Sunday, June 7, 2015
Sunday was a big rush of things. We had agreed to skip breakfast due to time constraints, which was fine with me since I never/rarely eat it anyway (I know, I know – most important meal of the day)
As planned, Michael arrived at our hotel and we put luggage tags on his backpack, made sure we had everything packed up and got an Uber. Tom had checked us out and we went out the door and into the Uber with all our luggage.
The ride to the temporary Steinway Hall was pretty fast and we got there about 10:30 or so. The doors were locked but Michael’s teacher arrived a couple minutes later and we were inside.
Eddie Strauss, Sales Manager, let us use the freight elevator to haul all our luggage to the second floor/mezzanine where we could leave it outside the Henry E. Steinway Recital Hall.
Although this is a temporary location while their new facilities are being built, it is very beautiful.
…temporary location at 1155 Avenue of the Americas.
This short-term “pop-up store” will allow Steinway to remain open as the new headquarters is being constructed, allowing for continuous service to its customers.
Steinway, well-known for handcrafting the world’s finest pianos, will now have a gallery space that encompasses approximately 18,000 s/for both retail and showroom, and a small concert hall that caters to the world’s most prominent pianists.
Michael played Johann Sebastian Bach’s Italian Concerto.
This video certainly doesn’t do his performance justice!
We played the first two movements of Peter Warlock’s Capriol duet (also, the video isn’t the best quality):
Speaking of video quality, Eddie told us that the new Steinway Hall will have professional recording equipment in the recital hall and that will make things much better for the future.
We left Steinway about 12:15 and took an Uber to the terminal. The driver left us at the terminal by the Gem about 12:35 but it was an easy walk next door to the Breakaway terminal at Pier 88.
We left our checked baggage and went through the terminal process very quickly. We never even had a chance to sit down and we were on board by 1:00. That was the fastest I have ever boarded any ship.
The Garden Cafe was crowded but we found a table without much effort. Before we finished eating, it was announced that the cabins were ready. Our cabin – 9918 – was fantastic! It was a bit tight for the 3 of us but we made it work.
The balcony was the best part. I had chosen an aft balcony on 9, starboard. We had 2 loungers, 3 chairs and 2 tables and plenty of room to move them and ourselves around.
Looking up to the other decks, we could see from the angle that ours was larger than the others above us.
There was a lot of storage but some was tricky to find. The bathroom was a good size, as was the shower. There were more shelves in the bathroom than usual and I liked being able to leave my stuff in there. I had read that there was no conditioner in the showers so I brought my own.
I also followed advice from Cruise Critic and brought magnet hooks for the walls and those were great for hanging hats, card lanyards and so on.
The end tables on each side of our bed were pretty narrow but we made that work. The lights beside the bed were a little high up, so I’d have to get up to turn mine off. Luckily, I read a Kindle before bed so I never really needed to use the bedside light.
Our luggage arrived before 4:00 pm which was really nice.
I had been concerned about going on a ship this size but there was really no problem. The elevators were crowded the first day but after that, no big deal. I would like to point out that we mostly always took the stairs going down and walked up if it was only 2-3 decks.
We got the unlimited internet package and it was well worth it for us. On other cruises, I would get the max minutes and always be watching the time – and I would still often run out at the end. I am the web master for a couple companies so I need to spend some time online each day. This internet package was a life-saver for me and we were able to share it between the 3 of us.
We also made good use of the iPhone iConcierge app. We used it as a messenger to let others know where we were and we made reservations for 3 restaurants and 2 shore excursions with it. I also checked how our account was doing. That cost us $7.95 per phone and was well worth it.
While we were waiting to “set sail”, there was a beautiful monarch butterfly that flitted from the next balcony over to ours. Butterflies always remind me of my good friend, Alice. I have a monarch butterfly as my phone background. I’d like to think that this butterfly was a reminder from Alice to have a wonderful trip.
Then, right after sail-away, the traditional First Nap 🙂 Our bed was great, very comfortable king sized with 2 pillows each.
Tom went out to a meeting, something that he would do at 5:30 every day.
We ate our first dinner in the Garden Cafe, followed by Guest Relations to get band aids, antiseptic and distilled water for Michael’s CPAP machine
Then, off to an early bed. Our steward, Bradley, turned the couch into a nice bed for our son.
Slideshow of some of our pictures:
All pictures for Sunday:
All Cruise Pictures:
NYC Weekend
This is a real surprise. I had wanted to see Aladdin for some time but they were always sold out when we were in NYC.
Our son got tickets for Aladdin for this weekend, in addition to The 39 Steps! He had sent calendar invitations. My DH had accepted and forgot we were going and I never got my invitation. 🙁
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Backing up to Friday. This weekend was supposedly so that my son and I could practice for our next Steinway Hall event. This time, we’re playing the duet Capriol by Peter Warlock.
The day that we do this, we’re also heading out for a cruise to Bermuda. Busy day!
The train ride to NYC was uneventful, if late. We have a timeshare in NYC but it’s always full so we can never go 🙁 We had a favorite alternative that we really liked but they converted into a long-term stay hotel.
So, we went to a new hotel for this weekend. I kept it in the same neighborhood so I’d know my way around a bit and we could eat at our favorite restaurants 🙂
We got to our new place and Michael was waiting for us. Hooray! After checking in, the next order of business was getting something to eat. We decided to Uber over to Union Square to be close to The 39 Steps show at the Union Square Theater.
Lots of places to eat but we decided on getting a snack at the Barnes and Noble and having a real meal later.
The show was wonderful! Very clever with only 4 actors doing all the parts with just a few props.
Different actors but you’ll get the idea:
After the show, we walked around a bit and ended up at Paul & Jimmy’s for dinner. It was a good Italian dinner. We didn’t have a refrigerator at our hotel, so I sent my leftovers home with Michael.
Saturday
Up early the next morning to go to breakfast at our old favorite – Scotty’s Diner on Lexington.
Michael had been to a place called The Cloisters and thought we might like to go so we Ubered (spell check doesn’t think that’s a word) north of Manhattan up the Henry Hudson Parkway.
The Cloisters museum and gardens is so peaceful and beautiful. You almost feel like you’re back in the middle ages. We had headsets as a guide and they used period music to help get in the mood. The Cloisters is a branch of The Metropolitan Museum of Art which is devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe, was assembled from architectural elements, both domestic and religious, that largely date from the twelfth through the fifteenth century.
Tom got a ton of pictures. I just got this one, in the garden:
After the briefest stop at our hotel and a too-short nap, we went to Michael’s to actually practice some. We had a snack at Ramen.co. I had a bento box and the others had burgers. The interesting thing about the burgers was that the bun was made of ramen noodles pressed together.
We then walked up past South Street Seaport, although there was a lot of construction going on so we couldn’t go in. We’d been there before, in January 2010 and took lots of pictures so it was ok that we couldn’t go again. When we were there in 2010 it was way colder and I’d had to buy a new hat and mittens.
After that, we walked along the bike/pedestrian path for quite a ways and it was very nice, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, even though we were walking next to it, and under an overpass! There was one poor guy out in a rubber canoe or kayak having trouble paddling in the current.
Back to the hotel to get ready for Aladdin! That was playing at the New Amsterdam Theater. Both the hotel and theater were on 42nd street so we walked – and made it on time! What a beautiful old theater, built in 1903.
Aladdin was fantastic! What can I say?
After the show, we stopped at Cafe Metro for some take-home food, then we hiked back to our hotel to eat that and for much needed sleep.
Sunday!
We made a change in our traditions and stopped at the Pershing Square Café for breakfast. We’d seen it while we were walking by the night before. Quite $$ for breakfast. Pershing Square is also on 42nd Street, directly across from New York’s famous Grand Central Terminal’s main entrance and underneath the Park Avenue Viaduct.
Our next stop was Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises for a partial sightseeing trip since we were short of time. We were 1 pier over from the one where our cruise ship for June 7, the Norwegian Breakaway, was docked.
The Statue of Liberty:
And, most importantly, Michael’s office next to the Staten Island Ferry
A bit of lunch (we eat a lot!) at Mr. Biggs in Hell’s Kitchen then over to Michael’s for more practice – the reason for this trip.
We took the subway back to Grand Central, then our hotel to pick up our bags. We took a cab back to Penn Station to catch the Acela and head home.
I think that’s it – we did about as much as anyone could do in 48 hours.