As I boarded, I noticed the first class cabin with its 16 leather seats in a 2-2 configuration. There was a drawn curtain and a bulkhead that separated that cabin from the 3-3 configured Economy class cabin; my home for the next few hours.
As I walked to my seat, I noticed that every seat had a blanket and a pillow in a sealed plastic bag on them, perfect, I thought. A guy was trying to stuff his item in the overhead and there clearly was no room, so I mentioned to him to use the other side of the plane. He looked at me strange, I think he must have been thinking that he can't use that side as it is not over his seat, but he did anyways. Once that was done, I was able to pass to get to my seat.
Two passengers boarded and at sat one on either side in the row in front of me. I guess they wanted a row to themselves; that did not last for long as the flight attendant brought by two persons who needed seats and asked them to sit in the same row. If looks could kill as the lady stared down the two others and so did her son. It was kind of comical to watch.
Everyone got settled in pretty quickly, an announcement was made with the flight number and destination in both English and Spanish and then the door was closed. Oh, just before the door closed, a passenger moved to the aisle in my row; I said hello, but he did not answer. I thought it strange, but just continued with my activities. He did look at me though.
We pushed back at 12:10a as the safety video (first in English and then in Spanish) rolled on the overhead monitors that flipped down from the overhead bins.
It took us until 12:31a to be airborne and it was the slowest take off in a Boeing 737 I'd ever experience. For a moment, I thought we would not make it. I commented to the guy at the aisle as to how slow the plane was and again he looked me straight n the face and said nothing; again I thought it was odd that he did not utter a word.
The takeoff was graceful and one could see the Manhattan skyline off in the distance. It was a clear unobstructed night so you see quite a bit.
I fell asleep for a while and awoke to see the flight attendants at the front of the plane with their service carts.
The movie playing was "The Game Plan" with the Rock; headsets were offered for free. The guy next to me offered me his, but I told him no thanks. It was strange as he was watching the movie without a headset and he offered me his. Again, I thought it strange that he still have not said a word.
He woke me to tell me my meal had arrived by shaking my shoulder. I was surprised by the meal choice of a hot charbroiled beef burger with American cheese, a salad with dressing and a brownie. This was served with beverage of choice.
The guy at the aisle was showing the flight attendant what he wanted as opposed to telling her, so it was then that I realized that he either could not or did not speak.
The meal was quite good, although I struggled with chewing the burger and only had 1/3 of the brownie. After eating, I spent the next few minutes trying to get food out of my teeth...
Clean up was pretty quick after, so within an hour after takeoff all the stuff was cleared.
At 12:37a, all the lights were turned out and the movie continued on the overhead monitors, it was time for bed. I shut the computer down and bedded down for the night.
I was awaken about 30 minutes out t get the cabin ready for landing. I pulled my seat forward, the guy in the aisle offered me a stick of gum, I declined and went back to sleep. We touched down momentarily and really braked hard. A resounding cheer erupted from the cabin; oh yea, Caribbean landings usually generate a cheer.
It as 4:46a on my phone, Ponce is one hour ahead of Newark.
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