We were up with an alarm at 6am. There was a beautiful big
orange-red full moon low on the horizon as we neared New York Harbor. We were
both out on deck 13 before 6:45am as requested. It was a spectacular sail in.
Under the Verrazano Narrows bridge and around the corner. There on the
starboard side was Lower Manhattan and the new WTC Tower and on the port was
the Statue of Liberty. Soon we were all waving to the NBC helicopter as it
circled us. The water cannon/fireboat had a technical problem and was canceled.
The captain spun the ship around we thought as we passed the Intrepid Museum
and we thought he was going to back in so he’d be nose out for a quick getaway
tomorrow, but we came in nose first anyway. We were having breakfast at the
back of Lido at the time so we saw everything from the rear by then. We are docked
on the port side and have a view of a parking lot. The starboard side has a
view of the USS Intrepid.
Yesterday evening, we came back to what must be final bed
gifts. There were 2 giant maps of our route, but they must have been printed
earlier because they didn’t reflect our sail inside the Gulf of St. Lawrence
inside Newfoundland passage that we actually took. But, the best was that they
gave each of us a set of embroidered patches for every maiden call we made on
this Inaugural North West Passage. I’m glad because I had only bought one of
the Nunavut flag! Last night we went to the computer center and bought 2 VIP
Passes at $60 to visit the 86th Floor outdoor observatory without
lines to The Empire State Building. Clay has wanted to do this since “Sleepless
in Seattle” and neither of us had done it before. They didn’t have the lines
fully populated but we saved a lot of line time anyway. We went around 2 or 3
full times and when we came down and out of the gift shop the woman in front of
me for the bag x-ray and metal detector was still in line for the elevators to
the 86th floor! So, I guess money well spent.
I had found instructions for the subway to The Empire State
Building and Clay said he could do that with his phone, but this morning he
said he wanted to take a taxi and walk to the Guggenheim after on the way back
to the ship. I shot that down since the Guggenheim is nowhere near. When I was
out of the bathroom ready to go, he had checked and admitted I was right and it
was a bad plan. Since we could overlook the Intrepid Museum next door to our
dock on the starboard side, I had already suggested we go there since it was an
easy walk and I thought that was what we’d do. He agreed as long as we walked
back. I didn’t understand not using the subway, but he wasn’t having it. We had
a nightmarish 20 minutes in a taxi. It was only saved by the fact that the guy
knew he screwed up and at some point turned off the meter. That and the fact he
had NBC on the TV in back and we got to see Serenity sailing in!
We got off the ship at about 9:30am. We got to the Empire
State Building about 10am. We left about 11:30am. We started walking back and I
was checking You Are Here and Here’s What’s Nearby street maps every block.
Clay asked what I was looking for and I said to see if there is somewhere we
should go that is in our path. Like what? Maybe lunch. Clay said he wanted a
slice. I pointed out that Spinelli’s Pizza was around the next corner towards
Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. He checked Google which did not have
Spinelli’s. It had 2 Little Italy’s in the next block over. I turned the corner
and we found Spinelli’s about 2 doors down. It was very good. 2 large pepperoni
slices for $3.50 each. We enjoyed the experience and they had seats and
fountain sodas. Refueled we walked on down 7th Avenue towards Times
Square. We walked through a fashion district walk of fame and found some public
art devoted to sewing and textiles. We turned on 47th and walked to
the Hudson River through Hell’s Kitchen. WE got to the USS Intrepid Sea, Air
& Space Museum at 12:34pm. We paid for General Admission plus the Space
Shuttle. Clay made the decision what tickets. I had argued to go today because
the Star Trek 50th special exhibit was leaving the end of October
and we won’t be back until Thanksgiving. But, we didn’t go in anyway. The good
news is that under the space shuttle Enterprise was the Galileo shuttlecraft
from the Star Trek TV series. A case of life imitating art imitating life…
We came back to Serenity about 3pm and went for ice ceam at
Scoops which we ate reclining on the pool deck. A lot of people are leaving
today. We saw Ron Chapple, the Cineflex operator, all packed up and leaving as
we returned as well as a lot of crew coming and going. We’ll be going ourselves
first thing tomorrow morning. We did some more packing this afternoon where the
extent of Clay’s overpacking became evident. I have actually thrown a lot of my
stuff away as we’ve gone because I packed knowing I was freeing space for
things coming back and getting rid of old things or using things up. It seems
even with the 2 big expandable bags expanded that we’ll have to pack the duffel
bag I brought as an extra bag. Good news is that we are still well within our
Amtrak luggage allowances and we should still be able to handle it all on our
own. I say that. I hope that is true. We’ll find out tomorrow.
We have dinner at Prego tonight and no other plans for the
evening beyond finishing up packing and putting our bags out between 8pm and 11pm.
I’ll end here then. It has been a great trip. I’m so glad we decided to do it and
that we cleared the waitlist and got to do it!
