23rd July

New York Sunny Temp 29c Sultry

We were awake early this morning to enjoy the sail in to New York. Most of the sights of Manhattan were on the Starboard side but we had a great view of the Statue of Liberty and we will see the skyline of Manhattan lit up when we sail out. I have had a cold for the last few days and in growing eye lashes in one eye have made the eye sore so this morning I decided to go to see the Doctor. They open at 8am and I was there about 10 minutes to eight and there was one lady in front of me. After filling the usual form we sat down to wait, others came in and obviously were on return visits because they went in ahead of us. The lady in front of me went in also but I think they forgot me because it was sometime before a nurse did could up and ask me if I was being attended to. He apologised saying that they were short staffed because some were leaving in New York. I eventually got seeing by a Doctor he pulled out the offending eye lashes and loaded me up with medication to fix my cold. I am happy to say I am now much better. As we have been to New York on a few occasions we decided to walk into Time Square (about a 20 minute walk from the ship) and check out the Hoop on Hop off bus, which we did and got talked into paying for all routes at a reduced price. After being told there were no queues to get on we found that the queue at the first stop was about 100 metres long. They told us there would only be a 15 minute wait but it was longer. Their excuse was the traffic and to their credit they did bring along extra buses and the queue cleared. We got a top deck seat with great views of parts of the building which we would not have seen from the ground. Progress was slow because the traffic was horrendous. Although it was hot in the sun we enjoyed the ride. We got off at the Waldof Astora Hotel stop and walked a short way to Grand Central Railway Station which may seem an odd thing to do but we had heard the inside is worth seeing and it was. The concourse hall is huge. There is a great food court there where we had lunch before reboarding the bus at the same stop and continuing back to Time Square for more photos and coffee. There were people everywhere because of course it is school holidays here. Our intention was to get back to the ship in time for me to visit the Air and Space museum setup on the decommissioned aircraft carrier Intrepid which was moored next to our ship. However as the time was already 5pm and you would need at least a couple of hours to tour the museum I abandoned the idea. By the time we walked back to the ship we were a couple of very tired and hot people badly in need of a shower which we got. We had previously arranged with Coral for her to come to our cabin for the sail away and we would order room service for our evening meal which we did.

Coral had a mixed day. She had booked on a tour of New York in the morning and there was some mix up with buses. A number of people were disembarking the cruise here and should have been well and truly off before Coral’s tour left but they were not so her tour was delayed by 1 hour which, including the traffic problems made her return later than she thought. She intended to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art but ran out of time which was a little disappointing for her. However the sail out was terrific which was added to by a short spectacular thunder storm with a lighting display. We were warned earlier by the guide on our bus that it could happen because it was so humid. It was a bit of bad luck for the people on the Starboard side because the storm came while we were passing the Statue of Liberty which made photos impossible.

Everyone on the ship appears to be tired after a full day so I am not sure how many went to hear the Harpist Shirley Dominguez at 9pm we did not. As I write this Blog we are now sailing to Antigua where we should be after 3 sea days which has allowed me to catch up.

 The One Trade Centre replacing the Twin Towers.

 Grand Central Station

 Kenny made it to New York

 The Chrysler Building