And now to Athens! Where our heroes will test their long-held belief that they are not cruise people.

When I tried to check in to the flight the night before, the app wouldn’t let me, and told me to see an agent. I didn’t worry, because it is often the case with international flights… documents must be seen in person.

But when we got to the airport, it turned out that our tickets weren’t valid.

As part of our trepidation about taking a cruise, we sought advice and booked through a travel agent instead of just doing it all online like we’ve been doing for this entire century. Never again.

But whether or not they are cruise people, our heroes are people who like to be at the airport very early. So we had plenty of time to call the travel agent in NZ, be shunted to the person who had the after hours computer, frantically exchange texts and screenshots, return to the check-in line, fight with airport wi-fi, etc. And finally admit defeat (unlike the travel agent who still maintains they did everything correctly).

And so, with just over an hour to go, I pulled out my trusty AmEx and bought new passage on the same flights… for the low low price of a car, two college educations, and a purebred Portuguese water dog.

We got there. But the suitcase didn’t. The New York Times knew all of this somehow, and put “baggage claim” in the Connections puzzle just to taunt us. We were impressed with their thoroughness but didn’t find it particularly amusing.