Saturday – New York and Turn Around Day

I am woken this morning by the thrusters and the vibration that comes with them.  It is 6:15 am – OUCH.  I am awake!  So I roll over and see that Bernie is now awake too.  Breakfast in the dining room today starts at 6:30 until 8:30 in the Palm Dining room so we dress and make ourselves presentable and head down.   It is nice to eat down here instead of facing the crowds in the buffet.

Back to the cabin and we both grab a shower and we head down to the International Café to get a tea and my latte and to try and find a quiet place to read but it is busy everywhere with people waiting for their time to be called.  We end up sitting at the bar in Crooners and chat with four women – three from California and one from Toronto who are travelling together. 

Our meeting time for In Transit people is 10:30 in the Crown Grill.  We have to bring our new cruise cards, our passports and a declaration form.  Which is odd since normally we don’t have to fill out the declaration card and we never even received one this voyage.  There are about 12 of us and three are spouses of crew.  I believe there are more of us, maybe 10 more that got off early and went into New York.

We thought about heading into New York for the day but we both agreed that if we took a taxi it would be very expensive.  We could take a bus to the subway but then we didn’t know how long that would take and we have to be back on early too.  Plus we are looking forward to a quiet day on board.

Back to the In Transit procedure.  A staff member lead us all off as a group and we binged out with our old cruise cards.  We go thru customs and then we wait for the clearance to head back on board the ship (maybe 10 minutes) and we head back on.  We bing in with our new card and we are on.  Note though of course our new cards make that horrible buzzzz sound.  And we are told to wait a second, they take our pick and then tell us to head to the purser’s desk to check our card.  We do and I don’t really think they did anything so I have a feeling when we try to get off in the first port we may encounter another BUZZZ sound.  Stay tuned.

We relax in the cabin for a while and then head down to the dining room for lunch.  Yes you can get lunch in the dining room on turn around day.  It is open to everyone, but not everyone knows about it.  We have a lovely lunch – I had the salmon. 

We are back in the cabin as the ship is now going a little bit mad as everyone comes on and luggage is being delivered, and people are trying to find places.  We will relax – I am catching up on my blog and Bernie is napping. That nap sure looks inviting and feel the urge to nap too.  So till later.