Just when I thought my days at sea were over . . . and I intended them to be so . . . I am off to a ship. Today I start my journey to serve (briefly) as the Entertainment Production Manager on the M/S Norwegian Star. The Star is the sister ship to the Dawn and actually, we tendered next to each other in Belize City, Belize, and docked next to each other in Cozumel, Mexico, all during my winter months in the Caribbean. Anyway, I am working on the Star for just 4 weeks, and only three voyages, in the Baltic Sea. NCL calls this itinerary the Baltic Capitals Cruise. We begin in Copenhagen, Denmark and travel to Warnemunde (near Berlin), Germany; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Stockholm, Sweden.
I left my condo at approximately 10:15am. Phylis Philpson, my neighbor and good friend, rode with me to the airport and drove my car back. I was supposed to leave, Ft. Lauderdale at 11:48am, but weather caused us to leave about an hour late. We did make up some time in the sky, and arrived at JFK International Airport in New York City about 40 minutes late.
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| Yes, that is Fort Lauderdale in the background. Thank you, Google. |
My darling Erin Craig took the subway out to JFK to have a bite to eat and a drink with me. Well, Delta is in Terminals 2 and 4 at JFK (3 is closed) and is connected by a shuttle. Unfortunately, we found out (the hard way) that there are no restaurants outside of security at either terminal. Fortunately, there was a small Starbucks in Terminal 2, so we grabbed a Frappuccino each, and sat in some airport seats for about an hour and a half, watching people arrive to the airport and check in. While I admit that I much prefer a leisurely glass of wine in a more subdued environment, it was great fun to see Erin and gab. And now we have a silly story/memory.
I boarded my international Delta flight at approximately 6:30pm and once again, due to summer weather, we left an hour later than planned. We were scheduled to leave at 7:20pm, but didn't end up taking off until about 8:30pm. The weather caused our "corridor" (air highway) to be closed. Hey, better safe than sorry, as far as I'm concerned. We took off and I partook in a few glasses of red wine (which is free on Delta's international flights, thank you very much!), had dinner, watched LINCOLN, and tried to sleep. Damn an 8+ hour flight is NOT comfortable! I don't know how crew members that have 11, 12, 13, etc. flights (sometimes more than one) do it! I did have an exit row window seat which was nice. The plane's seating configuration was 2-3-2, which was a nice size - not too big and not too small.
Sweet dreams . . . well, not quite, but I tried . . . I dozed on and off. One of the strangest things was that as we headed east, and caught up to the sun, shortly into our flight, there was always light on the horizon - that was an odd thing to see and sensation to feel.
