Let me start with Cape Liberty. We live in Baltimore, so we decided to drive up the night before and stay in Jersey City at The Hyatt. So, on the day of our cruise, we planned to meet friends at a shopping center adjacent to the port. The drive from our Jersey City hotel took 15 minutes or less. I had no idea what to expect from the port, so perhaps my expectations were low. In any case, this was probably the smoothest embarkation day I ever had.

Arrival at Cape Liberty involves a few steps. First is luggage drop off. At the drop-off center, if you arrive before 11:30AM, you drive all the way to the end, as passengers from the previous cruise will still (unbelievably) be collecting their belongings. There's plenty of room to park and drop your luggage, and plenty of very helpful porters to get your bags handled. The second step is to park your car. The lot is mere steps from the check in facility. It's around $150 for the week, which we noted was about the same as our home port of Baltimore.

The third step is to head back to the place where we dropped our luggage after having parked the car. There, plenty of helpful staff directed us to check in lanes. The check-in process was easy, and we were divided into priority groups for boarding. That was something new to us, having not sailed since January, out of Miami. We did find that, while we were given a very convenient "group 4" for boarding, our Captain's Club Elite status would have put us in group 1. We could have swapped, but it wasn't a big deal. I just note that for others who may not have been to this port. Read more