DC or NY . . . Were you there?

[IrishAm]

1. Food; we were told not to bring anything in so we had to buy food. The concession near us had LONG lines and after waiting an hour we were told that they had run out of food. Shame on Yankee Stadium - its not like they’ve never handled a sell out crowd before.

I think we may actually have suffered more in DC. The gates opened at 5:15 a.m. I arrived about 6:30 a.m. AND THERE WAS NO COFFEE. (There were rumours of coffee; but I traveled length and breadth of the stadium and never saw it being sold or consumed.)

They can pull off a Papal Mass with all its pomp, circumstance, and security, but they can’t get a bunch of Catholics coffee at the crack of dawn? A serious sin of ommission, in my opinion. After confession, I got a jolt of caffeine from a Diet Coke.

 

[Melissa]

My oldest two sons and I were at NYC for Mass.

We saw exactly three protesters on the way in and none on the way out. Middle son asked me why they were doing that. “Because some people like to wallow in their ignorance, son.”

It’s really hard to separate out the highlights. We were sitting up in nosebleed (section 25, for those who look at a map of Yankee stadium), but had a really nice view over the shoulder of the Pope during the Consecration.

Highlight one: When he first stepped out of the Popemobile. For the first time in my life, I saw the Pope without seeing him filtered through TV camera lenses.

Highlight two: Watching him (again unfiltered, though I could also see a screen that gave a face-on view) consecrate the Eucharist.

Highlight three: the homily

Highlight four: getting there. We were staying in a hotel over in NJ, took the ferry over and then continued with NYC Mass Transit (bus and subway). We found that at our hotel was a mother/son pair from Kentucky who were also going to the same Mass. So we traveled together on the shuttle from hotel to ferry port, bus from ferry port to Grand Central Station, and Grand Central Station to Yankee Stadium via the D line. At every stop along the way, we seemed to be picking up more and more Catholics headed to the same place, very few other travelers (well, I guess considering the service advisories, most people were not trying unless it was urgent or that was their destination). It was just a very different feel from other subway trips where every traveler has his little bubble that thou shalt not infringe upon.

The cops were all very nice and friendly, even the one who made the mistake of telling me what the actual temperature was at the moment (waiting in line for the ladies’ room). (Me: Ack! Don’t say that. I feel much better when I don’t know the actual number. His partner puts a hand over the first one’s mouth: He didn’t say nothing.)

The gift bag was nice, and I’m really glad we got to keep the tickets. They are so pretty and such a great a great keepsake.

I can probably think on it a little more, but we went to the natural history museum today and just got home.

 

[mikeledes]

Our group had no problem leaving Yankee stadium. In fact, I was surprised that we were able to get out of the stadium so quickly. Since we were on the lower level, maybe it was easier for us to leave?

Although our Manhattan parish is not too far from Yankee stadium, the church rented a charter bus for the event. Though it was quite expensive ($35) - a round trip on the subway or bus costs $4 - I think it was worth it. It made things a lot easier and it was nice to share this experience with others.

God Bless,
Michael

 

[anamchara]

I think we may actually have suffered more in DC. The gates opened at 5:15 a.m. I arrived about 6:30 a.m. AND THERE WAS NO COFFEE. (There were rumours of coffee; but I traveled length and breadth of the stadium and never saw it being sold or consumed.)

They can pull off a Papal Mass with all its pomp, circumstance, and security, but they can’t get a bunch of Catholics coffee at the crack of dawn? A serious sin of ommission, in my opinion. After confession, I got a jolt of caffeine from a Diet Coke.

Oh no :hypno: I hope you had some before you left the house!

That’s too bad about the food. How odd that they ran out. Did they not know how many were going to be there? Perhaps due to the length of time people where there caused the shortage of food.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

We received a letter with our tickets saying what we could or couldn’t bring. Ours didn’t mention not bringing food, so I did bring sandwiches and water bottles.

My umbrella was confiscated though.

Also getting through security was somewhat cumbersome with a 3 year old, a purse, a diaper bag, cell phone and camera. When I had all that out, they called out to have ID’s ready. But really DD’s guardian angel must have been whispering to her…she was so well behaved.

Now I have a silly question…when the doves were released did they fly away and join the New York pigeon population or were they trained to come back?

 

[mikeledes]

We received a letter with our tickets saying what we could or couldn’t bring. Ours didn’t mention not bringing food, so I did bring sandwiches and water bottles.

My umbrella was confiscated though.

Also getting through security was somewhat cumbersome with a 3 year old, a purse, a diaper bag, cell phone and camera. When I had all that out, they called out to have ID’s ready. But really DD’s guardian angel must have been whispering to her…she was so well behaved.

Now I have a silly question…when the doves were released did they fly away and join the New York pigeon population or were they trained to come back?

While we were on line to go through the metal detectors, the lady in front of me had a large umbrella. I told her that umbrellas were not allowed inside the stadium. When her time came to be screened, they allowed her in with her umbrella!

I don’t know about the doves, though I must admit that I though the same thing!

God Bless,
Michael

 

[Rtista]

I was at the NYC Mass and just loved it! It was my first time ever seeing the Pope and was so excited. I thought it was amazing to have a successor of Peter celebrate Mass with all almost 60,000 of us. One of my favorite parts was hearing the Holy Father sing the beginning of the chants. I thought it was so endearing. I thought the Mass was beautiful and feel so blessed that I got to witness it first hand.

It was a shame it was quite chilly. My husband and I were on the 2nd tier, completely in the shade and we were freezing most of the day. We kept having to go downstairs into one of the souvenir shops to warm up every so often. We watched most of the concert before Mass on one of the TVs at the shop.

The food situation was interesting…I’ve been to Yankee stadium for a game and never experienced that kind of chaos when it came to the concession stands. I waited almost an hour in line for a hotdog…whereas my friend went up one level and bought pizza from a place that had absolutely no line! I wish I knew of that place before I wasted time in line for a hotdog, haha.

As for protesters, I did see a few. My group and I were trying to collect the tracts (especially those awful Chick tracts) that the protesters handed to the Catholics. My husband and I did dialogue with them a bit. Some of them were very understanding and willing to listen to our side, while a few were screaming and shouting lies about things Pope Benedict XVI said. It did make me sad to see them there, but knowing that I was surrounded by 57,000+ other fellow Catholics made me feel better.

 

[busservice]

I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to say this or not, but please take into account that ONE COMPANY handled all of the transporation to all the events in New York for the Papal Visit. Everything from picking up each bishop and Cardinal to transporting the Holy Father’s luggage to the golf carts and transporting the Papal Entourange and Bishops and Cardinals with police escort. This is my company, Charter Demand. We (I personally) worked for months with Secret Service and NYPD along with the Archdiocese of New York (who hired my company) as well as the 100’s of bus companies we subcontracted with to make this event happen. I would love to hear stories, good and bad, from those of you that used a chartered bus. I have read that it was expensive but the truth is my prices were half the going rate because I held them long before the visit was publiclly announced. Now, with 2000 plus vehicles going there are bound to be problems and I am so sorry for the problems we had but I would love to read what people have to say and I will learn from any negative responses as well. i did not get to attend any of the events (I was supposed to go to Ground Zero but had to work in the office to coordinate the buses) but we watched what we could from the big screen and it was amazing and I feel blessed to be a part of it and to know that as sole owner of this company we were able to get 90% of the people there.
Sara Anderson
CEO and Founder
Charter Demand, Inc.