I've been to New York many times. My most previous was six years ago when I took a Panda Tour for Hawaii football at West Point to play Army. Stayed at the Sheraton, a short walk away from the Marriott Marquis. This was the prime hotel for the 1964 New York World's Fair, and was at that time called the Americana. 501 feet high, this was once the tallest hotel in the world, with around 800 rooms. Our flight from Honolulu arrived early in the morning, and the 200 in the group had to wait in one of the ballrooms until mid-afternoon. I was a Sheraton Lifetime Platinum member, so thought I'd check if I could get my room early. I did, was successful and took a nap at 8:30AM while the others just did not do much. It was raining outside. We had a nice visit to West Point, although we lost the game. Also went to Yankee Stadium, had a Nathan's foot-long and garlic fries with beer. Went to see Book of Mormons and Beautiful . Used the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus, and, of
Today, our cruise on the Queen Mary 2 from Southampton to New York City, actually, Brooklyn. A few things about Cunard. Has been sailing for 184 years. Founded by Sir Samuel Cunard to provide transatlantic service in 1840 with the Britannia He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1787. His father fled the American Revolution because he was a Loyalist to the British Crown. By 1900, Cunard advertised their ships as floating palaces, and shared design features similar to The Ritz. Lusitania and Mauretania had revolutionary steam engines, where the first ship to shore by Marconi wireless transmission was made on them. The Lusitania was sunk by a German-U-boat killing 1195 people in 1915, leading to the U.S. joining World War I. When the Titanic sank in 1912, Cunard's Carpathia arrived to rescue the survivors. In the late 20's/30's, Cunard got loan guarantees from the British government, merged with its rival White Star Line and launched the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.