I caught a red eye (llpm) out of Seattle ..via Cleveland..the night before sailing time at 5pm the next day in the Big Apple August 27, 2009.

Within 10 minutes of stepping off the airplane at LaGuardia I picked my bag off the carousel.

Few minutes later a HAL rep greeted me and a half hour later climbed aboard a van bound for Manhattan pier 91. The driver did an impassioned monologue on his favorite NFL players, what team was going to win the Super Bowl...etc. asking and then answering his own question of the passenger in the front seat. He went the wrong way a couple of times but this gave us a brief respite from his gridiron report..that and the 57th avenue mild sideswipe by an ancient station wagon. As the scrape and run driver floorboarded into gotham traffic our driver got out to survey the damage. No scratches said he. Hmm. very strange. We all heard the scratch or scrape. Probably the van had a teflon finish. Or we just imagined it. Funny things can happen to a vanful of excited folks on the way to a cruise. Read more