Aching To Escape the Heat

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Geo: 38.9821, -77.5386

We booked this trip way back in December of last year, after seeing a good cruise itinerary for the Baltics and given the availability of airline tickets for which I could use United Airlines miles. We booked with MSC Cruises, the same line we took to Norway two years ago, as well as for our Christmas cruise in 2013. We ended up booking the exact same ship we'd taken to Norway -- the MSC Musica.

When we were looking for cruises, I was glad to see that this Baltic sailing left from Copenhagen. It turns out the main departure point was Kiel, in Germany, from where roughly 90% of guests on this sailing would depart. MSC, however, allows smaller numbers of people to board at intermediate points, so we ended up being three of about 25 people who joined the cruise in Copenhagen. Our previous trip to Norway had departed Kiel, which meant we flew into Copenhagen and then had to deal with a long drive down to Kiel; this departure directly from Denmark was much preferable, and I was glad we booked as early as we did, as berths from Copenhagen sold out a few weeks after we confirmed our cabin.

The week leading up to our trip was oppressively hot in Virginia, and it was very hard for us to even think about packing warm clothes. Unlike previous trips, we were not leaving at the end of workday. In fact, our flight to Copenhagen did not leave until Saturday evening, so we didn't even have to pack until the day of departure, which meant far less stress. I noted earlier that we'd booked award tickets for this trip. We'd originally been slated to fly via Munich, but back in June, with the steep drop in oil prices, prices dropped and we ended up booking excellently priced nonstop flights to Copenhagen on SAS, which meant we could redeposit a significant number of airlines miles back into my account for use in the future.

With Chip safely ensconced with my parents down in Wintergreen, we loaded into a cab mid-afternoon on Saturday, and were on our way. We all had jackets or sweatshirts on when we left, in anticipation of a cold flight and cool temperatures when we arrived, so it felt very surreal walking to the cab and then into airport in near-100 degree heat.

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