New York & beyond

Day 75 - 14 August - New York
DISASTER!  Somewhere between a New York yellow cab and the ship, I lost my tablet.  I am thankful that I'd posted the update to Halifax, but I will have to try and recollect what gems I had recorded on our sea day yesterday.  The real pain of loosing the tablet is that it had all sorts of travel "stuff"on it and various applications I use, which were not on Vivian's tablet - which thankfully I am now using.  Enough of self pity and back to the blog.

Yesterday was, as I have just said, a sea day.  It was a warm, but once again partially cloudy/foggy day.  As usual, Princess treated the day as the end of the cruise, so it was pretty uneventful.  

Today we actually berthed around 1.30am, but of course couldn't get off until we'd been through US Immigration.  Our early arrival is supposedly due to strong tidal flows in the Hudson river and the need to berth at slack tide.  Uhmm, funny that an Oceania ship berthed adjacent just after 7.00, so I reckon it was more that they couldn't handle 2 ships around the same time.   

We were scheduled to get off at 9.15, but we still had breakfast and made it through Immigration with ease well before 9.00. We have 2 days in New York and I had planned a couple of things - first we walked down to 34th street and walked the High Line.  This was the old elevated railway line through the meat packers district, which has been paved & planted out.  An interesting walk with hundreds (& hundreds) of others.  I think we were just about the only English speaking people - although this applied pretty well all day.  New York not only attracts thousands of visitors, but is hugely multicultural. 

When we came down from the line it was time for a coffee.  The first place we called at only had filter coffee but did recommend a cafe just down the road.  A great recommendation.  They actually had Flat Whites and a great blueberry muffin & scone.  Fuelled up we just walked outside & hailed a cab down to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.  The ferries are free (yes, Free) and run every half hour and more frequently in peak hours.  The popularity of the ferry is that we sail past the Statue of Liberty - so lots of clicks.

Everyone has to disembark when we reach Staten Island, so we thought we'd take a wander around and were suitably unimpressed.  Dirty & unkempt all around.  Even their 9/11 memorial was a disgrace.  Needless to say that we headed back to the terminal for the return ferry pretty quickly.  This was the 1.30 sailing and was considerably less crowded than the 12.00 one over.  The weather was warm and slightly cloudy, but not the showers that we were prepared for.

From Staten Island

A friendly fish in the terminal

A ferry!

Back on Manhatten, yet another cab all the way up to Metropolitan Museum, adjacent to Central Park.  It too was absolutely crowded.  As I commented with Halifax, it is summer holidays over here, so plenty of children and young people about.  We were enjoying the museum and were up on the 2nd floor,  which has a huge glass roof, when a great crash & flash and yes, that predicted rain arrived with a vengeance.   Fortunately, as a thunder storm, it moved off quickly, so by the time we exited the sun was back out.

Caught our final cab back to the ship and that was the end of the happy day 😢.  Much of the day remaining was then spent trying to get some sort of system out the chaos that I'd created.  

Day 76 - 15 August - New York
A hot day is predicted, so straight after breakfast we headed up to Times Square, which while not *so* chaotic as last time we were here (a weekend) it was crowded.  Just people-watched as we eventually wandered down to Macys, 10? blocks away.  Didn't shop and I don't think that Vivian was overly impressed.  Headed back looking for a coffee, but most, particularly the chain ones were hugely overcrowded and certainly no seating.

Found a small one on the shady (no, I am actually talking about the sun here!) side.  But, they don't do porcelain cups, just takeouts.  Vivian has an aversion to paper cups and was set to leave, but I said that we really need a drink, so we parked ourselves on a stool by the window.  The next surprising thing was that as I went to pay it was "No, we don't take cash - just cards".  With the price of the coffee, clearly all the overheads are loaded anyway, but good for their security.

Got back onboard by 12.30 and spent the next hour trying to get Room Service to answer.  Yes, regular readers, the familiar "all the new Elites ......".   I am delighted to say that when we did get to order, and when the food and green tea arrived, it was very nice sitting out on the balcony overlooking New York for the last time.    

We were scheduled to depart at 4.00, but shortly after that time a clearly ruffled Captain made a cabinwide announcement that the "authorities" had denied permission for our departure.  While not pre-empting the reasons, our waiter last evening told us that all the crew (except officers) had been denied shore leave due to concerns of "ship jumping".  Update from later, rumour has it that yes, one of the caberet singers was involved, however as there are fewer "non elites", the laundry gossip is unverifiable! 

Waiting, waiting

We eventually sailed around 8.00 after the "administration issues" were resolved.  A real pity for many who had been looking forward to the sights during sail away,  as it was dark - but the lights were apparently brilliant.  I was so pleased that we'd got plenty of photos on our Staten Island trip, plus when were in New York before.  So we just carried on eating dinner - the MDR was noticeably quieter with many electing to stay outdoors.

Day 77 -16 August - at sea
Yeah, it's my birthday!  We are fair flying along at 22kts on a glorious sunny morning with the sea like a lake.  As a surprise, we have a "champagne" breakfast on our balcony.  Vivian had also invited Marilyn & Ray and although they brought some additional room service breakfast,  there was so much food ......  As I have said, brilliant sun shone all morning & somehow (don't ask me how) Vivian even arranged for not 1 but 2 pods of dolphins to swim by. 😊😊😊

The Captain has also joined  in my celebrations by declaring a formal night tonight.  Well I say that as I can't think of any other reason.  Sadly my bubble was burst as there were 3 of us with birthdays on the 2nd seating in the traditional dining room.  When you think of it, with almost 2,000 passengers,  there is an average of over 5 per day.  Although I much prefer my original theory.  A good day thanks Vivian & friends.