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Published: September 28th 2017
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Sunday 24 SEP 2017
I awoke at 9am to the alarm, and sun shining through our 39
th floor windows. Rise and shine sleepyheads, time to pack up, check out and move on. We checked out late, stored our bags with the bell captain and Ubered our way to B and H Photo – my shrine of everything photographic. I planned on going earlier in the week but they were closed in observance of Rosh Hashanah –the Jewish New Year, the biblical name for this holiday is Yom Teruah, literally "day of shouting / blasting". I have been ordering cameras, lenses and equipment for 30 years from B and H. Their building took up almost a city block. I was so excited to get there I forgot to take any pictures except of the drone cage located in the drone wing of the store. There you could test fly any drone without fear of injury to self, others or drone. Way awesome – Santa I have been a good…umm mostly… boy and instead of a Red Rider Silencer I want a drone I can call my very own. After a few purchases we headed back to our hotel, grabbed our gear
Our room on the Crown Princess
The colors have not changed since 2008 and Ubered to the Brooklyn Cruise Ship Terminal. Our driver was from St. Louis, working as a stand up comedian by night in Manhattan and Uber driver by day. He had never seen a cruise ship up close and could not believe the size of our ship when he dropped us off. He had only been in New York six months and probably had never been out of the St. Louis area. I gave him a good tip on our Uber app and we were soon checking in to the cruise terminal. Hint – never arrive early to your cruise ship or you will wait in line forever. We were the only ones to check our bags and go through security, still 3 hours before sail away. Our cruise ship is the Crown Princess and strangely we had been on her before. Our first cruise was in the Caribbean in 2008 aboard the Crown Princess. We checked our 2 bottles of wine in our carry on backpacks with no problem (alcohol limitation- 1 bottle wine per person in carry-on), and made out way to our room, Caribe deck room 226. The Caribe deck has twice the size of balcony than
the floor above or below. Glenda immediately poured herself a glass of wine, got out the ship’s reading materials, and pulled up a chair on the balcony. We unpacked the bags, then headed to the buffet. While eating next to the window on the starboard (right) side of the ship, we saw two Osprey aircraft (can fly like a plane or helicopter) buzz by the ship and then both landed at a landing pier in the harbor. They were both painted blue instead of normal military colors. Next we saw one and then a second presidential helicopter (one is the decoy) pass the ship with another Osprey in pursuit. President #45 was either arriving or departing from his New York palace. One Osprey continued to circle the harbor around the Statue of Liberty while the presidential helicopters were loaded / unloaded then everything lifted off and then they were gone. New Yorkers are not fond of all the road closures when the Prez is in town, this was especially difficult for drivers since it was UN week and lots of black Cadillacs with police escorts took precedence over Uber driver road use. After dinner we went up to the rail
for sail away at 7pm. The sun had gone down and the sky behind the Statue of Liberty was turning red from the setting sun through the haze. All of the pictures were not altered for color, the sky was that color of red, great photography time! One thing I noticed about the passengers milling around on deck now that I got a chance to see the crowd, was that they were probably 70 years old and above. Lots of walkers, canes, poles, scooters and shuffling people. We are definitely in the lower 10% age category on this cruise! That means all of the early dinner seatings and shows will be packed, along with long elevator lines. We cruised out of the harbor and had a grand view of the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center as we left. We passed under the Verrazano Bridge and headed out to sea. Next stop - Rhode Island (and Lobsters!)
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