After months of planning and anticipation the day to leave on the Carnival Triumph cruise with my sister arrived. What was different was that I was leaving on a red-eye. This meant a full day of work and a sketchy night of sleep to come.
The day went quickly as I worked to wrap up as much as possible and hand off the things that weren’t. After dinner with my husband, we headed to the airport to say good-bye for 12 days.
Since I typically fly out of San Diego in the early morning, I was surprised at the emptiness of the terminal. The first leg of my trip was to JFK where I would join my sister for the second leg to San Juan.
There were two flights leaving for JFK. The JetBlue flight that left 30 minutes earlier was packed and my Delta flight had nearly 100 empty seats. Yes, it was nice and empty and I had an entire row to myself. This allowed for me to get about 3 hours of sleep which was the majority of the flight.
We landed in New York a half hour early thanks to a kind tail wind and I set out to find breakfast before my sister landed later. Since I’m a fan of Chef Marcus Samuelsson I decided to eat at his JFK eatery, Uptown Brasserie.
The fact that I didn’t take pictures there isn’t just because I was sleep-deprived. The food was okay, but nothing spectacular and there’s a management problem there. The restaurant is supposed to open at 6 am. Finally at 6:20, doors were opened and I was the first customer seated by a non-interested host.
My server was good enough. The two best things about it was great coffee and a view of the airport (ask for a window seat if alone).
Before I knew it , my sister’s flight arrived and I went to the gate to greet her. I couldn’t believe how packed her Delta flight was and finally she was able to exit.
We made our way to the terminal for the San Juan flight and she got a bite to eat and I got more coffee. This flight was full but the crew was helpful. The free movie was appreciated even though they had to finally stop it due to a bad copy.
We even got free lunch! Well, it was a very good turkey and cheese sandwich with cookies. Sister T had the window and a great view of the ocean, islands, boats and more as we headed to San Juan. The landing was smooth and we were excited to be here.
After claiming our luggage we joined the taxi queue and were soon on our way to the hotel.
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