At last – we arrive – to a frigid, freezing cold New York City. Ugh! 
We are set to dock at 9:00, and the captain, who is not loquacious in the least, has said he will tell us 1/2 hour before we will be passing the Statue of Liberty. We’ll see! He never tells us anything – just the basic weather report at 10AM and nothing else. Oh well. We are up really early, so we can see the sail in, but also because we couldn’t sleep for some reason.
So, we have time to go to the gym, shower and have breakfast – all before the Statue passing – which we will be able to watch from our balcony. We wander down to get our Immigration tickets and Bruce, as usual, takes care of us (one of the best Captain’s Club hosts in the fleet – soon to be a future cruise consultant – at which we have no doubt he will exceed). They’re operating this similar to tenders – you get a ticket with a number and leave the ship when it is called. We have been warned that the whole immigration process could take up to 5 hours – the ship has to have everyone off – zero out as it were – before anyone can reboard. We figure we should be good – we now have #3 tickets so we’ll leave quickly, wander, then come back mid-afternoon.
We go back to the room to get our winter gear and then head upstairs to try to get some good cityscape shots but the forward decks are all closed due to the winds. It’s crazy windy, freezing cold out there. The whole ship is in the Sky Lounge, so you can’t really see much. Even the gym windows are crowded – I tried to sneak out the gym door but it was locked as well. We manage to snap off a few shots – some great ones of the WTC 1 building which just opened – and the Empire State building - before the captain says in 20 minutes time we will pass the Statue.
We march down to the cabin – to get out of the wind – and hang out on the balcony snapping shots of the Liberty Lady. It’s a perfectly clear day – wonderful for photos – just not for uncovered extremities!
We’re about 10 minutes late docking – no biggie – the later, the warmer (ha!). We’re bundled and packed and congregating in Bistro on 5 waiting for our ticket to be called. As it turns out, it takes a little while for the process to start, but we are in the first group called and one of the first in line to go through immigration port side. Think we were off the ship by a little after 10:00. The immigration line isn’t too bad, CBP is just setting up, so it’s a little slow at the start – but we spend the time joking with one of the port gals who’s herding everyone into the lines. She’s got a great sense of humor and what little time we spent in line goes pretty quickly.
Out on the streets, oh, that wind!, we head toward the subway. It’s a 20 minute walk to the E line, but we finally make it without too much frostbite. Our plans today are to go to Chelsea Market, wander a bit, have lunch, then head back to the ship. We’d do more, but it is just too darn cold!
Subway is easy – as always! Takes us right into Chelsea – 2 blocks to the market. The market itself was a disappointment. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was just a series of food shops and little cafes without seating and a couple of restaurants. Nothing that really struck our fancy. The design – all brick and old tile – was lovely – and I was interviewed by 3 college kids about a fountain in the middle of the market (project management – how did I interact with the fountain, did I know it was representative of a water charity, etc.) – otherwise – it was not so interesting. But it did keep us out of the cold. It served its purpose.
By the time we were done aimlessly wandering through the market, it was about 11:30 so we went in search of lunch. The wifi in the market was awful, so huddled over our phones outside in the wind looking at Yelp and TripAdvisor for suggestions. We wanted a deli where we could have a true NY deli sandwich. There was one listed by the subway stop, so we headed there but it turned out to be a deli-deli, not a deli-restaurant. Plus – they were selling Boars Head! Come on Man!!! We’re not eating Boars Head in NYC!
Fortunately 8th Avenue was filled with restaurants, so we perused. Ended up at this great dive bar called Flight 151. It’s got an aeronautic theme with airplane art and propellers and different stuff – and it sort of reminds us vaguely of the Big Bamboo on HHI. Great nightly specials (in which we of course will not be able to partake) – like flip for your drink – flip a coin, if you guess right your drink is free. Pretty good atmosphere for us! And cheap! In the land of overpriced everything – this place has our name on it.
The specials are great – Ed gets a cheese burger and salad for $8.95 and I get the daily special of chili and salad for $7.95. You can’t eat at Wendy’s for that! And they are both really, really good to boot. Very happy lunchtime. While we are there I scour the web and Yelp for good places to buy Black and White cookies. They are my obsession – I had one almost every morning on my way to work when I lived here, way back in ancient history. I’m going to be really sad if we can’t find one close – because – not to beat a dead horse – but we aren’t wandering around in this weather!!!
We’re in luck – Empire Cake is a block away and they are ranked really high on the B/W cookie list! YAY. Cookies! Great little bakery tucked in a teeny little space. Don’t know where they bake – but they bake really well! We get a large cookie for me and 3 for our boys and girl (Alex) in the Sky Lounge to try. Ok, we can go back to the ship now!
And we do – with a quick stop at a corner Dunkin’ Donuts for “real” coffee (the stuff onboard is motor oil – I’ve been drinking instant since we boarded). We make our coffee last as long as possible to warm us up – then head back to the port. And….they are still disembarking! No kidding. It’s about 2:30 at this point. What the heck?
We take a seat, chat with other passengers, watch people stroll off the ship…sigh. We get in good with the port gals – and find out that the door near our seats is the door they will use to re-board. This is important because we want to be FIRS T ON so we can run up to the hot tub and get some space before the hordes re-board. Yes, we are that cold!
Half an hour, 45 minutes go by, more passengers are coming back. We’re all sitting around chatting, staring into space, waiting patiently. Then 4 passengers walk in, none speaking English I might add. They look at all of us, and proceed to walk right past us to a door farther down the pier, try to open it, gee – it’s locked. Really? What did they think the other 300 or 400 of us are doing? Sitting here for our health? So, they continue on exploring all the doors, and then a couple of staff folks walk by, going back to the ship. Well of course, they can – we can’t yet. But these 4 follow them like they are boarding and almost the whole boarding area gets up and forms a line behind them. Oh geez!
We know they are wrong, but we decide to hedge our bets and stand in line. Of course the port gal I’d been chatting up comes over and asks what’s going on? I tell her – and she just laughs and says – no one has said a word about using that far door. So then the gal from the morning with the good sense of humor comes upstairs, looks at the line, and says “What fool did you all follow to stand in this line?” The 4 non-English speaking fools – that is who! We get to chatting with her, and laughing with her about the situation and she says stick with me, come over here – we’re using this (the original) door. Cool – we’re with ya!
Unfortunately those doors are now locked and she can’t get them open. Pooh. No matter, come with me she says – and she walks us to the front of the line. As she’s discussing the situation with another port guy – Alana the head of guest relations walks by outside. Our gal flags her down and Alana says, sure we can come aboard – we can use this door if we’d like. So – the 4 non-English speaking folks are chomping at the bit – but our pal wiggles her fingers at us and says come along – and pow – right at the front of the line – first on the ship! Pays to be nice and friendly to the people you meet!
We’re in the hot tub within 5 minutes – fastest change and elevator ride in history. We thaw out as we watch the sun set over the city and the traffic on 12th Avenue build into gridlock. We’re happy to be spending a quiet evening aboard – no city night life tonight for us!
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