For her birthday on July 17, Felicia Perez had a special treat this year. She took a cruise on the Hudson River aboard the Spirit of New Jersey.
Perez was one of more than 200 senior citizens from North Bergen and Guttenberg to spend the afternoon seeing the sights, dining on gourmet food, and dancing to a DJ and live entertainment.
The best part? It cost her nothing. The trip was free to senior attendees as a gift from Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise and the Board of Chosen Freeholders. “It’s great,” said Bobby Bauman, a resident of North Bergen for 40 years. “I love the food. I love the dancing. It’s easy to get to. People are nice. They ride around the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island. It’s a lot of fun.”
“My favorite thing is the music and dancing,” said Joann Bourne, who had taken the trip three times before. Considering for a moment, she added, “And the food.”
“It’s a gorgeous day,” said Guttenberg resident Miriam Corrales, enjoying the sun on one of three outdoor decks. Corrales was making the trip for at least the ninth time. “I love the river,” she said. “I live on Boulevard East. I have a view. I see it when I have breakfast, when I have lunch, when I have dinner.”
An annual treat
“We do 10 trips a year,” said Bruce Thomas, confidential aide to the Hudson County Office on Aging. “Six in July and four in August.” About 240 seniors are invited on each trip. A limited number of tickets are allocated to each municipality, with some towns combined, like North Bergen and Guttenberg, or Hoboken and Weehawken. Jersey City, due to its size, is split into several groups over several dates.
“Aug. 29 is the last one,” said Catherine Macchi, consultant/community outreach, Hudson County Office on Aging. “At the end we’ve allowed 2,400 seniors to come on the cruise.”
Residents ages 60 and up are invited to sign up on a first-come, first-served basis. Some municipalities, like Secaucus and Bayonne, purchase additional tickets from Spirit Cruises to allow additional seniors to join the trip.
The Hudson County Schools of Technology lends six or seven school buses per date to transport the seniors from their home turf to the Spirit Cruises dock in Weehawken. Because of liability restrictions, wheelchairs cannot be accommodated, and caregivers under 60 are not allowed due to funding regulations.
“I love the food. I love the dancing… They ride around the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island. It’s a lot of fun.” –Bobby Bauman
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No longer. As soon as the boat cast off, the buffet opened, featuring delicious chicken, pork, and vegetable delicacies. Diners were called up one table at a time, while a hostess provided detailed narration describing all the sights the boat was passing on its leisurely cruise around the tip of Manhattan and up the East River toward the Brooklyn Bridge, before turning around to head home.
The second deck
“It’s a nice trip,” said Karen Pianese, who has been the North Bergen coordinator for the cruise for the past 14 years. “We used to go down to Jersey City when I first started. That was crazy. We had such a long walk to get to the boat. This works out nicely. It’s close by for everybody.”
While the lower deck was filled with partying North Bergen residents, many of the 76 Guttenberg seniors relaxed on the less-crowded second deck, sharing the space with a group of Kearny school kids in a transition program between eighth and ninth grades.
“We saw the article in the North Bergen Reporter,” said Ruth Joseph, a Guttenberg resident for 25 years, attending the cruise for the first time, explaining how she heard about the trip.
“And Marisol sent out a letter” notifying seniors of the event, added Zenobia Gray, Joseph’s partner of 33 years. Marisol Martinez is the Guttenberg coordinator for the program. “She takes care of her seniors,” said Gray.
Joining them at their raucous table by the window were fellow Guttenberg residents Albertina Benton and Jose Hernandez – or as he initially introduced himself, “Brad Pitt.”
“Everybody calls me ‘The Magnificent,’ ” he said, to a hearty round of laughter from his friends.
Dancing and relaxing
“I’ve been coming for five years,” said Jenny Martinez, a North Bergen resident for 10 years. “I love it. Everything is beautiful about it. The waiters, they entertain. They sing and dance.”
“The wait staff are very, very talented,” said Macchi. “They have a couple of soloists, singers, and they’re waiting for their big break on Broadway. They have a DJ, and because this is largely a Hispanic group they play lots of Latin music.”
As it turned out, it didn’t much matter what they played; the dance floor was jam-packed whether it was merengue, the Electric Slide, Chubby Checker’s “The Twist,” or the Village People’s “YMCA.”
For others, the appeal lay outdoors. The top deck of the boat was open to the sky, with couches and a cash bar and a stunning view of the sailboats and commercial craft crisscrossing the harbor, as well as the Freedom Tower and sights of lower Manhattan.
“As soon as I finish eating I run up here because this is the most important part,” said Guttenberg resident Eleanor Terminini, taking the trip for the umpteenth time. Growing up in a family with three boats, she enjoys watching the river out of her apartment across from the Galaxy Towers, although she laments that more and more boats are docking in Bayonne and Brooklyn these days.
“The celebrity boats and the Royal Caribbean, they’re all in Bayonne now. We don’t get to see them anymore,” she said. “On the New York side where the independent people dock their boats, there’s less and less of them every year. It’s a very expensive hobby.”
Still, there’s the Circle Line and the NY Waterway ferries, noted the former secretary at one of Arthur Imperatore’s companies. And of course there’s Spirit Cruises.
“I love being on the water,” said Terminini. “There’s nothing like it. And we couldn’t have picked a more beautiful day for this.”
The Hudson Reporter was invited by Spirit Cruises to join this senior trip.
Art Schwartz may be reached at arts@hudsonreporter.com.