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The cruise we’re going on did not provide any of the airfare for the trip. But, they did provide a limo to the airport. A bit strange to not do the airline, but whatever.
We normally don’t take rides to the airport, but parking there is very expensive, so why not?

It was nice enough not to drive through the morning traffic. The driver was very nice and got us there with plenty of time.
Sadly, our flight was delayed, but that’s not uncommon in winter.

I had asked for a window seat going to Atlanta, but got one of those “it’s not a door anymore” kind of things. Given the door plug that fell out on that plane 2 weeks ago, the pilot of the plane came back to explain it wasn’t that kind of thing and I shouldn’t be worried.
I was sad I didn’t get a window, but that’s about it.

We had a three hour layover in Atlanta, so walked from terminal B to E. I’ve never flown internationally from Atlanta before, so had never been to terminal E. It’s laid out a bit differently than the others, but we did manage to get some dinner and find our gate.

Everyone was happy when they announced that the flight to Cape Town was only going to be 13 hours 55 minutes as there were favorable winds. That’s more than 1/2 hour faster that scheduled.
But, still a very long flight.

And, in the row behind us, three kids under the age of 5.
They shouted. The screamed. They cried.
All flight long.
And, for some reason their mother had an alarm that went off once an hour. Don’t know why.
Noise cancelling headphones help. But, only so much.
It was still better than the flight from Doha to Melbourne 7 years ago…

Sadly we were in the center of the plane, so I didn’t get to look out the window. The folks to my left did have theirs open so I got to see some, but not get photos.

For some reason, they served us breakfast just before we landed, even though when we landed it was 6 in the evening. Very strange.

We landed in Cape Town and the plane parked out in the area behind the gate and they bussed folks over to the terminal for immigrations. It was a long line, but went fast.

The hotel we stayed at is by the airport and we got their shuttle here fairly quickly.
I had some dinner, my wife went right to sleep.

Today we fly to the other side of South Africa where tomorrow we’ll get on the ship.

It is exciting to be in Africa. This makes our 7th continent out of 7.