New Journey

Today is the day.  I will be flying today (and tomorrow) to get to Hong Kong to start my new contract.  My wife and I have known about our upcoming contract for a couple of months now.  She's already rehearsing with her new cast of singers and dancers.  For the past few weeks I have been taking care of all my paperwork (new Chinese visa, medical, etc.).  I was in the middle of my last minute packing last night when I saw an email come in from Delta.  I had already taken advantage of online check-in earlier in the day so I was ready to go.  I was flying from Cincinnati to Atlanta to Tokyo to Hong Kong.  The email indicated a scheduled delay on the Atlanta to Tokyo flight which would have only given me 40 minutes in Narita airport to get to my connecting flight.  In Japan, if you are just passing through luckily you do not have to claim your bags and go through customs and immigration, but you do have to pass through the transit passenger line and go through security again.  40 minutes would not be enough time.  So I called Delta and they were quickly able to change my flights and I was even given better seats on my new flights.  I will be going through Detroit now instead of Atlanta and will even pick up the exact same Tokyo to Hong Kong flight.

I'm hoping that is the only glitch in the travel day(s).  I've learned to be as flexible as possible because anything can happen.  The timing still works out, my new first flight leaves 10 minutes later and I will still be getting to Hong Kong at the originally scheduled time.  I will arrive in Hong Kong after 11pm, will head to the hotel to get a couple of hours sleep and then get up in the morning to sign onto the ship.  It feels a little like the first day of school as I will be in a new environment and will be meeting a lot of new people.

The first few days onboard the ship are usually busy, but I will do my best to update from the ship.  It's also a crazy time of adjustment, probably the part I'm least looking forward to.  I leave today, Sunday, at 10am Eastern time and will arrive in Hong Kong after 11pm local time on Monday.  It's over 24 hours of travel time and then throw in the time differences, going across the International Dateline, and on the clock it will look like 37 hours.  Add in getting just a few hours of sleep, waking up early to sign on the ship, and then it's a full day of meetings, followed by work.  I don't typically sleep well on planes so it can sometimes make for a rough beginning.  I'm just hoping jet lag doesn't hit me too hard because I don't have time for it.  Crewmembers really hit the ground running right at the beginning of their contracts.

It's time to close up the laptop and say goodbye to the world of high-speed internet.  Ship internet is slow and can be expensive, but I am looking forward to continuing to write on the new adventure.