New York, New York

Today I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and decided to take a look out the window to see where we might be. We were just docking and had a fantastic view of the Statue of Liberty from our cabin and balcony.

We were out of the cabin at 8:30 a.m. to wait in one of the lounges for disembarkation which ended up being delayed about an hour. Sixteen immigration officers had been requested by Cunard, but the government only sent ten, so the process was quite slow. Once through customs, we found our car and driver and had a typical New York city traffic-filled drive to our hotel, the Michelangelo, at 51st Street and 7th Avenue.

When we got to the room and opened the door, there was an employee working in the room, shampooing the carpet. We had to go back down to reception and were given a different room. It is an upgraded room which is almost as large as the studio apartment we once lived in. By 2:30 p.m. or so we were finally settled into our hotel room.

Having not eaten much all morning, we had burgers in the hotel bar and took a walk around the neighborhood, then back to the room. The location of the hotel is great as we are only a few blocks from familiar landmarks like St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Plaza, etc. Neither of us had been in Manhattan for quite a few years, so it was fun to see some of the touristy stuff again. Here are a few pictures of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

And some self-explanatory pictures:

Having eaten such a late lunch, we went back down to the hotel bar (they have no actual restaurant) around 7:30 p.m. for a couple of glasses of wine and a few appetizers as our “dinner.” Then back to the room for the end of what felt like a long day.

[Forgot to mention earlier - we were saved from ourselves because the cruise line no longer held art auctions. Although there were some sculptures in the art gallery that tempted us, we did not purchase any art on this cruise. Now that's a first!]