Getting here was not easy. My crazy routing from New York to Boston and onto London on 31st December did not come off as scheduled. As we were about to get airborne at Logan, there was a bang and the pilot aborted the flight. We taxied back to the terminal and learned that cargo had shifted and damaged the aircraft. As there was no space from Boston or New York that day, I boarded a flight back to LaGuardia, but before we could take off in a heavy snowstorm, we were de-iced for 90 minutes. I got home at 3:30pm then set out for JFK at 6am on January 1st, arriving London on the AA daylight flight at 9pm, then took the Heathrow Connect (cheaper than Heathrow Express) into Paddington and a bus to Westbourne for a delayed New Year's celebration with good friends.
Today, I took a bus back to Paddington then the Bakerloo Line to Waterloo and the 10:39am Mega train to Southampton (GBP1). If you read the October blog, this time I got on the right train. I knew one other passenger (who paid GBP1) also headed for the QV and a friend boarded at Basingstoke as planned, having cycled to the station from Old Basing. At Southampton, four other friends and my traveling companion were waiting in the foyer, and we drove to the White Star pub for lunch, with the picture window view directly down a street to the former White Star Line headquarters. It's a great pub and I enjoyed an excellent bangers and mash and good conversation.
We then, as per usual, went to the end of the Town Quay for group photos and a view of the only passenger ship in port, Queen Victoria berthed at 106, the Mayflower Terminal, the historic site for the P&O ships. Arriving about 3:30pm, there was no line at all and we boarded quickly. We have cabin 4080 with an unobstructed view of a lifeboat (number later!) with another lecturer next door.
Lifeboat drill took place for us in the Queens Room, a much better and more comfortable location than I am used to onQM2, the gym sitting on exercise equipment. Sailing was delayed about an hour, and at 6pm we moved forward to just opposite the now moribund-looking King George V Drydock and made our turn and headed down Southampton Water.
Various people came up to speak, Mrs. Farmer whose husband had been QE2's Chief Engineer for years, and others who knew me from previous crossings. We stayed until opposite Cowes then went inside as it was very cold, but dry.
Captain Paul Wright announced that we would make the Great Circle Route, at least as far as the weather holds, and that the 3000+ nautical miles call for 17 knots. The weather tomorrow and perhaps the next day will involve up to five-meter waves, then he will let us know.
The ship is full and there is a very large contingent of Germans, a group of about 400 who apparently all arrived at once. More about the passenger list, etc. tomorrow. It is now time for second sitting at 8:30 in the Britannia Restaurant.

Ted aboard Queen Victoria westbound to New York.

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We secured a really good table in the Britannia Restaurant, second sitting, located all the way aft overlooking the stern. There was little engine vibration after we accelerated from Nab Tower pilot station. I shared the table with Jim Shaw from the other Milwaukie in Oregon (slightly different spelling) and Jon Miller and his daughter Emilie from near San Francisco. I have known them all for about a total of 65 years!
The two servers were a Ukrainian and a Mauritian and they seemed very professional. The slow-cooked port chop was excellent and very tender. I stuck with a single Strongbow after two very early mornings and an accumulation of fatigue. At first, the wine steward said he should not be serving me as my key card showed I was underage. So he suggested I go to the Purser's Desk and have it straightened out. I did and suddenly became much older but felt no difference at all.
We had an hour's walk on deck, but not completely around as the circuit is interrupted at the forward end by a crew area. While it was feasible, a security camera aimed straight at us kept us in line. Then to bed after midnight in calm seas and a terrific night's sleep.

Saturday, 3 January:

I awoke at 8:45, dressed quickly and had a quick breakfast to meet, at 9:30, a fellow lecturer, Chase Untermeyer, who wanted me to show him the ropes and find the cruise director's office for our marching orders. It is tucked away on One Deck and the door is unmarked unlike aboard QE2. We received our schedules, and checked lecture titles, bios and photos.
His lecture on the recent U.S. election was excellent and he had a terrific background to speak about politics - an elected state representative, a variety of political appointments, including choosing personnel for the president and an ambassador placement to Qatar. All the questions came from the Brits, and with so much interest, they could have gone on quite a bit longer.
Then we forgot that we were to have lunch in the Golden Lion and went to the Lido instead. The atmosphere is so different from the rest of the ship and one could be on a Holland America or many other ships with the layout, apart from the historic seaside England murals. It is fun trying to guess where they are as I have had a keen interest in the subject since the 1960s. The food is fine but it was very hard to find a table even after 1:15pm.
I wanted to finally see the film National Treasures and did so in the Royal Court Theater, a very comfortable place, after which I had a meeting with the chief technician about tomorrow's talk. My time is sandwiched between the Sunday Catholic Mass and the Protestant Service so I need to keep to a tight schedule.
Then to the Internet Cafe to write this up and just as I was checking the text, I lost the whole lot when the satellite connection failed. There was no time to write it again straightaway because of a TV interview with Amanda Reid, Cruise director, in the Admiral's Lounge. It is fun to do these Q&A sessions, though I have to remember to pretend that it is 6am tomorrow and not 6pm now as that is when the morning program airs, and it is meant to be viewed as live.
With the captain's cocktail party coming up shortly, I dashed back to the Internet Cafe to bang this out again so it is all a bit rushed. The sea is rising a bit now, and it is much colder than yesterday.

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The captain's cocktail party was held in the Queens Room and one had the choice of standing in a not very long queue to shake his hand, which I did, or to go up one deck walk forward and then down one deck and aft, as most seemed to do. The setting is good until the captain begins to speak. QE2 had and QM has raised portions around the central gathering area to view the captain and his officers officers while QV's raised areas are very low. Hence, the captain quickly loses his audience with those more than a bit far removed. Anyway, he anounced round figures of 1000 Brits, 600 Germans and 40 other nationalities, so I have to get more specific figures, including the next obvious group - US.
At dinner I ordered a double fillet portion and it came nice and rare as ordered. The cheese selection is pre-plated with four different cheeses and a selction of three biscuits (crackers), an adequate display. The cheese cart brought to the table is now long gone.
The show, a male Scottish singer, was very sparsely attended, then I realized that he competed with the popular Black and White Ball, but still I would have expected more. He responded to the small crowd, something that never makes an audience feel very good. His patter was a bit silly and long but his renditions of Neil Diamond's and Elton John's numbers were very good, so the evening was worthwhile. By 11:45 when the show was over, the ship seemed quite dead. We had a 20-miunte walk on deck then to bed as it would be an early work day.

Ted aboard Queen Victoria westbound to New York.

(Photograph Theodore W. Scull Collection)

The cabin is very quiet and the curtains thick enough to keep out the morning light. I arose at 7:45 and was in the Lido for 8:15, and as the clocks were not retarded during the night, there were a number of open window tables. Jim Shaw joined me a half hour later and by 8:45, the passengers were pouring into the breakfast areas.
I did a few turns around the deck to clear my head then went to the Royal Court Theater where at 9:45 the Catholic Mass was winding down. The technical staff then dismantled the mass and began setting up the podium etc. for my very first ever PowerPoint lecture. I had a flash drive and a DVD, and the ship had assured the Southampton Entertainments office that the ship had Microsoft 2007 (just been upgraded), and I need not bring my laptop.
Well, the stick would not open, nor would the DVD as the clock ticked past 10:05 and a good audience was patiently waiting. Then a young woman suddenly arrived and in two minutes all was right and I started the talk - Cunard Line from RMS Britannia to MV Queen Victoria. I was pleased with the reaction, and one man came up afterwards saying that he could add to my comments about many Clydeside houses and flats being furnished with decorative items and carpets destined for the QE2 when under construction. He said come visit some time and he would show me, though he did not specifically mention his home!
I had mentioned that Queen Victoria would be docking at Pier 88, North River and not Red Hook Brooklyn, and that started a bit of consternation. Some still believed, as their documents indicated so, that the ship would call in Brooklyn. I saw Captain Wright in the wings as the Protestant Service was soon to begin, so I said "excuse me" and ducked into the shadows and came back with Pier 88.
The church service was well attended though two of the four hymns were not at all familiar to me. We ended, of course, with "Eternal Father Strong to Save....".
Three of us joined another couple in the Golden Lion Pub as all the tables were full. They were Americans from Jacksonville, FL and they said that we were the first Yanks they had spoken too, and they had already sat with numerous others - Brits, Germans and French. He owned a travel agency and gave seminars about the cruise industry and she was a lawyer. We had a lively conversation about our likes and dislikes of ships and lines. I ordered the Chicken Korma, chunks in a very light curry sauce, with a side dish of Yoghurt, rice and papadum. The others had decent but not great fish and chips and a more than passable Wiener Snitzel as the daily special. The pub has a good, woody, is shiny new atmosphere and we will return, partly to avoid the Lido at lunchtime. Breakfast there is enough.
Jim Shaw and I then walked the deck for 90 minutes playing various ship guessing games. The main event was alternatively naming passenger carrying ships that had Queen in their name, and foreign spellings such as Reina and Koningen were allowed. The contest lasted about 30 minures and was great fun. After I said Eastern Queen, and there were two that carried passengers, the game came to an end, and had included the entire BC ferry fleet with "Queen of" names.

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Before dinner, as is our want when possible, we went up on deck looking for a sport. QV has shuffleboard, deck quoits but the table tennis surface was all blistered from the salt air and there seemed to be no paddles about. I did not see any basketball but maybe we have missed it but then this is a ship geared to Brits and Europeans. So we opted for paddle tennis, using a tennis ball and enclosed by a netted cage. As it was dark and the lights rather dim, it took some time getting used to the lack of light, at first missed the oncoming ball altogether about half the time The hardest part was judging the distance when the ball came short over the net.
So an hour of that and a 90-minute forced march about the deck worked up an appetite for dinner with the main course being rack of lamb. Both Jon and I ordered double, and we got three huge chops rather than the dainty racks I expected. The meat was good and rare as we liked. One table member cannot eat wheat or citrus, and Marina, the Ukrainian waitress, certainly knows her stuff when it comes to what she can choose. I suppose the staff has to but she is very much on the ball.
We looked in on the singer, magician, comedian and he was good for a half-hour diversion, then a 15-minute walk on a very foggy and damp deck. It all seemed rather mysterious about the ship as no one was about on deck. Evene inside, the bars were pretty empty at midnight, with the clocks soon to be retarded. Thus far, and it is three days, we have run into only two Americans we do not already know.

Ted aboard Queen Victoria.

Monday, 5 January;

Slept to 8:15 and even at 8:45 we were able to find a nice sunnyside table in the Lido, the ball of the sun just a few degrees above the horizon. It was a bit of a rush as I wanted to have a look at the lecture - "Monuments of the Metropolis" (New York) - before I went on. Jon offered to lend me his laptop, and when I phoned at 9:15 he was still asleep. I waited a bit then collected it and am glad that I did as the technical staff could not get the DVD to work again. The young woman who helped yesterday could not be found, so we scrambled to hook up Jon's and got started about five minutes late. That does not sound like much but the talks are carefully timed to be able to finish before the next speaker, or in this case the noontime announcement.
The pressure threw me off a bit more than yesterday, so it took a bit longer to find the pace. The topic covers New York's skyscraper architecture, bridges, neighborhood streetscapes, the subway and some of the places that it accesses such as Brighton Beach and Coney Island. The theater was almost full as so many on board are spending time in the city. I invited anyone to come up to see me outside the bookstore to talk about New York or ships.
Quite a few came to the table and some even bought books, though I have not yet touched on the contents of the two. That happens the day after tomorrow. People seem to enjoy remembering the past and talking about it, whether ships they have traveled or worked on or past memories of New York, my two topics. The most interesting man had been a radio officer on Blue Star Line ships and then for Central African Airways before that position (radio officer) was phased out.
We had lunch in the Golden Lion Pub again and the special was a hamburger with bacon and blue cheese. The place is very popular and certainly feels like an English pub. It is very easy to meet other people, so several came along for a chat, and questions about visiting New York.
The weather is most definitely deteriorating and QV is creaking like a ship as is pitches and heaves. The fleeting sun of midday day was quickly erased and the sky turned dark gray and the sea began kicking up, chop on top of more substantanial ground swell.
We hope to do something active outside before dinner, with reservations then in Todd English tonight.

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We found a good table tennis location in the Winter Garden so played an hour before dinner in Todd English. We were welcomed by James, the maitre d', and he told us that he had started with Cunard on the Queen Mary in 1964, then in 1966 moved to the Caronia, then Franconia and finally QE2 before coming here just after the voyage ended at Dubai. What a long and wonderful carrer he has had, and he seems to be a happy man.
Dinner for the three of us was superb, and it revived my interest in Todd English after two just okay recent experiences on Queen Mary 2. The position on Deck 2 is private and one has the choice of private banquettes or tables. All of the former were taken so we had a well positioned table for four where the view was to the side of the ship rather than into the atrium. I would say the restaurant was only half full.
I started with Truffled Potato Love Letters in a Madeira Glaze, a signature dish, and it did not disappoint. I had first tried this ravioli shaped hors d'oeuvre aboard QM2 on the maiden voyage and thought it wonderful. I then added the grilled octopus and squid, and as a main course, the grilled veal loin with artichokes, roasted porcini and creamy polenta. Dessert was a Fallen Chocolate Cake. Service was wonderful, and the Romanian sommelier a shear delight and a highly sophisticated woman.
After dinner we spent a lot of time out on deck watching the ship plunge into the waves. She rides better than I had expected, and our cabin is aft enough not to feel too many slams.

Ted aboard Queen Victoria.

Tuesday, 6 January:

We had stayed up until 1:45am so we slept in a bit this morning until 8:15. Instead of going to the Lido for breakfast as it would be very crowded around 9am, we went down to Cafe Carinthia where at breakfast time there is a coffee bar, fresh fruit and pastries. For a $1.00 cup of tea or a $1.75 coffee, you can then have the rest with a choice of about eight complimentary pastries. It was so much more pleasant, with the option to sit at the bar as we did, or in a comfortable lounge chair. Curious that no one else partook.
Captain Paul Wright came by and he joined us for a coffee then invited us to dinner. He talked about his experience aboard a tug being delivered transatlantic to Saint John, New Brunswick early in his seagoing career. The voyage took 18 days and most of the time, the sea was running higher than the funnel. He had hoped to get to Canada to land a job with the Canadian Coast Guard but the only one available was way out in the Pacific so he returned to England. He later worked on the Empress of Canada between Liverpool and Quebec and Montreal.
The day was a rainy and stormy one so I spent very little time outside. We were making about 17 knots at noon. All the lounges had a homey atmosphere with passengers reading, chatting quietly, playing games, and doing puzzles. One group had formed a sewing circle. Fencing took place in the Queens Room. The card room was packed with an overflow group in another lounge.
I went to a good lecture about tornadoes and then another about U.S. foreign policy. The first lecturer had music blaring during his lecture the day before and none of the technicians could turn it off. There are problems in this department. Several of us then had lunch in the pub, and the special today was chicken pot pie and continued the discussion about foreign policy for about an hour.
With the late last night, I took a nice nap before descending to write this. It's now 6:45pm and the Internet Cafe has been completely empty and silent, apart from the crashing sea, for the last quarter hour. At 5:30, it was packed.

(Photograph Theodore W. Scull Collection)

Ted aboard Queen Victoria.

Wednesday, 7 January:

For the first time, it was a bit difficult to sleep because of the sea conditions. At breakfast, Captain Wright came by Cafe Carinthia and stopped for a coffee again. He reported that the waves were up to 11 meters, so that is a good sea. I think the ship rides remarkably well for a cruise ship, and the extra length apparently helps a lot. The state of the sea was very rough and streaked. Before he left, he invited us to the bridge for 3pm.
Then I went to rustle up Jon's laptop, and took it to the 11am lecture on the Middle East, a fair appraisal of the complex situation that exists there. It takes time to boot and get the PowerPoint lecture up and running.
The topic today, at 12:15, was Ocean Liner Twilight, segments from the book. They included French Line crossings on Liberte, Flandre (both 1958) and France (1968), Rotterdam in 1966 en route to a year in England, San Marco and Cristoforo Colombo home (1969) from Istanbul via Trieste and Windsor Castle from Durban to Southampton in 1968. It was not as big a crowd as yesterday but then it was a more awkward time and it was not about New York. One passenger came up afterwards and said he had tears running down his face when seeing all the beautiful ships he knew when growing up in Cape Town.
The passenger breakdown is roughly 1000 Brits, a few less than 600 Germans, just less than 100 Americans, and in fourth place, 28 Swiss, plus 40 or so other nationalities. 1000 will be in transit at New York.
We had a pub lunch again, becoming a routine and running through the menu. Then at 3pm we climbed to Deck 8 via Stairway A to be escorted to the bridge. Captain Paul Wright and Staff Captain Andrew Hall were in attendance. I had a nice dicussion with the latter as Canberra was his first passenger ship. He loved her and QE2.
The bridge is fully enclosed, and there were six officers in up there during our visit. We were well within sight of snowy Cape Race, first ten miles away then down to about four. It was the very first time I have ever passed this close in several score of crossings and only the second time I have seen land here. A lighthouse blinked every ten seconds. The officer of the watch gave a brief commentary.
This bridge had an instrument that gauges the height of the waves, the interval between the swells and the stress on the hull, then makes a suggestion about speed and course direction. It is quite new and Queen Mary 2 does not have one. The officers consider it experimental at this stage. They agreed that if we were aboard Golden Princess or her type, we would have to reduce speed to 10 knots and not 17 as now. 16 to 17 is all the ship needs to average for this passage.
We stayed a half hour, talking and watching the streaking waves, then had a look outside. The decks were still much too slippery to walk on so we went to the lido pool and photographed the ice cicles dripping off the handrails. It's now 6pm and time to get ready for the daily table tennis, the Cunard World Club Party at 7:45 and dinner in the Queens Grill at 8:15.

Ted aboard Queen Victoria.

Thursday, 8 January:

Dinner last eve in the Queens Grill was a delighful experience. It is located in a pod suspended over the deck with views fore and aft and over the side. The Princess Grill is its twin on the opposite side. We sat with a couple I had met on Canberra 30 years ago, and his family owned a shipping agency in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He represented French Line, Royal Mail, Pacfic Steam, Horn, Harrison and others and what great stories he had to tell about arranging for passengers and crew to be put in jail, shipped off to a nearby island and dealing with deaths, illnesses and lawsuits. They are now retired and shuttle by sea between London and Winter Park, Florida. I have seen them often on Canberra, QE2, QM2 and now QV.
The Queens Grill has a wonderful atmosphere as it is so removed from the rest of the ship unlike the same aboard Queen Mary 2. It is also very quiet, and it is safe to say that maitre d' Osman does not have to deal with a single bad table. The two grills have their own shared bar which is probably too small for the demand and an outdoor deck for al fresco dining and open deck space on two levels, during finer weather than we are having now.

In fact, we are now in a nor'easter and I have to slow down my typing a bit as the ship is really moving about and wobbling. The wind over the open decks is now 60+ knots and the wave heights building. Now that is has warmed a bit, the ice on deck has gone. We went out to the open deck and really had to hang on as the wind really blasts through the narrower openings. I thought I was going to lose my glasses and have my reporter's notebook torn from my hip pocket but caught both just in time.
The view from the Commodore Club is great and a number of passengers seem to be glued to the wind streaked sea ahead. I sat there for about an hour trying to judge when the ship would really take a dive or a hit. The wind is expected to stay quite high until tomorrow morning. It is a storm that we were to have missed before docking in New York but it picked up speed and we hit it.
The real weather outside made for a nice parallel with a lecture on water spouts. I saw two once off Cape Town from the Windsor Castle but they did not sweep over the ship.
I talked with one of the stewards today, and he says that he makes about half of what he made aboard QM2. His cabin here is smaller, has no carpet and no fridge (yet); it is to come. Internet was late in coming too but he does have a TV. He likes the ship and said the living conditions are adequate though as times he feels like he is in a prison especially when he can't get ashore, especially from Queen Mary 2 at so many launch ports. Still he would rather work for Cunard.

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The Force 9 moved the ship about quite a lot, some major jolts but mostly flexing, and again, better than expected. I would not hestitate for a second to make another winter crossing in this ship. She is a delight during the day with so many activities and places to roost - to read, chat, play games.
We attended the third cocktail party in the Queens Room, and a point that Hotel Manager David Hamilton made calls for another second venue to vary the scenery. When the ship leaves Los Angeles, the passenger make up will vastly change to 500-600 from the UK, 700 from the U.S. and about 200 Australians. About 100 cabins will have just one person occupying. So many Brits will leave along with virtually all the Germans. There seems to be no unnecessary carpiong between the Brits and Germans.
At dinner the table moved about quite a lot but pleasantly so. It was rarely noticeable after the first hour unless one actively paid attention. I rather liked it and wondered if it was good for the digestion. It was kind of like not hearing sirens in NYC after all these years. Beef Wellington was great as was the Fallen Chocolate Cake. We watched the comedian, trickster and were mildly amused. He was right from English seaside pier traditions.
Out on deck, it was now very rough, and spray was being drawn onto the Boat deck, so one needed to watch out for the next wave and avoid going too far forward. On the highest desks, the wind when funneled was easily hurricane force and a tight grip was needed climbing the stairs. Above was a three-quarters moon and it was hard to leave the deck to call it a day.

Ted aboard Queen Victoria.

Friday, 9 January:

I slept quite well in spite of being jolted awake a couple of times when we hit a deep swell. Over the course of the seven days, we have not had a calm day, so one could say that the seas have been half moderately rough and half truly rough. Some passngers may have felt differently but I did not hear from them. I mostly have positive conversations as passengers come up to share stories, talk ships or New York.
With a 10am talk, I hustled down to have a quick breakfast in Cafe Carinthia then collected the laptop from Jon Miller's cabin and ran through the PowerPoint presentation before heading to the theater. I was not expecting a very large crowd as it was early, with no time change and the disembarkation talk coinciding. By 10am, the Royal Court was easily three-quarters full. As I stepped up to the podium, there was a nice round of applause, only the second time that has ever happened.
The talk was the Port of New York, an old favorite that I continually update, a bit of history how the port grew and changed with containerization and the cruise trade replacing the liner crossings. Then I show what it looks like today and what to see along the waterfront. Passengers then get the sense of geography and where they arrive, happily at Pier 88 and not Red Hook.
The seas calmed somewhat and the sun came out between clouds creating a beautiful seascape strewn with whitecaps. The temperature was just at the freezing level and happily the decks were ice free making for a brisk, windy walk in some of the freshest air one could ever experience. I would say that of the 25 or so people out promenading in the afternoon, most all were Germans. We spent a good hour in the mornning and another in the afternoon. We met an APL container ship and overtook two tankers. Our speed today was roughly 16 knots.
Tonight is the last, and we will play an hour of table tennis then meet some others in the Commodore Club before dinner at 8:30pm and early to bed (maybe) with the early start. Captain Paul Wright announced to the passengers that I would be giving an arrival commentary beginning at 5:45am, and that I had not yet been apprised of this yet! He does have a good sense of humor.
This may be the last blog whilst on board, and I will send a final one when ashore and back home probalby about midday on Saturday.

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The final afternoon aboard was a delight with a brisk winter's day out on deck doing the rounds, though not completely of course. Other ships appeared as the sealanes narrowed for passing the Nantucket beacon.
We played a last game of table tennis in the Winter Garden and deck quoits in winter conditions, then retired to the wonderful Commodore Lounge for a beer accompanied by a pianist. It is really a splendid room and works well all day long.
The slow cooked prime ribs was great, and there was no skimping on quantity. The stewardess said that I would not need to order a double for this main course and she was right. The food in the Britannia Restaurant left nothing to be desired and the service right on the spot. Both wait staff were rewarded with something extra and our table companions did the same.
The moon was nearly full and high overhead by the time we had a last walk on deck about 11pm. The wind had died a bit and the seas calmed to a moderate state. Wisely, the clocks were out back one hour.

Ted aboard Queen Victoria.

Saturday, 10 January:

On 10th January, morning came early. Arose at 4:50am to be on the bridge before 5:30. We had picked up the Sandy Hook pilot at 4:20, and according to the Staff Captain, we were due to pass under the V-Z Bridge at 5:52am. My position on the fully enclosed bridge was a high-back captain's chair with a micophone sprouting out of a console. I pushed a button, waited three seconds, then talked.
I had a flashlight to glance at the my notes to get the statistics right for the bridge and Statue of Liberty. At this hour, there was a moderate amount of barge traffic and the hourly Staten Island Ferry run as it was a Saturday morning.
Heading up the North River, the Chrysler Building was still lit and the Empire State Building not. We passed the Intrepid and the Concorde then began to make the turn into Pier 88, Berth 2. There was a flood tide but the ship with its noisy thrusters did not need tugs at the bow, just one at the stern. We were alongside by 7:15.
After a quick breakfast, we descended to Deck 2 for self-help disembarkation. Most people in the short queue were in transit passengers. The gangway opened a 7:55 and we filed along the looping route into the newly refurbished terminal. No one seemed respond to my question why there were not separate queues for US and non-US citizens, so we were stuck behind a very slow moving process. I then stepped out of line and asked someone who seemed to be a bit more swift, and she said come this way and we were through C&I in two minutes.
We walked north a bit to take photos of the ship and then crossed 12th Avenue. The taxi rank had a good supply but we wanted to take the bus as we were then going in different directions. The M50 arrived at 8:20 and Jim rode it to Brodaway for a change to the #1 Broadway Line to Penn Station, and I continued on to 3rd Avenue and transfered to an uptown bus. I was back home before 9am.

It was a very satisfying crossing and the eight nights went by quickly.

Ted back in NYC.