Traveling to Cancun got off to a rough start. I was behind on all my tasks after the food poisoning incident, which left me suffering from more than a bit of exhaustion and a really bad stomachache before we left. I didn't get around to packing until a couple of hours before we were supposed to leave for the airport and couldn't find a lot of my stuff due to the cluttered state of our apartment and not knowing where anything is anymore. It was a really uncomfortable process but we eventually got "on the road" about 30-45 minutes later than we planned. After pulling an all-nighter, we were both so tired and cranky.
Luckily, the ride on the E train was smooth. We got seats by the time the train left Manhattan and it was a quick express ride over to Jamaica, Queens where we would catch the AirTrain. Being a bit of a late riser (I really wish I were a morning person), it's always amazing to me how many people are up and about as the sun is just coming up. There were a bunch of people commuting to school and to work and not even 8 am.
We arrived at Terminal 5 for our JetBlue flight and breathed a sigh of relief. The last time we had been there, a summer afternoon on our way to see A's parents, the terminal was packed and it was a chaotic mess. There were travelers from one end of the terminal to the other, circling lines everywhere, security lines so long that you couldn't tell where they led, and very long waits. This time it was peaceful and a breeze.
We had to check a bag but there were less than 10 people waiting for that. When we got to security, there were 2 people in front of us at the ID check and then only a few people ahead of us at security. This was my first encounter with the full body scanner. It looked like every line had it. I'm not really sure where I stand on those as I haven't given it much thought. But I was dumb and forgot to take off my fitbit which came up in the scanner and so I got an upper body pat down. Oops.
The entire check-in and security process this time took 15 minutes or so, max. Last time we probably stood in one place for 15 minutes without moving. It was that bad. It was so terrible that it made me question if I even wanted to fly JetBlue again out of JFK and it's always been my go-to airline because they have more legroom and individual TVs. I was glad that this visit restored my belief in their efficiency.
Since it was still pretty early and we had lots of time, we grabbed some breakfast. With the stomach pains and food poisoning recovery process, it was not easy for me to pick something. The options at Cibo Express (sandwiches, salads, soups, etc) seemed like the safest choice. While A got some oatmeal (no photo but he said it needed more water), I went with split pea soup with ham and we split a chicken provolone sandwich.
Breakfast wasn't that exciting. Later we rested by our gate (the last gate in the wing), basking in the bright morning sunlight (where I paid my credit card bill that I had forgotten to pay that morning and then wrote this post about hope) and enjoying the free wi-fi in the terminal (which worked well by the gate but not so well by Cibo). We were tired and fading, but managed to hold off on sleeping long enough to board the plane.
Next up: we fly to Cancun!
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