12/20/08: Day 56: New York

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Originally uploaded by Rance Rizzutto Photography

It is cold in New York. Coldish, I guess, in comparison to Chicago. BUT, we got to see snow! Something we didn’t get last year out of Miami.

On our way off the ship we this morning Deanna and I saw Jane L. Powell and J. J. as they were waiting to leave. It was good to get to see them on their final day. They’ll be back on an NCL ship for sure, possibly the Gem again. That means we have new entertainment this week. I’m not sure who.

My shoulder is still being a big stupid. Luckily I have a chiropractor appointment in Cape Canaveral on Monday. TWO DAYS AWAY!

I plan on getting some video clips of an area in the Garden Café that I call “Der Junction.” It is one of the more narrow areas right by the end of the buffet. Also in that area are the entrance and exit for the crew taking dirty dishes to the back. For whatever reason, this area makes passengers go “der.” They can leave the Great Outdoors area and walk straight and true towards the indoor buffet…knowing full well where their destination is and sticking to their path. But once they get to this narrow bottle neck…”der.” They stop. They start conversations. They play a trick on their sibling. Something that gums up the flow of traffic. Always. Keep an eye out for moments of der.

Just pre-boat drill today was the busiest I have ever seen the buffet…ever. It was as if everyone was just right there. Then, after I hit the gym (which was busy) I got to the buffet for dinner around 6:45…it was the DEADest I have ever seen. We have a tight turn around on New York days. In Barcelona we had all the time we needed…people slowly got on and there was never any real back up in the buffet on day one. There also wasn’t a good turn out for the pay-to-eat restaurants while in “the Med”…Deanna thinks NCL needs the chaos of a tight turn around to give people that first impression that the buffet is packed and annoying to get them to go to the restaurants. We’ll see how it goes.

Also, it is snowing on the ship. Snows!