Buses, Trains and Ferrys

As I write this, we’re in New York City preparing to embark on the Queen Mary 2 tomorrow. We’ve had a lot of fun getting here.

We usually go down to Boston to catch the train to NYC the day before sailing but a couple of weeks ago we had a snow storm – really not that bad – and the bus service from New Hampshire didn’t run for whatever reason.  That got me nervous so I decided to go down to Boston the night before the train leaves because it would give us more options.

My brother drove us to the bus terminal in Concord, NH and we got the 1PM bus to Boston.  There was almost no traffic, I couldn’t believe it.  It was New Year’s Day but still…there’s always traffic to Boston.  On the way in we got a good view of the new casino in Boston, The Encore.  I had no idea you could see it from the highway.

I love Boston!  I worked here for many years just across the street from Quincy Market and it was great to go there for dinner.  Spending the night in Boston was also helpful for shopping…because we realized we forgot stuff.  I didn’t pack warm hats or gloves for the trip.  These will be needed on the transatlantic and our one day in England for sure.  Luckily there was an Old Navy (seen the ads – never been before) and we were able to get two hats and one pair of knit gloves for $8.50 – no joke.  Everything was 75% off or more.

Today we went out for breakfast in Boston and had lunch in New York City.  Our Boston hotel was walking distance to the train station and we had an uneventful trip to the big apple.  Not only was the trip nice but I actually found the correct exit out of Penn Station the first time!  Amazing!  From there it was a quick cab ride to our Manhattan hotel and we settled in.

Tomorrow we’ll take the ferry over to Brooklyn to catch our ship.  This is the first time we’ve done this and it sounds like a lot of fun.  The ferry will actually bring us along side the QM2 and we’ll have a short walk to the terminal and it only costs $2.75 per person.  You can’t beat that.

We did a dry run to the ferry pier this afternoon and saw that the next pier over is a helipad landing area.  There were several helicopters coming and going at any given time.  I’ve never seen helicopters fly and land so closely before.

We also headed up Wall Street to get a picture of the NY Stock Exchange, Fred is sure that’s why stocks were up today.

We can’t wait to get on the ship!