Pictures from Today

Here are some pictures from today's arrival in New York City. 

Credit is due to Jan Conti for the first picture of NY's skyline.

In order above are:

NYCity at Sunrise.

Statue of Liberty at Sunrise

Ellis Island

A sunset from the previous night.

On the way home

No more ports of call.  The NCL Jewel is moving northward and our next and final stop is in New York City.  To make sure everyone is on time tomorrow the ship’s captain elected to set our clocks forward already.  And, in a confined space, even one as large as a cruise ship, I’ve managed to get a nasty cold.  At least it waited until after Florida and the Bahamas. 

As I type this (about 8:30 AM ship’s time) we are somewhere around Myrtle Beach.  Our navigation lane is fairly far away from the coast because I cannot see land.  I will waive to the Brinkman’s and Beasley’s as we go by this morning. 

Day 5 Late Post

A couple of late pictures this evening.

A look at the British Hilton where we spent our day.

The Harbor Pilot climbs onto his boat to return to port.

Sunset in the Bahamas.

Day 5

Can’t buy me love.  Everybody tells me so.  With all due respect to Lennon and McCartney the appetizers, priority departures on the tender and the chocolate covered strawberries are working. Last night we went to one of the fancier “up charge” restaurants onboard and they declined to charge us.  I’m even being called Paul.  Perhaps a new song lyric is in order.  Now if only they could make the week last ten days…..

Our port of call is Nassau.  Jan wanted to make the day a bit easier on all of us.  The British Hilton offers ship’s passengers access to their hotel and facilities for a nominal fee, including their private beach and lunch.  A fifteen minute walk from the ship, sitting under the palm trees in the sand was beautiful.  Lunch was a classic “fail.”  They lost the order.

Today’s gift:  An assortment of cheeses.  Unfortunately, we begin a slow trek home tonight.  It will be warm for the first twenty four hours but after that sitting out on our porch will be chilly.  Soon the shorts will give way to jeans. 

Here’s hoping for a good look at the Statue of Liberty on this pass.  She’ll be on our side of the ship.

Day 4

Ever wonder who can own their own island?  A cruise ship company can.  The Great Stirrup Cay belongs to Norwegian Cruise Lines.  It makes for a more manageable day at the beach.  Nassau will likely have several cruise ships in port.  It is unusual for a ship not to carry at least 2,100 passengers these days.  It can make for busy streets and busy beaches. 

The sun is warm.  The ocean is blue.  This sounds like a poem from me to you.  But it isn’t.  It’s a description of what we see.

Due to a strong prevailing wind our Kayak adventure was cancelled.  Bummer.  On the plus side there are chocolate covered strawberries in the room.  What a great choice!!!!

Day 3

Now we’re talking.  Doors to the balcony are open and the air is very nice, thank you.  We left the curtain open last night so we could see sunrise and it worked.  I wonder what it would look like from our own, private sun deck.

Once the Jewel arrived in Port Canaveral we rented a car and spent the afternoon and early evening with my Mom, sister, Aunt Betty and Katie Ditisious, a neighbor of ours when we were kids.  It was a really nice afternoon. 

The boat is now on its way to Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas.  It is a private island owned by NCL.

Day 2 Late PM

Huge mistake!  Tonight, during our cocktail party, one of the guests is someone we’ve met through Cruise Critic.  She has one of the villa suites and invited us for a tour.  Huge mistake!  The suite is 5,000 square feet.  The living room is three times the size of ours at home.  It had a baby grand piano in it.  There was an indoor and outdoor dining room.  The outdoor is conveniently located next to the private hot tub and sun deck.  The bedrooms, and there were three, are huge.  The bathrooms are as big as our room.  It is adjacent to the private courtyard shared by the people who are staying in their suites.  The courtyard has a small pool, its own hot tub, an private exercise area, sauna and other amenities.  The views are spectacular.  Even the “small” suite we saw was beautiful. 

Looking forward to our visit with Mom tomorrow.

Day 2 PM

You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.  This afternoon NCL sent chocolate covered fruits to our cabin.

At the “meet and greet” this morning the cruise director made a special point of mentioning Jan by name.  He also brought the entire executive staff of the ship, including the captain to socialize with us or to answer questions.  They take the opportunity to make a one on one connection with their customers seriously and that’s the best way to make a social media strategy work.  A plus to them.

We took some ballroom dancing lessons this afternoon.  I walked two miles and Jan is napping in advance of our evening.  The sun is starting to break through the clouds.  I’m typing this on our balcony in short sleeves. 

Ahhhh…   Vacation!!

Day 2

My given name at Baptism is Salvatore Paul Conti, Jr.  As it implies, it was also my father’s name.  So there would be no confusion in the house and so that my relatives would not call me Buddy, Sonny or Junior my entire life I was called Paul from birth.  Out of respect to my father I signed things, S. Paul Conti, Jr.  It’s that way with my driver’s license and on many other documents.  The president of our college goes by R. Mark Sullivan for some of the same reasons. 

In the computer era this creates problems.  Databases expect a full first name.  Some ask for a middle initial, like this cruise line for instance.  They entered my first name as SPaul and left the middle initial blank since calling me “S P Conti” seemed to make no sense to the people.  Instead, when they look at my ID card, or their list, they pause a moment and look at me, then look back at the list and say, “good morning Spaul.”  I just tell them that everyone calls me Paul, much like calling Michael J. Fox, Marty, in Back to The Future, instead of Calvin Klein.

Rough night for the ship and some passengers.  That same storm which brought ugly weather to the Capital Region (or should I use Tech Valley) created some pretty big waves and howling winds overnight.  The sounds of those large waves crashing into the ship actually woke both Jan and I from sound sleeps.  It’s just as well.  I was dreaming that a foot of snow gathered itself around the inside of the sliding glass door to the balcony.  It was reassuring to discover the same foot mat and not any snow once I was alert.  Seas are calming and we can see clearing ahead to the south. 

It’s a full day at Sea on Monday with arrival at Port Canaveral now projected to be noon Tuesday. 

Departing New York City

Some people asked me if I planned to blog this vacation.  I had not originally planned on it.  However, there were mild protests in multiple quarters.  I am not going to set up a blog site.  I will use FACEBOOK instead.  Look for virtual vacation pictures there.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the hospitality of the NCL staff.  We thought they’d made a mistake and were confusing us with another couple.  When we checked in this morning, the young gentleman behind the counter immediately came to our side and told us he would be escorting us to the VIP waiting area.  We met a lovely couple who were getting married on board the ship.  Then we were personally escorted by a member of the concierge staff to the ship and up to Cagney’s, which is the premier on board restaurant.

It puzzled us.  I thought since they do some profiling that they were trying to impress us since we had not previously sailed with Norwegian.  Late this afternoon a small tray of appetizers showed up.  Finally, just a few minutes ago we received a special, personal invitation to meet the Captain in the “Exclusive Outdoor Courtyard Area” tomorrow evening for cocktails. 

It’s our collective wisdom that this is about Jan arranging a “meet and greet” for Cruise Critic users.  NCL seems to take the social networking media more seriously than Princess.  Theoretically, tomorrow afternoon 34 onboard guests, who’ve been corresponding with each other through that site, will meet in the Azur Lounge.  A guest services representative left us a voice mail message to make sure it goes smoothly. 

If their intention is to impress us, they’ve done that very nicely.