’t stand these wet, rehydrated eggs. It’s such a rare miss for a buffet that otherwise has stellar food morning, noon, and night.

A deep stainless-steel hotel pan heaped with fluffy yellow scrambled eggs at the breakfast buffet, with a serving spoon resting in one corner and the steel counters of the buffet line blurred behind a glass sneeze guard
The wettest eggs on the Seven Seas!

Instead I ended up in the Eggs Made to Order line every day to get eggs I can eat with a fork not a spoon.

It rained in the morning.

It rained during lunch.

Two slices of thin-crust pizza on a small white plate, one topped with diced fresh tomato and the other with black olives, on a white table in the ship's buffet dining room, with rows of pale curved chairs, warm wall sconces, and recessed ceiling lights stretching toward rain-streaked windows at right

It rained in the afternoon.

Reading a Kindle with bare feet propped up on a small white side table on a covered balcony, beside a grey woven chair. A large rounded window opening is beaded with raindrops and looks out on rain pooling on a blue-painted deck ledge and a grey, fog-shrouded sea

The outside temperature was warm on this second half of the trip so it was a shame to lose a whole day to rain. Unavoidable, but still.

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 16

Sea day

  • Start of day: At sea
  • End of day: At sea

Another sea day. The last full day of this cruise across the Atlantic.

Looking forward along an upper-deck promenade at sunset, with a polished wooden handrail and glass railing on the left above a glittering, choppy sea, and a curved wood-clad bar wall on the right beneath stacked black sunshade louvres. The low sun breaks through scattered clouds in a blue sky, casting long rays and shadows across the teal-and-wood deck toward a white radar dome in the distance

A wide view off the side of the ship at sunset, with the sun low over the open Atlantic behind banks of puffy white and grey clouds, its light glittering across dark blue water. A curving wooden handrail and glass panels run along the deck edge toward the bow, with a covered outdoor bar and radar domes on the right

Inside the Magic Carpet, the ship's orange cantilevered open-air lounge, under a curved translucent canopy with orange ribs, with an open laptop in the foreground on a white bar counter. Passengers relax in wicker armchairs and on a striped-cushion banquette facing tall windows and glass railings that look out over the open sea and a sky of soft sunset clouds

The ship's Solarium at night, an indoor pool area under a white geodesic glass dome with recessed lights, with an empty blue-lit pool and hot tub, a 'Solarium' sign, and rows of navy-cushioned loungers on a tiled floor. A large wall sculpture of shimmering blue fish-scale panels rises behind the hot tub, and tall white columns line the windows at the back

The worst night of them all:

A long stateroom corridor on the last night of the cruise, with tagged suitcases set outside cabin doors for overnight collection: a navy Samsonite and an olive bag in the foreground, a silver hard-shell case and a laden luggage cart farther down, under green emergency exit signs and over grey carpet with a red-and-grey geometric pattern

See you in the morning.

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

Transatlantic Crossing Day 17

The end, Orlando and Raleigh

  • Start of day: Port Canaveral, Florida
  • End of day: Home in North Carolina

Our final accounting is 4,693 nautical miles.

A stateroom television showing the Celebrity Cruises bridge-camera channel before dawn, with a grey-toned view over the ship's bow toward the lights of Port Canaveral. The sidebar reads Position 28°24.93´ N, 080°37.53´ W, Speed 0.0 kts, Course 180°, and the bottom bar reads 'Saturday, October 31, 2026 06:54 (UTC-04:00)' and 'Total cruise distance sailed: 4693 nm'

This is a pretty crazy view to wake up to, tbh.

Port Canaveral before dawn, seen from the ship's deck, with a brightly lit Disney Cruise Line ship with red funnels glowing purple and pink across the dark water on the left, and the stern of the Carnival Vista, registered in Panama, with 'Choose Fun' in blue letters, docked at the terminal on the right

Looking out from the stateroom through the sliding glass door and the veranda's large round porthole cutout before dawn, framing the illuminated Disney ship and the stern of the Carnival Vista across the harbor, their lights reflected in the rain-flecked glass and the wet blue veranda floor

I didn’t sleep well – I never do the night before disembark. I walked around on this last morning, had a light breakfast, and snapped some photos.

I had this excellent view of (one of?) Blue Origin’s landing platform barges. a SpaceX vessel was docked next to it.

Blue Origin's landing platform vessel Jacklyn moored at Port Canaveral at sunrise, seen from high above on the ship: a long flat black-hulled barge with white-and-blue deckhouses at each end lettered 'Blue Origin' and 'Jacklyn,' and a round landing fixture at the center of the deck, beside a quay with a large crane, a parking lot, and a causeway under a pink and gold sky

An empty upper pool deck at sunrise in Port Canaveral, with stacked grey loungers on wet teak decking, a curved wood-clad wall on the left, a decorative metal screen, and a glass railing looking out over the water and the flat Florida coastline under streaks of pink cloud

Sometimes self-service walk-off is a madhouse and sometimes it’s like this:

Passengers disembarking along a covered outdoor promenade deck, walking past the hulls of the ship's lifeboats lettered 'Apex' on the left and a navy-blue wall with porthole doors and a security camera on the right. Travelers carry backpacks and roll a suitcase toward an exit marked with a green '3' sign

One of the most recognizable atriums in the world, I feel.

The soaring central atrium of Orlando International Airport under a glass and white steel skylight, with the Hyatt Regency hotel's tiered balconies rising on all sides, palm trees and potted plants around a plaza of wooden benches, a fountain spraying in the foreground, and travelers sitting and walking across a floor inlaid with blue and cream curved stripes

Same with the carpet.

A close-up of the patterned airport carpet at Orlando International Airport, a dark teal background with rows of stylized cream, tan, and rust-red plant stems and leaves

I arrived at the airport around 9:30am and by the time I was settled in at the Delta Sky Club at the B terminal it was around 10:00am. I had (another) light breakfast, then received a notification at 10:22 that my bag had been loaded – onto a flight that wasn’t mine and left in about 30 minutes. I travel a fair bit but this was the first time my bag was expedited; I was firmly operating under the belief your bag traveled with you.1 This opened up an opportunity: if my bag was already gone, could I fly standby? It’s Orlando to Atlanta, there are tons of flights. By the time I made it to the gate for this flight they were already done, but I could standby for the noon flight. OK.

I knew the seat wouldn’t be great, and it wasn’t (37A), though it allowed me to make it to Atlanta 45 minutes earlier.

The economy cabin of a Delta jet during boarding at Orlando, looking forward from row 36 over blue leather seats with seatback screens showing seat numbers 36A and 36B and a Delta and Porsche ad, with overhead bins, reading lights glowing blue, and a passenger in a brown leather jacket standing in the aisle

Once in Atlanta I walked all the way from the very end of Terminal D over to Terminal T, avoiding trains and moving sidewalks. It’s a time-tested way to lock in at least a mile of steps.

The lounge was basically at my gate, T6. Note for future travel this lounge doesn’t have stairs, so plan a little extra time queueing for the elevator down when it’s time to leave.

The entrance to a Delta Sky Club at Atlanta's airport, with a wood-paneled wall holding a screen that lists club hours as daily 4:30AM to 9:00PM and directs guests to the A17 Sky Club open until 10:00PM, beside a tall banner advertising Delta SkyMiles Reserve American Express card benefits and a menu stand

Looking through the glass doors into the lobby of a Delta Sky Club in Atlanta, with a curving corridor under a blue-lit cove ceiling, a wood-paneled 'Sky Club' wall behind a check-in podium staffed by an agent, departure screens, and white self-service kiosks on a grey carpet

The flight was fine. The bonus of my bag being expedited was that it was waiting for me as soon as I stepped off the plane. I appreciated not having to wait those extra 5-15 minutes.

I made it home right as Halloween trick or treating was kicking off.

End of trip.

Footnotes:

Part of the Transatlantic Crossing 2026 trip.

  1. I checked with an airlines person I know and they said the person-travels-with-bag rule is more for international flights and that domestic bags might be expedited to ensure the bags make their connections. ↩