New York is Thatta Way, Man: Just Another SaUD Miracle Review- May, 2010 (Part 13)featured
So before I start the new review, I’ve gotta wrap up the last one, right?
I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I have a kind of spidey sense when I get my data service back on my phone. Something inside me just *knows* and wakes me up. And so I wasn’t awakened by Stephanie pulling me out to look at the Statue of Liberty or Mom demanding we wake up or the motion of the ship pulling into the Port of Manhattan…I woke up because my iPhone!sense was tingling. And sure enough, my cell phone service was restored (and I promptly called my best friend, even though it was, like, 4:00 am at home. It’s okay though- she and I are night owls and I knew she’d be awake).
Obligatory phone call to the best friend down, I got dressed, woke up Stephanie and we headed up to the Lido deck to grab a quick breakfast (fruit, a croissant and coffee for me…you don’t want to be loading up on sausage and bacon before you sit in the car for 13 hours) and watch the ship pull back into Manhattan. It’s not nearly as much fun going back in as it is leaving (because you just know vacation is over), but it’s so scenic and lovely. And even though it was freezing cold and super foggy, it was a nice way to cap off the trip.
Once we were docked, though…that’s kind of where the fun stopped and frustration set in. First, we went back to our room to meet up with Mom and grandma and then head down to the Jeeves Lounge for special assistance debarkation. For some reason, the ship was late in getting cleared and with our zone tags in the 20s, it was a long wait for us. This wasn’t good because A) We had a 13 and a half hour drive home, B) We had to return the rental car within the next 15 hours and C) I was starting to feel sick (and get sick I did…my sore throat developed into a sinus and double ear infection. It wasn’t helped by the fact that literally the next day, a few of my old friends came into town and we were running all over Chicago for three days and I got, literally, a total of seven hours of sleep in the three days they were here). So we sat in the Jeeves Lounge. And waited. I took my laptop out and started watching old Cubs games on my iTunes. And waited more.
We sat in the lounge for maybe two hours and *finally* debarked the ship around 10:00/10:30 am, which is the latest we’ve ever gotten off a ship. Things got a little frantic for us because we had such a long drive home and we had to return the car by 10:00 pm (we called Alamo and they told us that they’d charge us for an extra day if we didn’t). Thankfully for us, we were in New York and if you read my last Miracle review, the porters at the Port of Manhattan are amazing and fabulous and this wasn’t any exception. A super nice porter gathered up our luggage for us, took it up to our car and packed up our car for us. Mom tipped him generously and we were quickly on our way onto the busy Manhattan streets and on our way home.
The drive from New York to our home just north of Chicago is the longest drive we do, but it’s nice to be on the cruise ship in the morning and be in my own bed that night. I took the time to catch up on my news, catch up with my friends back home, go through my pictures and take random pictures of the landscapes we were driving through.
We stopped for a quick dinner at a Panera at an oasis in Ohio (I can’t mention enough how Ohio has the *best* rest stops ever) and kept on keeping on. We hit downtown Chicago around 9:30 pm (and hit traffic in the loop because spring construction was still going on) and finally made it home around 10:15 pm. We quickly unloaded the car and tidied it up and Mom and Stephanie went to return it. I went straight to bed because I felt like crap. Thankfully, the people at Alamo are nicer in person than they are on the phone and they didn’t charge us a fee for returning the car late.
And that wraps up the 2010 trip on the Miracle. Ups and downs, good weather and bad, somehow any trip we take on the Miracle ends up being amongst my favorite trips. Maybe it’s the sentimental value of being on a ship we’re so comfortable on and we just love or maybe it’s the fact that I believe there’s some sort of magic in New York. But looking back on this trip…writing about it and seeing the pictures…just leaves me smiling and happy. And that’s really the mark of a good trip, isn’t it?
