Turned away at 7:30 a.m
From left, Kate Szokoli, Olivia Marino, Anna Zambuto and Isabella Marino. Credit: Newsday/Ted Phillips
Five women who grew up together in Northport took the Long Island Rail Road from Jamaica, where one of them — Isabella Marino — lives with classmates from St. John's University. Shortly before 10 a.m. they arrived in Penn Station, having walked from the parade route. They stopped at Pollo Campero, where quite a few disappointed fans sported Knicks shirts, and few spoke into cellphones to ask, "Are you in?"
They had arrived at the parade route at 5:45 a.m. "We were waiting in a line to get to security on Church Street," said Marino, 22. "And we waited for two hours."
Around 7:30 a.m., they learned they weren't going to get in.
"We got informed that the pens were closed," Anna Zambuto, 21, said.
Finding that they weren't going to see anything where they were, and lacking cellphone reception, which meant they couldn't watch it on their phone, they decided to head back to Penn Station to find a place to watch it on TV.
"It's disappointing," Marino said. But, "We knew we weren't gong to get in."
They decided to beat the crowds back to the LIRR.
Still, "there was a lot of energy" downtown, but as they walked back to Penn Station, "it was more depressing, it literally got quieter."
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