New England and Canada Cruise, Part 8: New York City and Returning Home

This is my eighth and final post about our New England and Canada cruise aboard the Enchanted Princess. I recommend reading the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh posts from the trip before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received complimentary admission tickets for some of the places we visited during our trip. Other places are free for everyone; we paid full price for the rest. This has no bearing on my reviews. 

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New York City and Back Home

After a wonderful week of sailing, our cruise ended in Brooklyn on Friday, September 20. Steve, Trevor, and I were headed home that day, but our flight wasn't until 7:00 pm. (Jonna was staying for an extra two days of sightseeing.) If you've ever been on a cruise, you know that disembarkation happens really early on the final day. It's not like a hotel, where check-out is at 11:00 am or noon. On a cruise ship, disembarkation typically starts at 7:00 am and ends as quickly as they can get several thousand people to shuffle ashore. And unlike a hotel, you can't store your luggage on the ship while you go sightseeing all day. Fortunately, most cruises offer a post-cruise shore excursion that fills the gap between the early morning disembarkation and a late afternoon or evening flight. 

As soon as we got off the ship, we loaded our luggage into a bus and began a 7-hour tour of New York City. Our guide was outstanding, keeping us informed and entertained every minute as we made our way to Manhattan and to Battery Park City. 

From there, we made our way on foot to the 9/11 Memorial. It is a powerful tribute to the thousands of innocent people who lost their lives on that terrible day.  

  

Each day, a white rose is placed next to the victims born on that day. Christopher Hanley was 9 days short of his 35th birthday when he died on the 106th floor of the North Tower. He would have turned 59 the day we visited. 

It was inspiring to see the Survivor Tree and the dozens of messages of love, peace, remembrance, and hope. 

We walked through the Memorial Glade, but unfortunately did not visit the Museum. Someday. We also saw The Sphere and One World Trade Center (the Freedom Tower). 

  

Next, we went to the FDNY Memorial Wall. It is dedicated to the 343 members of the New York City Fire Department who died on 9/11. 

  

We walked to Zuccotti Park, where we had time to get coffee (no thanks) or just look around. 

  

We re-boarded the bus and headed toward Rockefeller Center. Along the way, we learned about all sorts of interesting sites. Unfortunately, the bus had a wrap on it and taking decent pictures was completely impossible. That was annoying.  

Once we got to Rockefeller Center, we had an hour to do whatever we wanted. 

Our top priority was getting lunch. We ended up at 5 Acres, under 30 Rock. It was fantastic. 

After lunch, we had a few minutes watching people shop at CJ Hendry's Flower Market. The flowers were all stunning and it was so fun seeing the different bouquets that people put together. 

As we left Rockefeller Center, our guide was on Google Maps, trying to decide how to show us as many sights as possible while avoiding the streets that were closed in preparation for the parade the following day. Our driver was an absolute rock star, driving us safely and confidently as the guide called out changes from the planned route. We saw a lot more of the city, but didn't make any more stops until we reached the airport at 2:30. And with no acceptable photos from the bus, I don't have anything more to share from our tour. 

At the airport, we said goodbye to Jonna and headed to security. Things were flowing nicely until suddenly... they weren't. It turns out some yahoo five people ahead of me tried to get through security with brass knuckles. I did my best to eavesdrop and learned that TSA has to file paperwork when that happens. 

Eventually we got through and went to our gate. Terminal A at Newark is newly redone - it is really nice (spacious, clean, and comfy) and really big. Naturally, our gate was the farthest one. Also naturally, two minutes after we sat down, there was a gate change to the opposite end of the terminal. Then 15 minutes later, there was another gate change and the plane was delayed for 2 hours. Sigh. We'd arrived at the airport at 2:30 for a 7:00 flight which didn't take off until almost 10:00 pm. We had plenty of time to answer all the trivia questions on the gate sign (a nice touch!) and view the New Jersey Hall of Fame embedded in the children's play space. 

  

  

Two hours into the flight, a woman in the row in front of us collapsed. She had almost no detectable pulse. There were three doctors on board who jumped into action. Fortunately, the plane was not full, so the flight attendants moved everyone else from the row. One doctor stayed with the woman, monitoring her. Since we were only about 31 inches behind the situation, it was impossible not to hear what was going on and to see the amount of work that the doctor did during the remaining 4 hours of flight time. I would like to thank him, and all other doctors and medical professionals, who selflessly help others in situations like these. I'm guessing he'd been planning to relax and possibly sleep on what had turned into a red-eye, but instead he worked to save a life. 

In the end, our plane landed safely in Sacramento with no additional delays. There had been talk of an emergency stop, but the doctor decided it wasn’t necessary. EMS was waiting for us on the tarmac. I'm glad the woman was in good hands and am optimistic that she is ok.