Reporting on route to home, I-78 New Jersey
Well, the storm raged on last night. We attempted to go to sleep early, but all the clanging of the balcony furniture made it very difficult. Here's a pic of said furniture this morning.
The weather started getting rough, the tiny ship was tossed…
Fortunately, Mindy remembered that our travel jackets came with little ear plugs. We popped those in, and all was right with the world.
This resulted in us getting up very early--we were packed and down at the buffet by 6:30 or so. According to the disembarkation schedule, the group that was taking their own luggage off the boat (including us) would be able to do so starting around 8:15. So we decided to kill some time by walking around the decks-- not so fast! They had already blockaded the stairs on the floors that are used to disembark, which is basically where you'd want to walk. We also saw that the line was already getting pretty long--keep in mind this is still an hour and a half before we're supposed to be able to leave.
So we made our way back to the room, double checked everything, and headed out. It's a little complicated handling multiple rolling bags down narrow corridors, but we made it. We had planned to simply walk those bags down one flight of stairs, but again they were already blocked off. Over to the elevator, where we ended up having to go up to 16 (where everybody was heading for the buffet) and then back down to 7.
So we worked our way over to the back of the line where there were probably 100 or more people already there, with their many bags. At that point, we started to check our phones, since we now had access again. But less than 10 minutes later, the line was moving and within 10 minutes we were off the boat. This was still 45 minutes or so earlier than we thought. The customs process was perfunctory at best--just a facial recognition screen and off you go. We managed to find our way to the elevators to get to the parking deck--perhaps the cruise industry could invest in this newfangled technology called signage.
By 8:00, New York City was in our rear view mirror, and we were on our way. The trip across NJ and PA was uneventful, except for a family issue that forced us to be less leisurely.
I got your fall foliage RIGHT HERE!
And that's about it. We REALLY enjoyed the cruise. The service was exemplary, the food delicious, the ports of call very interesting--and we got some time without the internet. I even read a book (on my phone, but baby steps). There's things I want to change about my everyday life going forward, and we WILL cruise again—even considering the bout of COVID we experienced afterward (we’re much better now, thank you).
#escapetothegreatwhitenorth