July 3^rd, 2026

New York

It was a HOT day in New York. We got up early so we could visit the nearest CVS pharmacy to purchase items that had somehow been missed getting packed a few days ago.

I love the food from New York food trucks, but it was too early for hot dogs, my favorite, so we settled on what had promised to be a grilled cheese sandwich from a truck across the road from the CVS. It was a mistake. Processed cheese on a soggy bagel is not my idea of a grilled cheese sandwich, but hey, we are in New York, Manhattan, a few blocks from Times Square. What is not to love?

I ate half of the bagel, fearing that consuming the whole thing might result in severe digestive issues down the road.

Our boarding time was 1:00 PM and usually it takes us half an hour to get to the port, but we thought that with all of the activities today – I mean there is THE wedding happening, World Cup matches, and thousands of people here for the Sail 4^th 250 celebrations, not to mention the very unique Times Square ball drop – that the roads would be chaotic, and I didn’t want to miss a single minute on board, so we requested our transfer for 11:00.

It turned out that we had a very savvy driver, who was very cognizant of how to get around New York when it is overflowing with people. We arrived at the port at 11:30.

I didn’t think we would be allowed to check in, but no one seemed perturbed, and we went straight through security and check in, and in about 10 minutes we were seated in the waiting area.

It filled up soon, but we had seats, and novels to read, and I could almost touch my ship so I was very happy.

Then promptly at 1:00 someone shouted something, and in no particular order everyone in the waiting area swarmed towards the door, so we hastily got up to join the throng and make our way up the escalator and across the sky bridge. In a matter of minutes, there I was on deck 3 in the air conditioned Grand Lobby, listening to soothing piano music and looking at the spectacular flower arrangement.

Yay! I am back in my happy place.

Everyone was being directed to deck 7. We tried to avoid that and head straight to our stateroom, but to no avail. We were told we had to go to deck 7 first.

The throng was milling around tripping over their abundance of hand luggage making for quite a chaotic scene.  The area around the lifts was packed, and people were struggling to get their hand luggage up the stairs without falling over. This was disturbing my Zen feeling, so we snuck away and managed to avoid the deck 3 police and went to our stateroom, dropped off our hand luggage, and then peacefully made our way to our muster station on deck 7. Phew, that was not good.

It was time to go and drink the Pol Acker and await our luggage. What greeted us in our room was not what we expected at all. No Pol Acker. There was the Cunard bubbly instead. OK I can deal with that. But only half a bottle? Usually you get a half bottle like everyone else, and then another half bottle for being a World Club Member, so that means a full bottle, but no more. You only get half a bottle, and they try to make up for it somehow later. I still think it’s a swizz.

But wait there’s more. No ice bucket on the hottest day of the year? The poor little half bottle was standing all alone on the table. Not even a welcome back card from the captain to keep it company, just 2 champagne glasses and a coaster. It was too warm to drink, so it was relegated to the fridge.

Despite the announcements that due to the extreme heat there was a delay in delivering luggage, our 2 suitcases arrived soon after we did. With only 1 week’s worth of stuff unpacking was easy and soon we were settled in. There were even more than enough of those annoying hangers they force upon you in Britannia.

We had a lovely lazy afternoon just enjoying being back on board, and checking out the best place to watch the parade tomorrow. We settled on the area at the front of the ship on deck 14. It should give us a great view.

Then it was time to shower and get ready to meet up with friends in the Commodore Club.

It was good to be back there, and although they don’t serve canapes any more, they do have crisps, so I was very happy. Bubbly and crisps, just what I needed.

The ship is staying in Brooklyn overnight, so we didn’t have to close the shades in the Commodore Club and it was wonderful to look out.

It was sunny and I had a good view of the Statue of Liberty in the distance. But then suddenly the sun was hidden by dark clouds, and we could see lightening in the distance.

It grew darker and darker.

The visibility got worse.

And worse.

The lights flickered and then announcements came from the bridge about issues with the skybridge and how we were going to have to switch from shore power back to the ship’s power, and that the gangway was closed.

This all made sense as there was quite the storm raging outside, with fierce winds. But we were reassured that our lines were holding and all was well. Good. I would hate from Mary to come to any harm.

It continued to pour, but suddenly the sun appeared in the distance.

And just like that the rain stopped, and it turned into a beautiful evening.

We had dinner in the Britannia dining room. There have been some menu changes, and the extra charge for some items is annoying. However, there was roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, and apple and apricot crumble and custard, so I was very happy.

Anderson Cooper was doing a show on CNN about the countdown to the midnight ball drop in Times Square and it was being live streamed in Illuminations.

We decided to check it out, but there was absolutely no one there!

So we went to see the show, Broadway Rocks.

We hadn’t seen it before and I thought it was really good, with so many costume changes I lost count.

Then when we returned to our room, there were goodies waiting for us.

Yes, tomorrow is the big day!