Day 16 Panama & Carribean Cruise

Day 16 New York City

We breakfasted in the lobby of the hotel; Sandra and Kat had discovered that Eggs Benedict was invented in the Waldorf Astoria so they had to try them – they had been eating this particular breakfast practically every morning on the ship, so they also needed to do a comparison. I think all of us were pretty disappointed with the breakfast; the service was very slow and when the cooked breakfasts finally arrived the potatoes were cold – Sandra called the waiter over and got things sorted out. The taste test came out in favor of the QM2 - all this for $75 per couple. Just to be clear, we don’t mind paying top dollar for top quality and service – in this respect the Peacock Alley Restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria just did not come through.

After breakfast we hiked back down to Time Square to see if we could procure ticket for the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes Christmas Show – we had assume it would open at 10AM, but were surprised to find it did not open until 2PM.

We jumped in a taxi and headed to the Museum of Natural History – this is the one with the big dinosaur skeleton in the entryway where they filmed some of the movie “Night at the Museum”. We paid our $24 entry fee (which included extra to see the special “Silk Road” exhibit) and spent a few hours checking out the well presented exhibits. The Silk Road exhibit was well done and very informative.

The Metropolitan Museum is directly across Central Park from the Natural History Museum; and so, with only my iPhone as a guide, we set out on foot to traverse the park. The weather was cold but bright and dry so the walk was very pleasant. We did take a few detours to look at some of the beautiful bridges and lakes, but after about half an hour we made it across.

The entry fee for the Met is $20, but the coat checking is free! After paying our way in we headed straight for the restaurant having burned a lot of energy crossing the park – actually it was late afternoon and we had not had lunch.

Since Sandra and I had visited the Met about 18 months ago, and Kat and Mike had not, we decided to split up and meet up again at the end of the afternoon. The collection in the Met is unbelievable; everything from modern art, ancient Egypt, sculpture, grand master painting… We really tried to focus on just a few of the things we wanted to see, but it’s really hard not to get distracted as you move from one area to another. After a while it just becomes a blur… oh another Rembrandt, oh another Monet, oh another blah blah. When visiting a museum like this you really have to take a few breaks as you going through to appreciate it.

Dog tired, we jumped in a cab and headed back to Time Square for our second attempt at procuring Rockettes tickets. It was about 5PM and the traffic was snarled all the way down 5th Avenue – we move at sub-snails pace. Finally we arrived at the square; there were lots of street vendors with carts selling roasted nuts and we couldn’t resist a bag of sugared cashews (Sandra’s favorites). There was no line at the ticket booth and we amazingly got 4 tickets in the 4th row, orchestra section, for the 8PM Rockettes show – for $43 each! On the way back to the hotel we fell into another Irish bar for a quick beer / cocktail – it hit the spot.

Back at the hotel we had to do a quick turn around and then back head out; we decided to get a taxi to the theater – even though it was fairly close. The cab driver gave us a hard time for only asking for such a short ride – it was about 3 blocks, but we were low on energy, so we didn’t care.

The Rockettes show was simply out of this world; I have to admit that I did not know quite what to expect – I knew there would be lines of chorus girls doing high kicks but it was so much more than this. The show included 3D animation (we had to put on those special glasses), singing, amazing dance routines, integrated video graphics and live animals (yes they had sheep, a donkey and 3 camels parading across the stage). The show lasted about 90 minutes and it was non-stop action; we all thought it was amazing – and our seats were fantastic.

Wandering back towards our hotel we noticed that St. Patrick’s Cathedral was open so we popped in for a quick look. St. Patrick’s is an impressive building; although not that old by European standards, it still presents a commanding presence with high vaulted ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows.

Even though it was a quite late (for us anyway) we were felt the need to replenish the calorie stores so we stopped and had a drink and some pizza at a place called Alfredo’s just off 5th avenue. The pizza was extremely thin crust and excellent, Kat had the Alfredo – it was also very good. I found the ambience to be a bit yuppie and the service was not the best; although the waiter was honest enough to admit upfront that the beer selection was garbage – he was right. Our waiter also warned us about the festivities that were going to take place the next night; the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockerfeller Center. Basically the area around Rockerfeller Center, several blocks in all directions, gets completely closed off to traffic and totally jammed with people. We trudged back to the hotel; we are all really knackered and looking forward to a good night’s kip.