For
dinner, we sat at a table for four with Gail and Jim. We talked afterwards for quite a while, until
it was apparent that the wait staff was becoming annoyed; then we said our
goodbyes.
Although
we had planned to dance, we decided to return to our cabin instead, where we
watched an interesting movie about Stephen Hawking, The Theory of
Everything.
Monday,
21 Sep 2015 – We awoke to the alarm at 5:45 AM. Wondering about the outdoor temperature, we
stepped out on our balcony – and there, on the starboard side of our ship, was
a gorgeous view of the New York City skyline and the Statue of Liberty. Although it was still dark, lights sparkled
everywhere! After rushing to breakfast
by 6:15 AM, we returned to our cabin to finish packing. One of the most difficult times during
cruises for us is the final step of checking out of our cabin by the 8:00 AM
deadline. When we have run late, our
friendly cabin stewards have turned into ogres!
However, we’ve been gradually improving – and this morning we were out
by 7:45 – a record for us! Then, pulling
our hand luggage behind us, we made our way to Club Fusion, where we waited
with other Elite and Platinum passengers for our turn to leave the ship.
At 10:30 AM we disembarked the ship,
but it was 11:30 AM by the time we finished standing in the long customs line and
boarded our Princess airport transfer bus.
We arrived at the LaGuardia Airport at 12:15 PM.
At
the airport, the seating areas anywhere near our gate seemed to be set up like
a large restaurant, with mostly benches or hard-backed chairs pulled up to
counters or tables. The tables were all
equipped with I-pad looking devices, on which you could check your flight
status or order food or drinks. To Sally,
it seemed a little like a “Steak ‘N Shake” restaurant. After playing with the menu for a little
while, we decided to walk back (pulling carry-ons) to the food court for
lunch. This area also seemed peculiar to
us. On could pick up anything from fruit
items, a buffet meal, to pizza. After
deciding to order two slices of pizza, then we had difficulty figuring out
where we should pay. The “pizza lady”
seemed a little annoyed with us and pointed to another area for payment. A woman there scanned our credit card for
payment; then we returned with the receipt to pick up the pizza. (Most wait staff was completely eliminated in
this process!)
After
consuming the pizza, we pulled our luggage back to our gate. This time, we saw a few empty seats of the scarce
conventional (somewhat comfortable) type and ran for them because they were in
high demand! Finally, at 4:25 PM we boarded
our plane, which then waited in line on the tarmac for another 30 minutes
before finally taking off. The flight to
Minneapolis was only about 2.5 hours, just long enough for the serving of complementary
drinks and [tiny] snacks, and we soon found ourselves making our way though the
Minneapolis – St. Paul Airport to our gate.
When we first entered, we were shocked to see that the seating was the
same as in LaGuardia – apparently the new trend for airports. However, we did manage to find a couple of
traditional seats near our gate, where we waited for our turn to board our
plane to Peoria.
At
9:30 PM we landed in Peoria. The hardest
part was Jesse’s search of the parking lot for our vehicle; we had been running
very late, and he didn’t notice exactly where he had parked. After our 1.5-hour drive back to Bettendorf,
we finally made it to home-sweet-home at 11:30 PM. Back to cooking and straightening up – where
is that cabin steward?
Signing off
from another WONDERFUL cruise!
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