I am continuing the final days of the recent cruise and trip to New York City.
13-15 July 2018
St George, Bermuda to New York City
The last days of the cruise, unfortunately, are the most unpleasant, with heavy winds and rough seas. Over my years of cruising (24 cruises since 2007), I have been lucky not to have experienced many rough sea days. On many cruises, especially the five transatlantic ones, there has been smooth sailing all the way. But occasionally I have experienced some moderate bouncing around (the worst was the first two days of the cruise from Seattle to Alaska in 2008). If the captain predicts particularly rough weather for the following day(s), I will put an Rx patch behind my ear and everything will be fine. But after we leave Bermuda at 3:30pm on Friday, 13 July, the winds and sea are rough enough to require me to wear a patch, especially after a rather shaky dinner in the Terrace Cafe.
We spend most of Friday packing and going through all the junk we have collected over the past two weeks, discarding all the stuff we don't need to keep. We don't have to worry about the weight of our luggage at this time since we will be spending four days in New York before flying home. Our bags have to be outside our stateroom door by 10pm tonight, so we enjoy a last night dinner in the Polo Grill, one of the specialty restaurants. You have probably noticed that I haven't spent much blog time describing the food, which is quite good and plentiful on Oceania ships, because I have written about most of these meals on previous cruises.
Just before bedtime we receive our final financial statement ("the bill") under our stateroom door. Most everything, except alcohol, is included in the basic cruise fare, so the bill is quite small, especially since I receive a $200. credit honoring my fifth cruise on Oceania; even the many hours I spent on wifi were free.
15 July 2018
Arriving New York City
We are scheduled to dock on New York's west side at 53rd Street and the Hudson River at 7am, but because of the heavy opposing winds all day yesterday (they did abate during the night), we pass under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge about 90 minutes late. This is actually good, because we sail into Upper New York Bay and the Hudson River in the daylight, with views of the Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, the skyscrapers along the New Jersey shore and lower Manhattan. The only negative is that we dock right next to a Norwegian Cruise Lines mega-ship with over 3,000 passengers who will be passing through customs and looking for taxis at the same time as the 625 passengers from our ship.
As it happens, the process of leaving the ship, passing through immigration, and getting our luggage (with the help of a porter), goes pretty smoothly. Waiting on line for a taxi, however, takes about 30 minutes (actually much less time than when I arrived in New York on Holland America's 2,100-passenger ms Eurodam in September 2012).
We arrive at our hotel, the Hyatt Place Midtown South on 36th Street between 5th Avenue and Broadway--just three blocks from Macy's--much too early for the official check-in time of 3pm. However, I emailed the hotel yesterday that we would be arriving early and that we had 3pm matinee theatre tickets, and would like to check in as early as possible. The hotel staff was very accommodating (no pun), and we were in our room about 30 minutes later at 11:30, with enough time to unpack, change our clothes, have quick, but delicious, pizza slices for lunch, walk to 45th Street, and still arrive early enough to pick up our tickets for the revival of Carousel at the Imperial Theatre.
The hotel is a purpose-built 26-story structure, wedged in between other older buildings (there are actually four hotels built like this on this particular block). There are only eight rooms per floor, but the room is very nice with good space, a comfortable king-size bed, and floor-to-ceiling, wall-to-wall windows. We are on the 25th floor, facing north, with a view over the tops of older, shorter buildings. I would certainly stay here again; the room charge includes a buffet breakfast and free unlimited wifi. It is within walking distance of all the important places in midtown. The best part is the price is just $250 per night, including taxes, which is a rare find in this part of Manhattan. The hotel staff is exceedingly friendly and helpful. Even when they had to break through the room door as we were checking out, since I stupidly pulled the door closed with the "door open" metal latch still pulled out, and couldn't get back in to pick up the last piece of luggage (but more about that adventure when I get to 19 July on the blog in a few more days!).
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| Taken with my iPhone |
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