Day 20 – Sailing, I am Sailing

The boys and I slept in until 11am.  I hear that on weekends and school holidays that this is a regular wake up time for the boys, but I never wake up at this time of day, sometimes I might lay in but NEVER sleep til 11am.

We dawdled about for a while and then went up to the Windjammer Marketplace for lunch.  A huge buffet with HEAPS of variety and heaps of people, but we found a seat relatively easily.  At this point we have no idea where Sue and Peter are, but that’s Ok, we are fine hanging out.

After lunch we go our separate ways.  I grab my lap top and head off to a café which overlooks the mini golf, zip line, basketball court and wave riders to do some blog typing out in word so that I can just upload it when I have wifi again.  From my seat I see my nephews having a game of mini golf.  I am waving away at them with great vigour but they were so wrapped up in their own world they never even noticed the crazy lady waving at them.

At their spa a $99 special on offer for a hair wash and blow dry, facial and collagen eye treatment, an offer too good to pass up, so I was booked in for that at 5.30pm.  My stylist was a really tall Eastern European guy called Marco with a coif out of this world, his blow dry was excellent (on himself) and me, just what I wanted. Normally it is hit and miss with a stylist who is unfamiliar, but Marco hit the nail on the head.

Then I raced down stairs a level to meet the family in the theatre where we watched the Broadway show ‘CHICAGO’, it was very good.  Then it was time for yet another brilliant dinner.  After dinner Peter and Sue visited a few bars and music venues, I went off to bed.

Somehow on my day of doing absolutely nothing much at all, photo’s eluded me.

Day 19 – Navigating Nassau (The Bahamas)

Today we had the morning in the port of Nassau. On the recommendation of Sheldon our ‘stateroom attendant’ (fancy name for our lovely cabin boy) we didn’t venture beyond the town of Nassau.  We could have gone to Atlantis, which is a resort that has outstanding water parks etc, but to enter it’s about $100 per head, daylight robbery for a family of 5 for a few hours.

 

The Atlantis resort we never went to (view from our wharf)

 

Weather was just pleasant, not too hot and humid, a little bit sticky but very bareable. Boys got a new rashie each and I had to invest in a new pair of sunglasses as I couldn’t locate my $4 pair of Bali knock off sunnies. Think I must have left them in New York, who knows?

There is no tax in Nassau.  I purchased a bottle of perfume for $90, to purchase the same perfume duty free in Australia still costs about $120, so I was stoked with this deal.  Also bought a Shiseido eye cream for $54 also a great bargain.  I was delighted with my purchases, great deals I felt.

 

There were a few sets of stop lights in sleepy Nassau that I saw, but at what appeared to be the main intersection where there were lights was also this lovely chap (crisp uniform and all) planted in his box bang smack in the middle of the intersection.  I don't know if it just as a tourist attraction or for real, but what a good photo op.  I'd like to see him directing the traffic in his box in a bustling Asian city where road rules don't seem to apply. I reckon that'd stuff him up!!!

 

 

We came back to the ship and had lunch on board.  After that all the adults retired for an afternoon sleep. I think I slept for about 3 hours straight. Unheard of for me, although probably the motion of the ship rocking and rolling ever so slightly helped for me to nod off.

Tonight’s entertainment was an ice skating show. It was pretty good.  I think I may have picked up some tips. I reckon next time I’m going to ice skate I will be a pro.

 

 

 

At dinner time the boys went their own way and helped themselves to buffet food.  Mackenzie even had 4 serves of sweets, and he was trying to devour them before his plates were cleared so he wasn’t “judged”.  Us adults hit Adagio again.  Once again absolutely perfection for mass produced food.

Peter and Sue hit some bars and clubs. I hit my bed.

 

Our home for the week - Allure of the Seas, the largest Cruise Ship in the World

 

 

Day 18 – Chaos at JFK - By the Skin of my Teeth

What a day today was…

Lesson Learnt:

Never take a flight the day of a cruise to meet up with it.  Always fly in the day before so that you are firmly in location for a stress free transition.

Background on how today was supposed to go:

8.30 am flight from New York, arriving in Fort Lauderdale at 11.30am, meet the rest of the family at the FLL airport, we catch 2 taxis to the cruise terminal. Check in and board our ship at roughly 12.30pm. Fun to start.  Simple, smooth sailing was the plan.
 

How today actually went:

I’m up at 4.50am and was in a cab at 5.20am, arriving at the airport at 6am for 8.30am flight. So far so good (and that is where the good stops for the entire day).  I had never seen such utter chaos and bedlam at an airport terminal in my life (far worse than it was when the boys and I flew out of Sydney). Of course it was freezing cold, there had been a blizzard overnight. I was flying on JetBlue Airlines (JB) they are at terminal 5 at JFK airport.  The queue just at this terminal alone was out the door for probably 200m when I got there. In the words of the classic Sweet Brown I thought to myself “aint nobody got time for dat” so I went inside the terminal and managed to wedge my way into the queue (my prior years of jumping the queues at night clubs finally paid off), at what point of the line I was in I couldn’t tell you, but I was indoors and warm, that was all I cared about. At 7.45am I was able to do my bag drop (that is an hour and 45 minutes in queue) and proceed through security. Getting through actual security was pretty fast.

Now I am in the JB departures terminal, check the flights board and see my flight is delayed from 8.30am to 9.55 am. I think to myself that’s ok, still leaves me plenty of time to get to the ship.  Also because of all the cell phone congestion at the airport, I’m hardly getting phone reception and was finding it difficult to get a phone call out to my brother who was now in Washington. With a whole heap of trying were able to touch base and formulate a plan if I didn’t make it to the ship in time.

 

After talking with a few people at the terminal, the picture was painted as to what had happened at JFK.  A plane had landed around 6am. It landed fine, without issue.  As it was taxiing back to the terminal it skidded on some ice and slid into a snow bank.  Then JFK and all it’s terminals were shut down for 4 hours. No planes were landing and none were leaving. Keep in mind my ship boarding time cut off was supposed to be 3pm, for sailing departure at 5pm.

 

JB were cancelling flights like nobody’s business. Over the loud speaker they kept on saying “If your flight has been cancelled, just leave the airport, do not approach staff and ask them to re-book as no assistance will be provided. No replacement flights will be available for three days. You will need to re-book on-line” or words to that effect.  The joys of low cost carrier air travel hey? I kept on watching the board as flights were being cancelled left right and centre. Fortunately mine wasn’t cancelled, I just kept watching the departure time for my flight get pushed back.  I had it clear in my mind and had made peace with the fact that there was every possibility that I was going to miss my cruise.

 

 

 

 

 Finally at 12.10pm we board the plane and we take off at exactly 1pm. Yep, she was a pretty bumpy flight the whole way to Fort Lauderdale. Also I am seated towards the back of the plane. So we land, I turn my phone on and call Peter, by now it’s 3.55 pm. Peter had clued some of the officials at check in and on the ship as to what the airline situation was out of JFK this morning. 

After I hung up this lad in his 20’s taps me on the shoulder and says, “I couldn’t help overhear your conversation, what ship are you trying to make it to?”

“Allure of the Seas” I reply
“Us too” he says.  His name was Viktor and his mate’s name was Mike.

We also came to the realisation that there were other people on that flight trying to make it to the same ship.  So from here on Viktor, Mike and myself stuck together to get to the ship. We helped each other with our luggage, Viktor went and organised the SUV taxi to accommodate all our luggage and we were off.

 

Drive from the airport to the ship was like a scene from the movies. The taxi driver was this Rastafarian dude with the dreadlocks and an islander accent to fit. He was speeding through the traffic like no body’s business. So from 3.50pm touch down, we finally pulled up at the cruise ship terminal at 4.33pm.  One lady at the door was giving the hand gesture cut off at the throat indicating we were out of luck.  Another guy is asking for our paperwork.  I had mine in my hand and handed it straight to him.  Viktor and Mike are scrummaging about for theirs.  The man at the door is on his head piece, talking in Spanish to someone for a few minutes, then finally he waves us into the terminal.  “Almost there, so close, yet so far” is what’s going through my mind.  Dreaded US security first and then check in. We’re all running, maneuvering our luggage as we go.

 

As we get to the check in counter the guy at the furtherest counter away call me over to him. 

“Are you Miss Duplex?”
”Yes” I replied
“I’ve been expecting you, your brother told me what had happened with your flight, I’ve already checked you in” Bless his soul.

There is no opportunity for my luggage to go to my cabin by the usual method, it’s all up to me at this point. From the terminal to the ship, the gangway is over 4 steep levels, and I am pushing and pulling my luggage as I go. Finally I make it. I am on board at 4.50pm – Thank god.

By now I’ve lost Viktor and Mike, I did see them go up the gangway, and as I’m typing this out 3 days later I’ve not seen them again and don’t expect to either.  Although I do feel with us teaming up and helping each other out is what enabled us to make it on board just in time to throw the ropes.

 

 

 When I got on the ship there were people everywhere doing the safety presentation, I missed that.  I got to my cabin and no-one was to be seen. I just had to sit down and take in what had gone on that day.  It was stressful, I reckon my blood pressure would have been through the roof, but hey, finally I made it.  As I was taking a moment to re-group the boys came back to the cabin and Peter and Sue were following closely behind.  So we caught up on the travel disasters of the day and then headed up onto one of the back decks to watch the departure from port. After that we explored the ship for a bit and then we headed off dinner.  The restaurant for dinner is called ‘Adagio’  it is over 3 floors and is supposed to be the largest restaurant in the world (or so I’m told). It is massive.  For mass produced food, the meals are exceptional. I am most surprised at the quality and variety. Just excellent.

After dinner we went to the diving show at the out outdoor sea theatre located on the back deck, that too was really good. I feel Shirl & Bern would love the entertainment on offer. And lets top the day off with a bit of rain, while we are watching this outdoors show, it started to rain, so we all had to scamper for shelter.  After this show the boys head off to the basketball courts, Peter, Sue and myself go to explore the ship a bit further.  There is everything you could want on this ship and Peter is ever so impressed. 

 

Finally it is time for shut eye and put the stresses of the day behind me.

Day 17 - Better attempt at ice skating

Shell and I headed out for the day, and what a lengthy full on day she was.  Started off with breakfast at Applebee’s in the Times Square area.  When then hot footed it a couple of blocks over to Bryant Park for a spot of ice skating and market wandering.

 

 

You may all recall from my Christmas Day blog that my attempt at ice skating was exceptionally pathetic.  Well I can tell you that his was only slightly better.  We did the skating at Bryant Park as opposed to Central Park.  Rink was about half the size, crowds/queues were non existent (but that has been the case anywhere since the day after New Year’s Day).  I racked up 3 circuits, and NO FALLS, so overall a far better effort than my ice skating attempt at Central Park

 

Then we wandered the winter markets at Bryant Park, it was their last day of operation so we were lucky.  Saw all sorts of weird and wonderful things, Shell invested in a second pair of gloves, a fleece beanie and ear muffs.  She couldn’t hear me once those muffs were on.  Shelley also introduced me to Hot Apple Cider at the winter markets, the thought of it made me gag, the taste of it is just delightful. I now have a new winter favourite. Yum ‘O.

 

We left the market and wandered back up to Times Square and into Sephora (a huge girly shop, make up, skin care etc).  From there we grabbed a slice of pizza near our hotel for lunch, before we knew it, it was time for our 2pm matinee show of the Broadway show Kinky Boots, it was excellent. There was one drag queen in the show that reminded us of a girl we went to school with.  (For those of you in the know, think of the solo dance routine performed at the school disco held at the 8^th St basketball stadium to the Joe Cocker Song “You Can Leave Your Hat On” – Got it, you know who I’m talking about right?).  Anyway the show was great. All I can say is, it’s annoying enough just shaving one’s legs, I can’t imagine what these drag queens need to go through with their primping and prepping to get themselves female ready.

 

As it turned out the theatre was visible from our hotel and is just around the corner, so we legged it back to the hotel for a shower and change before dinner.  Now let me tell you about dinner.

The lovely Miss Shell shouted me dinner at Nobu in Tribeca for my birthday present from October (Robert De Niro has some kind of association with Nobu).  And OMG, that meal was out of this world, just de’lish. Shell Bell, I know I’ve thanked you in person, but once again, a huge thank you for a wonderful and memorable dinner at the original Nobu restaurant. Perfection, spoilt rotten I am.

We then cabbed it back to our hotel, Shell had a little kip on the way and then it was pack up time once we got back to the room, there is no fun in the pack up, it’s amazing how in 2 nights you end up with so much packing and re-organising to do.  Finally head down around 11.30pm.
 

Day 16.2 - "Where is that coming from?"

Shell Bell arrived around 4pm, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, she didn't even look as if she'd just been on a 32 hour trip to get here. That's what having a good ole sleep en route will do to you. 

We caught up, had a chat about all things travel and then headed out for an early dinner and plotted our plan for tomorrow. We went to Dallas BBQ, we gave our rating on our server and decided that he deserved no more than the basic tip. His service certainly wasn't excellent, plus he looked like Belki from the 80's sitcom 'Perfect Strangers' sounded like him too, ie: could hardly understand him.

 

After dinner we head to an ATM vestibule and grabbed some cash then come straight back to the hotel to get out of the arctic cold. So we power up our devices and each of us start blogging away.  Then in the room on one side of us we hear a baby crying and Shell says "Where is that coming from?" It's inevitable that a crying baby is should be in the room next door. 

 

But wait there's more....

 

About 10 minutes later, the room on the other side of us, oh yeah, noisy kids.

 

And more...

 

The thermostat on our heater is a bit clunky too (I've already made them change the room once cause the other heater had a noisy thermostat too).

 

Thank god for foam ear plugs, we will both be utilising them for the next two nights.

Days 15 & 16.1 - Big Apple in Lock Down

Day 15 - 2 January 2014
Peter, Sue & the boys got away early to catch the train Washington, they are to visit Barack and Michelle and I moved from the apartment over to The Milford Plaza Hotel.  I was still feeling a little off colour, slept for about 3 hours in the afternoon and felt a whole lot better after that.

Overnight from Jan 2nd through to Jan 3rd NYC has pretty much been in lockdown due to a big winter storm. Apparently there have been 2x storm systems that joined together making one big massive storm. There has been 24 hour+ coverage on quite a few TV stations just going over and over and over the same thing. They were reporting that there were 1700 snow plows to be working over night, schools to be closed tomorrow.


Day 16.1 - 3 January 2014
Happy Birthday to the fabulous Kirsty Scurry (Carrick)

After a pretty poor sleep last night, I woke up to this view from my window.

And then I moved rooms and got these views. All snow capped.

 

The storm was really on a 12-14 hour period over night, it is all clearing now, of course there is heaps of snow about, but they are reporting that the wind chill is going to be more the issue and are advising people to stay indoors where ever possible to avoid frost bite. Maximum today is to be around -8 deg's C with the minimum being -14 deg's C.

 

Nativity Set - Just for you Shirl.

During the night I had an email from the wonderful Shell Bell, she was in the Emirates lounge in Dubai en route to New York, according to the JFK website her flight has landed.  She should be here in the next hour to hour and a half I think.
 
I have been out and about to post some items back home (Jenny, they are coming to you, expect in about 10 or so days).  Fedex were going to charge me $280+, US Postal System charged me $65, there is no comparison.

Plus I got a show in the Post Office. I was privy to listening to a woman going off her rocker to absolutely no-one, I didn't want to make eye contact with her incase she turned her tirade to me, mind you no one seemed to bat an eyelid to it, so it is probably just the norm in this big city.  She kept on saying amongst other things "I'm white and you're treating me like a nigger, making me use the body scanner".  Now, I don't know where this body scanner was cause I certainly didn't see one. She was going on for about a minute and a half at the top of her voice and then she went on her merry way. She blew in and out just like last nights storm!

Days 13 & 14 - Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

Day 13 - 31 December 2013
Well for the last day of the 2013, it's been ever so low key.  And not one single photo was taken.

Peter and I took the washing round the corner to the laundry service. Then Peter, Sue & the boys caught the train to Long Island to visit their friends that live there.  I stayed local for the day, I went to the cinema and saw three quarters of American Hustle (yes I fell asleep), what I did see of it was good.  Then I went to the local Kmart for a wander and bought some shoe laces.  It was about 2 pm when I got home.  I stayed in for an hour then I popped around the corner to the 'SPA' to  get my nails done and a foot massage.  The girl who massaged the feet wasn't a patch on Sophia (masseuse from blog Days 8 & 9).  While I was at the Spa it snowed again ever so lightly, by the time I got out the snow had stopped and there wasn't a single piece of evidence that it had even snowed.

The family arrived back about 9.15pm from Long Island. We then rang Shirley and Bernie (Mum and Dad) to check in.  I think Shirl cast a spell on me.  She asked me if I was well and I said yes, all good.  Within two hours of that phone call I was glued to the toilet with a gastro bug (It's not Chron's related) as I was vomiting too. Basically I spent the evening down stairs on the couch and was back and forth to the loo. I was never going to go to the ball drop at Times Square due to the crowds and cold, just as well I didn't, it wouldn't have been pretty.

Day 14 - 1 January 2014
I've not left the apartment today as I'm not game to wander too far from the ablutions.  Vomiting seems to have stopped and the other is slowing heaps, so I think it's just a 24 hour gastro bug that is running it's course.  Shirl - I'm blaming you!! (You know I'm joking!!).  Sue had the gastro thing a couple of days earlier, I just hope everyone else in the apartment gets out unscathed and thank god we weren't in that other apartment with faulty plumbing.  Plumbing in this apartment is a bit sluggish but so far with a bit of perseverance it's held up.  Just got to get through the next 18 - 24 hour as we are moving on.  Peter and the Family are headed to Washington and I am headed to Milford Plaza for three nights and I will have Shelley arrive for two of those three nights.  I have to be over this by then!!

Where I spent the night NYE 2013, spew pot to my right