Cruise Journal is Live
OK, I've finally got the lori-and-al blog database rebuilt and all the cruise entries and photos posted. You can see them all here in chronological order. I figured I'd end on a nice note—photos of our last day at sea—rather than describing the disembarkation process. Actually, disembarkation itself wasn't *too* bad; it was more the chaos outside the terminal that got to me.
I'm not very good in crowds, and I'm especially anxious now that I have a belly to protect. As when we arrived for our cruise, there was complete pandemonium on the sidewalk outside the terminal, with porters forcibly clearing paths for themselves with the carts they pushed, hundreds of people with luggage all trying to figure out what the system for getting a cab was, and hundreds more being dropped off for the next cruise.
We got a ticket for the cab queue, and Al and I attempted to get behind the section 3 sign, where we were told to wait. Al got through the crowd, but I got my suitcase stuck on someone, and while politely waiting for them to move out of the way, I lost my opening. The porters pushed through from the other direction—and I do mean pushed. They literally shoved me backwards with their carts as I frantically tried to protect the belly. Unfortunately I was pushed into another group of people, who shoved back, nearly toppling me over my suitcase and onto a cart. I fought the urge to panic.
When I finally managed to unentangle myself and force my way through to Al, I broke down and started to cry. The whole scene was totally stressing me out. Al was very sympathetic, tried to comfort me, and took more blame than he was probably due for abandoning me to the crowds. After that he was ultra-protective, shooing away anyone who came within two feet of me.
We finally got a cab and made it to Penn Station at around 12:30pm; obviously we'd missed the 11:05am unreserved train that we'd intended to take. (The ship docked as scheduled at 9am, but it took over two hours to clear customs, and then we could only disembark according to baggage tag color—which in turn corresponded to travel arrangements and deck number.) The next train was the all-reserved (and all-booked) 1:05pm regional, so we hung out for the 2pm Keystone service. Once we got on the train, it was smooth sailing. Er, no pun intended.