Post by Whiterook on Mar 22, 2023 10:32:10 GMT -5
When I retired last March of 2022, the intent was to celebrate the milestone on a Caribbean cruise, but the pandemic was still making cruise ships rather sketchy, so we postponed the idea entirely and just marked the event with staying put at home. However, as we moved into 2023, things seemed much better and we booked through a local travel agency with a very nice deal, which included bus transportation to and from the travel agency. The cruise transpired between March 10 through the 21st, sailing out of New York City and to the Eastern Caribbean.
The problems with the cruise started before we even got to the sail date: A big one was the cancellation of a port of call to the Grand Turks, Turks and Caicos, which was the main reason we booked the cruise… of all the ports, that’s the one we both wanted to visit the most! The replacement for that port was Bermuda, but we found out a day or two into the cruise that they canceled that before we even sailed, and didn’t tell us; thank goodness, Karen figured found out on our cruise app on our cells, and we found out much later that the reason was high seas at port, so instead of two days at sea, we now had three… with a two day sail at sea coming back, that meant half our 11-day cruise was now at sea! …and we missed our consolation prize of Bermuda, too boot.
Why did that suck?
We’re not alcohol fans, and most public areas on the ship are bars; we don’t gamble, so the cigarette smoke filled casino was out; the two atriums were packed to the gills with incredibly annoying people and seating was non-existent (…you’ll see what that’s important coming up); the lounges and nightclubs were crazy; and Karen was able to find only one style seat in the whole ship that she was comfortable in (she has short legs and they are all built for long legged people or bird-like women that perch in crazy leg-folded positions). There was a Card Room and a small Library, but they were packed the whole cruise with kids. It was awesome to stare out at the sea in what was called the Spinnaker Lounge during the day, but you can only stare at the sea so long before you want to jump in out of shear boredom. Public areas were tough because of a few things: Kids…like everywhere! I was kinda shocked at the number of strollers with newborns, for instance (why are you bringing a baby on a cruise?), and rugrats doing what rugrats do… being super annoying. On the opposite end, something I never would have guessed… elderly folks on scooters everywhere! RING RING, RING RING, BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP! …it made elevators hell, as the scooters took up 80% of the space, and both of us nearly had our toes crushed by the things backing out like a crazy go cart race or turning (like a 0-turn lawnmower), and in fact, one speedster in an elevator ran over Karen’s toes! …he was showing off and clueless …and they were everywhere! It was like a giant bumper pool table! And drunks… OMG, the alcohol imbibed! Now I like a good drink now and then, but these people were getting every drop of their free-ish drink packages, starting at 9am when the bars opened! Man, there were empty liquor and wine glasses everywhere, including the public restrooms (including the toilet stalls! …and do t get me started on the public toilets… OMfG!). Liquor bottles piled outside cabins was awe inspiring. Five days at sea was brutal.
DAY 1 (sort of) - Friday, March 10, Sail Day
It was an early morning departure from a town 35 minutes away from home, at 7am, with a four hour drive to New York City. Boarding was scheduled for around 9am and a sail away at 4pm, but the first big glitch happened right away, where the ship arrived late, had to disembark its passengers to allow our ship’s passengers to get aboard… we had to wait a few hours for the cabins to be tended to before we could go to our cabin, which meant a lot of standing with nothing to do and no place to sit, which in new sneakers that I tried to break in the month prior, still ended up being very uncomfortable, and actually bruised both of my big toe nails (…I’ve never had that happen)! …it doesn’t sound like a big thing, but it made the trip an uncomfortable one. Since the ship had little seating space available at that juncture, as all the restaurants and lounge areas were closed, and the deck had no chairs out due to the wind and 40 degree temps, we ambled around, where hours passed and our feet just kept hurting more. It was wall to wall people.
There was no chance to go and explore New York City, by the way. I was hoping the bus would take the main route in, which gives real nice views of the city as you work your way in, but the driver decided to go in through the back ass route through New Jersey. I even had to see Yankee Stadium at one point, which I dutifully gave the middle finger to (that felt nice). But once aboard, I managed some real nice viewing of the Big Apple. The sweeping skyscrapers from the pool deck was awe inspiring.
A building I’d never seen before was the Via 57 West has been declared the world's best new skyscraper by information specialist Emporis during its annual Skyscraper Awards. The impressive building looks like a strange futuristic pyramid and takes up almost an entire city block in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan…
The outside decks were cold! …but the views were too good to pass up…
There’s no place quite like New York, with its magnificent skyline!
One World Trade Center was awe inspiring and gave my cold weather goose bumps, goose bumps!
It’s an amazing experience, sailing out of New York Harbor… truly a Bucket List moment!
And of course, the highlight was views of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty🗽 as we sailed out of port…
It was a relief to finally get into our cabin around noontime and we were hungry and fairly exhausted at that point. The cabin was very small but comfortable, with a port hole view of the port side of the ship. Getting some food that that afternoon and later that night in the Grand Cafe cafeteria was welcomed, as we’d only had an egg McMuffin at a rest stop on the bus ride in! We explored the ship a little, but both of our feet were hurting so, it ended up being an early night to bed!
This was our second ever, cruise, and Karen had great sea sickness pills prescribed from her doc, along with an over the counter med (called Bonine?) which worked well; our previous cruise was miserable on her, so I was relieved to see she coped much better this time, even if she still felt mild effects… there were a couple real bad nights at sea during stormy weather with high waves, but she handled it like a trooper!
The problems with the cruise started before we even got to the sail date: A big one was the cancellation of a port of call to the Grand Turks, Turks and Caicos, which was the main reason we booked the cruise… of all the ports, that’s the one we both wanted to visit the most! The replacement for that port was Bermuda, but we found out a day or two into the cruise that they canceled that before we even sailed, and didn’t tell us; thank goodness, Karen figured found out on our cruise app on our cells, and we found out much later that the reason was high seas at port, so instead of two days at sea, we now had three… with a two day sail at sea coming back, that meant half our 11-day cruise was now at sea! …and we missed our consolation prize of Bermuda, too boot.
Why did that suck?
We’re not alcohol fans, and most public areas on the ship are bars; we don’t gamble, so the cigarette smoke filled casino was out; the two atriums were packed to the gills with incredibly annoying people and seating was non-existent (…you’ll see what that’s important coming up); the lounges and nightclubs were crazy; and Karen was able to find only one style seat in the whole ship that she was comfortable in (she has short legs and they are all built for long legged people or bird-like women that perch in crazy leg-folded positions). There was a Card Room and a small Library, but they were packed the whole cruise with kids. It was awesome to stare out at the sea in what was called the Spinnaker Lounge during the day, but you can only stare at the sea so long before you want to jump in out of shear boredom. Public areas were tough because of a few things: Kids…like everywhere! I was kinda shocked at the number of strollers with newborns, for instance (why are you bringing a baby on a cruise?), and rugrats doing what rugrats do… being super annoying. On the opposite end, something I never would have guessed… elderly folks on scooters everywhere! RING RING, RING RING, BEEP BEEP, BEEP BEEP! …it made elevators hell, as the scooters took up 80% of the space, and both of us nearly had our toes crushed by the things backing out like a crazy go cart race or turning (like a 0-turn lawnmower), and in fact, one speedster in an elevator ran over Karen’s toes! …he was showing off and clueless …and they were everywhere! It was like a giant bumper pool table! And drunks… OMG, the alcohol imbibed! Now I like a good drink now and then, but these people were getting every drop of their free-ish drink packages, starting at 9am when the bars opened! Man, there were empty liquor and wine glasses everywhere, including the public restrooms (including the toilet stalls! …and do t get me started on the public toilets… OMfG!). Liquor bottles piled outside cabins was awe inspiring. Five days at sea was brutal.
DAY 1 (sort of) - Friday, March 10, Sail Day
It was an early morning departure from a town 35 minutes away from home, at 7am, with a four hour drive to New York City. Boarding was scheduled for around 9am and a sail away at 4pm, but the first big glitch happened right away, where the ship arrived late, had to disembark its passengers to allow our ship’s passengers to get aboard… we had to wait a few hours for the cabins to be tended to before we could go to our cabin, which meant a lot of standing with nothing to do and no place to sit, which in new sneakers that I tried to break in the month prior, still ended up being very uncomfortable, and actually bruised both of my big toe nails (…I’ve never had that happen)! …it doesn’t sound like a big thing, but it made the trip an uncomfortable one. Since the ship had little seating space available at that juncture, as all the restaurants and lounge areas were closed, and the deck had no chairs out due to the wind and 40 degree temps, we ambled around, where hours passed and our feet just kept hurting more. It was wall to wall people.
There was no chance to go and explore New York City, by the way. I was hoping the bus would take the main route in, which gives real nice views of the city as you work your way in, but the driver decided to go in through the back ass route through New Jersey. I even had to see Yankee Stadium at one point, which I dutifully gave the middle finger to (that felt nice). But once aboard, I managed some real nice viewing of the Big Apple. The sweeping skyscrapers from the pool deck was awe inspiring.
A building I’d never seen before was the Via 57 West has been declared the world's best new skyscraper by information specialist Emporis during its annual Skyscraper Awards. The impressive building looks like a strange futuristic pyramid and takes up almost an entire city block in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan…
The outside decks were cold! …but the views were too good to pass up…
There’s no place quite like New York, with its magnificent skyline!
One World Trade Center was awe inspiring and gave my cold weather goose bumps, goose bumps!
It’s an amazing experience, sailing out of New York Harbor… truly a Bucket List moment!
And of course, the highlight was views of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty🗽 as we sailed out of port…
It was a relief to finally get into our cabin around noontime and we were hungry and fairly exhausted at that point. The cabin was very small but comfortable, with a port hole view of the port side of the ship. Getting some food that that afternoon and later that night in the Grand Cafe cafeteria was welcomed, as we’d only had an egg McMuffin at a rest stop on the bus ride in! We explored the ship a little, but both of our feet were hurting so, it ended up being an early night to bed!
This was our second ever, cruise, and Karen had great sea sickness pills prescribed from her doc, along with an over the counter med (called Bonine?) which worked well; our previous cruise was miserable on her, so I was relieved to see she coped much better this time, even if she still felt mild effects… there were a couple real bad nights at sea during stormy weather with high waves, but she handled it like a trooper!
