QM2 May 1 boarding vs NY m arathon

[TouchstoneFeste]

We asked at our hotel how long it would take to get to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, and they said "10-15 minutes. Oh, wait! There's the marathon!" I'm not finding evidence for a marathon in Brooklyn tomorrow, just one starting at Riverside Park, but you may want to allow extra time.

[TouchstoneFeste]

9 hours ago, TouchstoneFeste said:

We asked at our hotel how long it would take to get to the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, and they said "10-15 minutes. Oh, wait! There's the marathon!" I'm not finding evidence for a marathon in Brooklyn tomorrow, just one starting at Riverside Park, but you may want to allow extra time.

Asked again. It's the five borough bike race. "Add 10 minutes. It's only 1.3 miles away. They can't screw it up that much ... in theory"

[Host Hattie]

Good luck for boarding today and Bon Voyage.

[TouchstoneFeste]

49 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

Good luck for boarding today and Bon Voyage.

Thank you. Very excited!

[BklynBoy8]

Today was not a Marathon per say but the NYC 5 Boro Bike Race that also affects the traffic in the NYC.

 

All 5 Boros are included in the biking..

[TheOldBear]

2 hours ago, BklynBoy8 said:

Today was not a Marathon per say but the NYC 5 Boro Bike Race that also affects the traffic in the NYC.

 

All 5 Boros are included in the biking..

Its the 5 Borough Bike Tour - its not a race, as the front of the event is constrained to 15 MPH by the line of NYPD motorcycles across the entire width of the road. For several years, I was one of the ride marshals just behind the motorcycles.

 

We now join your regularly scheduled thread, already in progress 😉

 

[frankp01]

On 5/1/2022 at 5:44 PM, TheOldBear said:

Its the 5 Borough Bike Tour - its not a race,

 

Having done that ride several times, thanks for clarifying that! It's definitely a ride, and a lot of fun.

[BigMac1953]

My son is on board at present (round trip from Soton) in Britannia Club.

 

They were at 34th Street, so took the ferry back to Wall Street, changed there for the Red Hook ferry, then straight through security and straight on board.

 

From entering the terminal, it only took them 10 minutes to board.

[frankp01]

2 hours ago, BigMac1953 said:

They were at 34th Street, so took the ferry back to Wall Street, changed there for the Red Hook ferry, then straight through security and straight on board.

We do that route, in reverse, to get from the ship to our train home.

[chatdad]

On 5/3/2022 at 4:55 AM, BigMac1953 said:

My son is on board at present (round trip from Soton) in Britannia Club.

 

They were at 34th Street, so took the ferry back to Wall Street, changed there for the Red Hook ferry, then straight through security and straight on board.

 

From entering the terminal, it only took them 10 minutes to board.

Oh how we would have loved 10 minutes to board.  Our embarkation two weeks prior took nearly 3 hours from the time we got into the first line.  Most of that was standing around to get Covid testing and the results.  Felt sorry for those who were struggling having to stand so long.  Didn't help the mood as those who paid big money for the pre-arrival COVID test (some upwards of $300) were a bit miffed as no one asked to see the results.  Not impressed at all with the embarkation process.  So glad to hear perhaps they've got their act together.  

[BklynBoy8]

54 minutes ago, chatdad said:

Oh how we would have loved 10 minutes to board.  Our embarkation two weeks prior took nearly 3 hours from the time we got into the first line.  Most of that was standing around to get Covid testing and the results.  Felt sorry for those who were struggling having to stand so long.  Didn't help the mood as those who paid big money for the pre-arrival COVID test (some upwards of $300) were a bit miffed as no one asked to see the results.  Not impressed at all with the embarkation process.  So glad to hear perhaps they've got their act together.  

Understand you very much.

 

Hope our boarding will be better in September in Brooklyn. We use to enter, Security, Property, on line to Check In w ID and Credit Card and to the priority lounge.

 

New experience to board seem to be the ticket this time coming.. Patience is the Key Word!

 

Keep clean on board

Edited May 5, 2022 by BklynBoy8

[TouchstoneFeste]

Our boarding in Brooklyn was no picnic, although the complications may have been due to the race. My understanding is that all of the NYC daytrips were cancelled due to the race, so when we arrived (roughly 10am) the outer entrance area was already getting crowded with roundtrippers waiting to reboard and other early arrivals. By the time they were able to start reboarding the roundtrippers (11am?), the place was packed. Possibly because of this, they had a wacky check in process in the outer lobby. Staff members were checking the basic documents (including proofs of vaccination, by the way) before we even got into the snake-line, and initialing the boarding pass. But this must have been an ad hoc procedure - it was never actually announced for quite a while, different staff were doing it different ways, and there was much retracing of steps. After passing through security, there there was a line for making a declaration of health status; this was handled pretty cleanly and quickly. Then we were sorted into Grills (and diamond members?) and everyone else; we Grills waited an additional half-hour or so in the waiting lounge, then boarded ... about 12:15, which was the boarding time on our passes. We'd intentionally arrived early, expecting problems, but might have been better off arriving right on time.

 

In any case, we just had a wonderful week on the Queen.

[Host Hattie]

Thanks for reporting back, it's good to hear that you had a wonderful week.

[TouchstoneFeste]

9 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

Thanks for reporting back, it's good to hear that you had a wonderful week.

Our first trip on Cunard. We're hooked.

[exlondoner]

1 hour ago, TouchstoneFeste said:

Our first trip on Cunard. We're hooked.

I hope your bank manager doesn't read this. 😀

[Underwatr]

I would apologize for having been among all the bicycles but I only made it about five miles before somehow coming off my bike (I don't remember a thing) and landing on my head in Central Park. 🤕

I spent a day in a hospital in New York before being released to the care of my doctors at home.

I'm returning to New York this weekend, hopefully to retireve my bike from the police who took custody of it when I was being led to an ambulance. Making a bit of a holiday out of it, with tickets to a show and the Guggenheim already purchased.

[Host Hattie]

Oh dear, I hope you're feeling OK now

[Underwatr]

On 5/12/2022 at 9:41 AM, Host Hattie said:

Oh dear, I hope you're feeling OK now

Well...?

 

My wounds are healing nicely (the cracked rib still bothers me when I roll over in bed) but now I've been diagnosed with COVID, which I likely caught either over the weekend during a return trip to New York City, or just before the trip (I'm in a weekly trivia league and when I let everyone know I was missing this week due to being in isolation the woman who I sat next to mentioned that she got sick the day after last week's match).

 

I'm doing well, with very mild symptoms and no fever since the day I was diagnosed, and I'm halfway through my course of the standard Pfizer antiviral "cocktail." According to the current guidelines I can join society (wearing a mask) on Monday.