Woke up at 5.00am this morning; we didn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of getting back to sleep again because the Balmoral had taken the pilot on board on her approach into the Big Apple, and she was revving her engines with a vengeance. This caused quite a lot of noise and vibration, so we just decided to get up and watch the approach from our cabin window rather than brave the early morning cold up on deck. In any case, it’s our fifth visit to New York, so it’s not as if we hadn’t seen it all before.
We always laugh at the line “New York, New York, so good they named it twice” because we could say that that applies to Durham – we live in Durham City, County Durham, so it’s the same thing. 🙂
We watched the Balmoral go under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, and sail past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on her way into Pier 88. We then went up to breakfast early and went out on deck, where we could see the WW2 warship the Intrepid moored up. There was a retired British Airways Concorde on the deck of the Intrepid; we noted that it was G-BOAD (Alpha-Delta). We felt quite sad seeing Concorde sitting there; she should still be flying. 🙁 We have had the privilege of crossing the Atlantic in three and a half hours; now it takes us seven hours. Technology has taken a step backwards.
After breakfast we went along to the Neptune lounge as we were due to go on a full-day New York City and Titanic history tour after we’d been through USA immigration. However, when we got there, we learnt that there should have been two tour buses leaving, but the guide on one of them had had an accident and was in hospital. They therefore said they needed 47 people to go on the afternoon tour instead i.e. when the first bus-load returned, or else the whole thing would have to be cancelled. Therefore Trevor and I volunteered to go on the later excursion, which would now give us the morning in New York to do our own thing.
When passengers on Deck 4 were called to disembark, we left the Balmoral and showed our passports, visas etc at port immigration, as well as having our photos and fingerprints taken. Then the morning was ours. 🙂
It was bright and sunny, and warmer than we’d imagined. We found ourselves on 48th Street and decided to head into the centre of Manhattan and have a look around the shops. When we got to Times Square the place was fairly crowded; people hurrying here and there, the famous yellow taxis hooting their horns and the frenetic hustle and bustle you get in New York 24 hours a day.
I spotted Sephora, which is a massive cosmetics emporium you only find in the USA and Canada; they don’t have them in the UK more’s the pity. For makeup fans it really is a treasure trove; just about every well-known brand of cosmetics, perfumes and toiletries under one roof. As I am a Benefit cosmetics freak I was pleased to see a huge Benefit stand; much bigger than the one we normally see in Boots or Debenhams. The stuff was cheaper than it is in the UK too. So I bought some foundation, blusher, an eye-shadow palette and a mascara, saving 20 quid overall on what it would have cost me back home. 🙂
We had a good wander around; it’s surprising how many miles you end up walking when taking in the sights, sounds and smells of New York. After about three and a half hours we decided to go back to the Balmoral for some lunch, as time was getting on and we needed to check in for the afternoon excursion at 1.50pm.
After lunch we were fairly tired as we’d been awake early, but we only had time for a half-hour power nap before leaving the ship once again to commence our tour.
At the dockside we gathered into a meeting room for a presentation by Paul Kurzman, who is the great-grandson of Isidor and Ida Straus, the famous Macy’s owners who perished on the Titanic. Ida Straus was offered a place in a lifeboat, but refused to leave her husband, telling him, “We have been together many years. Wherever you go, I’ll go too.” Paul told his great-grandparents’ story and answered questions. Apparently Isidor Straus’ body was found and identified, but they never found Ida’s body.
After the talk we got on the bus and were taken on the grand tour of New York. The guide pointed out the new World Trade Centre being built on Ground Zero, as well as other famous sites such as the Empire State Building, Central Park and the Dakota Building, where John Lennon lived and outside which he was shot dead by Mark Chapman in 1980.
We also went to see a memorial to the victims of the Titanic disaster; the guide also pointed out what used to be the White Star Line building. We then went along to the Chelsea Piers to see where the Titanic would have come in at Pier 59, had she successfully completed her maiden voyage. Chelsea Piers is now a maritime museum as well as a sports centre, and there were many cyclists, roller bladers and joggers on the specially-allocated track outside.
We were taken next to Pier 54, where the Carpathia had docked on 18th April 1912 bringing with her the 705 survivors of the Titanic sinking. Quite a lot of floral tributes had been left at the pier gates along with personal messages.
We continued our tour of the Big Apple; as the sun went down and dusk descended, the lights of New York started to twinkle and the theatres on Broadway erupted in a blaze of neon. We then went to the South Street Seaport where there was a large shopping mall and fast food emporium. Our guide said we had an hour to spend here if we wanted to get something to eat and/or use the restrooms.
We had a look around the different food outlets before deciding to go Mexican. Trevor had beef tacos and I opted for a plate of nachos. We washed our food down with a cold Budweiser each. The nachos were quite disappointing actually; there was no meat at all, just a few kidney beans, and there were no jalapeño peppers, which I love and which form an integral part of nachos. Also, there was no guacamole. Nonetheless, the food filled a hole and we were fairly full when we got back on the bus for the return journey to the Balmoral.
It was about 9.15pm when we got back on board, so I went and got showered and changed and we started to pack up a few of our clothes and things, in readiness for putting our cases out later on, ready for disembarkation tomorrow morning. 🙁
We then went along to the Neptune lounge for the late show. This evening it was the Balmoral orchestra, giving their tribute to the “Big Band” era. They are an excellent orchestra and their concert was superb. It’s just a pity that the show lounge was only about a quarter full; most of the passengers were either making the most of their evening in New York or had gone to bed, anticipating an early start in the morning.
Afterwards we went back to cabin 4170 and finished our packing, only leaving out what we would need tomorrow morning. Then off to bed for our last night on the Balmoral. As the ship was moored up it was nice and quiet, and we both slept well.