We woke up and found we were back in NYC. Docking was so smooth it didn’t even wake us up. We got dressed and headed up to one of the restaurants open this final morning. There were limited options and limited hours due to being disembarkation day. Since we were scheduled to depart in one of the last groups, we had a leisurely meal before heading back to the room.
In the room we finished packing and checked every closet, shelf and drawer to make sure we didn’t leave anything behind. Everything fit comfortably in the rollaboard and our backpacks.
We watched TV and checked our phones (finally, internet access again!) and listened as the boarding groups were called. Around 9:15 our steward came by to notify us that we had to leave our room. There is a lot of cleaning they needed to do before the next set of guests could get on that afternoon. We double checked we had all our stuff and headed up to deck 7 where we would eventually get off and waited for our color to be called.
Disembarcation
Around 10:00am our color was called and we got in a long snaking line to get off the boat. The line moved quickly at times and then stopped for long periods. Once we got off, we realized this was because there was a backup getting through passport control and they didn’t want to let too many people in that area at once.
Getting off the ship consisted of simply scanning our key cards. We then made our way down the gangway to the dock and then down an escalator to the immigration area to get our luggage. The lines were long and they didn’t move very quickly. Once we collected our bag we had yet another line to wait in to get through passport control.
We’re used to a more expedited process using the Mobile Passport app or TSA Global Entry, but neither were available in this cruise terminal. After about 30 minutes we were finally through and officially back on US soil. We didn’t need to go through the customs check because we didn’t buy anything on our trip.
Getting to our Hotel
It was pouring rain outside the terminal and there was a mass of confused people trying to figure out how to get a taxi or meet up with their ride. In order to grab our Lyft to our hotel we decided to cross the street and wait under some scaffolding around a build under construction. This would be less busy and we’d be able to stay dry while our driver found us.
The driver was only a few blocks away and took about 5 minutes to get to us. We were quickly off to the New York LaGuardia Airport Marriott hotel we had booked for the next two nights while we visited family.
Without much traffic it only took about 35 minutes to get to the hotel. We unpacked and checked in, hoping they had a room ready. There was a room and we were able to check right in.
It was lunch time and we nabbed another Lyft to get some lunch. Back in the hotel my wife and Tomatico wanted to take a nap so we split up. I went to the gym with our youngest and we had a nice workout. Tomatico then joined us in the hotel concierge lounge while my wife slept some more. It was nice having that space to spread out and relax outside of the room. My wife really needed to nap and the room had some basic snack and fruit as well.
For dinner we had some Indian food delivered and ate it in the lounge as there were tables, plates and silverware available. We got some excellent use out of the lounge during the stay.
The rest of the trip
We spent two comfortable nights in the hotel and visited family during the day. We got breakfast vouchers for the buffet for all four of us for both mornings we were there. We realized we had 10 straight days of free breakfasts, which is a record for us. The hotel was definitely a good choice because of the lounge and location.
After finishing our family visit we finally ended up at home. The trip was finally complete!
Tomatico Travels 
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