Day 12: Sailing

1The first thing Emma did was leap out of bed and see if our ship had finally arrived in port. Unfortunately it had sunk on route from Boston.

Just kidding. Here it is.

We had breakfast in the hotel and checked out, went for one final walk through Times Square, and took the second most terrifying taxi ride of our lives to the port.

The embarkation process was a breeze. It took all of ten to fifteen minutes to organize our luggage, clear customs, arrange our boarding passes and go onboard the Crystal Symphony. We had a quick wander through the ship, with appropriate ooh-ing and ah-ing, and found a nice spot near the bow of the ship for the sail-out.

This spot also happened to be immediately under the ship’s horn.

We sailed out just before dusk, appropriately equipped with glasses of champagne, and began chatting with some of our fellow guests. One of the first couples we met was from Melbourne – Melbourne, Florida, a point which caused considerable confusion with some of the Aussies on board : “if you’re from Melbourne why do you have American accents…?”

(Speaking of Aussies, we found out a few days later that there are 68 Australians on board, which I believe is the second largest nationality after the Americans. Oi, oi, oi.)

Once again the weather was perfect, giving us postcard-perfect views of the city and the Statue of Liberty, even with our crappy little digital camera.

In contrast New Jersey, although only just across the Hudson River, was a hideous, poisonous place, clearly unfit for human habitation. I began to understand why New Yorkers dislike it so much.

Since the cold night air finally overwhelmed the warming capacity of the alcohol we went below to our cabin. Our cabin on the Sun Princess was perfectly adequate, apart from the lack of a window (a mistake we won’t make again). Our cabin on the Crystal Symphony is simply superb. My only concern is that it might spoil me for life.

We then joined the Captain’s sail-out party. I had left the camera in our room, so I couldn’t capture the moment when the crew dropped a net filled with hundreds of balloons. Fortunately the crew missed one of the balloons during the clean-up, so imagine this times 200:

We joined to other couples in the formal dining room for our 8.30pm seating, Joy and Arnold from Calgary and Joe and Bernie from LA. Very friendly people, which is lucky as we’ll be seated with them for the rest of the cruise.

Up in the Galaxy Lounge, the main showroom, were a few brief segments from some of the acts and shows scheduled for the cruise. Our first impressions are that level of talent is also higher than on our previous cruise.

Then we collapsed.

So ended the New York leg. We loved it. In Emma’s words “it was all the hustle and bustle you imagined, but times ten, because in real life it’s larger than life”.

This is a city we plan to come back to, and could happily live in, for at least a few years. Although I think Emma might need to let the grin slip after a few months, while I might need to confiscate her credit cards.