I had booked a tour of Lower Manhattan with a scenic drive through town. We were asked to meet at the Princess Theater at 8an an hour before the tour was to begin. Ths was to allow for extra time for Border Security to do face-to-face interviews. We did this once before and it went through easy.
This time we had to have our passports, a card issued by Princess declearing us to be "Passenger in Transit", and a declaration for BS about what we were leaving behind in the US. So passport and papers in hand we filed into the theater and sat in groups depending what tour we were booked on. Mine was Orange 18. And we waited, and we waited, and we...
One group that finally walked out said they had been waiting 1,5 hours. So a while to go yet, only 40min had passed at this stage. After 1 hour and 45 minutes we were tolk to proceed to the gangway and into the Terminal Building where they were waiting for us. More waiting. A snake of a que bending 5 times as they do at the airport. There were about 10 officers on duty, but they could fit in 8 more as there were 8 empty stations by the time I got to the last 'bend'. A couple of the officers had left (for morning tea?).
We had to have our finger prints and eyes recorded and answer a few questions, then our passport was stamped and we were free to go. Our tour started 1.5 hours late! Makes you want to come back? ?
Our tour guide seemed a nice guy, not young, he was a senior like most of us. In the bus it was fine, but when we left the bus and he was telling us something, only half a dozen people could hear him, he had a very soft voice. He took us to a park (Battery Park?) opposite the Statue of Liberty. Next we had a look at the Winter Garden (which we all thought was a garden of sorts), but it is a building with a lot of financial offices, a couple of cafees and a chemist (where I replenished my shampoo). It had a nice glass roof and some tall palm trees. Many of our group was unhappy that we had not had an explanation about what we were going to see.
Our driver took us around town, we passed the Stock Exchange and the Millenium Hilton before stopping for a visit to St Paul's Chapel. It is situated almost opposite Ground Zero, but was not damaged by what happened on 9/11. A small church built in 1766. The building was hidden by too many big trees, impossible to take a photo from the outside. In April 1789 after George Washington had taken the oath of office as the first president, he visited this church and came back several times since till the Capital was moved to Philadelphia in 1790.
Because of our late start, we had to cut a couple of the sights including the Brooklyn Bridge. A couple of passengers asked if they could be let off at Times Square, so we found a spot to park and they left. We then went through a few more streets and back to the ship. Much easier to get back on, the officers from this morning had all gone.
This morning we had an update on our itinerary from our new Captain. We were meant to visit Antigua next, but a storm is on its way so to play it safe, we will go to Aruba instead.
Statue of Liberty
Winter garden
Ground zero rebuilding
New tower at ground zero
Empire state building
Fire escape on building
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