New York Magic: Debarkation

By
Saint Greg

January 6, 2023

Good morning. I had my alarm set for 7 but I was up at 6:30. They started debarkation early this morning.

I heard muster station A3 called before I got in the shower. At 6:45 they said they would open up debarkation to anyone with all luggage until 7:30 then they would resume calling muster stations, which is now.

I requested a table for breakfast they assigned me a shared table again. I had them change it…again.

I never eat those bananas that come with my French toast but man, they look like sausage links today. I smelled one. Banana.

Broken egg sandwich and hash browns.

It’s 8:05 now. It seems he’s called muster stations A3-5, B3-5, and C3-4. Now he’s calling for luggage tags 1-15. That’s me. I have just under 4 hours until my flight out of LaGuardia. I’m not in a big hurry.

At 8:15 they called muster station D4.

I’m heading down.

They are routing us through the theater.

Cruise Director Ryan Rose is seeing everyone off the ship.

I will be back on Magic in February.

I found my luggage.

Customs was moving slow. It looked like the old school lines. I think they had facial recognition but I’m not certain. Another agent came through the line, glanced at my passport and let me go.

USS Intrepid.

It’s kind of a madhouse outside. I didn’t book the Carnival transfer. It was $40 and the bus was between piers 88 and 90. Uber/Lyft were in the $52-65 range when I was upstairs. Now they’re mostly in the $60-75 range but I was able to grab an Uber for $56.

The app wanted me to meet the driver on this corner which would mean walking down that fence line and back.

I manually adjusted the pickup point to pier 90 which is where I’m standing.

He drove past me then sent two messages.

He came back.

This bus was blocking both lanes for a few minutes.

Finally my driver arrived. I loaded my own bags. This isn’t the most friendly driver in the world but he’ll get me there.

I started my debarkation process at 8:15 and was in the Uber at 8:53. We are scheduled to arrive at 9:27. My flight leaves at 11:59am.

It’s a really small, easy airport to navigate.

I left Some things out of my bag like hairspray, deodorant, hand soap., spicy ketchup. Just to make sure I didn’t go over the weight limit at 40lbs. I came in at 37.5

The terminal has plenty of kiosks to print bag tags and boarding passes.

Check-in is right through the door. This family in front of me had all kinds of problems that held me up.

Just after check-in is security. They had just one TSA agent for awhile which slowed things down. Then just before my turn they added a second one. The family in front of my had more problems and a couple of them were sent back to check-in.

The security lady at the body scanner had a real attitude. I get in. She says take your belt off. I do that. Then she says pull your pants up. Not that they were falling down or anything it wasn’t even noticeable to me. But I said something like “Well you did just ask me to take my belt off.” She says “Do we have a problem here?” No. “Oh good I thought we had a problem we needed to rectify.”

Even after I went through the scanner and was collecting my belongings. I heard her talking to another security officer. “I thought I was going to have to rectify that.” Or something like that. She’s just looking to start trouble. It’s not like I wasn’t doing what she said. I just made a comment while I was doing it. She doesn’t like comments apparently.

I found a bar and a Brooklyn Lager.

It’s hot in here. I’m sitting here sweating.

This guy next to me has been drunk talking on the phone for like half an hour.

He’s getting another beer and shot. That’s like three since I’ve been sitting here.

There’s no telling how long he’s been here. I heard he was heading to the airport at 7:30. He may have been here a couple hours already.

He just got another beer and shot.

I just closed out. I figure we should be boarding soon and I’m ready to get on the air conditioned plane in my big front seat.

I guess boarding started.

I wonder if that guy is gonna make his flight. He’s still at the bar. I heard him say his flight was at noon, which could be mine.

The guy next to me walked on the plane without scanning his boarding pass. They tried to give his seat to standby and it caused a big kerfuffle.

I think one of the flight attendants broke wind during takeoff. One of them was laughing profusely and clearing the air immediately around him with a safety card. It sounded like they were having a “whoever smelt it dealt it” type of conversation. Two male flight attendants of course.

The guy who started the kerfuffle during boarding looked at me when the odor first emanated. It was not me. The flight attendant did it.

I opted against all inflight purchases. I think I’ll hit In-N-Out Burger after I get back to my car.

Even if you don’t have the WiFi package, you can connect to the Spirit network and get flight information with a map at spiritwifi.com.

Just south of Lexington, Kentucky one of the pilots emerged from the cockpit to pick up snacks and beverages.

I dozed off for about 30 minutes and woke up between Nashville and Memphis. That’s how comfortable these seats are. I usually can’t sleep on planes. The last time I did was on an overnight flight to London.

We are going around some weather in Arkansas. The fasten seat belt sign is on and passengers have been asked to return to their seats. It’s less than an hour until landing so we should be descending soon.

45 minutes until landing. Kerfuffle guy decides to utilize the lavatory but he’s struggling with the operation of his seatbelt. Finally he figures it out. This is the same guy who boarded without getting his boarding pass scanned. I hope he picks the right door when going to the lavatory.