Days 20, 21 & 22…….28th - 30 th April.. Disembarktion day, Flights across the States, through the night and into NYC

 Friday 28 - 29 th April - day 20 & 21…Disembarktion day, Flights across the States, through the night and into NYC

This post doesnt have such a positive slant, but still good to note for travellers ☹️👍.

We had purchased a RCCL transfer as its meant to be a smooth process- it was to go from the ship on disembarkation, to the airport in Honolulu $31 pp. But unfortunately even with that, it was still a mess and chaos with everyone everywhere trying to get off. They told passengers to go to the theatre and wait to be called, but there were absolutely no staff there, no calls to go as they were an hour behind and you couldn’t get out the gangplank as there were literally thousands of passengers in 2 lines, that ran the length of the ship and snaked back. 

So I went and lined up for guest services and asked, they said just to walk off at the guest gangway. This was the one clogged with people, then luckily a guest services lady asked us where we were going and sent us to the wheelchair gangplank - got there to find that same line again x 2! and after starting to try and find the end of it, Graeme turned round cos he said it wasn’t right and went back - he was getting a tad shitey by now which was actually quite effective lol. It seems the exit was at a middle checkpoint,  not the 2 on each side which were the snaking lines back into the ship, with people just trying to get off independently.

Got off and had to muddle our way to find our coach as no one directing anywhere, thank god we had decided to take our suitcases ourselves. Found there were people on the bus who were meant to be on an 8am airport shuttle who had had the same issues, so they only got off in time for the 9am we were booked on. 

Finally left at 10 am so an hour late after Graeme went and spoke to the driver to say there were others onboard who had international flights and it was already 3 hrs before their departures ….I noticed they didn’t check our names either for the transfer? It was a complete schamozzle as a lady said! 

Omg no staff anywhere made the process a farce. When we left, there was a huge line of people you couldn’t see the end of, trying to get taxis and ubers outside- they had warned us there were very few so not to risk it if you had flights, so I dare say people might have missed some flights today. I have seen on the quantum fb page, that there are many posts from experienced cruisers all saying the same thing and that they had never seen anything like it before- hopefully RCCL will create a new process as it should be quite ordered.

Got to Honolulu airport and checked in, then joined immigration line - hoollyyyyy moly, another massive line of thousands, but to be fair it did move a whole lot faster than the RCCL ship lines.  Saw the drug dog sit quickly in front of a young guy, who was taken away looking stressed but I was thinking, cannabis is legal in California so could have been just that.

Found our lounge which is shared with Japan airlines and had a nice hour in there relaxing. Graeme talked me into a weak cosmopolitan cocktail at 11am that the staff member was making for people!!!

Onto the plane- it’s a A321 neo, seats 1A & 1C, nice. Knew they weren’t lie flat, but were definitely more comfortable than being crammed in down the back like sardines, thank goodness. My neck couldn’t have handled the forward position the whole way. We received really nice food and drinks but in economy they had to pay for food? A 5 1/2hr flight to L.A. Watched Wonder Woman on the movies - you had to have the AA app downloaded - glad i had read up on it beforehand! I had a good talk with Donna the flight attendant who has been flying for 36 years! Was interesting comparing her work at American Airlines compared to Dannis at Qantas.

Landed and 15 mins later we were boarding at the next door lounge- easy. Onto the newer A321 airbus I think it was - oh so nice! Lie flat seats and the most comfortable we have had, better than Singapore even as they have all the angles right and it was perfect for the next flight overnight. We declined any food and got our heads down as we knew being another 5 1/2 flight we needed to sleep. With the 9 hour time difference we have flown today, we would be arriving in NY at 7am. We both got about 3 1/2 hrs which was great - woke feeling A1!

We were talking to the guy across from us, who was Chris Cardone – the Archbishop of the Solomon islands. He said he was going to have his time with the Pope as he sees him every five years. He was a really nice guy and has led an interesting life and was telling us all about the Pope-e-age stuff! Said the Pope is a lovely guy.

Our bags were waiting for us at the carousel, and I got hold of our transfer. He was “Carmel” transfers (super shuttle went under during covid) – was able to get on the airport, Wi-Fi and ring them on WhatsApp as per their instructions. Went outside – remember the organised chaos with the pick up and drop off’s from our 2017 trip. Anyway found the guy – was easy to spot as I told them I had a Wonder Woman T-shirt on & 2 bright red bags, when they asked for a description! He took us through to the AC  by Marriott hotel in Times Square. I think it was about $120 plus another $40 in tolls and automatic tips. It is not cheap here!

Had a talk with the guy on the reception desk Rakhine and he very kindly found us a room on the top floor at 9 am which we really appreciated, given we have had so little sleep. He apologised that the view of the Empire State building was not so great, but we thought it was pretty good! I felt amazing – didn’t feel like I needed any sleep at all but Graeme was keen to have a nap, so we lay down for two hours then out exploring.

It is so packed in around Times Square, narrow one-way streets like we remembered, but it was pouring with rain, and that continued the whole time we were in NYC. We got out and walked though, but your sensors are assaulted with the smell of acrid cannabis that is everywhere and I mean everywhere. You can’t even hold your breath. It stinks so bad. I know they have legalised marijuana in New York, but would think that that legislation was aimed at smoking at home not exposing everyone including children and the elderly especially, to it.

Impressions were nowhere near as good as the last trip – the rain would’ve had some impact on that, but there were groups of youth hanging around everywhere – at one point Graeme had his arm grabbed roughly?  But we had discussed it before going out, and he had the bag under his jacket and zipped up so no one could get anything. 

Glad we had bought an umbrella but still got really soaked. Went back to the M and M store just to have a look at it then went to the MLB sport shop to look at caps as we had bought tickets for the baseball game today – the New York Jets vs the Atlanta Braves. 

They told us in the store though that it had just been postponed to August! Because of the rain. Don’t know if we’re going to get any refund as it looks like they only give you a voucher for the next game so that may be $180 down the drain? Have sent them an email but not holding out, which would be a bit of a pity as we had prioritised the baseball game for the one day we are here and wouldn’t like our parting memory to be that we gave them an expensive donation.

Decided we needed some food, but it was very hard to find any cafes and we did not find anywhere that had chai lattes – don’t think it is in their vocab here. We ended up going to a place called Applebee’s which was a restaurant and it was pretty crap. We were keen for something hot to eat as it was so cold and wet outside about 10°C. 

Ordered a Coke each and the chicken sandwiches, but they turned out to be burgers and the fries which were almost cold. The chicken was like chewing on the sole of your shoe and all of that, for the princely sum of $100 with the tip they had already added to it. 

We should have reduced the tip given the state of our food. A big disappointment☹️. We went back to the hotel and had a look online at what shows were going for something to do but they were extremely pricey so we went back and found a movie theatre. Bought some tickets and then went to a beer yard house for a drink before going to the movies – there were so many beers on tap it was incredible. 

Have to say we both felt a bit unsafe the way the movie theatres were all laid out and crammed in. Especially with some of the shootings that have happened in the past. The seats were just about broken but the movie was really good it was called “Hey God, are you there, it’s me Margaret”. It was a really quirky and funny movie about an 11-year-old girl coming of age. Well worth seeing.

We went back to the hotel, then headed next door to the restaurant/bar called Boqueria. It was pumping! It is a tapas bar so we got some different ones – there were dates wrapped in bacon with blue cheese & nuts inside – amazing flavours. Also some mushroom truffle tapas, some very tasty lamb skewers and a couple of cocktails. Was talking to the chef who came out to give us our food and told him how great the flavours were and he offered us a plate of potato croquettes that had been mistakenly ordered by the kitchen. Very nice of him :-) and made up for the crappy food today!

Chris Cardone the arch bishop of the Solomon Islands who we were sitting next to on the plane. On his way to his 5 yearly meet up with the Pope. Lovely guy

Day 22 - 30th April…..Onto the Enchantment of the Seas (Royal Carribean as well)

We woke up really late today! Got a shock when we saw it was 10 am 😳. Because we have flown across two time zones yesterday, I think it was catching up with us. We decided to go to Grand Central Station today, as we wanted to see it. The hotel has kindly given us a late check out of 1pm, so we packed up and left us our cases with them and then walked up to the station. 

What a difference moving about four blocks and 5–10 mins walk maximum, makes. The streets for wider, there were some leafy trees and flower beds, and it was so much quieter than the grungy, dirty, gritty part of Times Square.

We were staying on W 40th Street but if you stay on the same street and move up a few blocks we saw there were a lot of hotels up there in the quieter area, so that is a good tip for anyone looking at staying there. Still walking distance to Times Square easily, but so much cleaner and less congested.

Grand Central Station – oh, it is everything it looks in photos. It was raining and wet (the lovely Rahkine had given us a umbrella, so we had two). You walk into the station and it is so warm in there and massive – far bigger than you think, as there is the great hall, but then there are many sub rooms going off to the train lines. We spent more than an hour in there just wondering around taking photos. There were a lot of people there, but it wasn’t too crowded. 

Then we walked back to our hotel and got our bags and called an Uber. The hotel said they were the best idea for getting down to the port at Cape Liberty and not to use the yellow taxi cabs as they are on a metre and of course the traffic is gridlock in the city. We got one really quickly and seem to be at a slightly quieter time as this one was only $85usd - still a lot to us once you do the change in currency, but got us there no problems.

I had booked our check in for 3–3:30pm, which was great. What a difference when you go later, we virtually walked through with not a single hold up compared to getting on at 12 pm on the last cruise (which was probably a couple of hours to get through). One of the immigration ladies was telling us that there are still people turning up without their ESTA‘s, as they haven’t done their homework and they have to literally send them home because once the ship departs, no one can stay at the port. I guess if you had arrived early you might have been  able to apply for the ESTA online and receive it at the end of the check in time, if you were very lucky. Ours only took about 3 hours to arrive, but I did it several months ago.

Onto the ship which has a total passenger capacity of about 2200 compared to 3900 people on our previous ship. This one is older and feels more quietly grand. It is not flash, but it has that slight grandeur feeling like a smaller version of Cunard, think Titanic – hopefully it won’t follow in it’s footsteps. Ha ha!

Impressions of the ship….mostly filled with Americans compared to Australians on our last cruise – they are very polite, very into fairness and being orderly and organised. We were sitting in the lounge, and there were some people next to us who were American – the lady was talking about some people they met and made friends with on their last cruise, and she said they would have a drink together, and that yes she and her husband would have a drink, but these people are Australians – and Australians drink like fish! 

That is probably quite correct as the Australians on our last cruise were in it to win it! with the alcohol and were quite vocal about it. As I mentioned earlier, they drank the bar dry of many of the beers and all the cocktail mixers before we got to our first port in Tahiti and there was a lot of fun and drunkenness. That certainly wasn’t the case here on the ship last night – quite a difference!

Also, we noticed that this ship has more people probably between 35 and 65 years old compared to a lot more elderly on the Australian cruise. There is also a lot less people filling their plates over and over with food here – the Americans may expect quite a bit, but they are also quite moderate here, in their approach. Although there was almost a punch-up in the line last night to get into the restaurant while we are waiting between two American guys. But one was an absolute drama queen and was flipping his lead big time over nothing!

It was funny our menu tonight was exactly the same menu as the first night of our last cruise, so we knew what to order :-). The tables were all seated for two, but are very close to the next tables and in a row, so we got talking to a young couple from Tampa, Florida, who were lovely. I felt for them as they have been assigned a balcony cabin that was interconnecting, so had the side door instead of a full wall. And they had a family with young kids next door, who were screaming and yelling and yanking on the door handle. We had a chat about it and they were going to go to guest services to see if they could get moved as they desperately needed the rest and quiet.

The cruise director here is a big Fijian guy, love it! He is lovely and has been doing it for years. With the ship layout - instead of a promenade that is like a street inside the ship like that quantum had, this one has a centrum. Apparently the middle of the ship was cut out and this was put in some years ago. It goes from level 5 right up to level 9, so the whole middle of the ship is open – it’s quite a nice concept.

The ship was rocking and rolling – as we have swells of 4 to 8 m, and maybe being a smaller ship, you feel it more as well. In the middle of the ship, you don’t really feel it much at all, but people are starting to look rather green. We sailed out of New York in the mist and rain, so you couldnt see NY.

After bringing our topper pad, which we definitely needed on the last cruise for the bed, the bed here is pretty comfortable and just a little bit nicer with that on it. I will donate it to a staff member who might like it when we leave.

We have a mini suite on this cruise as all the balcony cabins were already taken. We had to change onto this cruise after our original one was cancelled, and it was pretty hard to find something that lined up dates wise. A mini suite is much wider so not a long, narrow,  cabin – it is wider with a wider balcony and very nice. It has a bath but is a much smaller bathroom which is fine. 

Into bed at midnight and the clock is going forward another hour tonight. Have no idea  what time it is anywhere now ha ha😂.

The Centrum

Mini suite 8652

The Disaronno (Amaretto cherry flavour) isnt $1.95 anymore! $15usd each but oh so nice!